Sony has come out of no where to talk about PlayStation 5. In an exclusive interview with Wired, PlayStation Lead Architect Mark Cerny has divulged some exciting new details about PS5 and its major leap in technology. Head below for additional details.
Cerny – who was in charge of the PlayStation 4’s design – is finally letting out some hardcore details on the currently unnamed PlayStation 5. The key point Cerny wants to stress is that the team is aiming for a drastic update over current generation hardware in terms of visual fidelity and power as well as audio. While we knew the PS5 was in the works way back at the tail end of last year, these will be the first concrete details we are getting.
PlayStation 5 CPU/GPU Specs:
First, let’s get some tech out of the way here. The CPU is a third generation AMD Ryzen with 8 cores of its latest 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. The GPU however, is a custom version of a Radeon Navi that will support ray tracing. For those unfamiliar, ray tracing is a technique that enables complex light manipulation within 3D environments. But more importantly, it is something that has been almost entirely delegated to extremely expensive processors and Hollywood movies, until now.
The next PlayStation will carry an SSD:
The next PlayStation has been in development for over four years now, according to Cerny. Somewhere along the way, the team has decided to finally go with an internal solid-state drive. Needless to say, this speeds everything up from typical load times to in-game render times and more. In a recent demonstration with a prototype PlayStation 5, Cerny demonstrated open-world render times of Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 game dropping from 15 seconds to a mere 0.8 seconds.
PS4/PS5/PSVR Compatibility:
Along with PSVR compatibility (and future versions there of), the next PlayStation will also support 8K resolutions whether you have a TV for it or not. But don’t worry, it will look great on other displays and is completely backwards compatible with PS4 titles. In fact, Cerny specifically pointed out that some games – like the upcoming Hideo Kojima epic, Death Stranding – will see multi-platform launches, releasing on PS4 first and then making its way to PlayStation 5.
3D Audio:
It looks like PlayStation 5 will be getting a major update in the audio department as well. Something referred to as 3D audio is in the works that will apparently provide directional sound from not so directional listening devices (like your typical TV speakers). Although headphones will certainly be the best way to experience this, according to Cerny. Here’s more details from the Sony Architect himself:
It’s been a little bit of a frustration that audio did not change too much between PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. With the next console the dream is to show how dramatically different the audio experience can be when we apply significant amounts of hardware horsepower to it.
9to5Toy’s Take:
Cerny made it clear the PlayStation 5 would not make an appearance in 2019, which I think most of us already knew. It is certainly interesting to get some early details on where Sony thinks gaming is heading over the next five years or more and it sounds like it’s implementing the hardware to keep up. While Microsoft and Google are seemingly moving full steam ahead with cloud gaming, Sony is still keeping quiet on the matter.
That ray tracing tech is certainly going to make a major difference in visual fidelity and in-game rendering times, but the SSD is really the big announcement here. While it might not feel like as much of a game changer as Cerny is making it out to be, it is. Clearly, this upgrade is going to improve performance in a major way, even if your average gamer won’t notice it. Not to mention, some gamers this generation have already spent nearly as much on SSDs for PS4 as they did on the machine itself. While it doesn’t sound like the PlayStation 5 will make it to E3 this year, we cannot wait to hear what else Sony has planned for the next PlayStation.
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