Topic: The 'PS5 Pro is technically for me' Thread

@Th3solution I feel much the same.

Personally, I never liked using the 60fps performance modes on PS5, they were utterly horrible to me, now I play most games at either above 60fps variable refresh rates which feel great, or utilize much more ray tracing or higher fidelity in what is basically an extended quality mode that can also hit 60fps in a lot of games. Games look better and feel much better to play because of it. So, to me, it seems like a much bigger upgrade than just graphics or just performance. Plus the extra storage is finally the roght amount for this current gen where games are huge. Original ps5 had a hit of a joke amount of storage, to be honest.

We also will never have to deal with the much worse upscalers that base ps5 games are stuck with which just aren't up to the task in my opinion. FSR 1 & 2 or TSR or whatever. They held games back, they really did.

It also doesn't mean that the base PS5 is now crap and worthless, it just means those of us that want to can now choose to move on from it and embrace a decent upscaler that makes games look and play as they should have always done this generation, in all honesty. 4k 60 now looks and feels like 4k 60 and that is kind of the baseline for pro performance mode, often reaching higher frames whilst still looking as good as quality mode.

So far I just loaded KCD2 to have a run through the countryside and everything looked fuller, lusher, and more detailed, and overall just nicer. And that was a pretty well optimised game to start with, it just struggled on all systems with vegetation and high detail, I believe, and that hasn't had a specific pssr 2 patch yet, just the toggle made it appear far nicer. Games with detailed worlds like this should benefit so much in future.

As for PS studios games, i'm not sure. I think Yotei used PSSR. But they have the different pro upgrades anyway and all the PS studios stuff runs really fast and obviously fidelity is already top tier for those. I can't remember the exact reasons why they were better on pro to start with, either. The GPU was a bit better I think, so it unlocked more power.

What were you playing at the moment? Was it one of those Horror games? Resi/silent hill?

Crimson Desert will be my first real test in a few days, I think. But I might have a mess around on some games I know well like KCD2 and Dragon's Dogma 2 in the meantime out of interest.

@Ravix So yeah, playing Silent Hill 2 and Horizon Forbidden West. I’ve started to leaning toward more SH2 to be honest. It’s holding my interest a little more. It might be just because I know it’s relatively short comparatively.

So I’ve played about 10 hours of SH2 pre-PSSR2, a good chunk of that was on the Portal though, so it’s going to be a little harder for me to compare, but today playing about 2-3 hours more after the upgrade I do think I see and feel a difference. Mainly it is with the light flickering. Use of light is so central to the visual experience in this game. Before the update there would be sometimes that the light and fog would shimmer or flicker, and I didn’t notice much of that today. It really didn’t bother me before and I thought the game looked great, but now I do feel a slight difference. Perhaps I’m imagining it. And like I said, I might be comparing it to the Portal streamed version in my head, which is not a fair comparison. Either way, it look great and runs perfectly now. 😄

And I suspect HFW won’t have much of a change, but I’ll probably check it out in earnest this weekend. That is if I can pry myself away from March Madness! 😅

I don't know if this thread is still active but how does HDMI 2.1 benefit the Pro vs HDMI 2.0? I recently got the PRO and saw someone on Youtube say it is "necessary"

@cainhurst94 From what I can see online: 'PS5 Pro requires HDMI 2.1 because of its massive jump in bandwidth capability (48 Gbps) compared to older HDMI 2.0 cables (18 Gbps). This extra bandwidth is essential to transmit high-fidelity data needed for 4K gaming at 120 fps, smoother frame rates, and advanced graphical features.'

HDMI 2.0 on the other hand maxes out at 4K 60Hz/fps. It will work but will bottleneck your console at the lower framerate.

Edit: Also, features like Variable Refresh Rate and Auto Low Latency Mode will not work and you won't be able to utilize 8K output or some higher-end supersampling modes.

Hope this helps.

@cainhurst94 I've not got a Pro, but getting a TV with Hdmi 2.1 was a game changer for me and my PS5. Also fully unlocked my sound system when I upgraded it.

@JohnnyShoulder That sounds interesting. I think I'll buy a 2.1 cable next month and see how it improves the experience

@cainhurst94 does your tv have hdmi 2.1 and VRR support? As the hdmi cables that come with consoles since ps5 are hdmi 2.1 already, I believe.

But basically hdmi 2.1 carries more data, which amounts to frame-rate related things on consoles. So without it, games won't have some features available to you in 4k as it will be locked to the 60fps performance mode at max, and also no VRR available which would give a much smoother presentation and hide visual stutters and tearing/frame rate issues in most game modes. You are also losing out on modes like 40fps, unlocked fps and, again, no VRR on any of the available graphical modes you do have without that 2.1 capability.

Nothing is necessary, but visually games look and play much smoother with the unlocked fps and VRR options. And a lot of people really like the 40fps modes. For me, someone that prefered and always chose a quality locked 30fps over a badly implemented 60fps it is a game-changer, as all game modes now feel much smoother even when it is technically varied, all because of VRR on 2.1. It makes regular 60fps feel better, it allows 40fps with better graphics settings than performance mode, and it allows those unlocked modes where you can get up to 120fps on 120hz tvs and it uses vrr to make a variable fps up to that 120fps looks perfectly smooth and stable, for example, a game like KCD2 can fluctuate between 50fps and 90fps and be much more smooth and responsive than a locked 30 or 60 without sacrificing any graphical quality.

It's hot and I probably repeated myself a few times as I wrote some of this last night 😅 but yeah, make sure your tv is capable first, that is the most important thing.

@Ravix yeah my tv is new so it has two ports for HDMi 2.1 (one has something called eArc as well). The 40fps was something they implemented in Rift Apart, right? Maybe i should play that after I get the new cable.

@cainhurst94 I think basically all games since then have had 2.1/120hz modes, so any new game with decent graphics will be worth experimenting with. Check on the ps5 pro itself when plugged in to your new tv, your cable may already be 2.1 if it is the one that came with it.

In settings on the ps5 it will say what it is outputting, and probably in your tv menu too, somewhere 😄 and then, yeah. Any fairly new game with ps5 pro support and see what game modes it has available to you.

The main reason why i want PS5 Pro, at least prior, was to experience Subside VR with higher resolution/super sampling & dynamic Shadows, including Resident Evil 9: Requiem for either 90-120fps mode or RayTracing + Spectral Upscaling. Those were the big two reasons.

But then I thought, why would I waste my money on a PS5 Pro, when i can get a 5070 which is significantly more powerful, but more than 2x the asking price. which I'll need for the upcoming Steam Frame. Which will be able to run PCVR mods like RE Requiem at higher resolution & frame rates, and I'll get even better performance out of Subside and so much more.

PSVR3 + PS6 would be my dream VR set up, and for plug n play PlayStation flatscreen titles, including NS2 as my main. And Quest 3 for stand alone VR/MR until Pheonex & Quest 4 arrive.