Sony PlayStation 5 Pro could be priced at $499 with no disc drive

Shawn Knight

Shawn Knight

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The big picture: We've barely hit the midpoint of February and it's already shaping up to be a big year for console refreshes. Nintendo is reportedly preparing to introduce its second generation Switch as early as next month, and now we're hearing that Sony is prepping a mid-cycle refresh of the PS5 in time for the holidays.

YouTube channel Moore's Law Is Dead (MLID) recently discussed the matter and believes Sony is considering launching the PS5 Pro with no disc drive – essentially a digital-only console – for $499. If true, that'd make it $50 more expensive than the existing PS5 Digital Edition.

Sony could then drop the price of the PS5 Slim down to $400 "if they need to," the podcasters said.

Something else Sony could do is make the existing detachable disc drive compatible with the PS5 Pro Digital Edition, meaning you'd only have to purchase the accessory once in the event you upgrade from a standard Digital to a Pro Digital.

Earlier rumors claim the PS5 Pro will feature an APU built on a 4nm process. It will reportedly be based on AMD's Zen 2 architecture with eight cores, and will ship with 56 Compute Units alongside 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus.

The podcasters believe the jump from the PS5 to the PS5 Pro will be tamer than the leap from the PS4 to the PS4 Pro, but don't seem to think it'll be disappointing. What it could do is enable higher frame rates in games at the same settings or be able to push some games to 4K.

The duo also revisited the PlayStation handheld (Vita 2) rumor from earlier this month. The device, which is at least two years away, will reportedly ship with a custom AMD APU but not much else is known at this time.

MLID sees two possible outcomes: either it becomes a handheld capable of playing all PS4 digital and scaled-down PS5 Pro games, or perhaps it'll be a handheld variant of the PlayStation 6. Either route could be intriguing, especially for those that like to game on the go.

Image credit: Totte Annerbrink

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/101905-sony-could-price-playstation-5-pro-499.html

 
The CU count suggests a 55% perf bump, that's precisely the borderline where I might or still might not care enough to upgrade.

It depends greatly on the games - if I see some of my games receiving Pro patches with substantial improvements, that will definitely help.
 
The Talking Tech said:
Sony would be making a huge mistake with a PS5 Pro With Microsoft announcing a new Xbox in the horizon.
Click to expand...

The question for consoles looking at maximum performance is: "What the most powerful chipset you can put in a small console box that draws about 200 watts?" That target has been true since their seventh gen machines, for thermal reasons and cost reasons.

The company that designed the architecture it is built on (AMD) and the node the chip is made on (probably TSMC) determines the maximum performance the console can roughly reach. Microsoft and Sony can tinker around the edges with configuration options but it is no coincidence that PS5 and Series X ultimately ended up very close in performance.

So the rumour Sony will use TSMC 4nm for a PS5 Pro would determine what they can realistically put inside the box for ~200 watts. TSMC 4nm being the most cutting edge process available means Microsoft couldn't do much better on the same node.

The only way Microsoft turn out a machine with significantly more performance is if they wait a couple more years for a better node and pay top dollar for it. Alternatively on the same node decide to blow through the 200 watt limit and sell something the size of a mid tower for $800. Which is highly unlikely.
 
It blows my mind the MLID has enough clout to generate an article on Techspot. That guy flat out makes stuff up out of whole cloth.

Maybe instead of MLID only, Techspot should have a "Rumor Round-up" that casts a broader net on GPU/CPU/Console rumors coming from a variety of sources.
 
redgarl said:
Buying one for sure. I am just going to wait for a limited edition of The Last of Us 3.
Click to expand...
Rumors are ps5/pro will have exclusivity for Gta 6 for initial year as well.
I am predicting that these will be extremely demanding for the first year from launch.
While rdna 4 should bring 7900xtx like performance to the diy discreet gpu market (similar $499 price tag). The ps5 pro rumored to have 4070/7800xt like graphics all in one package for $499.


From the looks of it even though AMD will not for the high end for rdna 4 it will bring a big headache for both Intel and Nvidia at the fat of the market in the midrange coming holiday 2024.
 
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