When Sony announced its next-gen console, PS5 Pro, in November 2024, it didn’t seem like a tempting upgrade at first. With the console having the same CPU as the base console, it seemed like the upgrade wasn’t worth the cost. Like the millions of gamers around the world, I was an impatient gamer desperately waiting for GTA 6’s release.
As soon as I watched the second trailer of GTA 6 last year, something inside me changed. My heart wanted to experience the game in the best way possible. That was only possible in an ultimate gaming rig, but my body cannot handle the extra wait for the GTA 6 PC port.
To experience the highest visual fidelity of the upcoming Rockstar title on day one, the only option was to upgrade to PS5 Pro. Therefore, I finally pulled the trigger and imported a PS5 Pro last year, and I didn’t know at that time that I had just made one of the best decisions of my life.
The PS5 Console Price Hike No One Expected
As I received my PS5 Pro in August 2025, just right in time to experience Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei, I began to notice an unusual increase in the prices of PC hardware components. Around the final months of 2025, it became pretty clear that we had entered a full-on hardware crisis, thanks to the amazing AI. Honestly, it was something nobody saw coming. I wish I had done so, as I could have bought an extra RAM kit for my gaming rig.
It was not just RAM, but also SSD, GPU, basically every major PC component’s prices skyrocketed to an all-time high. At the time, I was foolishly thinking that this would affect only the PCMR community. I thought Sony would maintain its console prices somehow, as Sony’s history of selling its consoles at a loss suggested.
To my surprise, the hardware crisis hit the console world as Sony officially increased its console prices. The base PS5 price went up by $100, and the PS5 Pro saw a whopping $150 price increase. We are now living in an era where a console (released years ago) continues to rise in value every year. What an incredible time to be alive, right?
After the console’s price hike was announced, stocks began to disappear everywhere in such a short time. It really took me back to the PS5 shortage crisis during the COVID-19 times. I was really glad that I accidentally bought the PS5 Pro at the right time. And to top it off, I got my PS5 Pro at a discounted price of just $690 back then. It didn’t stop there; my time with the PS5 Pro has been truly fantastic, and any buyer’s remorse I thought I had vanished as soon as I saw the console price hikes of hundreds of dollars.
PS5 Pro Unexpectedly Turned Out to be a Great Investment
Now I’m not going to ramble about how a PS5 Pro is superior to a gaming pc. I know that ain’t true. Now, in hindsight, the PS5 Pro seems to offer a better value for your money than building a PC in the current market. At least that’s the truth in my case. I own a console to experience the exclusive first-party games PlayStation offers. I have a separate gaming PC to experience the other games. In case you didn’t know, PlayStation will no longer port first-party games to PC.
As I’m obsessed with playing in the highest visual fidelity possible, PS5 Pro is the way to go until the PS6 comes out. Furthermore, Sony has been excellently uplifting the PS5 Pro experience by adding more PS5 Pro-enhanced titles since launch. And more importantly, introduced the game-changing PSSR 2.0 earlier this year. The latest PS5 Pro-enhanced titles, such as Ghost of Yotei and Saros, look absolutely stunning in my 4K OLED monitor and run silky smooth without any issues.
With the PS5 Pro, you get the extra Ray Tracing modes in certain games, which were absent in the base PS5. All these factors combined made PS5 Pro one of my best purchases in recent times. There is no guarantee that PS5 Pro will deliver 60 FPS in GTA 6 at the moment. But with the recent PSSR 2.0 advancements, there is hope that PS5 Pro will break the 30 FPS mark.
Even if GTA 6 runs at only 30 FPS on the PS5 Pro, I will still be happy, as I’m enjoying GTA 6 without any compromises at that time. The ultimate experience on day one is all I seek, and that’s why the debate of PS5 vs PS5 Pro for GTA 6 has already been settled for me. It’s been nearly a year, and I wake up with a smile every day knowing I upgraded to PS5 Pro at the right time.
And coincidentally, upgrading right before the hardware crisis hit the world was one of the times I got lucky in life. And that’s my story of how upgrading to PS5 Pro turned out to be a worthwhile purchase. What do you think about getting a PS5 Pro in the current market situation? Let us know in the comments below.
