Quick Summary
Although not specifically advertised, it has been discovered that the PS5 Pro can boost the frame rates of some standard PS5 games, without needing an "Enhanced" patch.
That's in addition to the dedicated PS4 enhancement settings.
When Sony originally announced the PS5 Pro and its upgraded feature set it left out one or two details, including something that's pretty significant when it comes to running non-Enhanced PlayStation 5 games.
It turns out that not only can developers use the extra grunt afforded by the 16.7 TFLOPS GPU, plus the associated tech boosts to release extra Pro graphics modes, existing games could greatly benefit too – without anyone needing to lift a finger.
It's something we're all finding out now that the console has been released (and having played with one for the last week myself). Some standard PS5 games are definitely running better on the Pro, especially those with uncapped frame rates.
We knew that this was the case for PS4 titles – there's an "Enhance Image Quality" option in the settings specifically for them. But you don't get an official "Game Boost" setting for PS5 games, it just seems to do it naturally.
Digital Foundry found, for example, that Elden Ring runs at a considerably higher frame rate in its Quality Mode than on the PS5 – hitting highs of 50fps, in fact. It's still not perfect – the game is notoriously sporadic in its frame rates – but will definitely provide a smoother experience on a Pro, especially when connected to a TV with VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) support.
Performance mode now runs even smoother, at very close to 60fps.
And this is without FromSoftware releasing a PS5 Pro-dedicated patch, which it may do in future.
Of course, fixing the frame rates on your existing games is only one part of the story. We all want to see developers and studios tweaking their games with extra, almost PC-like graphics modes, but it's a great added bonus that I wasn't really expecting.
Added to the fact that some PS4 games really benefit (I've started a fresh playthrough of Bioshock Remastered and it looks and plays stunningly) and it's further proof that this mid-gen console refresh is more than worthy.
Whether it adds further justification for the hefty price ticket, I'll leave you to decide.
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