Digital Foundry recently delved into an intriguing analysis of the PlayStation 5 Pro’s power consumption and came across some unexpected findings. In a YouTube discussion featuring Richard Leadbetter, John Linneman, and Oliver Mackenzie, it was revealed that the PS5 Pro doesn’t use much more power than the base PS5, even with its notably stronger GPU.
To put this to the test, Digital Foundry compared the PS5 Pro while running Elden Ring, Spider-Man 2, and F1 24 against the original PS5, the newly updated PS5 Slim, and the Pro itself. The games were all tested in their Pro-exclusive versions, which come with enhanced graphics.
During their tests, Elden Ring showed that the PS5 Pro’s power draw was strikingly similar to that of the PS5 Slim. At one point in the video, the Pro pulled 214.1 watts, the Slim 216.2 watts, and the launch model 201.3 watts. While frame rates were much higher with the Pro, clocking in at 52 FPS versus 40 FPS on the Slim and 37 FPS on the original model, it effectively offered a 30% frame rate boost without increasing power draw much beyond the Slim’s levels.
In Spider-Man 2, however, the narrative shifted slightly since the game is capped at 60 FPS across the board. Here, the Pro recorded the highest wattage at 232 watts, compared to 218.2 watts with the Slim and 208.1 watts with the launch model. This showed the Pro consuming about 6% more energy than the Slim and 11% more than the original. While comparisons for F1 24 weren’t provided, Digital Foundry noted the PS5 Pro ran at around 235 watts, maintaining a steady 60FPS.
It’s important to remember that power consumption can vary due to differences in silicon quality, a factor that can make the Slim use more power than the original despite being technically newer. This variance lets some consoles achieve their CPU clock speeds at lower voltages than others.
Digital Foundry’s findings confirmed that, despite its mightier GPU, the PS5 Pro operates at nearly the same power levels as the base models, a surprise for those who anticipated it might draw over 300 watts. The PS5 Pro is equipped with a robust 8-core Zen 2 CPU and a GPU boasting 16.7 TFLOP performance based on RDNA architecture, along with 576 GB/s memory bandwidth. In contrast, the standard PS5 models feature the same CPU configuration but a less potent 10.28 TFLOP RDNA-based GPU and 448 GB/s memory bandwidth.
