Sony released the PS5 Pro earlier this year, giving the four-year-old console a significant graphical boost. The mid-gen refresh costs a whopping $700, with the main selling point being an AI-based upscaler and a larger GPU. The news was not well received by many gamers, with most wondering if building a PC would make more sense.

PS5 Pro equivalent PC specs

This is where it gets tricky: The PS5 Pro uses an AMD GPU based on the RDNA 3 architecture, but some features are derived from the upcoming RDNA 4 GPUs, which are not available in the PC space. While many graphics cards can match or even surpass the pure GPU performance of the PS5 Pro, none currently support these next-gen features or are available at a competitive price.

Of course, the problem can be solved to some extent by adding more hardware, and we already have DLSS/XeSS as an alternative to Sony’s PSSR upscaling. Another advantage in the PC sector is the availability of more advanced CPUs. The PS5 Pro uses the same 5-year-old Zen 2-based AMD CPU with eight cores and sixteen threads. If you use AMD on the PC, we are already at Zen 5 and Intel’s latest generation CPUs also offer similar performance.

For this reason, we can’t just look at the raw teraflop count of GPUs, as upscaling and driver support will vary depending on the GPU vendor. It gets tricky, but we’ll use one main metric to compare hardware: image quality and performance goal.

The PS5 Pro is designed to run games at or near native 4K resolution at 60 frames per second with image reconstruction. Some settings will undoubtedly be higher than on the original console. So let’s assume that games are running at the “Ultra” graphics preset as found on PC ports.

Another tricky thing will be figuring out whether to use latest generation parts or older parts. New PC manufacturers can save quite a bit by using older parts, especially motherboards and memory. We took the former into account to save costs.

We have selected the following parts to match the PS5 Pro on our PC. Note: We used PCPartPicker to create this system. You can save more if you find these parts offline. You can also swap out certain components and build an even better PC for a similar price. The following build is based on market prices at the time of writing, which is the last week of December 2024.

When you compare prices, here’s what we found (based on US prices):

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X ($112)
• CPU Cooler: Wraith Stealth Cooler (comes with CPU)
• Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX ($84.99)
• GPU: Gigabyte GAMING OC RX 7700 XT ($399.99) OR MSI VENTUS 2X BLACK OC RTX 4060 Ti ($449.99)
• RAM: G.Skill Aegis 16GB DDR4 3200MHz ($29.99)
• Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 2TB ($119.99)
• Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V3 ($84.99)
• Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower ($54.99)

The total cost of the PC, excluding the operating system, is well over $700 and comes to $887 if you use the AMD RX 7700 XT GPU. With the Nvidia GPU, the price goes up to $937. If you additionally purchase Windows 11, you’ll need to add another $100, and adding peripherals, monitors, etc. for an entirely new build can easily increase the price to over $1,000.

PC vs. PS5 Pro – What are the advantages?

After you’ve gone to the trouble of finding all the parts, assembling the PC, installing all the drivers, and tying up loose ends with neat cable routing, what’s in it for you?

Well, first of all, flexibility. Like the PS5 Pro, modern GPUs can leverage upscaling technologies to play games at lower resolutions, boosting frame rates. Both Nvidia and AMD GPUs also support frame generation, allowing you to game at 120 frames per second or more. This makes for a dramatic difference in smoothness, and of course you can still adjust the settings to your liking.

For comparison, let’s look at a recent game like Star Wars Outlaws. By using console-equivalent settings, you can increase frame rates by over 60% and achieve better image quality than the base PS5. With frame generation, we could run Black Myth: Wukong at close to 120 frames per second, and that’s with a weaker CPU than the one we included in this build! Even Final Fantasy 16 can run at over 200 frames per second with the right settings and looks better than on the base PS5 and probably the PS5 Pro too.

We also tested Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with optimized settings and our integrated GPUs can easily exceed the Xbox Series X’s 60fps target with full ray tracing. The upcoming PS5 version of the game will also target the same frame rate, while the PS5 Pro may toggle advanced ray tracing features.

PlayStation has also started porting its games to PC and they scale much better on that platform. As seen in the PC ports of Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon: Forbidden West, it’s not that difficult to max out the settings and run the game at or above 60fps and better quality. The best PC games always offer more graphics options compared to the console game, allowing you to play Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing reflections, shadows and global lighting enabled, while the PlayStation version only offers RT shadows at 30 frames per second.

And then of course there are the cheaper games. Steam offers thousands of games, including many multiplatform games, that are cheaper on PC than on the PlayStation Store. We often have deals, and if you’re looking to build a library for free, look no further than the Epic Games Store.

We’ve yet to see how well PS5 Pro-enhanced games will utilize the console and how many of the PC-exclusive features will make their way to the console ports.

All of this has its price. You’ll pay a little more to build the PC, and it’s not as easy to use as a console. For this reason, there will always be a place for consoles in the market, and most gamers who value convenience will opt for the plastic box rather than the oversized computer on their desk.

If one thing is clear, it’s that it’s difficult to build a PC that can compete with the PS5 Pro for $700. The value proposition that a console offers will always be better, which is why it is a mass market device, even if it is aimed at enthusiasts.