The PS4 Pro Upgrade: What You Need To Know

The PS4 Pro has been out for a while now and if you own an original PS4 you may be thinking about the PS4 Pro upgrade. If, on the other hand, you don’t own a PS4, well there’s nothing to think about.

For new owners, you should buy the Pro if you care about performance and you should buy the new Slim model if you care more about space and lower noise levels.

This article is meant for people who want to replace their current original PS4 with the Pro. That’s a different decision since you have to decide if its worth spending more money on top of what you paid for your current PS4.

Hidden Dangers

Even if you decide that it’s worth it to buy a PS4 on paper, there are also several hidden costs and less-obvious considerations in the process of changing over.

In this article, I’m going to go over the most important facts that you need to know before taking the plunge. I’ll also go over the process of completing the PS4 Pro upgrade when you get your shiny new console home.

What You Need to Know

So let’s first go over some pertinent facts about the PS4 Pro. Each of these may influence your decision or save you a headache or two when you actually go through with the PS4 Pro upgrade.

You Don’t Need a 4K TV

Quite a few people seem to think that a 4K TV is a requirement for the PS4 Pro. That’s understandable given how Sony has marketed the console as a 4K model.

The fact is that you can use the Pro with a normal HDTV with no hassle. In fact, you’ll see plenty of benefit from doing so. Thanks to Pro patches to existing games and the newly introduced “boost mode” games perform faster and more consistently regardless of what TV you play them on.

Likewise, your TV does not have to support HDR technology. It’s just a nice addon if you can afford it. Not essential by any measure.

It’s Not in 4K Anyway

Despite all the marketing fluff on Sony’s behalf, the PS4 is, for the most part, not really a 4K console.  With the exception of a small number of simple games or games that were remastered from older consoles, games will render at a lower resolution and then get scaled up to 4K.

Obviously, this means that you aren’t getting the full visual quality of 4K resolutions, but still something superior to what you’d get on a 1080p screen. Either way, at an upscaled 4K resolution you’ll be getting lower framerates and therefore less smooth motion, which may negatively impact gameplay compared to a higher framerate at 1080p.

It’s Better for VR

Although PSVR will work just fine with the original PS4 or the slim, excellent VR experiences require as much graphical power as possible. If you plan on getting PSVR it’s a good reason to upgrade or immediately opt for the PS4 Pro upgrade.

It’s likely that future VR games will start to take more advantage of the PS4 Pro upgrade and things like framerate dips are way more noticeable with a headset than a screen.

Even at the asking price for both the PS4 Pro upgrade and the PSVR self, it’s still the cheapest way to experience premium VR in the home.

Transferring Your Data to a New PS4 Pro

If have an original PS4 or a Slim and decide to buy do the PS4 Pro upgrade, then you’ll be happy to know that Sony has built in a method to transfer your data from the old system to the new one.

This will save you from having to download all your game data again. You’ll need an ethernet cable for the fastest solution, but it is possible to do the transfer wirelessly, as long as both systems are on the same WiFi network.

You can connect the two PS4s together with a single ethernet cable, but you can also use two cables and plug both consoles into the same router. Either way, it seems to work.

So here is a rundown of the official procedure.

Step 1: Boot up Your Pro

The Pro is the only console that has to be connected to a TV. You can have both on the same TV with different HDMI inputs.

When you first switch on the PS4 Pro and sign in, it should ask you if you want to initiate a data transfer from another PS4 system.

The Pro should pick up the other PS4 on the network automatically. To ready the other PS4 for data transfer, press and hold its power button for one second.

Step 2: Hook them Up with Ethernet

Now is the time to connect the ethernet cables if you have them That’s unless you want to take a chance with a wireless transfer. I recommend using ethernet, though, it’s just faster and more reliable.

Modern wireless routers have pretty decent wireless speeds too, so it may all depend on the logistics of your setup.

Step 3: Make Your Choices

There are now various choices related to what to copy. It’s completely up to you. If your old PS4 was pretty full selecting everything could take a very long time to transfer. Users report that transferring a terabyte of data takes about five hours, although your mileage may vary.

Ps4 Pro Upgrade Complete

Once all that’s done you should have a PS4 Pro ready to go with your favorite games. Just faster and prettier. Who could ask for more?

Since the Pro puts out a much crisper picture why not check out our guide on how to use a console with a monitor?

Do you think the PS4 Pro upgrade is worth it? Would you rather go for the Slim or stick with the original console? Let me know what you think in the comments and we’ll have an idea of what other people are thinking.

IMAGE CREDITS

PS4 and 4K images are Public Domain

PSVR Image by Marco Verch via Flickr