During a recent PlayStation livestream, Sony finally lifted the lid on their next-gen console. And by that, I mean the hardware was spoken about.
No reveal whatsoever of the actual console. NOTHING.
Official specs
Cheers, Eurogamer.
- CPU – 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz (variable frequency)
- GPU – 10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz (variable frequency)
- GPU Architecture – Custom RDNA 2
- Memory/Interface – 16GB GDDR6/256-bit
- Memory Bandwidth – 448GB/s
- Internal Storage – Custom 825GB SSD
- IO Throughput – 5.5GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9GB/s (Compressed)
- Expandable Storage – NVMe SSD Slot
- External Storage – USB HDD Support
- Optical Drive – 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive
PS5 vs PS4 hard drive
RAM Utilisation
Most of the RAM is working on the game’s behalf .
PS5 Lead system designer Mark Cerny
Backwards compatibility
According to Cerny, the PS5 will be PS4 and PS4 Pro backwards compatible. On launch day, there’ll be almost 100 games from the PS4 library made available for play. These will be the “top 100” games.
No word yet on PS3 backwards compatibility, as each PS4 game has to be evaluated on a title by title basis to see if it can work on PS5 as the console is simply too fast for legacy games.
Audio
Sony’s goal for evolving its sound was to create “great audio” for all kinds of users. This resulted in a focus on dimensionality, presence and locality to create a higher sensation of immersion.
I’m so freaking lost right now with Cerny’s talk about audio, but I think it boils down to the PS5 being capable of sounding well good.
Last Updated: March 18, 2020
Seeker
March 18, 2020 at 19:56
Worst presentation for gamers ever. Most gamers who would tune in to watch the presentation already have technical knowledge but they chose to go with an online class type of presentation. Worst of all they never showed any hardware.
Sony was less prepared than Microsoft and doesn’t seem to be as confident about their product.
Name
March 18, 2020 at 19:56
Agreed.
That’s such a letdown from Sony!!! Microsoft are gonna have a field day marketing their Series X as the “world’s most powerful console”, yet again!!!!
Son of Banana Jim
March 19, 2020 at 07:54
But “world’s most powerful console” hasn’t showcased that power with their games, I mean take the huge difference in quality between spiderman on ps4 and crackdown 3 on the boner. The boner is more powerful yet, spiderman blows crackdown out of the water.
Llama In The Rift
March 19, 2020 at 08:43
https://media1.giphy.com/media/p3AKFOHGaHpUJ3iA07/giphy.gif
Draco Lusus
March 20, 2020 at 13:17
Wasn’t Cyberpunk delayed, cause the performance on the xbone was so bad?
Son of Banana Jim
March 20, 2020 at 14:17
Yep
Son of Banana Jim
March 19, 2020 at 07:54
But they did the same for ps4. The first reveal was also a rundown of the tech, rather than a reveal of the console. Or am I remembering things wrong?
Seeker
March 19, 2020 at 08:27
The marketing for PS4 was on point. They spent almost a year showing how good the system was especially compared to the competition. I heard from somewhere that PS5 uses a new marketing team. Which clearly shows with the direction they are going.
Son of Banana Jim
March 19, 2020 at 07:54
Clearly this wasn’t a reveal for the gamers, but something for the devs and investors.
Seeker
March 19, 2020 at 08:27
I really don’t think it was for devs because they spent time lecturing on basic things a dev would already know. Like data transfers and how they work between HDD and SSD.
They also spent time trying to convince people that CU counts and Tflops don’t mean much with the new RDNA architecture. Which again is something devs already know.
Son of Banana Jim
March 19, 2020 at 07:54
What about Mark Cerny’s calming voice. I understood very little of what he said, but it was so calming. .
HairyEwok
March 19, 2020 at 08:18
So the Xbox X has a bit more TFLOPS than the PS5 (12 vs 10.8), and this is from the same AMD Chip? Xbox Wins at both CPU and GPU clocks… eish. For comparison for the PC people, a NVidia GTX 2080 Super does 11 TFLOPS. In the end of the day it’s going to be devs again doing their magic to make the games run as best they can on the hardware provided.
HairyEwok
March 19, 2020 at 08:18
So the Xbox X has a bit more TFLOPS than the PS5 (12 vs 10.8), and this is from the same AMD Chip? Xbox Wins at both CPU and GPU clocks… eish. For comparison for the PC people, a NVidia GTX 2080 Super does 11 TFLOPS. In the end of the day it’s going to be devs again doing their magic to make the games run as best they can on the hardware provided.
Seeker
March 19, 2020 at 08:18
What we learned is that XSX has 25% faster memory bus. 25% faster memory bandwidth. 8.57% CPU clock speed. 44% higher CU count and much better implementation of backwards compatibility.
The Advantage PS5 has is in the SSD which has crazy high throughput. But since games are made up of a lot of tiny assets so that throughput might not make much difference between the two systems unless you are moving around 1 very large file.
Sony just showed target performance not actual performance because they rely so much on boost clocks which might not be sustainable.
My biggest worry is how high the GPU has been overclocked. It’s appears to be at around 9.2Tflops base and overclocks to reach that 10.28 Tflops target.
I remember how loud the base PS4 was. I could hear it roaring from the other room even when it was not being used. I hope they get a good cooling system to prevent this time.
MechMachine
March 19, 2020 at 10:28
I await the inevitable issues that will come with this series X. I can assure you that there must be some limitation somewhere, unless the console is substantially more expensive. Needles to say, Sony has let me down….Except those IO transfer speeds. Twice as fast as the Series X. Watch this space…….
Seeker
March 19, 2020 at 11:18
The only disappointment you should have is for loosing out on the bragging rights. Both systems are impressive and that’s nothing to be dissapointed about. The companies are just taking different approaches to games.
Sony is firstly a hardware company. They added a lot of custom stuff that makes the SSD pretty much work as an extension of the system memory in the aim to get rid of loading times. The downside to this is that developers have to write their code and design their levels in a specific way to truly take advantage of this features.
While MS being primarily a software company took an approach very similar to how PCs work. Their aim being to ease of development and porting of games between PC and console.
Alien Emperor Trevor
March 19, 2020 at 08:34
I must be getting old. Back in my day I’d walk 10 miles through the snow to get to school, and console gamers would insist it’s the games that matter, not the hardware.
Llama In The Rift
March 19, 2020 at 07:02
https://media1.giphy.com/media/FBzqZGthkW6KQ/giphy.gif All i learned at the end of the PS5 stream…
Son of Banana Jim
March 19, 2020 at 09:08
And you know JCvD is dancing to this song…
D@rCF0g
March 19, 2020 at 07:46
Sony is not doing themselves any favours with how they are approaching all these reveals. The way things are looking at the moment, the next generation might be owned by MS again, instead of Sony. This can of course change, but right now I am far more excited for the Xbox than the Playstation!
P.S. The initial design for the console must have been real shiite if they have not revealed it yet. I’m sure they had an idea of what it was going to look like far before they were ready to reveal the internal guts of the system.
MechMachine
March 19, 2020 at 10:28
Again ? You living in a parallel universe ?
D@rCF0g
March 19, 2020 at 14:22
One could argue the PS3/Xbox 360 era was a MS year, but of course, PS4/Xbox One was dominated by Sony.
Son of Banana Jim
March 19, 2020 at 08:10
Maybe, but I kind of remember a similar tech reveal with the ps4, and then a later reveal for the gamers, showcasing the console and games.
D@rCF0g
March 19, 2020 at 14:29
HW wise, the Xbox is more powerful, which will most probably translate into better 4k gaming than with the PS. 4k TVs are more popular now than before.
Pieter Kruger
March 19, 2020 at 08:18
Look at what Sony 1st party did with the base PS4, the games on PS5 will look great! That being said, Sony made some weird choices with their hardware which clearly gives XSX an advantage, especially on all things 3rd party. So many questions still need answers now more than ever BUT at least this should make the PS5 much cheaper in general, just not sure about the cost of their expandable storage though….
Spathi
March 19, 2020 at 08:33
Pieter, I’m proud of you! Very balanced comment.
Son of Banana Jim
March 19, 2020 at 09:08
Wait a second, have you been hacked? Are you being held hostage by a bunch of Japanese businessman from Sony? I don’t know what to say, who is this new Pieter? 😮
MechMachine
March 19, 2020 at 10:13
I`ll never hear the end of it…
HairyEwok
March 19, 2020 at 08:18
So the Xbox X has a bit more TFLOPS than the PS5 (12 vs 10.8), and this is from the same AMD Chip? Xbox Wins at both CPU and GPU clocks… eish. For comparison for the PC people, a NVidia GTX 2080 Super does 11 TFLOPS. In the end of the day it’s going to be devs again doing their magic to make the games run as best they can on the hardware provided.
Jbumi
March 19, 2020 at 19:06
I think the reason we didn’t get to actually see the console was because this was never meant to be the “public” reveal. This was meant to be a presentation at GDC for developers. I’ll bet developers got a lot more out of this than us laypeople!