PlayStation 5 Pro Enhanced requirements allegedly leaked — upscaled 4K at constant 60 FPS with ray tracing is the new target

Sony PlayStation 5
Sony PlayStation 5 (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Following the near-complete PS5 Pro specs list leak earlier this month, leaked info verified by Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming points toward the specific requirements for games to receive "PS5 Pro Enhanced" labeling, codenamed "Trinity Enhanced" internally.

The ideal "Trinity Enhanced" mode is described as using PSSR to upscale resolution to 4K, achieving a constant 60 FPS, and adding or increasing ray tracing effects compared to the stock PS5 version, which may or may not have RT. While specific PS5 titles are built from the ground up for RT, like Spider-Man 2, others skirt RT entirely while still targeting 30-60 FPS, like Final Fantasy XVI — so this seems ideal for those games, in particular.

However, "Trinity Enhanced" requirements seem looser than meeting all three of the above goals at once. Instead, meeting any of the below-listed requirements will give a PS5 Pro game its appropriate Trinity Enhanced/PS5 Pro Enhanced labeling.

Leaked PS5 Pro "Trinity Enhanced" Requirements (any)

  • Inclusion of "PS5 Pro Ray-tracing effects"—In other words, some titles' only enhancement on PS5 Pro will be the addition of ray-tracing effects to games that ran at specific performance targets (4K30, etc.) but didn't yet include RT. This also applies to games that already had some RT but disabled or lowered the quality of features like RT reflections on PS5.
  • Increased target framerate versus standard PS5—This entails 30 FPS PS5 games going up to 60, 60 to Variable or 120, etc. PS5 has supported VRR since April 2022.
  • Increased target resolution for games that run with Dynamic Resolution Scaling on PS5 — Most modern console games utilize some degree of dynamic resolution scaling, especially when targeting 4K resolution or 60 FPS.
  • Increased fixed resolution for games that already run at a fixed resolution on PS5—This enhancement entails changing the 1080p lock to 4K lock, etc. It's self-explanatory. Either of these increased target resolutions can also be met using Pro-exclusive PSSR upscaling.

Let's use a specific PS5 game as an example to examine these PS5 Pro Enhanced requirements in more detail.

(Image credit: Capcom)

Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition was released on PS5 with various performance modes. As what was originally a PS4 game locked to 60 FPS without RT, one of the basic PlayStation 5/Special Edition enhancements was ray tracing. Ray tracing could be enabled in DMC5:SE while targeting 30 FPS at 4K or 60 FPS at 1080p. However, the game also offered to run at up to 120 FPS/120 Hz without ray-tracing with resolution scaling enabled.

With the four existing performance modes of DMC5:SE on current PS5 hardware targeting either ray tracing or high FPS, it seems evident that a "Trinity Enhanced" patch for the game would allow you to do both. Enabling RT in DMC5:SE's Variable 120 Hz Performance Mode, for example, would seem to fall perfectly in line with the PS5 Pro's established ~4X RT performance boost—though it may not consistently hit 120 FPS.

Widespread speculation from outlets like Digital Foundry points toward actual next-gen titles like Grand Theft Auto VI being unable to run at 60 FPS on the console. However, if the footage of the game we've already seen is running with those ray-traced effects at 30 FPS on existing console hardware— as DMC5:SE is above when targeting 4K— it does seem that PS5 Pro may allow those 30 FPS RT Modes to hit 60. 

On base PS5 and in PC games, real-time ray-tracing is also incredibly CPU-intensive, not simply GPU-intensive. However, console games can be optimized at an SoC level, and it seems as if the PS5 Pro's GPU may be tailor-made to offset those CPU bottlenecks otherwise introduced by real-time ray tracing on the console.

Considering the nature of these "PS5 Pro Enhanced" performance targets and the existing leaked specs, it may be too soon to rule out 60 FPS for PS5 Pro games.

Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

  • Kashmir74
    If the game is CPU-limited at 30 fps, I don't see a 10% boost to CPU clock speed being able to increase it to 60 fps, even if the GPU takes some of the workload off. Unless, there is some kind of frame gen, then you'd be able to go from 30 to 45 and then use frame gen to achieve 60+, potentially.
    Reply
  • suryasans
    PS5 Pro RT enabled is still the most energy efficient to play RT enabled games than a PC with nvidia rtx 4090.
    Reply
  • EyadSoftwareEngineer
    suryasans said:
    PS5 Pro RT enabled is still the most energy efficient to play RT enabled games than a PC with nvidia rtx 4090.
    Well said, japanese mind set is to be extremely effecient in acheiving the desired level of visuals. unlike Nvidia where there approach is to use brute force which resulted in a graphic card(4090) that consume rediclus amount o energy (450w), which is twice the whole ps5 system consume (225w),
    If this trend continues, the consoles will have serious advatange over PC specially in terms of effieciency and value per dollar, and coming ps6 would be the defalut choice for gamers without a second thought
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    EyadSoftwareEngineer said:
    Well said, japanese mind set is to be extremely effecient in acheiving the desired level of visuals. unlike Nvidia where there approach is to use brute force which resulted in a graphic card(4090) that consume rediclus amount o energy (450w), which is twice the whole ps5 system consume (225w),
    If this trend continues, the consoles will have serious advatange over PC specially in terms of effieciency and value per dollar, and coming ps6 would be the defalut choice for gamers without a second thought
    You need to learn what efficiency means before you criticize products for not being efficient. 4090 is the 2nd most efficient GPU ever released for PC's. Using more power does not automatically make something inefficient. Also the 4090 doesn't consume 450W during typical gaming. Max TDP does not = typical power usage. The 4090 uses more power, but it is so much faster than everything else, that it beats them all except the 4080 in efficiency. Even the PS5 Pro isn't going to be in the same ballpark as a 4090 in performance.

    Reply
  • CmdrShepard
    EyadSoftwareEngineer said:
    Well said, japanese mind set is to be extremely effecient in acheiving the desired level of visuals. unlike Nvidia where there approach is to use brute force which resulted in a graphic card(4090) that consume rediclus amount o energy (450w), which is twice the whole ps5 system consume (225w),
    If this trend continues, the consoles will have serious advatange over PC specially in terms of effieciency and value per dollar, and coming ps6 would be the defalut choice for gamers without a second thought
    If the article screenshot is anything to go by, NVIDIA doesn't need to fear Sony's RT implementation at all.
    Reply
  • CmdrShepard
    spongiemaster said:
    Also the 4090 doesn't consume 450W during typical gaming.
    Cyberpunk 2077 (even in 1080p60) with path tracing and all bells and whistles enabled wants a word with you.

    Last time I played it on my RTX 4090 it was pulling ~350W and that was before Phantom Liberty DLC.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    Kashmir74 said:
    Unless, there is some kind of frame gen,
    most likely is as its running modified amd fsr 3 iirc w/ their own special sauce.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    CmdrShepard said:
    Cyberpunk 2077 (even in 1080p60) with path tracing and all bells and whistles enabled wants a word with you.

    Last time I played it on my RTX 4090 it was pulling ~350W and that was before Phantom Liberty DLC.
    The math I learned in grade school taught me 450 ≠ 350. Fully path traced AAA gaming does not qualify as a typical gaming scenario. Why would you even bring that up in an article about a console? The PS6 is not going to be able to run 2077 fully path traced. PS5 is running AMD hardware. WithOUT frame gen, the 4090 is over 4 times faster than the fastest AMD GPU.

    Reply
  • CmdrShepard
    spongiemaster said:
    Fully path traced AAA gaming does not qualify as a typical gaming scenario.
    Then they should better not brag about RT at all.
    spongiemaster said:
    Why would you even bring that up in an article about a console?
    I was just clarifying that yes, RTX 4090 uses a lot of power when gaming. Your definition of gaming is apparently different than mine. Who would buy an expensive RTX 4090 and then use it to play games that don't tap it's power?
    spongiemaster said:
    The PS6 is not going to be able to run 2077 fully path traced.
    Of course it won't, even calling what's in that screenshot RT is silly.
    Reply
  • Joseph_138
    I don't think 4k60 is going to be doable, without upscaling, or framegen, especially if they want RT to be turned on, and that's going to lead to image degradation, and loss of responsiveness, due to increased latency, if they go with framegen. Nvidia has Reflex, to offset some of the increased latency, but AFAIK, AMD has no equivalent technology, and AMD is what is found in consoles.
    Reply