u/Jealous-Craft-2717

After a lot of testing and waaaay too many hours of modding, this is the Load Order I’m currently using on PS5 Pro.
The game is running very clean and stable for me, while still looking completely different from vanilla Skyrim. Like a Remasterd imo.
The main focus was on making the world feel more natural and alive without going completely overboard with the visuals.

160 active mods | 14.69 GB used

Load Order:
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition
Simple Workaround Framework
Lux – Resources – PS5
Lux Via – Master
Lux Orbis – Master
Lux – Master
City Trees: Markarth
Horse Camera Tweak – BHE
RSChildren.esp
RS Children Overhaul [FR] [PS5]
[UV] Skyrim Landscape and Water
Natural Waterfalls – PS5
Witcher Style Fences [PS5]
Interesting Roads
Haze Weathers 2
DVLASS – Dynamic Volumetric
Windows
Embers XD 2K
Movement Behaviour Overhaul – Lite
Sekiro Combat – Kittytail
Large Stagger Animation
Enhanced Textures Detail (UV)
SMIM – Static Mesh Improvement Mod
Xtudo HD Skyrim – AIO – No Flora
Tomatos Whiterun Remake CM 2K-2K
Tomatos Solitude Remastered 2K-2K
2K-2K Tomatos Markarth
Tomatos Riften and Ratway 2K-2K
Tomatos Windhelm – Complex
Exists Nordic Ruins 2K-2K
Ritons Fort Dawnguard V2 1K [PS5]
Tomatos Imperial Forts Remake
Riton Farmhouse III 2K-2K
Enhanced Rocks and Mountains
Enhanced Rocks and Mountains – Fix
2K-2K Tomatos CM Landscapes AIO
LOD Tomatokills AIO Landscapes +
Really Blended Roads – PS5
Rocky Mossy Roads | Upgrade – PS5
Tomatos Caves and Mines 2K-2K
Tomatos Wood 2K-2K – Stockades
Real Wood – PS5
Quality Cubemaps – HD Cube Maps
High Quality Ivy Replacer V2 [PS5]
Dirt Cliffs Enhancement – High
Rain and Snow FX [PS4]
Grass LOD Terrain Noise Tint
Flora Additions – Waterplants
PS5 Thesithlords Shrub Collection
Lush Dragonsreach Pools
PS5 TMD The Rift Leaves
Reimagined Mountain Flowers [PS5]
Northern Grass Re-Imagined [PS5]
Kaanreyth – Gildergreen
Flora of Whiterun 1K [PS5]
Blubbos Solitude [PS5]
Blubbos Whiterun [PS5]
[PS4] Birds and Flocks
House Cats – My Version by Xtudo
Chicken Replacer – Mihail [PS5]
Chicks – Mihail [PS5]
PS5 Mihail Giant Mudcrab Shells
PS5 Mihail Sea Turtles
PS5 Mihail Crows and Ravens
Molten-Iron Atronach – Mihail
Frogs – Mihail Monsters and Animals
PS4 Version Mihail Barn Owls
PS4 Version Mihail Hummingbirds
Spirally’s Beautiful Butterflies
Swans – Mihail Monsters and Animals
PS5 Mihail Baby Mammoths
PS4 Version Mihail Chubloons
Emperor Penguins – Mihail [PS5]
PS5 Mihail Snow Whales and Flying
Old Gods of the Hunt – Mihail
Ogres – Mihail Monsters and Animals
PS5 Mihail Gremlins
Cyrodilic Minotaurs – Mihail [PS5]
Lesser Ice Golem – Mihail Monsters
Fluffworks – PS5
Dragons SE 4K
Addons for Dragons SE 4K
Dragon Animation Replacer
Majestic Dragons – Glorious
Pandorable’s NPCs – Males AIO
PS5 NPCs by Pandorable
PS5 – Dragonborn NPCs by Pandorable
Pandorable’s NPCs – Dawnguard
Retextured Armors and Weapons
NordwarUA Vanilla Armor
[PS4] Rich Merchants of Skyrim
Vanilla Hair – Salt and Wind [PS5]
PS5 – Opulent Outfits Mage Robe
PS5 – Opulent Outfits – Common
Styles of Skyrim – Court Wizard
Combat Sound and Attack Impact
Natural Waterfalls – Sound Addon
Louder Nature – Birds and Insects
Sounds of Skyrim – Complete
Yggdrasil – Nirn Tree
Wizkid Hunter’s Camp Overhaul
Khajiit Has Tents
Green Thumb AIO – Vanilla
JK’s Interiors (Full No AE Version)
Witcher Hedges in Whiterun [PS5]
Whiterun Exterior (Full of Life)
Skyfall Whiterun Bridges [PS5]
Dark’s Whiterun Market
Folkvangr Estate
[PS5] Lively Farms
Blubbos Riverwood [PS5]
JK’s Riverwood
[PS4] Riverwood Lakehouse
Riverwood Flowering by Aukmat
Riverwood Falls [PS5]
Ruins Over Riverwood – Lightweight
The Great Village of Mixwater Mill
Turquaz Floor – Whiterun
The Great Village of Old Hroldan
Ancient Land – No Whiterun
Where’s the Road – New Pathways
[PS5] Smelter and 3D Coal by Xtudo
Retextured Road Signs – Clean – PS5
Complementary Grass Fixes
Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods
No Grassias [Ultimate] – A Universal
[PS5] Improved Roads
Footprints
Book Covers of Skyrim – PS
[PS4] Hold Border Banners
Rally’s Banners of Skyrim
Dynamic Display Settings (SWF)
Wet Whiterun
Hot Springs of Skyrim
TBS Improved Puddles
Dawn Waters w/ Natural
Enhanced Blood Textures – PS5
[PS5] Dirt and Blood – My 2K HD
Kittytails-AIO
Kittytail’s Dragon Breath VFX Edit
Deadly Spell Impacts – PS5
Nature of the Wild Lands
Skyrim Is Windy [PS4]
Rudy HQ – Falling Leaves and Needles
[PS4] Insignificant Object Remover – NOT INSTALLED
Flowers and Plants Mesh Fix
Snow Shader Fix
Lux Via – PS5
NOTWL – Lux Via Patch
Embers XD – Lux Via Patch
Lux Orbis – PS5
Interesting Roads – Lux Orbis Patch
Lux – PS5
PS5 Particle Patch – Remove Yellow Glow
Carry Weight x5
Towns React to You
Real Wildlife
Crowded Streets – Lite (SWF)
Alternate Start – Live Another Life
Set Timescale to 6
SkyUI 5

A few things worth mentioning

One of the most important things for this setup is the grass density.
I’m using iMinGrassSize = 35 in the INI settings. Skyrim can get absolutely ridiculous with grass density when you combine several vegetation mods. At some point you’re basically just stacking layer after layer of grass on top of each other.
35 keeps the world looking very dense while taking some of that unnecessary load away. I personally wouldn’t go much lower with this setup because I still want Skyrim to have that really lush look.

Real Wildlife is also a personal choice. I like having a lot more animals around because it makes the world feel much less empty. If you prefer a lighter setup, you can replace it with TLS More Wildlife [PS4].
TLS More Wildlife is much more conservative and spawns fewer animals, so it’s the better option if you want to reduce the additional workload on the system.
And then there is Crowded Streets – Lite. The amount of NPCs can be adjusted to your own preference. I’ve pushed mine pretty far because I like seeing Skyrim feel populated, but you obviously don’t have to run it that way.

Optional
[PS4] Insignificant Object Remover is not installed in my current Load Order.
You can install it if you want. It removes a lot of small, insignificant objects and can help reduce the overall object load, which may give you a little more performance headroom.
I would simply test it and decide for yourself whether you prefer the look with or without it. It isn’t required for this Load Order.
That’s basically it. This is the setup I’m currently running and testing on PS5 Pro. I wanted to keep the vanilla feeling of Skyrim while adding a lot more detail, vegetation, wildlife and atmosphere without turning it into something completely different.

After roughly 35 hours of testing, rebuilding, moving mods around, breaking things, fixing them and probably relaunching the Creation Tool more times than I’d like to admit… I think I’ve finally reached the Skyrim I wanted on PS5 Pro.

The goal was never just to make it look better.
I wanted the best possible Vanilla+ experience while keeping it smooth, stable and actually playable.
Every city got tested. Whiterun, Riften, Solitude, Markarth, you name it. I repeatedly ran in and out of cities, tested transitions, new areas, quests, combat, map travel and different save states. Some tests were repeated 7–10 times just to make sure something working once wasn’t just luck.
And honestly, the result is probably the best Skyrim experience I’ve ever had.

More detail. Better environments. More life. Better lighting, landscapes, architecture and clutter. But most importantly, everything has to work together.
I had floating trees, missing textures, purple terrain, weird sky artifacts, crashes, infinite loading screens and all kinds of mod conflicts along the way. Some were load order issues, some were actual conflicts, and some were simply too much happening during cell transitions.

Finding that sweet spot between visual fidelity and performance was by far the hardest part.
I actually already found another setup that is 100% Vanilla+ and incredibly stable. Everything runs exactly how I want it to, with no obvious issues. The only problem is that it moves away from the original plan I had for this load order.

And I’m not really the kind of person who can just stop there without checking if it could be even better. 😂 So I’m probably going to hold off on calling this the final load order for a little longer and go through some more architecture options to see if I can get that last bit of visual quality without giving up the stability I’ve worked so hard for.
Riften is still fighting me.

The purple roofs are still there with Tomatoes Architecture. After testing the meshes and textures separately, I’m pretty convinced there’s something going on with the mesh side of the setup. I haven’t found a clean fix for it yet.
So for now, I have a perfectly stable alternative that already looks fantastic. But I want to be absolutely sure I’m not leaving something even better on the table.

I’ll post the full load order in the next few days.

For now, here’s a little look at Whiterun. This is only a tiny glimpse. Every single city has been tested and tweaked with the same goal: more detail, more atmosphere, more life, without sacrificing stability.
35 hours later, I think I finally understand why people say modding Skyrim is a game in itself.

After way too many hours of testing, tweaking, crashing, rebuilding and questioning my life choices 😂 I’m finally at the point where the load order feels pretty damn solid.

The major bugs, conflicts and visual issues I ran into are basically sorted. Once the problematic overlaps were removed or properly adjusted, the game started running incredibly smooth. Around 92.9% usage, no noticeable FPS drops, no stuttering and so far the visuals look absolutely insane.

I’m not calling it 100% final yet. I’ll spend the next few days actually playing and stress-testing everything to make sure there aren’t any hidden issues, random crashes or weird conflicts waiting around the corner.
But honestly? I think I’m very close.

The final load order will come once I’m completely confident that everything is stable. I’ll post it for anyone looking for a high-quality Vanilla+ Skyrim experience with a massive visual upgrade while still keeping the original Skyrim feeling intact.

The hardest part is finally done. Now I just need to play the damn game. 😂

How is everyone else’s setup running so far?

I genuinely can’t count how many hours I’ve spent rebuilding and tweaking my setup already. Crashes, starting over, switching to a new save because I completely overhauled NPCs… and then finding a mod I thought was perfect, only to run into completely different LOD trees rendering right in front of my eyes. No matter how far I push the LOD settings, some transitions are just impossible to ignore.

And Creations with 117 mods installed?
ABSOLUTE PAIN.

Random server connection errors, freezing, changes not saving, getting thrown back to the top of the load order every time you remove something near the bottom… then slowly scrolling through 117 mods again because going too fast can freeze the whole thing 😂

That said, I’m actually really happy with where things are right now. Performance is smooth, no FPS drops, and the game feels great. I’ve had a few crashes during testing though, so I’m not sharing my load order yet. I want to find the cause, improve a few more things and make sure everything is as stable as possible first.

For now, I’m taking a little break and actually enjoying the game. My next focus will probably be expanding and improving smaller parts of the world, villages, lakes, hidden locations and stuff like that.

If you have any underrated mods I should keep an eye on, feel free to throw them my way. 👀

A lot of people asked for my current Load Order, so here it finally is.

I deliberately didn’t post it earlier because I’ve spent hours figuring out which mods overlap, where performance drops come from, what causes stutters and, most importantly, what was actually causing crashes.
I’m still working heavily on the LOD system. In the video I temporarily had some of the LOD settings turned down to zero for testing, but I adjusted them quite a bit again afterwards. I’m now running much higher render distances for NPCs, objects, trees and other actors without seeing any noticeable performance issues.

This is currently the setup I’m running and so far it has been completely stable. No crashes, no major stutters and no obvious performance problems.
I’ll probably make another fully updated Load Order within the next 7 days. Getting Skyrim to look better while keeping everything stable takes a ridiculous amount of time, and unfortunately we all still have lives and responsibilities outside of Skyrim haha.
For me, the goal has never been “make Skyrim as graphically insane as possible.” I don’t care how good something looks if the game runs like shit. I want the best balance between visuals and performance while still keeping that vanilla Skyrim identity.

That’s why I’ve mainly focused on improving the world itself: better animals, landscapes, vegetation, atmosphere, buildings, textures, clutter and LODs, while keeping everything coherent.
NPC overhauls are currently a different story. Anything that heavily changes NPC appearances, armor distribution and similar stuff seems to be causing crashes in my setup. I really don’t want to start a completely new save right now, so I’ve removed those mods for the time being.

For example, NPC Variance completely wrecks my game and causes constant crashes. If anyone knows a good alternative that works reliably on PS5 without requiring a new save, definitely let me know.
So for now, I’m focusing on making the actual world feel more alive and detailed rather than completely rebuilding every NPC.

This is my current working Load Order. It’s not necessarily the final version, but it’s the version that is currently running cleanly for me.

Creation Club Contents
Simple Workaround Framework
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
Water for ENB – Master File
Lux – Resources – PS5
Lux Via – Master
Lux Orbis – Master
Lux – Master
Flora Additions – AIO
Trees in Cities
Horse Camera Tweak – BHE
Lux Via – PS5
Lux Orbis – PS5
Lux – PS5
Dynamic Display Settings (SWF)
JK’s Skyrim PS5 AIO
Sekiro Combat – Kittytail
Folkvangr Estate
[PS5] Real Wildlife
Immerse Yourself in a Vibrant
Dawn: Dramatic Atmospheres
Wet Whiterun
TBS Improved Puddles
Snow Shader Fix
Movement Behaviour Overhaul – Lite
Kittytails-AIO
Spaghetti’s All in One Minus Towns
Where’s the Road – New Pathways
Luftahraan Dungeon Pack PS4
Combat Sound and Attack Impact
Louder Nature – Birds and Insects
[PS4] Birds and Flocks
Master the Summit [PS4]
Carry Weight x5
Immersive Citizens – AI Overhaul
More Bandit Camps by Skillest
Rain and Snow FX [PS4]
[PS4] Rich Merchants of Skyrim
[PS5] Particle Patch (Remove Yellow)
[PS5] Vegetables and Fruits
PS5 Mihail Barn Owls [Fixed]
AI Overhaul Lite
Fox Color Variation 2X
[PS5] Improved Roads
Nature of the Wild Lands
Nature of the Wild Lands – Autumn
NOTWL Improved LOD Addon [PS5]
Skoglendi-A Grass Mod – PS5
High Quality Ivy Replacer V2 [PS5]
Grass LOD Terrain Noise Tint
Dirt Cliffs Enhancement – High
PS5 The Sith Lord’s Shrub Collection
Lush Dragonsreach Pools
Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods
Flowers and Plants Mesh Fix
Felidae – A Sabrecat Replacer – Port
Large Stagger Animation
PS5 Mihail Giant Mudcrab Shells
House Cats – My Version by Xtudo
Dragons 2K – Port by Xtudo
[PS5] Attack Dogs Replacer by Xtudo
PS5 Mihail Sea Turtles
Chicken Replacer – Mihail [PS5]
Chicks – Mihail [PS5]
[PS5] Canidae – A Wolf Replacer
PS5 Mihail Crows and Ravens
PS4 Version Mihail Hummingbirds
Old Gods of the Hunt – Mihail
Swans – Mihail Monsters and Animals
Frogs – Mihail Monsters and Animals
Mihail Gremlins
Ogres – Mihail Monsters and Animals
Spirally’s Beautiful Butterflies
Emperor Penguins – Mihail [PS5]
Little Touches – A Trees Addition
PS5 Mihail Baby Mammoths
Molten-Iron Atronach – Mihail
Cow Replacer – Mihail [PS5]
Book Covers of Skyrim – PS5
SMIM – Static Mesh Improvement Mod
Skyland AIO
Rally’s Solstheim AIO
Skyland Bits and Bobs – A Clutter
Enhanced Textures Detail (UV-…)
Quality Cubemaps – HD Cube Maps
Embers XD
[PS5] Water for ENB

It’s Running on the ps5 pro

Tomorrow the hotfix is finally coming, so I am planning to rebuild my Skyrim setup from scratch and hopefully finally get rid of the stupid Creation storage bug.

I have only been properly modding Skyrim for about a week and I have completely fallen down the rabbit hole. I have spent way too many hours researching mods, compatibility and load orders during my vacation haha.
My goal is pretty simple: keep the vanilla Skyrim look, but make everything feel like a much higher quality version of the same game. Better textures, meshes, lighting, atmosphere, vegetation and overall world detail, without making it look like a completely different game.

The big mods I am currently planning around are:
Skyland AIO, Nature of the Wild Lands 3.14, Skyland Bits and Bobs, Full SMIM, Enhanced Texture Details, 3D wall improvements, HD Quality Cube Maps, Enhanced Rocks and Mountains, Tomato Landscapes, Northern Roads and the full Lux setup with Lux, Lux Orbis and Lux Via.
I also want to add more grass, trees, clutter, signs, animals, birds and small environmental details where it makes sense. Basically I want the world to feel more alive while keeping the Skyrim identity.
I am already using DAWN V2 and really like the indirect lighting, sun rays and overall atmosphere. My only problem is that some regions can feel a little too dark. I have also seen people recommending NAT III, but I have noticed some performance concerns with it.

So I would really appreciate some experienced opinions:
DAWN V2 or NAT III for PS5/PS5 Pro?

Which gives the best overall sky, weather, lighting and atmosphere while keeping good performance?
And with Lux, is something like Window Shadows RT still worth using, or does Lux already cover that?
Also, if there are any big visual mods I am overlooking, especially for meshes, landscapes, architecture, clutter, mountains, interiors or lighting, I am very open to recommendations.

I have been reading so many mod descriptions that at some point everything starts blending together and I lose track of what actually overlaps with what.
I will put my current load order below. If anyone has been doing this for a long time, I would genuinely appreciate any advice before I start rebuilding everything tomorrow.

Tomorrow we cook. 🔥

My actual mod list from the video: (run stable without any performance problems)

Skyrim PS5 Pro – Actual Load Order:

1. Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch [USSEP] — 18.50 MB
2. Simple Workaround Framework — 1.53 MB
3. Water for ENB – Master File — 427.6 KB
4. Flora Additions – AIO — 1.40 MB
5. Trees in Cities — 70.3 KB
6. [PS5] Lanterns of Skyrim II — 47.16 MB
7. Lanterns of Skyrim II – JK’s Skyrim — 288.6 KB
8. Skyrim is Luminous by Dr.Jacopo — 602.4 KB
9. Skyrim is Luminous – Enhanced — 163.7 KB
10. Window Shadows RT-PS5 — 12.41 MB
11. Window Shadows RT-Enhancer — 129.6 KB
12. Skyrim is Luminous – Window — 83.8 KB
13. [PS5] Water for ENB — 32.52 MB
14. Dynamic Display Settings (SWF) — 82.5 KB
15. Carry Weight XS — 9.7 KB
16. Sekiro Combat – Kittytail — 1.02 MB
17. PS5 Particle Patch (Remove Yellow) — 461 Bytes
18. Large Stagger Animation — 113.1 KB
19. Combat Sound and Attack Impact — 25.1 KB
20. Louder Nature – Birds and Insects — 55.2 KB
21. JK’s Skyrim PS5 AIO — 7.68 MB
22. Spaghetti’s All in One Minus Towns — 772.4 KB
23. Vanaheimr – Mines and … — 41.32 MB
24. Vanaheimr – Farmhouses – PS5 — 14.64 MB
25. (PS5) Vegetables and Fruits by … — 6.?? MB
26. Ultimate Touches – A Tree Addition for … — 21.6 KB
27. Luftahraan Dungeon Pack PS4 — 2.84 MB
28. Folkvangr Estate — 568.3 KB
29. Kittytail’s Dragon Breath VFX Edit — 188.2 KB
30. Kittytail’s Flame VFX Edit — 283.0 KB
31. Kittytail’s Healing VFX — 269.8 KB
32. Kittytail’s Frost VFX Edit — 313.3 KB
33. Kittytail’s Lightning VFX Edit — 458.1 KB
34. Drain Magic VFX Edit — 117.5 KB
35. More Bandit Camps by Skillest — 3.21 MB
36. Movement Behaviour Overhaul – Lite — 441.8 KB
37. [PS4] Rich Merchants of Skyrim — 1.4 KB
38. [PS4] Birds and Flocks — 163.7 KB
39. [PS5] Real Wildlife — 12.15 MB
40. Realistic Conversations (PS4) — 3.8 KB
41. [PS5] Mihail Barn Owls – [Fixed] — 1.44 MB
42. Immerse Yourself in a Vibrant, … — 20.1 KB
43. DAWN: Dramatic Atmospheres — 64.28 MB
44. Rain and Snow FX [PS4] — 3.4 KB
45. Master the Summit [PS4] — 676.7 KB
46. Wet Whiterun — 24.1 KB
47. TBS Improved Puddles — 14.1 KB
48. Skyrim is Windy (PS4) — 52.2 KB
49. Where’s the Road – New Pathways — 240.8 KB
50. Sky Better Roads and Bridges – AIO — 223.9 KB
51. Prettier Roads by LGG — 372.2 KB
52. [PS5] Improved Roads — 12.40 MB
53. Nature of the Wildlands – PS5 — 733.33 MB
54. Nature of the Wildlands – Autumn — 3.0 KB
55. NOTWL Improved LOD Addon (PS5) — 9.19 MB
56. Skoglendi – A Grass Mod – PS5 — 15.88 MB
57. Grass LOD Terrain Noise Tint — 910.4 KB
58. High Quality Ivy Replacer V2 (PS5) — 4.12 MB
59. Lush Dragonsreach Pools — 27.3 KB
60. Dirt Cliffs Enhancement – High — 4.36 MB
61. PS5 Thesithlords Shrub Collection — 3.43 MB
62. Dense Grass PS4 — 4.8 KB
63. Flowers and Plants Mesh Fix — 1.03 MB
64. Enhanced Rocks and Mountains — 13.12 MB
65. Immersive Citizens – AI Overhaul — 5.17 MB
66. Enhanced Rocks and Mountains – [PS5] — 1.80 MB
67. Pfuscher’s Rapid Rocks | Dark Grey – PS5 — 42.84 MB
68. Increase Blood Amount — 7.1 KB
69. Pfuscher’s High Poly Pebbles – PS5 — 694.9 KB
70. Praedy’s Noice Bread Replacer PS5 — 1.34 MB
71. RedactedPS5 Complementary — 6.68 MB
72. Rally’s Common Furniture — 51.01 MB
73. Blended Roads PS5 — 16.57 MB
74. Tomato Alternate Stone Floor — 2.18 MB
75. Quality Cubemaps – Low Rez (PS5) — 72.36 MB
76. Enhanced Texture Details – 2023 — 10.31 MB
77. Riton’s AIO V2 No FH 512 (PS5) — 111.92 MB
78. Tomato’s Landscapes AIO 1K (PS5) — 134.17 MB
79. Snow Shader Fix — 10.1 KB

If you already have a setup planned or some mods you would recommend, feel free to share them. I would love to hear what you guys are planning to run, especially on PS5 or PS5 Pro!🔥🔥

I’ve put around 18 hours into tweaking and testing this setup, and I’m honestly blown away by how good Skyrim can look on PS5 Pro.
It’s running at 60 FPS, although I’m still getting some minor performance drops in very dense cities, so I’m still trying to figure out exactly what’s causing them.

Really looking forward to the hotfix and hoping the current issues get sorted out soon. Once the remaining 14 GB of storage are finally unlocked, there’s going to be so much more room to push this even further!!

I’m currently running 78 mods, and getting everything to work together cleanly was honestly quite a challenge. If anyone knows of any good AIO overhaul mods or larger-scale mods that completely overhaul other areas of the game, I’d love to hear your recommendations.

Or do you think we’ll have to wait a while before the bigger overhauls start making their way to PS5?
Bigger solutions covering entire areas would be absolutely amazing 🤩

The tonemapping and overall color gradients are seriously well done here.
The lighting, colors and atmosphere just look incredible.
On top of that, there are so many great cover opportunities that the map feels really well designed to play on.
For me easily the best looking Battlefield 6 map on PS5 Pro so far, especially in 120Hz mode.

Tsuru Reef is beautiful too, but I personally noticed some pretty muddy textures there and the tonemapping never quite clicked for me.

Wake Island though is just absolute eye candy!

Mafia Definitive Edition just received its native PS5 and PS5 Pro update yesterday and honestly it looks really good.

It is obviously not a perfect looking modern AAA game, but there are so many moments where you just stop and think wow this still looks beautiful.
The atmosphere, the city, the lighting, the weather and especially driving through Lost Heaven still look fantastic.
Add an amazing story and some really good DualSense implementation and this is absolutely worth playing.

And for just 5,99 Euro right now, I honestly cannot recommend it enough.
I really hope we see many more games like this getting proper PS5 Pro upgrades. PSSR would have been a great addition here, but even without it this game still looks seriously impressive.

PS5 Pro: 60 FPS, higher resolution, improved LOD and additional visual improvements.

More PS5 Pro updates like this please!

I have been playing the Mortal Shell 2 beta on PS5 Pro in 60 FPS mode and I am seriously impressed. The combat feels brutal, weighty, and incredibly satisfying. Every fight is intense and the gameplay is just pure fun.

The game looks absolutely stunning on PS5 Pro, and the smooth 60 FPS makes the combat feel even better. This is easily one of my most anticipated action RPGs now.

If you enjoy challenging combat and dark fantasy worlds, do not sleep on this game. It is shaping up to be something special.

Is it worth buying a PS5 Pro in mid/late 2026, or should you wait for the PS6?

This question comes up here constantly, so here is a proper rundown. The short version sits at the bottom, the reasoning is in between.

Up front: if you want the best graphics and performance on a console right now and you have a decent display, the Pro is the right call. Waiting for the PS6 makes little sense at the moment.

The usual objection is that the Pro uses the same CPU as the standard PS5, so theres no real gain. That misses the point, because almost everything that decides image quality and performance lives on the GPU. And there the Pro brings a lot more: around 67 percent more GPU power (16.7 vs 10.3 TFLOPS), higher memory bandwidth (576 vs 448 GB/s), a bit more usable RAM (13.7 vs 12.5 GB), dedicated AI hardware with 300 TOPS for PSSR upscaling, a ray tracing unit two to three times faster, and a CPU clocked about 10 percent higher. But the numbers matter less than what developers actually do with them.

A few examples, each backed by the comparisons:

Cyberpunk 2077: in ray tracing mode the standard PS5 runs at around 34 fps, the Pro at around 62, almost double, and the Pro also adds more ray tracing (all shadows, reflections on every glass surface) and a far cleaner image through PSSR.
F1 25: the standard PS5 has no ray tracing in gameplay at all. The Pro runs a 60 fps quality mode with ray traced reflections and global illumination plus PSSR, so real in game ray tracing the base console simply does not offer.

Hogwarts Legacy: in Fidelity mode the Pro delivers higher resolution, new ray traced reflections on every body of water, and ray traced shadows throughout. Here the gain is in the image, not the frame rate.

Crimson Desert: in Performance mode both consoles render internally at 1080p at 60 fps, but the Pro upscales cleanly to 4K with PSSR while also running higher settings, better model quality, far more ray tracing, higher lighting and post processing. A clear step up in assets and effects at the same frame rate.
And these are only a handful. Developer optimization for the Pro has gotten so good that basically every new release ships with a Pro patch, and thats the real point: despite the identical CPU you dont just get a sharper image from higher internal resolution, you get genuine extra graphics, more assets, more effects, more ray tracing, and in titles that arent held back by the CPU, noticeably higher and steadier frame rates on top. An upgrade on several levels at once. So you shouldnt only stare at raw hardware numbers, but at what actually ends up on the screen.

So should you wait for the PS6 instead? This is the real heart of it, and right now little speaks for it.
First, there is no date at all. Back in May 2026 Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki said outright that the company has decided neither on the timing nor the price of the new console, and he pointed straight at the memory crisis as the reason. Sony expects RAM prices to stay high through 2027 too. So a launch could easily slip further simply because nothing is locked in. The credible signs point to late 2027 into 2028 anyway, some reports even to 2028 or 2029.
Second, its an open question what the PS6 will cost and whether it will even be available. With the PS5 it took a year and a half to two years, between the pandemic, scalpers and the chip shortage, before the general public could actually get one. This time the memory crisis lands on top, which should make the launch even tighter and pricier, possibly the same mess as before, only worse.

Third, the cross gen phase. When the PS4 handed over to the PS5, the first true next gen only titles didnt arrive until roughly three years after launch, everything before that still ran on the old console. This time that phase will likely run longer, thanks to the huge PS5 install base and the Pro as the strongest console of the generation. Even if the PS6 lands at the end of 2027, you can keep playing every current game on the Pro at a very high graphical level until around 2029.

So you can comfortably wait two and a half to three and a half years before switching away from the Pro even makes sense, and then move to a more mature, probably cheaper and better stocked PS6 while the Pro still holds resale value. For me thats more than enough reason to enjoy the console now, with the best graphics a home console currently offers and an experience that simply looks excellent. What counts isnt the raw spec sheet everyone argues about, its the result developers keep pulling out of this thing across more and more games.

TL;DR: thanks to a much stronger GPU, more bandwidth, more memory, 300 TOPS of AI hardware and faster ray tracing, the PS5 Pro gives you, depending on the game, more frame rate, more ray tracing, a sharper image without edge shimmer, or higher graphics settings, a real upgrade developers keep extracting through more and more Pro patches. There is no PS6 date (Sony itself, May 2026), a launch is more likely to slip, it will be expensive and probably scarce at the start. The cross gen phase will run longer than the roughly three years from PS4 to PS5, so you can easily wait until around 2029.

Buy now, get several years of top tier graphics, and sell the Pro with resale value before you switch. Clear recommendation.