Opinion and buying guide
I’ve owned a PlayStation 5 Pro since launch day in November 2024. I also own a standard PS5, so I’ve had nearly two years to compare them firsthand. When the Pro launched, it cost 699.99 US dollars in the US. Anyone thinking about buying one today is looking at a very different price.
After Sony’s price increase on April 2, 2026, the PS5 Pro now costs 899.99 US dollars, and the standard PS5 costs 649.99 US dollars. That’s 200 US dollars more than the Pro’s launch price, and a 250 US dollar gap between the two consoles. When stock runs low, reseller listings can climb even higher, and paying over the official price is hard to justify.
Update, November 6, 2026: The official prices haven’t changed, but finding a PS5 Pro at them is now the hard part. In the US, Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target and GameStop have all been sold out, and PlayStation Direct restocks are gone within minutes. Resale prices followed. Recent sales tracked by PriceCharting put a new PS5 Pro at about 1,325 US dollars and a used one at about 1,140 US dollars, and GameStop has priced pre-owned units at 1,400 US dollars. Europe looks the same: the official price is 899.99 euros, but in Germany, marketplace sellers on Amazon and MediaMarkt ask between 1,200 and 1,500 euros for a console that ships right away. According to a memo reported by Playfront, Sony told its retail partners that supply will stay tight until early 2027 at the earliest. GTA VI is still set for November 19, and the PlayStation Store lists it as PS5 Pro Enhanced, but Rockstar still hasn’t said what that means for resolution or frame rate.
Interest in GTA VI may be driving demand for the most powerful PlayStation, but be careful about what you read. It has not been confirmed that the game will run at 60 fps on PS5 Pro and 30 fps on other systems. Rockstar has announced a November 19 release for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S without publishing that kind of official performance comparison. Paying a premium for an unannounced feature would be a mistake.
What does the Pro actually offer?
For those who want the specs, the original PS5 GPU delivers about 10.3 teraflops, while Sony lists 16.7 teraflops for the PS5 Pro. Those figures describe theoretical GPU computing power; they don’t mean every game will run faster by the same amount. Sony cites 67% more GPU compute units, 28% faster memory, and up to 45% faster rendering. The Pro also has more capable ray tracing, a 2 TB SSD, and PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), its machine learning image upscaling technology.
The CPU is still in the same basic AMD Zen 2 family, with eight cores and 16 threads. The big changes are in graphics and image processing, not an entirely new processor. That distinction matters if you expect the console to double the frame rate of every future game.
For me, the real test is on the screen. Having played on both consoles, I can see the improvement. In games I’ve tried, including Elden Ring, Marvel’s Wolverine, 007 First Light, and Ghost of Tsushima, the Pro’s image can look clearer and more stable. My recent time with Wolverine made the difference from a standard PS5 especially noticeable, and the crisp image in 007 First Light impressed me, too. How much each game benefits depends on its optimization and whether it uses Pro features like PSSR. The biggest improvements I’ve noticed are in Sony games built with the console in mind.
So yes, the PS5 Pro is the better machine. But the gap isn’t as overwhelming as some people imagine before they try it. The standard PS5 still delivers an excellent experience. With the Pro, you’re mainly paying for a sharper picture, stronger graphics features, and smoother performance in select games.
My buying advice
I get the argument that a high end PC graphics card can cost a lot. That doesn’t make every console price reasonable. At 899.99 US dollars, the PS5 Pro is an expensive purchase that can make sense if image quality matters a lot to you. Above that, from resellers, I personally wouldn’t recommend it. If you already own a PS5, I’d wait until we know GTA VI’s actual performance. That also avoids rewarding inflated resale prices whenever supply gets tight.
The Pro should earn its price through what it can do today, not through the frame rates we hope a future game might deliver.
Release date and price
- PS5 Pro release date: November 7, 2024
- PS5 Pro price: 899.99 US dollars, launch price 699.99 US dollars
- PS5 price: 649.99 US dollars, Digital Edition 599.99 US dollars
- Prices valid since: April 2, 2026
- PS5 Pro price in Europe: 899.99 euros
- PS5 Pro resale price, November 2026: about 1,140 to 1,400 US dollars in the US, 1,200 to 1,500 euros in Germany
- Official source: PlayStation.Blog
Sources: PlayStation.Blog, US price changes effective April 2, 2026; Sony PS5 and PS5 Pro specifications; Rockstar Games, GTA VI release announcement; PriceCharting and Tom’s Guide, US resale prices; PC Games, German retail and marketplace prices; Playfront, Sony supply memo.
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