Nearly a month after the specs for the PS5 Pro were leaked, a new report from The Verge confirms that not only are the specifications for this rumored mid-gen refresh real, but Sony is reportedly telling developers to prepare and ensure their games are optimized for the more powerful hardware.
The Verge's Tom Warren writes that Sony is asking developers to prepare their games to be PS5-optimized this summer. The emphasis is on improving ray tracing support in games already available or coming to PS5. The outlet reports that developers who can "provide significant enhancements" to its games will be able to use the "Trinity Enhanced" label if they demonstrate they have provided "significant enhancements." The "Trinity Enhanced" label sounds a lot like the label that Microsoft used for games that were "optimized" for its high-end ninth-generation console, the Xbox Series X.
Several games available on PS5, including Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Spider-Man 2, already support the feature, but the performance varies by game. Elden Ring is one example Digital Foundry pointed out last year in their ray tracing performance analysis, which revealed that the PS5 version of Elden Ring saw a drop in frames per second (FPS) when the player enabled ray tracing.
Last month, specifications for the PS5 Pro were leaked first by Moore's Law before Insider Gaming and The Verge verified the legitimacy of these leaks. The internal specs are improved, as you'd expect from a mid-gen refresh. The CPU set identical to the one in the base PS5 will include a "High CPU Frequency Mode," providing a 10 percent increase. The GPU has also been expanded to offer faster rendering and improvements to ray tracing performance.
Yet, the most interesting tidbit about the "Pro" model PS5 is that it will include PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling (PSSR), a supersampling technology akin to Nvidia's DLSS or AMD's FSR. This means the system will provide improved performance without requiring additional horsepower. This would be an interesting and useful tool as tech experts have previously reported that even a PS5 Pro might not be powerful enough to run GTA 6, one of the most highly anticipated games releasing next year, at 60FPS.
Though Sony has yet to announce a release date for the mid-cycle refresh of the PS5, let alone officially reveal the hardware. In February, analysts suggested that Sony is "likely" to release a PS5 Pro later this year. For more, check out our feature on what a PS5 Pro means for games, most notably GTA 6.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
