Last-minute PS5 Pro leaks indicate system will pack 16.7 TFLOPS GPU with 16GB dedicated GDDR6 VRAM — plus 2GB DDR5 system RAM

The launch of Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro is imminent, set to arrive in four days (on November 7) to the tune of $699 USD. At this price point, Sony is promising massively improved resolution and framerate through the use of AI upscaling with PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), and a souped-up CPU and GPU compared to the base PlayStation 5 released back in November 2020. Considering the absence of a similar upgrade from Microsoft’s Xbox brand, it seems the high-end console gaming throne has truly been ceded to Sony — and an apparent teardown of the new strongest console appeared on YouTube just last night.

The video teardown of the PlayStation 5 Pro ahead of its street release date seems to be from a Portuguese console repair shop, with the process revealing an internal layout quite similar to the PlayStation 5 Slim model. Other sources have noted that these similarities would make PlayStation 5 Slim faceplates compatible with the Pro were the interlocking mechanisms not seemingly changed specifically to prevent that functionality, so this teardown also seems legitimate.

Aside from some noted similarities to the PS5 Pro, there isn’t too much else immediately notable about this PlayStation 5 teardown unless you specifically wish to see the internals. You can’t exactly gauge the way these internals will perform based on a teardown, though, since you’ll just be left looking at circuit boards instead of numbers that could establish some expectations. For those, we’ll be looking to a Twitter post that’s also been drawing lots of press attention this week.

This supposed PlayStation 5 Pro specifications leak was posted yesterday afternoon on Twitter by user @videotechuk_, previously known for posting Rockstar Games leaks. This leak mostly includes information we already knew or expected, including that PlayStation 5 Pro will still be using the same Zen 2 architecture that its immediate PlayStation 5 predecessor is using. Sticking with Zen 2 is likely a conscious choice for strict compatibility with the base PlayStation 5, though some prior reports have mentioned the PS5 Pro could potentially support boosted clocks compared to the base.

What sticks out most about this purported specifications leak is that the PS5 Pro GPU is now slated to perform at an expected 16.7 teraflops and have a full 16GB of dedicated GDDR6 VRAM, not having to share it with CPU like on base PlayStation 5 models. Rumors also indicate the PlayStation 5 Pro will have 2GB of DDR5 RAM dedicated system memory. This marks quite a departure from previous PS5 models with unified memory.

Four years on from the original November 2020 release date of PlayStation 5, it’s clear that gamers are more eager than ever to get their hands on the new PlayStation Pro console, even though it’s Sony’s second mid-generation “Pro” upgrade. If Xbox won’t be doing it and you are unwilling to engage with PC gaming, the PlayStation 5 Pro still makes sense, and early benchmarking of its improvements in PSSR image quality and support for real-time ray tracing graphics look promising.