Memory

On the memory side, Sony has boosted the PS5’s old 14Gbps 16GB RAM to the latest 18Gbs for the PS5 Pro, which is likely just a benefit of buying the latest nodes available. The hike brings system bandwidth up by 28%, from 448GB/s to 576GB/s, putting it above the Xbox Series X and many current PC GPUs.

Although not confirmed, sources have indicated to IGN that approximately 1GB of game RAM has been added to the total allocation, opening up 13.5GBs available for games. This will be vital for the biggest boosts and secret sauce the PS5 Pro offers with its ray tracing enhancements, as well as Sony’s own competitor to FSR3 and DLSS: PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which is hardware accelerated with dedicated machine learning hardware (ML).

The ‘Secret Sauce’

In summary, then, we have a PS5 that offers nearly the same CPU performance across eight cores and 16 threads as its non-Pro predecessor, paired with faster memory to feed a 67% faster GPU. Sony’s own numbers state an approximate 45% increase in raw rasterization performance (rendering 3D objects into pixels on screen) with the PS5 Pro.

In layman’s terms, a current 1080p title on PS5 would move to 3840 x 2160, or a game that is GPU limited to 42 fps would now be able to hit 60 fps. But the biggest boost comes in that PSSR and dedicated ML hardware, which will be able to increase image quality resolutions without requiring double or more pure hardware muscle. Much like the Tensor cores on Nvidia’s GPUs, this dedicated GPU silicon will take a lower target resolution output – say, 1080p – and upscale that via machine learning reconstruction to a 4K output, all for only the cost of a few milliseconds in rendering time.

Not only does this machine learning system provide a vast increase to all games’ image quality, unlocking 4K (and possibly even better) resolution, but it also solves the issue for higher bandwidth and GPU performance, as this data is inferred rather than rendered. All this means that the PS5 Pro will provide a better-than-4K quality output to your screen at a far lower performance and bandwidth penalty.

The other piece of the graphical pie is, of course, ray tracing. Based on Sony’s own patent and developer documents, the PS5 Pro’s new GPU also offers a base 2x increase to ray tracing performance via improved hardware. In specific circumstances, it can even reach up to a 4x increase.

What about the games?

So enough specs, what does this mean for the games? In reality much of this will come down to how developers use the hardware and new features the PS5 Pro offers. I suspect we will see three main improvements for current games on the PS5 Pro and two more for new titles, with the first being the most exciting.

Dynamic Resolution and Unlocked Frame rates

Dynamic resolution and unlocked frame rates would come for free, tapping into the increased performance and latest SDK that will likely ship with a PS5 firmware update just before the PS5 Pro launches. These benefits could take current games that run at an uneven frame rate and use dynamic resolution scaling (DRS) to instantly run faster and smoother on Sony’s new console.

Games such as Alan Wake 2, which struggle to hit 30 fps and 60 fps in quality and performance modes respectively, could now lock to 30 and 60fps without a developer laying hands on the code. Spider-Man 2’s unlocked VRR mode, which generates frame rates that hover around the 70s, could now leap up into 100s. These are immediate boosts players can expect to see applied to their back catalog.

Developer Update Patch

Via development update patches, studios could easily go back to older games (even PS4 titles) and add an update to the engine code to increase visual quality via the SDK aligned PSSR libraries, or even just by using the increased hardware performance. If they use both, this could mean that an older game that was GPU bound on the PS5 could leap up to 4K/60fps… or maybe even higher, if the headroom was available. Games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 could easily be patched with a 4K/60 fps update that could lean into the PSSR solution to improve image quality, while also leaving enough head room on the table to boost visual quality and match the highest levels available on the PC version.

By leveraging the ray tracing increases in conjunction with PSSR reconstruction, a game could have a PS5 Pro version that could target 1440p/60 with an increased level of ray tracing effects. Cyberpunk 2077, for example, seems a perfect fit for a potential update here that could finally bring the console version close to the high-end PC version.

PSVR2 could also be the beneficiary of these increases, with the PSSR and increased ray tracing capabilities offering up the chance to bring performance better than the current PS5 quality into the VR headset. Gran Turismo 7 could gain the ray tracing effects used in replays during races, but now in VR. The development team could also choose to boost image quality and performance to 120fps and over 4K to improve the immersion of one of the best games on the platform.

New Games

The best thing about new hardware is new games, and with the PS5 Pro I can see a big increase in games pushing harder on frame rates and/or ray tracing as the potential market for them becomes bigger. And here may be a reason why we have not seen new first party titles so far this year, as the PS5 Pro will likely be a tent pole machine to show them off looking their best.

We may also see new titles that ship on both PC and consoles come with a ‘PS5 Pro mode’ that offers either a PSSR reconstructed 4K image and ray tracing effects that aren’t possible on the base PS5, or visuals and performance increased overall to be closer to the PC version. Forthcoming games Black Myth: Wukong and Star Wars: Outlaws have been recently announced to support RTX increases on PC. Some or all of these could now ship on the PS5 Pro and offer a closer alignment to the high end PC version, opening the door for more developers to push harder on ray tracing in games. We could even see older releases such as Doom, Quake, or even Tomb Raider come with a path traced version on PS5 Pro, creating a slew of cheaper remasters that offer a vast increase in quality and true next-generation enhancements for a far lower investment.

The Mid-Cycle Refresh Is Coming

The PS5 Pro may still not make much sense from a pure market place – this is no surefire hit. But the information leaked shows that, with the hardware and software solutions Sony has developed, the increases across current and future games could be transformative.

Cost will likely be around the $499 mark, which may be with or without the detachable optical disc drive we saw last year in the PS5 Slim. The design is likely to mirror that aesthetic, just with a bulkier figure. Based on the specs, it could even be on the same 6nm node as power use is vital, although a smaller 4nm is possible. Whatever the final design and price, the PS5 Pro could breathe new excitement into the console gaming market, as well as the potential for game visuals.

But what about GTA 6? I hear you scream. You will probably expect a beautifully ray traced world in 4K that looks even better than the reveal trailer. But unfortunately due to that CPU, Rockstar’s next visit to Vice City is likely to be capped at 30fps. As before on the PS4 Pro, developers could still ship a single SKU on PS5 base and Pro models and just let the boosted hardware smooth out any performance wrinkles and sharpen the pixels over the base model. This is almost certainly going to happen, but I suspect between now and when the PS5 Pro is inevitably announced at an event later this year, Sony will be working hard to ensure the developers that take this route are in the minority.

Michael Thompson is a freelance writer for IGN.

“Larian has been an incredible partner, and together we are proud of the success of Baldur’s Gate 3. Watch this space for more on some awesome D&D games we are bringing to life through Hasbro’s studios and our network of licensing partners. We have an unbeatable library of toy and game brands and many fantastic partners around the world,” Hasbro’s spokesperson said.

Hasbro didn’t respond to IGN’s question about the future of Baldur’s Gate now that Larian is moving on, nor did it say whether Wizards of the Coast plans to hand the license to a new developer. Baldur’s Gate 3 has made some $90 million for Hasbro, an impressive sum even as the company has struggled overall, experiencing a revenue decline of 15 percent and operating at a loss of $1.5 billion in 2023.

Last year, Wizards of the Coast confirmed that it had canceled five Dungeons & Dragons games in development with various studios, including an internal project codenamed “Jabberwocky.” Starbreeze is currently working on an untitled D&D game codenamed Project Baxter using Unreal Engine 5, which is expected to be out in 2026. Elsewhere, Wizards of the Coast recently revealed its plans for Dungeons & Dragons’ 50th anniversary.

For now, work continues apace on Baldur’s Gate 3, which is adding additional evil endings among other content. Stay tuned for our full interview with director Swen Vincke on Monday.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Baldur’s Gate 3 lets players be the kind of Dungeons & Dragons character they’ve always dreamed of – even if it means being a bad person. Evil acts range from comedically kicking squirrels and being mean to NPCs to creatively killing – and even torturing – some of the characters you can find throughout the story. Larian even included a Dark Urge background for those who enjoy adding a bit of spontaneous evil spice to some encounters. Evil endings in particular, however, are something fans have wanted to be fleshed out since launch. Now that we know they’re on the way, evildoers can finally look forward to more satisfying narrative conclusions.

Support for evil endings should appease some of Baldur’s Gate 3’s more nefarious players, though Vincke says updates will be less substantial after previously promised features launch. He says Larian will eventually “scale down,” adding, “It’s just going to be support on bugs, because we want the team to be working on new things.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 has continued to sweep award shows since its full launch arrived last year, but the victory laps can only continue for so long before Larian finally closes its D&D chapter. To help make the transition a bit easier to swallow for fans, the studio has another promising update on the horizon: cross-platform curated mods.

“So we are working with Wizards, Sony, Microsoft… a lot of partners to align,” Vincke tells us, “but we’re trying to get cross-platform curated mods in there so that people on console can enjoy the mods that are being made for the PC also. So that’ll be a big thing, I think, because there’s a lot of mods already, and then we won’t be able to support everything, but we should be able support quite a few.”

Even as the Larian team transitions toward a new future, Vincke is confident in the bold new direction. In an X/Twitter thread, the founder sympathized with those who are upset to hear that the developer won’t be creating any major expansions or Baldur’s Gate 4. However, he says the studio’s accomplishments have paved the way for a promising future. It’s unclear when updates for Baldur’s Gate 3 will come to an end or the order players can expect to receive changes, but fans at least have evil endings and more mod support to look forward to.

“The team has grown a lot during Bg3 and I think you can be very excited for what that growth means for our next game,” he said.

It’s not easy for us to say goodbye to them but we also knew from the get go we’d have to one day. We learnt a lot from creating them and I’m very eager to see those lessons applied to new characters.

— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) March 22, 2024

Whether your character is good or evil, Larian’s RPG masterpiece is already filled with storylines to discover. It’s so packed with content, in fact, that it features more than triple the word count of The Lord of the Rings books. For more on Baldur’s Gate 3, be sure to check out an early version of Astarion that traded in High Elf ears for a Tiefling’s horns. If you’re still hungry for more, you should check out our 10/10 review.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.