PlayStation 4’s big 4.5 update hits tomorrow, bringing ‘Boost Mode’ to PS4 Pro

Tomorrow is the release date for the PlayStation 4’s big 4.5 firmware update, which brings a number of welcome features as well as a huge benefit to PlayStation 4 Pro owners.

The 2D performance of the PlayStation VR will improve when you’re playing standard games in the headset, and you’ll also be able to use voice chat when taking advantage of remote play. You will now be able to use external hard drives on your PlayStation 4, as well.

But the biggest update is the “Boost Mode” for PlayStation 4 Pro, which improves performance on most games when using the updated system instead of the Pro only helping with games that have been optimized for it.

“This feature has been designed to provide better performance for select legacy titles that have not been patched to take advantage of the PS4 Pro’s faster CPU and its faster and double-sized GPU,” the official blog post states.

“This can provide a noticeable frame rate boost to some games with variable frame rates, and can provide frame rate stability for games that are programmed to run at 30 Hz or 60 Hz. Depending on the game, the increased CPU speed may also result in shorter load times. You can turn on Boost Mode by going to Settings > System.”

You can see one example of the improved performance below.

You can read about the rest of the benefits to the firmware on Sony’s official site, but Boost Mode goes a long way to justifying the cost of the Pro over the standard PlayStation 4. The update goes live tomorrow, on March 9.