PS5 vs PS5 Pro: Specs, Prices and Which to Buy

PS5 or PS5 Pro? In the US the standard PS5 with a disc drive costs $649.99, the PS5 Digital Edition $599.99 and the PS5 Pro $899.99, the prices Sony set on April 2, 2026. For $250 more than the disc model, the Pro adds a 16.7-teraflop GPU (up from 10), 2TB of storage and Wi-Fi 7, but it has no disc drive and uses the same CPU. It only makes a visible difference in games that have been patched for it.

The gap between the two consoles has changed a lot since the Pro launched. When Sony revealed the PS5 Pro in September 2024, it cost $699.99. After two US price increases, it now costs $899.99. Meanwhile, Sony has kept improving the Pro’s main selling point, its PSSR upscaler, and the latest system update switched the improved version on by default. This comparison uses Sony’s own specifications, pricing announcements and support pages.

How much do the PS5 and PS5 Pro cost in 2026?

Sony’s most recent pricing announcement, published on the PlayStation Blog on March 27 and effective April 2, 2026, set these recommended retail prices:

Explaining the April increase, Sony’s vice president of global marketing wrote:

“With continued pressures in the global economic landscape, we’ve made the decision to increase the prices of PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal remote player globally.”

This was the second US increase in eight months. On August 21, 2025, Sony had already raised US prices to $549.99 for the PS5, $499.99 for the Digital Edition and $749.99 for the Pro. In US dollars, the PS5 Pro’s price has gone from $699.99 at launch to $749.99 and then to $899.99, an increase of $200. As of September 24, Sony has not announced any change since April. Retailers can still sell below these recommended prices during promotions.

The real price gap

• PS5 Pro vs PS5 (disc): $250 more. The disc PS5 includes a 4K Blu-ray drive and the Pro does not.
• PS5 Pro vs PS5 Digital Edition: $300 more. Neither has a disc drive, and the Pro has more than twice the storage.
• Adding discs to a Pro: the Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive is a separate purchase, so a disc-playing Pro costs $899.99 plus the drive.

PS5 vs PS5 Pro: full specs compared

The table below uses Sony’s own specification sheets from the printed safety guides for the current slim PS5 (CFI-2000 series) and the PS5 Pro (CFI-7000 series), plus the US storage figures from PlayStation.com.

Two things stand out. First, the CPU is identical: both consoles use the same eight-core, 16-thread Zen 2 processor, so the Pro’s gains come from its graphics hardware rather than from game logic, physics or simulation. Second, the Pro’s extra 2GB of DDR5 is listed separately from the 16GB of GDDR6, so the main pool of fast memory games use is the same 16GB.

How much faster is the PS5 Pro?

Sony describes the Pro’s advantage in three headline numbers. According to its launch announcement, the Pro’s GPU has 67% more compute units than the standard PS5 and 28% faster memory, which Sony says allows “up to 45 percent faster rendering for gameplay.” Sony also says the Pro’s ray tracing reflects and refracts light “at more than double the speed of the current PS5 console.” On paper, 16.7 teraflops against 10 teraflops is a 67% increase in raw GPU throughput.

These are Sony’s own figures, and “up to” matters. How much faster a game runs depends on how the developer uses the extra power. The developer examples Sony highlights fall into three groups:

• Higher frame rates at similar quality. Guerrilla says Horizon Forbidden West on Pro matches or beats the standard PS5’s Quality mode “but now at 60 FPS – double the framerate.”
• Combined modes. Insomniac says Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart get a “Performance Pro” mode that pairs Fidelity mode’s 4K and ray tracing with Performance mode’s 60 frames per second.
• Ray tracing where it wasn’t possible before. Polyphony Digital says Gran Turismo 7 now supports ray tracing during races on Pro.

All of these quotes come from developers featured on Sony’s PS5 Pro product page. They describe the best cases: games that get a dedicated Pro patch. Games without one run as they would on a standard PS5, although Sony’s Game Boost feature can stabilize or improve performance in some PS4 and PS5 titles.

What is PSSR, and what changed in 2026?

PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) is the Pro’s machine-learning upscaler, and it is the biggest practical reason to buy a Pro. Games render at a lower resolution and PSSR reconstructs a sharper 4K image. The standard PS5 doesn’t support it.

In February, PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny announced an upgraded version of PSSR, built on algorithm and neural network work from Sony’s “Project Amethyst” partnership with AMD:

“PSSR is an AI library that analyzes game images pixel by pixel as it upscales them, and it’s been used to boost the effective resolution of over 50 titles on PS5 Pro to date.”

An earlier system update, version 26.02-13.00.00, added an Enhance PSSR Image Quality setting that applies the new model to games built for the original PSSR. The latest PS5 system software, version 26.06-14.00.00, turns that setting on by default. Sony’s release notes say that when you update, “this setting automatically turns on,” so enhanced PSSR is used even in games that support only the previous version. You can turn it off under Settings > Screen and Video > Video Output.

Sony’s Pro page lists games that support enhanced PSSR, including Resident Evil Requiem, Silent Hill f, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Alan Wake 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, Crimson Desert, Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Cyberpunk 2077. Sony says the results “will vary by title.”

How many games are enhanced for PS5 Pro?

Sony’s product page says there are “over 100 incredible PS5 titles, enhanced with the power of PS5 Pro.” Games that use the Pro’s features carry a “PS5 Pro Enhanced” designation, and Sony keeps a full list on PlayStation.com. Sony’s own studios feature heavily on that page, including Marvel’s Wolverine, which was released on September 15.

Every PS5 game runs on the Pro, and so do more than 8,500 PS4 games. Sony notes that a small number of PS4 games are not compatible, the same as on the standard PS5.

Storage, Wi-Fi 7 and the disc drive question

Beyond graphics, the Pro’s most useful upgrade is its 2TB SSD. Big games can pass 100GB (the PC version of Gears of War: E-Day asks for 115GB, for example), so the 825GB US Digital Edition fills up quickly. All three consoles have an M.2 slot, and Sony supports drives from 250GB to 8TB, so a standard PS5 can be expanded later instead. Sony notes that part of every SSD is reserved for system use.

Wi-Fi 7 is only useful if you have a Wi-Fi 7 router. Sony says the Pro also works with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 routers, and that wireless performance “will depend on the user’s network environment.” If your console is wired to your router with Ethernet, this upgrade does nothing.

The disc drive is the Pro’s biggest drawback for collectors. The Pro ships without one. Sony sells an Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive separately, and the Pro has a dedicated disc drive port. If you own a shelf of physical PS4 or PS5 games, add the cost of that drive to the Pro’s $899.99 price.

Size, power and accessories

The Pro is 30mm wider than the slim PS5 at 388mm and draws up to 390W at maximum rated power, compared with 350W for the slim model. Both need the vertical stand, sold separately, if you want to stand them upright. On the accessory side, Sony says everything made for PS5 works with the Pro, including PlayStation VR2, the PlayStation Portal remote player, the DualSense Edge controller, the Access controller and Sony’s Pulse audio products. Both consoles come with the standard DualSense controller.

Which should you buy: PS5 or PS5 Pro?

Buy the PS5 Pro if…

• You play on a large 4K TV and care about sharper images at 60 frames per second or higher.
• You mostly play first-party and big third-party releases, which make up most of the Pro-enhanced titles Sony highlights.
• You were going to buy a larger SSD anyway, since 2TB is built in.
• You want ray tracing in supported games. Sony says the Pro’s ray tracing runs at more than double the speed of the standard PS5’s.

Buy the standard PS5 if…

• You play on a 1080p TV or monitor, where the Pro’s 4K-focused features matter much less.
• You own physical games and want a disc drive in the box at $649.99.
• You mainly play older, indie or competitive games that already run well, or games without a Pro patch.
• Your budget is tight. The $250 difference buys three $69.99 games or a large M.2 SSD.

What about the Digital Edition?

At $599.99, the Digital Edition is the cheapest way into PS5 in the US, but the current US model has 825GB of storage. Buy it only if you are fully digital and willing to add an M.2 drive later.

Bottom line

The PS5 Pro is a better console than the standard PS5, but not a new generation: it has the same CPU, the same games and the same controller. What you pay for is a 67% stronger GPU, a much better upscaler and 2TB of storage, and now that enhanced PSSR is on by default, more Pro-patched games benefit without any action from you. At $899.99, it makes sense for players with a 4K TV who mainly play the big releases that get Pro patches. For everyone else, the $649.99 disc PS5 remains the sensible choice, especially since it is the only one of the two that plays discs straight out of the box.

Written byJonah Reyes

Jonah Reyes leads Pandromeda's gaming coverage: console and handheld hardware, release dates, pricing changes, patch notes and the business moves behind the biggest franchises. He sources every date and price from the platform holders and publishers themselves, and says plainly when something is still only a rumour.

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