This is how much a PC with PS5 Pro performance costs

Even for those who are moderately interested in gaming hardware, the news about the Playstation 5 Pro has not been able to be avoided. Above all, the focus has been on the price of just over 800 euros, which in Sweden will be over 9,000 kroner. In an interview with Japanese Nikkei asked Playstation’s hardware manager Hideaki Nishino about how the manufacturer sees Playstation and the game console’s role in the modern game market.

For mobile devices, there are many games that have built-in advertising, and on the PC side, it can be difficult to get started. With PS, you can instantly enjoy the content you have purchased as soon as you turn on your console. Even in the digital store for software, the products are clearly exposed and it is an intuitive experience.

The claim that it is more complicated with PC is of course open to different opinions. At the same time, the discussions regarding price in relation to the corresponding components on the PC side have been frenetic.

In connection with the PS5 Pro news, my colleague Jonas and I put together a few different component lists to see what the corresponding computer is running on. We are curious as to what the difference will be and if it is possible to come down to the same price Playstation 5 Pro. There are some differences, for example that the primary memory and graphics memory are shared on the console, but we will try to get as close as possible in the equivalent parts that can be bought on PC.

We can start by going through what is actually inside the PS5 Pro, here is some information from sources other than Sony. During the unveiling, the technical information was relatively sparse, but regardless of this:

Corresponding PC

With the processor, basically nothing has happened since the base version of the PS5. It is the same Zen 2-based cores with a variable clock frequency, however, there are leaked developer documents that show that it should be possible to run a slightly higher clocked mode for the processor for game developers. Of course, this makes no more than a marginal difference.

The closest thing that can be found in stores at the moment is the Ryzen 7 3700 X for just over SEK 1,500. It reaches somewhat higher clock frequencies than what the processor in the PS5 Pro is capable of. My recommendation would perhaps be to choose a slightly more modern Ryzen 5 processor if you choose to go the AMD route, alternatively an Intel Core i5-12400F.

When it comes to graphics cards, finding a fair comparison is a bit trickier. It’s an RDNA 3-based graphics chip with 60 Compute Units (CU), which is the same amount as the Radeon RX 7800 XT. However, the clock frequency is still unknown, but above all, the memory bandwidth is a factor that will affect performance.

A fair comparison in pure raster performance will therefore be the Radeon RX 7700XT. However, there are two factors that make choosing a graphics card a bit trickier. For one thing, the RDNA 3-based graphics cards lack the improved one ray tracing– the performance of RDNA 4 and that there is not yet support for an AI-based upscaler like PSSR.

With those factors excluded, I conclude that the Radeon RX 7700XT is a reasonable choice for the corresponding product. If you put more emphasis on better scaling and ray tracing is the Geforce RTX 4070 also a reasonable choice.

For storage, I take a PCI Express based device to reach roughly the same perceived performance in terms of load times.

Built based on the choices above and using a service for price comparison of components, the result is the following:

The price tag lands at SEK 10,489, which is a bit above what the PS5 Pro is expected to cost. And there are still a few things to consider with the choices above. Choosing the Ryzen 7 3700X in 2024 is perhaps not the wisest thing, it is getting a little older. Then considerable savings have been made on, among other things, the chassis, power supply and motherboard and the processor cooler that comes with it.

Power supplies in the lower price levels may mean that you sacrifice quiet operation or good efficiency. The test lab has not tested the selected model, but it may be worth having with you. The included cooler is also not the quietest or coolest on the market but costs nothing extra.

With a couple of adjustments and paying a little more, the computer gets more quality parts and a processor that offers slightly better gaming performance.

The new list lands at SEK 12,170 and offers more primary memory, a much nicer chassis, a slightly more expensive motherboard and a really good processor cooler. One of the advantages of building your own PC is the choice, and if you want, for example, an SSD with less storage space, you can save a penny there.

Is it possible to get PS5 Pro performance in a PC for the same price?

In short: No. Even though the PS5 Pro is going to be a really expensive console, today it is difficult to get equivalent performance for the same or less money if you are building a PC. What you need to cut back to be at the same level will not lead to a great hardware experience, while the PS5 Pro is expected to be a premium product.

There are of course lots of other things to keep in mind. It is unclear how competent PSSR
is and likely the PS5 Pro is better at ray tracing than the Radeon RX 7700XT. Furthermore, there are other costs that are not included in the calculation, such as the controller, operating system and games and game services.