The PS5 Pro is here, and it is quite a bit faster than the standard PS5 with a plethora of hardware upgrades. But even with its more powerful GPU and larger 2TB SSD, there is one thing that the $699 – that comes up to about RM3,030 – PS5 Pro lacks: a Blu-ray disc drive to play physical games.

With previous iterations of the PS5, there are two versions offered. There’s the disc-less Digital Edition, or a standard model with a Blu-ray disc drive. Curiously, PlayStation is only offering the PS5 Pro in the sole disc-less variant, so if you still want to play physical games on the new console, you have to fork out RM529 for the Blu-ray disc drive attachment.

This, in turn, makes the PS5 Pro more costly than what the $699 price tag suggests.

Nonetheless, there’s no denying that the PS5 Pro is a more capable console. its faster performance are attributed to three main improvements: an upgraded GPU, advanced ray tracing, as well as AI-driven upscaling dubbed PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). The GPU, for one, now features 67% more compute units than the current PS5 with 28% faster memory. Collectively, this results in up to 45% faster rendering.

What about advanced ray tracing? Well, according to PlayStation, the PS5 Pro can do more powerful ray tracing that provides more dynamic reflection and refraction of light, allowing rays to be cast at “double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.”

Finally, there’s PSSR, which is similar in implementation to Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR; all of which are upscaling techniques. PSSR uses machine learning to provide sharper image quality, resulting in improved visual quality.

Pre-orders of the PS5 Pro will start 26 September, and it will be available from 7 November onwards in selected markets. We don’t have details on the Malaysian availability of the new console just yet, but rest assured, we will keep a close eye on the matter.