PS5 Pro Efficiency Shines with 30% Performance Boost and Near-Identical Power Usage to Base Model

Digital Foundry took a deep dive into how much power the PlayStation 5 Pro uses, and the results were quite unexpected. In a YouTube discussion featuring Richard Leadbetter, John Linneman, and Oliver Mackenzie, they revealed that the PS5 Pro doesn’t consume noticeably more power than the standard PS5, despite housing a significantly more powerful GPU.

The testing involved running Elden Ring, Spider-Man 2, and F1 24 on the PS5 Pro, comparing its performance to the PS5 launch model and the newer PS5 Slim. Each game was played on its Pro-version with enhanced graphics, which was exclusive to the Pro model.

During a benchmark run of Elden Ring, the power consumption of the PS5 Pro was nearly the same as the PS5 Slim, measuring around 214.1 watts for the Pro and 216.2 watts for the Slim, while the launch model came in at 201.3 watts. Despite this, the Pro managed to run at a much higher frame rate of 52 FPS compared to the Slim’s 40 FPS and the launch model’s 37 FPS. It’s important to note that the frame rate difference between the Slim and the launch model is minor since the data reflect just one snapshot from Digital Foundry’s testing. Essentially, the Pro offers a 30% boost in frame rate while keeping the power usage similar to the Slim.

Spider-Man 2 painted a slightly different picture because the game runs at a locked 60 FPS on all three consoles. Here, the PS5 Pro used the most power at 232 watts, with the Slim at 218.2 watts and the launch model at 208.1 watts. In this scenario, the Pro used 6% more power than the Slim and 11% more than the launch version. While they didn’t specifically compare power usage for F1 24, the PS5 Pro was seen consuming about 235 watts during gameplay, maintaining a 60 FPS lock.

Despite these observations, it’s crucial to acknowledge that variations can arise due to differences in silicon quality. This explains why some Slim models might underperform compared to the older launch models. Better silicon means some consoles run their CPUs at optimal speeds but at lower voltages.

What Digital Foundry’s analysis clearly shows is that the PS5 Pro operates within the same power range as the base PS5 models, contrary to expectations it might require over 300 watts, given its technical upgrades.

Under the hood, the PS5 Pro boasts an 8-core Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA-based GPU capable of 16.7 TFLOPs, along with 576 GB/s memory bandwidth. In contrast, the regular PS5 models feature a weaker 10.28 TFLOP GPU with 448 GB/s bandwidth, although they share the same type of CPU, albeit potentially running at different clock speeds.