Gran Turismo 7 Will Get a PS5 Pro Update With Raytracing at 60 FPS

Sony finally confirmed on Tuesday what leaks and rumors had indicated for months: A more powerful PlayStation 5 is on the way, and it’s called PS5 Pro. It launches November 7, for an eye-watering $700. And as expected, one of the titles that will be updated to take advantage of the system’s increased power is Gran Turismo 7.

Sony showcased the racing sim in its nine-minute PS5 Pro technical presentation, hosted by PS5 Lead Architect Mark Cerny. Cuts of GT7 were brief, interspersed with footage of other games running on the more powerful console. Still, from the video, we know that GT7 will be capable of raytraced reflections during gameplay on PS5 Pro while targeting 60 frame-per-second performance.

Currently, GT7 doesn’t offer a graphics mode where raytracing is present during gameplay. However, it is visible in replays, some menus, and in Photo Mode. During replays, and while running in Quality graphics mode, the game can display raytraced self-reflections—like cars reflecting their own exterior parts, such as wing mirrors—as well as reflections of all cars on track, on each other. But the regular PS5 can’t do this while maintaining a 60-fps update, so the framerate ends up halved. It’s worth noting that Forza Motorsport on Xbox Series X does allow raytraced reflections while driving at 60 fps, though the quality of those reflections isn’t as high, and the resolution must be reduced to compensate.

The improvements the Pro hardware brings can be a little tough to spot in still screenshots, and are best observed if you look at the reflections of cars passing the player’s car. (I’ve timestamped the YouTube embed below to the exact moment GT7 appears in the presentation.) Right now it’s unclear if raytracing will also impact the way environments are presented in GT7, or the cockpit view. When viewing cars in the player’s garage, raytracing can be seen within interiors, so there’s a strong chance the same will be true in gameplay.

Although it wasn’t mentioned in Sony’s own film, CNET adds that GT7 will also offer the option of an 8K resolution mode on PS5 Pro, obviously sans raytracing. Finally, something those content-starved 8K TV owners can actually use their fancy sets for.

On paper, better reflections seem like a pretty minor thing to drop $700 on (or, $780 if you want a Pro and a disc drive—not kidding). I wouldn’t disagree with that assessment. But, raytracing is hard to do at the sort of higher framerates that sim racing games, or any title with more of a competitive slant, require. I’m sure the game looks phenomenal on a Pro console, but if that holy grail PC port ever comes to pass, there’s no reason these same features shouldn’t be possible there—and at potentially even higher framerates, for anyone rocking a seriously powerful rig with an RTX 4090 graphics card.

In any case, if you’re reading this and still interested in a PS5 Pro (the stand isn’t included either), there should at least be a way for you to see how good Gran Turismo 7 can look without dropping any money on the game, when the My First GT free trial releases later this year.

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