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PS4 PRO: IS IT WORTH IT?

23/10/2018

23 Comments

 
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GUEST ARTICLE by SUPER BAD ADVICE 

Get this, plebs: the other week, I descended the solid bronze staircase from my emerald castle, rummaged in my top hat for a few thousand pounds-worth of gold coins in loose change, then threw them at a tramp and told him to go forth and buy me the most popular advanced console there is. And a Christmas goose for everyone!
 
(That’s right: I’ve gone and bought myself a cheap second-hand PS4 Pro on eBay. And a load of dead geese!)
 
The Pro has been around for a while now of course, but I suspect many of you are in a position much like the one I was in when I took the plunge: my original PS4 was busting at the seams with data, I’d got myself a 4K telly in the past couple of years anyway, and I’ve been increasingly tempted by the growing number of ‘enhanced’ games for the Pro.
 
The tipping point for me, other than not fancying my hand at a hard drive upgrade, was the imminent arrival of the Pro-enhanced Red Dead Redemption II and its obscene file size – a corpulent 100+ GB. Justified as, of course, nothing is more important to modern gamers than the data-heavy, ultra-detailed textures needed to render horse genitalia and dirty cowboy chaps in 4K.
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HOT METAL BASTARD
​The minimum hard drive on the Pro is a whopping 1TB – double the 500 GB of the original PS4 – so you can see the appeal there. And yes, I know hard drive upgrades are supposed to be relatively easy on the PS4, but the last thing I tried to upgrade was the air intake fan on our old cooker. This? This did not go well.
 
Despite the repair allegedly being a simple case of swapping out a broken part for an identical replacement and hooking up a couple of wires, I forgot to turn the mains off before I opened the cooker up and thus electrocuted myself.
 
This caused me to yell our oven was a ‘hot metal bastard’ loudly enough for our neighbour to hear and come round, thinking we were being attacked by a burglar (who, I assume, they must have thought was a sexy yet villainous robot).
 
To make matters worse, after all that I went and fitted the fan backwards so it pumped the kitchen full of greasy hot air. This meant I had to open it up all over again and, in my haste to do so, re-electrocuted myself in the exact same way.
 
Consequently, although I can now charge batteries just by looking at them, my DIY attempts at anything involving wires are probably best avoided.

​But back to the PS4 Pro. Now I’ve got one, the big questions are was it worth it? And do I think it would be worth it for YOU?
 
To which the answer for both is a decidedly non-committal hmmmmmmmmm. 
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STUPIDLY OPULENT
​The problem is, unless you have a stupidly opulent gaming setup you’re never going to see the picture from a Pro next to the picture from a vanilla PS4 simultaneously. So while all games on the Pro have some degree of benefit from HDR colour, lighting and so on, you simply won’t notice much difference a lot of the time because you have no immediate frame of reference.
 
This is all the more true in the heat of the action when you’re not paying attention to (graphical) detail.
 
It’s like mineral water and tap water: if you’re thirsty, you’re probably not going to care that the former has been filtered through igneous rock in the Andes before being collected in a crystal bucket by an ‘artisan aqua barista’, rather than spurting out into your kitchen sink in Stevenage via a plastic drainpipe.
 
Don’t get me wrong – there are times when it’s obvious you’ve got something with way more power. Running Shadow of the Colossus in performance mode so it’s hitting a constant 60 frames a second is beautiful, and going back to a janky 30 fps afterwards is akin to regressing from a SNES to a NES and then watching it through a zoetrope.
 
Equally, some of the games that offer specific graphic-enhancement modes really lay the pretty on thick. Horizon: Zero Dawn being one: you can see a lot more detail, see it from a lot further away, and with much lovelier, more realistic lighting. It’s not game changing at all for sure, but it’s definitely game enhancing.
 
Because while we all know graphics aren’t everything, they clearly are something – if it really didn’t matter what stuff looked like we’d all still be happily clonking about on ZX Spectrum +14s, 8-bit colour clash and all.
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JUMBO BAG
However…the jumbo bag of eye candy isn’t so lovely that I can hand on heart say ‘this is the next generation’. Because let’s face it – it isn’t. It’s still a device for playing PS4 games, albeit ones that are nicer looking to varying degrees that don’t suffer framerate drops, and the PS4 has been around for yonks now.
                               
In that, it’s an upgrade to what you know, not a jump to the next level – it’s buying a regular car with air con, heated seats and a turbo, not a private jet.
 
Take a game like Destiny 2. That’s a good-looking game anyway, but is HDR-enhanced on the pro. Yet all I can honestly say I noticed is that it’s a bit darker and the colours are more saturated – something I could have done a fair job at replicating by accident just by sitting on my remote control.
 
There are also potential downsides too. Depending on your telly, it’s a pain in the HDMI port to configure everything correctly to make sure you get the best possible picture.
 
Turns out it also doesn’t integrate properly with the original-generation PSVR headset (which, inevitably, is the version I own), meaning whenever you want to use it you have to do a marathon amount of faffing about with cables – undoing everything you did to get the best picture in the process.
 
Worse still, I’ve had more system lock-ups in a week with the Pro than in 6 months with my old PS4. Though I have got lucky with the noise factor – my Pro is actually much quieter than my original PS4, which is remarkable given a quick Google search shows that some Pros sound like you’ve installed an Airbus testing facility in your lounge; it seems what you get in this regard is basically pot luck.
 
All this means the value of the proposition is going to depend on a lot of factors.
 
If you have a capable TV, need more storage, play a lot of the titles that have the best enhanced modes like God of War and Spider-Man anyway, and can get a deal/trade in your old PS4? Yeah, like me you’ll probably be happy – assuming you don’t get a ‘loud boy’.
 
If you don’t have a 4K TV though, or aren’t fussed by something approaching gaming PC level smoothness and nicer lighting?
 
Despite my being a sucker for new hardware, I’m inclined to say don’t bother.
 
The chances you’ll notice any improvements are minimal, and – crucially – you still get to enjoy the exact same games. There are no PS4 Pro exclusives, and that’s not ever likely to change.
 
In the right circumstances, then, it’s an undeniable upgrade. In others, I can easily see someone wondering what on Earth all the fuss is about. Now, can I interest you in a used goose?
 
VERDICT: 500 GB out of 1TB
23 Comments
Orless
23/10/2018 08:43:13 am

Thought about doing the same for similar reasons. 1) space, 2) noise.

Decided against it and went for fitting a 2TB drive instead. Masses more space and a doddle to actually fit (no wires, Mr B, it's more like slipping a greased otter into a postbox), although the redownloading/reinstalling/resigning-in of everything is a pain afterwards.

Original PS4 does still sound like a hovercraft though. Maybe one day...

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Super Bad Advice
23/10/2018 09:09:22 am

I...I am not Mr B!

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Orless
23/10/2018 10:02:36 am

A thousand apologies, Mr SBA! The intern responsible for the previous comment has been stripped bare and forced to walk nude through the local branch of Greggs as punishment.

Piers Canadas
23/10/2018 08:44:12 am

I've ummed and ahhed for ages on this.
I added an externall 1TB SSD on my standard PS4, which speeds up load times dramatically and is pretty seamless.
I've I go pro I'll have to get a 4k HDR telly, which is doable but I'll feel bad about replacing a perfectly functional telly that's wayyyy too big for the kids room.
So still umming and ahhing.
Well jel re RDR2 though, i'll have to make do with 1080p horse cock.

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Jimbo Unchinned
23/10/2018 09:05:24 am

One thought: the extent to which HDR is evident is possibly (likely, even) more a statement about your telly than PS4 Pro. Not that this invalidates the broad thrust of your case, which I think is about right.

And yes, my Pro is definitely noisier than my base PS4 was. Not PS3 loud, just Boeing 737 loud.

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GigerPunk
23/10/2018 09:05:32 am

'Used goose' is code for second-hand-first-gen-psvr-headset, right?

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Super Bad Advice
23/10/2018 09:15:26 am

EXCITING HORSE GENITALIA UPDATE:

As you might have realised, the bit about textures for horse 'bits' was a joke.

Except: much to my bewilderment as I genuinely had no idea about this, it turns out, it isn't!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45940734

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Wheelie_World
23/10/2018 10:04:21 am

Let's not forget that the base PS4 is also HDR enabled. I had a Pro but the fan was so loud on games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last Guardian and even FIFA that it sounded like the thing was about to take off.

I sold it and bought a PS4 slim which is absolutely whisper quiet. I have a 4K TV and can't tell the difference between the games that were Pro enhanced. You're supposed to 'feel' improved frame rates but I couldn't tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps, or maybe i'm just an idiot. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

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MrPSB
23/10/2018 10:35:34 am

I thought that was a reference to the Realistic Horse Genitals mod for Skyrim which amuses me to this day because big floppy horse dongs

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Nick
23/10/2018 09:58:06 am

An idiot’s tale.

I didn’t have a PS4 so I brought a Pro when it was released. The intention was to buy a massive 4k telly to go with it when we moved into our new house with its large living room and what-not. That never happened. The house fell through on the survey and we eventually brought a small cottage built 300 years ago by an enthusiastic but entirely unskilled amateur. The living room is very small, too small for even the old telly, so the pro is hooked up to a 32 inch 1080 TV and will probably never fulfil its potential. Quiet though.

As always, lovely review Mr SBA.

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MrPSB
23/10/2018 10:39:32 am

I would like to also add my appreciation for many of the turns of phrase employed in this article, I especially enjoyed "hot metal bastard" and "a loud boy".

OK bye

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Voodoo76
23/10/2018 12:50:25 pm

I too have though about upgrading but still undecided. I think some games with a Pro Enhanced version are purposely designed to exaggerate the gap in performance. Without a PS Pro would the vanilla versions have been made with higher frame rates / texture detail etc? Its a bit like Sky having shit std def channels but lovely and clear HD channels. Right time to make myself a new tinfoil hat.

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BobMonkeypimp
23/10/2018 12:53:51 pm

I bought my PS4 Pro by selling my original (fat) PS4 (with a few games I never played anymore) for an exorbitant price on Fleabay & paying the small difference for the Pro.
I have a 4K TV already so the overall cost was minimal.
I agree with all the points made but the thing I'm most happy with is the noise. Playing Assassin's Creed Origins on my original PS4 was a joke. The fans never stopped & sounded like desert winds.
On my PS4 Pro it remains virtually silent during even the most intensive moments. Worth the money for that alone.

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PixelGuff
23/10/2018 02:31:34 pm

I bought a Pro as my first PS4. I got a bonus at work and promised myself that I wouldn't just spunk it away on game stuff. So I totally bought a PS4 Pro and a Switch.

Honestly, if you have a regular PS4, unless you're desperate for 4K, there's not much reason to upgrade. You're still going to have fun times.

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Trousers
23/10/2018 05:40:12 pm

Might be worth buying if you're also buying the new psvr?

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PS1Snake
23/10/2018 05:45:58 pm

Aesthetically, the PS4 Pro is the Tess Holliday of the current gen systems.

I'll wait for PS5. I hope Sony comes up with something sleek and striking.

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Keith
25/10/2018 08:27:53 pm

Totally gorgeous?

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PS1Snake
26/10/2018 11:25:55 pm

No...no... I mean it is unpleasant to look at.

Fan Boy
23/10/2018 06:10:35 pm

On the subject of noise...

My launch PS4 was horrendous.

I bought a revised model PS4 (not the slim, long before that) when it was released and that was far more acceptable. It was worth the "upgrade" just for the fan noise improvements.

The PS4 Pro launch model I own is somewhere between the two in terms of the volume but the pitch of the fan is particularly grating. Was disappointing from a fan perspective going from the revised PS4 to the launch Pro. A step backwards.

The latest PS4 Pro's if you buy one now are supposedly quieter than my launch model. Digital Foundry tested them and found that to be the case but also stated that the pitch of the fan isn't as annoying as my launch model too. Not got one myself so can't verify this but may well "upgrade" at some point and flog the launch model to recoup some cash.

Have held off on GoW, Detroit and Spiderman so may get a new Pro nearer TLoU 2 release then pick those other titles up cheap and enjoy them without the jet engine ruining cutscenes.

My XO and XO-S were silent and even my XO-X is silent so I stick two fingers up to Sony as if the X is silent they have no excuses for such shoddy cooling.

I have a 4K TV and wouldn't be using consoles at all if it weren't for the Pro and X. I'd still be using my high end PC but the X is good enough that I don't bother gaming on the PC anymore and the Pro is for the exclusives obvs. Framerate analysis on Odyssey demonstrates that even on a 1080p TV the game might well be up for the vanilla models for those who appreciate consistent performance.

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Bobmonkeypimp
23/10/2018 10:30:12 pm

My fairly newish PS4 Pro is virtually silent. Even during intense power usage.

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Fan Boy
27/10/2018 10:50:25 am

That type of user feedback is good to hear Bob and makes me more keen to switch to a newer model revision!

James Walker link
23/10/2018 11:31:41 pm

You’re all just a bunch of “fan” boys.

Haha, that’s satire that is.

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Dirty Barry
28/10/2018 03:33:43 pm

The PS4Pro is by far the noisiest console I have ever owned.

Other than that it's a great console (a must if you're into Japanese games). But the level of fan noise is a major setback if you mainly play at night and terrible design choice. Xbox one X plays even graphically intensive games, whisper quiet.

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