When loading up a game for the first time on the PS5 Pro, you’ll immediately notice a difference to the visuals and performance. As my better half is a huge Infinity Nikki fan, this was the first game we loaded up to check out.And it looked absolutely stunning. This was even before the game’s AI-upscaling PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) enhancements update rolled out in April, yet instantly we could see how much the colours specifically had so much more depth and detail to them. (More on PSSR shortly).The lighting looked superb and even the darker colours had much more nuance to them. An already good-looking game is now stunning. I was shocked at just how much of a difference it made. I loaded it up with an open mind and was genuinely blown away.And having said that, games that do have PS5 Pro enhancements are even more noticeably improved. PS5 Pro is a lot smaller in size than a base PS5 (Jake Brigstock, The Independent & Indy100)Typically, the base PS5 offers a choice between fidelity mode, which targets higher resolutions at 30fps, and performance mode, which prioritises frame rates of up to 60fps at a lower resolution. The PS5 Pro often delivers the best of both worlds, offering sharper visuals and smoother performance without forcing you to choose between the two.In many PS5 Pro-enhanced games, fidelity modes can now run at 60fps, while performance modes can reach up to 120fps on supported displays. I have a 60Hz TV, so I've primarily experienced the console's enhanced fidelity modes, and the results are impressive. Games look noticeably sharper while maintaining smooth performance.Add on top of that colours look richer and more vibrant, while still offering improved depth, and PS5 Pro-enhanced games are nothing short of gorgeous across the board. The PS5 Pro is easily the best home console for visuals and performance, and the most obvious example of this for me so far is Crimson Desert.On a base PS5, fidelity mode is really the only way to play it, at 4K and 30fps, as it looks pretty terrible in performance mode at 1080p and 60fps. The draw distance is poor and the detailing is nowhere near what it is in fidelity mode.Yet on a PS5 Pro it's a different story entirely. The world of Pywel and its cast of characters absolutely come alive, and it's how the game should be played, with 4K visuals at 60fps and advanced ray tracing. PSSR really helps here too.PSSR is an AI library that analyses game images pixel by pixel as it upscales them. PSSR 2.0 was recently rolled out and games that support it, like Crimson Desert, look so much better with it in action. PSSR was decent but PSSR 2.0 is a game changer - quite literally.007 First Light is a visual feast on the PS5 Pro (IO Interactive, Amazon MGM Studios)Smaller details appear much more clearly, while the lighting looks mightily impressive across the board, all while maintaining consistent performance. And if you don't want this setting enabled, you have the option to turn it off in the settings.Back to PS5 Pro-enhanced games, and titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, Gran Turismo 7 and 007 First Light all benefit from the added power of the PS5 Pro, offering a noticeable bump in both visuals and performance. Those collective improvements also help in more competitive games, such as Battlefield 6, EA Sports FC 26 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.And while no specs have been confirmed yet, the PS5 Pro could be the definitive way to play Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches on 19 November.The PS5 Pro also solves one of the biggest problems I kept encountering with my base PS5 – storage issues. Thanks to its larger 2TB SSD, which offers double the storage of the standard PS5 Slim, I no longer find myself constantly deleting and re-downloading games. With my base PS5, because of how much space modern games take up, I was always having to decide which titles stayed installed and which had to go.This problem has been completely alleviated by the PS5 Pro. Instead of chopping and changing all the time, I now have more than 20 games downloaded at any one time, and it's great to be able to load a game up instead of poring over which title to delete to make space for something new, then having to wait for it to download.There's so much more freedom in having a library of games ready to go, knowing I can load up the console and play whatever I'm in the mood for, rather than trying to predict what I'll want to play and then finding I've changed my mind when it comes to it.I’ve had to purchase a detachable disc drive as I own quite a lot of physical PS5 and PS4 games I wouldn’t be able to play otherwise (Jake Brigstock, The Independent & Indy100)However, while this all makes the PS5 Pro sound like a no-brainer, there's one pretty significant caveat that means this is far from a slam-dunk decision – and that's the price.The PS5 Pro has an eye-watering RRP of £789.99. That's a whopping £220 more than the standard PS5’s £569.99 and £270 more than the PS5 digital edition’s £519.99, following the recent PlayStation hardware price hikes.Yes, you can buy a second-hand PS5 Pro for a little less, but because the hardware is newer than the standard PS5 or PS5 digital edition, the savings tend to be smaller, meaning the price gap remains substantial.The PS5 Pro is also digital-only by default. If you want to play physical games, you'll need to buy a disc drive separately – and that's another £70.