Is the $899 “PS5 Pro” Worth It? Hands-on Impressions from a Commuter Gamer

Pulling out my phone to scroll the news on the subway, the moment I saw “PS5 Pro” trending again, I was completely stunned: it’s been on sale for less than two years, and the price has already gone up by almost $200. As a casual player who just wants to flop down after work and only squeezes in a couple of rounds during my commute, my first reaction was: is this thing getting further and further away from ordinary people? Then I kept reading and saw a bunch of people in the hardware scene saying it’s still “good value,” which feels a bit like takeout getting more expensive while everyone still calls it cheap. Naturally, my brain started doing the math.

Let’s start with the facts: the PS5 Pro is now priced at $899.99, which is definitely not cheap for a console, but once you compare it to prebuilt PCs, the picture changes. On their show, Digital Foundry was asked whether you could build a gaming PC with performance on par with the PS5 Pro using the same budget, and their answer was “very hard,” in a tone similar to if you asked me whether you can eat only salad and not feel hungry. They even provided a reference build: a RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU, a Ryzen 5 7600X3D CPU, plus 2TB of storage. The total already came to $963, and that’s without including any memory.

The key issue is the memory. Right now, 16GB of DDR5-6000 can already cost more than $200, so once you add everything up, the whole system gets close to $1,200. That number alone is enough to make your scalp tighten a bit. Compare that to the past: at the same $1,000 price range, you could still get a system with something like an RTX 5060 Ti or RX 9060 XT, while now many machines at that price only give you an RTX 5060 with 8GB of VRAM. It’s like how takeout used to come with drinks and snacks, but now you only get the main dish—and the price quietly went up. No wonder quite a few outlets are saying that for 1440p or even 4K gaming, the PS5 Pro is still pretty attractive at its current price.

But from a casual player’s perspective like mine, the hardware math is simple; the life math is much more complicated. The advantages of PC are very obvious: a lot of games are cheaper, there are frequent discounts, and online play usually doesn’t require extra subscriptions. Over the long term, it can actually save you money. Consoles are kind of the opposite: at the moment you buy the machine it feels like a bargain, but over the following years, you keep buying games, paying for memberships, and upgrading along with new platform generations. The expenses pile up bit by bit, and sometimes you get that subtle annoyance of “I don’t even play that much, but I sure spend a lot.” On top of that, PCs are much more flexible: you can game, edit videos, take online classes, or just slack off and chat—all on the same device.

Still, consoles have their own perks, especially for someone like me who prefers to “sit down and play, no settings tweaking.” These days, prebuilts are commonly over $1,000, while the $899.99 PS5 Pro can just be plugged into a TV and played right away, with stable 1440p and 4K performance. Overall, it feels like buying a living-room entertainment bundle, without having to fuss over the configuration yourself. Plus, Sony has been cutting back on bringing first-party titles to PC, effectively locking certain exclusive experiences to consoles. For players who don’t have much time but still want to play big titles, that’s actually quite tempting.

If, like me, your gaming time is mostly limited to your commute or the half hour before bed—very light usage—here’s my personal suggestion. If you like to lie on the couch, want to just plug in and play, don’t plan on tinkering with settings, and don’t care about the fun of building a PC, then in the context of rising PC hardware prices, the PS5 Pro is still a decent value for money. Its graphics and smoothness are enough to carry you comfortably through several years. On the other hand, if you already own a PS5 and don’t play that much, upgrading to the Pro just for the sake of it isn’t really necessary. It’s better to save that budget for a few big games you truly want to play—that’ll feel much more satisfying.

Conversely, if you already spend long stretches sitting at your computer and also want to edit some videos, watch shows, and take online classes, then the long-term flexibility and lower software costs of a PC will still be more cost-effective than a dedicated console. After all, what you actually use in your daily life is what really counts as good value.