The PS5 Pro Won’t Be The ’60FPS Dream-Machine’ We’d All Like It To Be – Opinion
The PS5 Pro wasn’t a surprising announcement considering that we’d heard about it multiple times through rumours and leaks for months leading up to the announcement.
Heck, we even got what turned out to be a practically exact drawing of what it would look like a little more than a week ahead of the reveal.
What has been surprising is the games that PlayStation has so far used to showcase the new professional version of the PS5 – with games that can pretty much all run on PS4.
The Last Of Us Part II, Ghost Of Tsushima, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West – all of these games can be played on PS4 or PS4 Pro, and they’ll look just fine. Not great, just fine.
But this is all part of the conceit, because a point of focus in Mark Cerny’s technical presentation, was that the PS5 Pro will be the console for all those tired of being forced into choosing Performance Mode. We’ve seen more than a fair few games launch where performance mode is the default choice because you simply can’t trust the Fidelity Mode to run consistently.
If the PS5 Pro wasn’t able to make games that can run on PS4 run at a smooth 4K/60FPS, it wouldn’t be worth the cost of the box it ships in. I’m not surprised that were I to drop $699.99 USD this November ($959.99 in my native Canada), I’d be stunned by how great a game I first played when I was still living at my parents house looks now.
What about the games we’ve not seen yet though? How about the games we know are coming, and those we haven’t even heard of yet? Will a 30FPS fidelity mode that perhaps doesn’t run as well as it should be done away with, because everything will as a baseline run at 60FPS?
I don’t think so. In fact, I think we all better get used to having 30FPS modes around for a long time – because they’re not going anywhere, anytime soon.
Whether or not you think the PS5 Pro is worth the price, one thing’s for sure. It’s main pitch is a lie.
The PS5 Pro Won’t Be The ’60FPS Dream-Machine’ We’d All Like It To Be – Opinion
The Limit Does Not Exist
Firstly, so that we’re all on the same page, let’s look at what Cerny said during his presentation. Below is a quote from the technical presentation where Cerny is discussing graphics modes. If you want a total refresher, you can watch the full presentation above.
Here, after just describing what the PS5 does well, he discusses graphics modes, and frames the PS5 Pro as the next step in giving players the best experience possible, by not having to sacrifice performance for visual quality and vice-versa.
“The dreams of the developers are bigger than can be supported at 60FPS, and that leads to an aspect of modern gaming that we’re all familiar with: Graphics Modes. It can be a difficult choice for players. Fidelity modes emphasize the visuals, typically through higher resolution rendering. These modes might also have enhanced detail or use more Ray Tracing. But the games only run at 30FPS, the visuals can be choppier, and the controls less responsive.
Performance modes emphasize frame rate, and interactivity, typically choosing to run at 60FPS. Mainly by reducing graphical detail, until those frame rates can be achieved. When asked to decide on a mode, players are choosing performance about 3/4 of the time.
Removing that decision, or at least narrowing that divide is one of the key targets for PlayStation 5 Pro. We want to give players the graphics that the game creators aspire to, at the high frame rates the players typically prefer.” – Mark Cerny
My problem with this, is the obvious truth that game creators are always going to dream bigger than consoles. Triple-A – or even quadruple-A, if it’s Ubisoft – studios will keep pushing graphical fidelity forward, because amazing graphical fidelity is a hallmark of triple-A development.
Mind you, this isn’t to say there aren’t diminishing returns to having such a graphical emphasis. Graphical fidelity also isn’t the only metric by which a game can look good.
But when making everything look as good as possible is a cornerstone to the methodology behind everything a studio does, those studios and the games they make will always hit a hardware ceiling on consoles.
The PS5 Pro doesn’t change that, nor will the PS6, and anything beyond. There will be a game that comes along and tries to push ray tracing even further than it’s being pushed now. There will be a game that comes along and tries to push visual details and fidelity even further, to deliver a visual experience that is constantly stunning.
There will also be new technology that helps make what’s possible in game development more realistic than we’ve seen even now. Technology keeps moving forward, and there will still be game developers who dream of making those incredibly crisp, environmentally rich and densely packed game worlds players very clearly love with the latest software and hardware.
And I just don’t buy that the PS5 Pro will deliver on a 60FPS baseline for the games it’ll face. Because when the hardware ceiling is raised on consoles, developers almost immediately rise to meet it.
Consoles may be getting closer and closer to PC’s, but they’re ultimately designed to be a single unit you can plug into a monitor and play video games with.
Until the day you can buy a new graphics card for your PlayStation device, these consoles will have a hardware ceiling, and developers will always hit it.
We’ll All Still Pick Performance Mode
What will happen then, for all those who do buy a PS5 Pro? We (I say trying to will into existence my ability to afford one), the players, will all still pick performance mode.
Sure, there’s at least a quarter of us who don’t care and would rather pick fidelity because frankly when you pay for a nice TV and a super-expensive professional console you just want it all to look good. A respectable take.
But it’s clear that for so many of us, whether or not we want to pick fidelity mode, we pick performance out of necessity. Cerny identifies choppy visuals and less responsive controls as aspects that plague fidelity modes.
If you’re experiencing that, depending on the severity, it actually can make the game unplayable. Your mileage will vary with what you deem “unplayable,” but no matter your definition of playable there’s a point where a game is too choppy for anyone. Everyone has a limit to the amount of times they fail an objective due to lagging controls.
Bad graphics (or more realistically graphics that still look good, just not as good as they could), do not make a game unplayable on a physical level.
A smoother gameplay experience wins out with 3/4 of players because we would all rather sacrifice a bit of fidelity, just so we could play the game we want to play.
A Great Way To Play Old Games, And A Fine Way To Play New Ones
The PS5 Pro won’t be the console that does away with graphics modes, and it won’t be the console that does away with 30FPS modes which are ultimately a compromise on performance since 60FPS is just plain smoother.
But when it launches, the facts of its extra horsepower will likely make it one of the best devices on the market to play any game that came out prior to November 7, 2024.
Until the next generation actually begins, it’ll probably continue to be one of the best devices to play games on. Unless Xbox actually does have its own mid-gen refresh, that is, potentially leveling the playing field.
I’m just not convinced that it’ll be the console to do away with 30FPS fidelity modes. I would love to be wrong, of course.
It’s an expensive console, arguably too much so. But would your tune change if Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, The Witcher 4, Grand Theft Auto 6, Monster Hunter Wilds, Respawn’s next Star Wars Jedi game, Death Stranding 2, Mass Effect 5 – and that’s just third party games we know about – were sure to run at 4K/60 on PS5 Pro?
Mine might, not to mention the fact that as we’ve seen with PlayStation Studios games, we can actually more reliably hope that games like Ghost Of Tsushima 2, Wolverine, – and whatever Naughty Dog, Bluepoint, Bend Studio, Guerilla, Sony Santa Monica and others are working on – will run well, if not 4K/60FPS.
My issue with the PS5 Pro isn’t the price (though I think it’s absurd), it’s the promise of it. I’d love it if 60FPS would just become the baseline moving forward, but I just don’t think it will be.
I’ve no doubt that it’ll make any game that didn’t already run at 4K/60FPS be able to do so. It’ll be a really great way to play games we’ve already played or are just coming out by the end of this year.
And it’ll be a fine way to play games that come out next year and beyond.
