Boost mode is now live in PS4 Pro firmware update 4.50

New firmware update is officially out for PS4 and PS4 Pro. Why is this important? Because it is bringing the power of Boost mode.

The said mode, affectionately dubbed “Beast mode”, has been in the hands of beta testers for a month now. The essential advantage of the Boost mode lies in the fact that it allows the games that have not received a patch for PS4 Pro, i.e. the games running the same as on the base PS4, receive the benefits of the more powerful hardware. In some games, such as Knack, Killzone Shadowfall, AC: Unity, or Project Cars, the fps can go up between 15% and 50%. Overall, it improves most games, it is just a question of how much you can gain by it. Most games are showing the improvement in loading times as well.

The other big news is that Sony is bringing the use of external drives for game installation. You can finally download and install your games directly to the external drive. Up to 8TB of storage is supported and you are able to move the content to and fro between the internal and the external drive.

The firmware update brings some PS VR improvements, such as the resolution of Cinematic Mode, improving the PS VR screen size from small to medium and going up from 90 to 120 MHz. Additionally, PS VR now supports Blu-ray 3D in stereoscopic 3D.

Little less important, but still interesting changes bring the custom wallpaper option and profile color choices. You are now able to choose any screenshot as a wallpaper for the home screen, as well as personalize your profile page.

If you own a PS4 Pro, remember to turn on Boost mode on PS4 Pro, as it is off by default. You can find it in Settings–>System–>Boost Mode.