PS4 Pro PlayStation 4 Hardware 1

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a PlayStation 4 firmware update's best features are those that Sony fails to actually announce -- and PS4 Pro's boost mode is proving the old adage accurate yet again. The beta for the system software overhaul is technically under NDA, but that's not stopping some from risking their YouTube standing with clips of the new feature in action.

And the results range from meh to borderline mind blowing. Assassin's Creed Unity springs to mind: the game was practically unplayable on the standard PS4, but is now running smooth as butter on Sony's supercharged system with boost mode enabled. Alright, so it's not perfect, but it's still pretty good -- especially when you consider the state of the game previously.

In fact, the anecdotal evidence thus far paints a very positive picture. Destiny, for example, gets much faster loading times; DriveClub has better motion blur; Furi sees a reduction in screen tearing; Grand Theft Auto V has a better framerate; Until Dawn is generally smoother; even Yakuza 0 is that little bit better. How did Sony think this wasn't worth mentioning?

Perhaps it's still scared of upsetting standard PS4 owners, but it's not like all of these games weren't designed with the base model in mind -- the new console is simply brute-forcing the better performance. And the improvements, while appreciated, aren't exactly gigantic: you're still going to see better results from the games that are patched specifically to support the PS4 Pro.

As an extra bonus for those who invested in the new hardware, though -- well, this is proving a very pleasant surprise, isn't it?