The PS5 Pro has yet to be officially announced, but that hasn't stopped the online debate over the need for a PS5 console upgrade, with some commentators, including several TG staffers, arguing that the PS5 Pro is pointless, but I'm in favor.

The debate was spurred this week when GamesIndustry.biz editor Christopher Dring appeared on GI Microcast and claimed that developers at the recent GDC trade show expressed a general indifference to the PS5 Pro (via Metro) Although Dring did not name any developers, his comments make it interesting to see how industry insiders view the potential benefits of the PS5 Pro.

"To be honest, I didn't meet a single person who understood the point of [the PS5 Pro]," Dring explained in a podcast (March 26). Dring also claimed that "developers didn't seem to see the need" for the PS5 because they "weren't getting the most out of it in the first place."

Dring speculated on the situation, noting that "this generation doesn't even seem to have started, let alone need a mid-generation upgrade." This is a valid point, as the PS5 was plagued by inventory issues for the first two years after its launch, and four years after its launch, cross-generational titles (games released on PS5 and PS4) continue to be released, even though PS5-only releases are finally becoming the default.

The base PS5 leaves enough headroom for developers to continue pushing the technological envelope for the next three years or so, and there is definitely an argument that this headroom should continue until PS6, which is expected to arrive around 2027.

While I agree that the above reasoning is compelling and that Dring's logic is quite sound (at least in one respect), I still believe that there is still room for the PS5 Pro. This is because modern games increasingly struggle with performance, even on the current generation of hardware.

I have been fortunate enough to review many of the latest titles for Tom's Guide, and the most common criticism I repeat when discussing recent games is performance issues.

Inconsistent frame rates are a recurring problem in modern AAA games, and even when a game offers a dedicated "performance" mode intended to boost frame rates, usually at the expense of graphical fidelity, a smooth experience cannot be expected. [I've spent dozens of hours with this epic fantasy RPG over the past few weeks, and while I'm enamored by its dynamic gameplay and liberal approach to open-world design, the hectic combat that occurs fairly frequently in the hostile world of Dragon's Dogma makes a steady 30fps cannot even be maintained.

Indeed, the list of games I have reviewed in this console generation that are not plagued by performance issues in at least some form is considerably smaller than the list of games that are: third-party like "Star Wars: Jedi Survivor titles to flagship exclusives like "Marvel's Spider-Man 2," frame dropping is a common sight in modern games.

I believe we've reached a plateau of sorts when it comes to visuals; Horizon: Forbidden West, Alan Wake 2, and Demon's Souls are spectacularly gorgeous. But if the PS5 Pro can deliver stunning visuals along with unwavering frame rates, it would make a pretty compelling case.

For me, the real question is not whether the PS5 Pro is necessary, but whether it will be a technological leap forward enough to justify its expected high price.

Naturally, this question cannot be definitively answered until the console is actually finalized (if it ever comes to pass), but based on the most notable spec leaks, early indications are inconclusive.

According to the latest reports, the PS5 Pro will have the same CPU as the current PS5. However, it will have a "high CPU frequency mode" that raises the clock speed from 3.5 GHz to 3.8 GHz. This is only a 10% improvement, which is not particularly encouraging.

While discussing the possibility of GTA 6 running at 60 fps on the PS5 Pro, Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter said that this highly anticipated open-world crime game will also run at 30 on the PlayStation console, which is rumored to be more powerful He suggested that it may be limited to 30 fps.

"I don't think [GTA 6's 60 fps] will happen. A 10% increase in clock won't do much; if the CPU is limited, it will improve the worst frame rates, but it won't be a game changer. I think that's obvious," says Leadbetter. [According to the leaked PS5 Pro specs, the PS5 Pro offers 67 teraflops of computing power compared to the PS5's 10.28 teraflops and 33.5 teraflops of "floating point" performance in actual game play, but the teraflops comparison is It is also worth noting that it is not that simple: changes to AMD's RNDA architecture (the PS5 Pro's GPU is reportedly built on the RDNA 3 architecture versus the PS5's RDNA 2 GPU) may prevent the PS5 from making a significant leap forward.

Other rumored specs include improved audio (the console's Audio Compression Manager is 35% better), 45% faster rendering speeds, and significantly improved ray tracing performance The PS5 Pro will include PlayStation frame-boosting technology called Spectral Super Resolution, which may also be included. PSSR reportedly works like DLSS and AMD's FSR technology, with the added benefit of supporting high dynamic range (HDR) to produce high-resolution games with far more vibrant colors than standard SDR. [Of course, this is not PS6, so expecting such an upgrade may be a bit of a stretch.

Like the PS4 Pro, which reportedly accounts for about 20% of overall PS4 sales, the PS5 Pro is expected to be a niche product, primarily targeting players who want the most performance power possible.

I definitely fall into that group, so while I may not be able to play the latest games at 60fps on the PS5 Pro, a slight improvement in this area would be enough to justify the money. Once Sony announces the PS5 Pro, we can stop speculating and start seriously discussing its technical merits.