Topic: Is PS5 Pro Year One what you expected?

Yes and no. I have been mostly happy with my day one purchase of the Pro but, I did not expect it to be such a mixed bag game wise. I have been unpleasantly surprised by the poor visuals provided by PSSR, and even more disappointed by the lack of quality control in the Pro versions of various games I was otherwise looking forward to. SH2, SHf, and MGSD are all titles I was eagerly awaiting but will not be playing until there performance and or visuals are addressed. That being said, DS2, GT7, KCD2 and FF7 Rebirth have really impressed and I am hopeful things will improve.

I was lucky enough to get the 30th Anniversary Edition Pro on launch and I'm happy with the set in general, it's beautiful and a great collectible.

That said, the console itself is a bit letdown. I expected more from PSSR and I'm baffled how Sony even allows PS5 Pro versions to be sometimes inferior to the base console. But to be honest, I don't play on PS5 Pro that much, as I also have a powerful PC. I've only completed a handful on games on the Pro during the year, the best technically being Ghost of Yotei.

Is it a good value? No. Am I personally content with it? Yes. When I do play on consoles, I want to have the best experience, and that's mostly there on the PS5 Pro. It's not a good value for money, but for me it's not a big deal.

Very happy to be honest. When devs prioritise the Pro results are a major improvement, when they don't there are at least noticeable improvements. I get 60fps on something like base quality (variable ofc), a quiet machine, much better quality in motion through PSSR with the only tradeoff being some instability at rest in some cases.

On a 65" Oled screen clarity is key to me, so some grass shimmer etc provided it isn't too egregious is acceptable for the resolution uplift and coherent motion. Also being Oled 30fps is dead out of the gate for me, so the Pro was almost a mandatory update in my use case. Too many PS5 games were making compromises in the months before the Pro release.

Perhaps PSSR2.0 will mean devs have less work to do around denoising etc and can just plug and play for universally good results.

Regardless its a solid console to my mind.

So far, it's a mixed bag for sure.

I got the Pro in February, and the main reason was because I found the base PS5 experience to be way too much of a compromise for my taste, as most games either run at 60 fps but look incredibly blurry, or crisp but at 30 fps (which I find unbearable on my OLED panel, an LG C1). The alternative would have been a new GPU for my PC, but prices and availability were and still are unreasonable. So I sold my base PS5 to cover part of the cost for the Pro, and decided to pull the trigger.

The games I was looking the forward to the most to take advantage of the Pro's hardware were specifically Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill f and MGS Delta... so you can imagine how I feel about my purchase seeing the state of these games. It's just heartbreaking. Delta is now better, Silent Hill 2 if you run the game disc without patching the game is in my opinion tolerable and better than 1.06, while Silent Hill f is just a shimmering fest. Sure you can still play these games, but it's still too much of a compromise for the price asked by Sony for this console (technically, there should be no compromise at all, as marketed by Sony itself). So in that regard, my experience is definitely negative.

On the other hand, I did play and experience games that made my purchase worth it. Ghost of Yotei is absolutely stunning and the boost in performance definitely made my experience better than if I had played it on a base PS5. Same for Death Stranding 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, Stellar Blade and Assassin's Creed Shadows. Other games like Expedition 33 too I think benefit from their Pro optimization in a nice way, despite not being showcase titles for the Pro hardware. I also appreciate the way PS4 games look as well.

So all in all, both a positive and negative experience. I wouldn't go back to a base PS5, that's for sure. But at the same time, it's just a shame that so many third party developers are struggling with PSSR, and it's even more of shame that some of the games I was looking forward to the most are the ones most affected by this problem. I can only hope Konami (and/or the developers) will fix these issues and that going into 2026, the new PSSR update can solve or at least mitigate these issues.

I wasn't going to buy one initially. Utter sticker shock.

But someone on EG pointed out a 20% deal with Very and once I sold my launch PS5 I got it for £270 net, which was fine, far better that thinking about £700.

I've been mostly happy with mine, it's not like I have two screens running size by side to compare to base PS5 but I just notice fewer frame rate dips in games and it's nice to know i'm generally playing at the best fidelity on console.

The added 1.2TB of Usable storage shouldn't be knocked either. As I already had a 1TB expansion the only way I could have upgraded this was with a 2+TB nvme which at the time was about £150. Suddenly that £270 looks even better.

I have a few issues with not enough games having great Pro modes, but overall i'm more than happy. It will also sell for more when I inevitably get a PS6.

I bought one day one. It actually made playing FF7 Rebirth tolerable to play, Ghosts of Yotei is also running great. I use the PS5 pro for exclusives, or timed exclusives. I haven't been disappointed in the PS5 pro based on my selection of games (usually big budget exclusives) since those would most likely get extra scrutiny to ensure that the PS5 pro features work well.

I am primarily a PC gamer with a very high end system, so I value a good experience more than I do the price of the system. As much as I am able to I just brute force and power my way through games. I treat the PS5 pro in the same way as I treat my 5090 - a purchase that only makes sense for certain people. I've been happy paying the extra money on a system that is marginally better at running the games because the experience for me has been worth it. I think a normal gamer who just wants to play PS5 games should just buy the regular edition and the PS5 pro isn't worth it to them.

Since my point of comparison has been my 4090/5090 system to the base PS5, and how much I dreaded having to play a PS5 game (i.e. FF7 R just looked so incredibly bad to other look at or play), the PS5 pro's enhanced features have met my expectations. From a point of reference of a high-end PC, the Pro makes games more enjoyable to play. That's worth it to me.

Which is more or less what we had to begin with the PS5. The work Rebirth has to do holding up all the people who claim they are happy with the purchase in terms of cost to quality is staggering...

It also makes me chuckle that the same people who, pre-Pro, argued that the decrease in graphics to reach 60FPS was a worthy tradeoff are still ok with that same exact thing happening on the Pro. Fidelity modes still look the best.

The simple fact of the matter is that the original promise, a mix of two modes and no more choice, was not kept. It should never have been made in the first place. Games now have more settings choices than ever and, with more than a few big titles, one of those choices is to turn off PSSR.....you know, half of the Pro's identity.

If XBOX was in a more healthy position than Sony wouldn't be getting away with what they are with the Pro with consumers.

I do agree that the Pro did not deliver on the "simplifying" that Cerny mentioned during the introduction of the Pro, although I don't agree that the end result was negative, as I feel that having options means I'm not missing out on great and more advanced graphics features simply because the games are being forced to run at 60FPS at a minimum. AC Shadows on the 40FPS mode on Pro is stunning and I would not accept a downgrade just to get additional fluidity.

[quote=Hustler_One]

...but you are. Running it at 40fps is decreasing the "graphics"(to use a generic term)compared to 30fps. That will always be the case. Today. Tomorrow. 100 yeas from now. Until every single dev gets together and make a blood pact that it's 60fps or bust, that's just how it it'll be and it is what most people either don't understand or choose to ignore. Even in this hypothetical scenario, the promise of how the games could look at 30fps will always be there in the background. Case in point Alan Wake II: they decide to spruce up the fidelity mode with RT etc.

I get what you are saying, that the compromises are now less and make the choice easier to make....but they are still there.

The Pro is failing, and it is, for two reasons: they dropped the technical ball(PSSR) and they screwed up the marketing. Online the "paid beta tester" thing is used as a troll but honestly, I struggle to think of a more apt term to describe Pro owners and I am one.

I would be fine with 30FPS as well, I just don't remember there being the option for that on Shadows. The 40FPS mode with PSSR enabled pleased me (on account of the IQ and RT features) and thus I stuck with it.

Quick edit: actually, I've been playing the game on quality mode, so I am getting 30FPS output already, and I'm so pleased with it I thought it was higher lol

I have no complains about my Pro. I get quality mode graphics at 40-60fps and that's all I wanted.

I'm happy with my day one purchase. I was juggling saving for a house deposit and a high end PC at the time and the Pro has helped me put my PC purchase on hold, possibly until the 60 series cards. Plenty of games with support and looking forward to seeing how Stalker 2 runs!

I play ALL my games at 30fps when given the choice, even on the Pro.

I prefer the eye candy and stability compared to higher frame rates. Helps with motion sickness as well. My point was though that no matter the strength of the hardware it is and will always be "More frames = less visual quality".

30 fps is great looking but it can induce some anxiety, sometimes I get motion sickness from 60 fps for sure, it is rare, but it happens when I am (drunk). But 30 fps sometimes feels too much of a compromise even with the downgrade in visuals. When I bought the pro I was all in for 30 fps with higher fidelity but then I made my way to 60 fps, in fact it is hard but in GT7 unless I am racing online I go to 60. When I am doing tournaments I go 120 fps lock with no pssr at 1800p no rt of course

the input latency sometimes produces anxiety in myself because when I am gaming if I have a lot going on I am stressed out and get more milage out of a more responsive feedback

It has been decent. Not a huge jump over my PS5 Slim, but I wanted to have the best possible console experience for Ghost of Yotei and the upcoming GTA 6. I've been happy enough with it for the price. I think it's going to get better too.

That's awesome you managed to snag that!

Exactly my feelings.

good value, at this point I doubt I am good value tbh

Wow congratulations!

Thanks to you both. I got incredibly lucky. Just happened to open my local electronic store's website at the time it launched, added it to cart and ordered. In here we didn't have to buy through Sony's own site, which was a blessing.

I was refreshing and refreshing, but ofcourse missed it... I bought the Pro later on with the release of DS2. Did not regret it.

ps. I heared a rumor about all PS5 consoles going down in price for black friday by 100 euro's here in Europe