Sony have taken the wraps off the PlayStation 5, with Mark Cerny giving a “deep dive” into the systems’ creation. This was a presentation planned for GDC, but with the current climate considering Covid-19, Sony have created an… unusual virtual presentation, with a green screened Mark Cerny in front of a shadowy audience. Still, he did eventually reveal the specs of the PlayStation 5.
The specifications
Here’s the breakdown that he eventually got to:
| CPU | 8 core Zen 2 CPU at up to 3.5Ghz |
| GPU | 36CU RNDA 2 GPU at up to 2.23Ghz (10.3 TFLOPS |
| Memory | 16 GB GDDR6 (448GB/s) |
| Internal Storage | 825 GB Custom NVME SSD |
| I/O Throughput | 5.5 GB/s (Raw) |
| Expandable Storage | Approved M.2 third party SSDs in dedicated expansion bay |
| External Storage | USB External HDD Support for PS4 games |
| Optical Dirve | Ultra HD Blu-ray, up to 100GB/disc |
| Video Output | Support of 4K 120Hz TVs, 8K TVs, VRR (specified by HDMI ver.2.1) |
| Audio | Tempest Engine 3D audio tech |
How does that compare with the Xbox Series X?
Now this definitely wasn’t part of Cerny’s presentation, but there’s some interesting philosophical differences. On paper the Xbox Series X is more powerful, it has more GPU Compute Units, the CPU clocks higher, the SSD is bigger, but Cerny laid out details that we’ll get to below that could give the PS5 a slight edge. In particular, how the GPU is clocked higher and the higher throughput of the SSD.
Additionally, with a slightly smaller SSD – 825GB vs. 1TB – and a smaller GPU in terms of CU count – 36 CUs vs. 52CUs – the PS5 components should be cheaper, while not being that much less powerful, especially when factoring advanced upscaling techniques.
The SSD
The SSD was the number one requested new technology from developers, eliminating seek times and the variability of the traditional kinetic drives found in the PlayStation 4. The SSD’s 5.5GB/s transfer speed means that the console can load 2GB in just 0.27 seconds, down from the effective 2GB in 40 seconds that a traditional drive is capable of. That speed also helped determine the SSD’s 825GB size.
It also means that the various strategies required to ensure consistent data speed can be done away with. Duplicating data is no longer necessary in voluminous batch files – so no more repeating postboxes 400 times across Spider-Man’s install size – and when updating a game, there will no longer be the need to re-write those large files to add in the new or altered content.
Sony have created custom flash controller to achieve this. It’s bespoke design allows for six levels of priority when reading from the SSD, letting background loads occur alongside more immediate loads for in-game events. The CPU also has two I/O co-processors dedicated to advanced Kraken decompression, to help shrink game files even further, invisibly to developers.
The CPU has to pick up the slack when expanding the console’s internal storage. The PS5 will have an M.2 SSD bay, allowing for use of third party drives, but Cerny cautions not to go our and buy an SSD right now. Those SSDs will have to be at least as fast as the built in storage, and will have to meet the physical dimensions of the bay, with many SSDs coming with large heatsinks. It’s up to the CPU to make up for the fact that they don’t have the nuance of the Sony designed flash controller.
The PlayStation 5 also lets you plug in a traditional external drive via USB, but you can’t play PS5 games from this. Instead, you could use this to play PS4 games with slower loading, or to store data that you then copy to the main drives for faster loads.
The CPU and GPU
Turning to the processors, and the GPU in particular, they are using AMD’s latest technologies. The Zen 2 CPU has already been confirmed, and this will be paired with their RDNA 2 GPU architecture. This features 36 Compute Units (CUs) running at high frequency to reach 10.3 Teraflops.
However, Cerny cautioned that direct comparisons are difficult. RDNA 2 is more efficient that the PS4 GPU, so those Teraflops are more powerful, and running fewer CUs at a higher frequency can provide better results when deploying an otherwise equivalent amount of power from more CUs at a lower frequency. In other words, it’s not clear how this will compare to the 56 CUs and 12TF power in the Xbox Series X.
One innovative new solution is that the console will run at a constant power level, and the CPU and GPU run at frequencies to meet that power level, and conversely a constant cooling requirement. They both run in “boost mode”, with their frequencies fluctuating dynamically to meet the demands of the game within the power limit, so a scene where the CPU is less important will afford developers more GPU resources.
The 8 core Zen 2 CPU is capped at 3.5Ghz, while the GPU is capped at 2.23Ghz.
There’s also plenty of new technologies within them. A new Geometry Engine can use things like Primitive Shaders to enhance the visuals, the GPU generating new detail on objects if you get up close, and then smoothing things out as they get further away. Ray tracing also has varying implementations, adding on top of existing lighting techniques, or being used to provide all of the lighting and reflections in the game.
3D Audio
Alongside ray tracing, another big next-gen development from Sony comes with 3D audio and their own Tempest engine. This is a homegrown alternative to Dolby Atmos, and designed to be more universal, to include not just headsets, but also soundbars, PSVR, surround sound and just regular TV speakers.
The Tempest engine is based off AMD’s technology, but inspired by the SPUs from the PlayStation 3’s Cell processor to allow for even more rapid processing of hundreds of sound sources.
This will, however, be a developing technology. Headphone audio implementation is already completed, but Sony are working to create virtual surround sound for TVs and soundbars for players sat in centralised sweet spot for your TV. Following this, they’ll start to work on multi-speaker surround sound systems.
It’s also dependent on your specific ears and their HRTF profile – basically, how sound bounces around the shape of your ear on the way in – and this is simulated to give more realistic positional audio. At launch the PlayStation 5 will have support for five HRTF profiles to cater to a wide range of ears relatively well, but given that everyone’s ears are completely unique, this could advance to sending photos of your ear to Sony to process or playing an audio-based game.
The Design
This was a GDC presentation, intended more for developers than for end users. So no, we didn’t get to see the final form of the console, though Cerny said that we’d be happy with the cooling solution they’ve come up with.
The Games
Again, this was a GDC presentation, and Sony are holding off on showing games on their upcoming console for some time.
MrYd
So the Series X has a CPU 9% faster. And the GPU is 17% faster (based on TFLOPS) or 18% faster (based on clock speed and number of CUs). And memory bandwidth is 6% greater on the Series X (it seems to have 2 blocks of memory at different speed, so I took the average)
Overall, that gives MS a 35% advantage. But the SSD is only 44% of the speed. So add all that up, and the PS5 is 68% more powerful.
Obviously, that’s all complete nonsense and the real conclusion is “they’re both bloody fast”. He vaguely touched on the number of CUs and it sort of suggests MS might not have quite the advantage you’d expect there. Less but faster CUs on the PS5, so I’d expect the advantage on multi-platform titles to be non-existent.
Unless something goes horribly wrong, the PS5 will be cheaper though. And use proper SSDs, not whatever MS were thinking. (Not that any up to the job are available – he said because of the custom controller with 6 levels of priority, it needs to be capable of 7GB/s instead of 5.5)
He also repeated the late this year release date, so maybe the rumours of delays are just guesses for now.
Old School
This was a mistake. Sony should have did a proper PS5 reveal, show the console, the new features, the games, the box, the controller, the price and then do a architectural deep dive, I would have enjoyed this then.
Less powerful than Xbox Series X, barely even backwards compatible with the PS4, let alone the previous Playstation consoles. Xbox are offering the better option here.
Stefan L
It’s almost universally compatible with PS4 games. The GPU has been designed with that in mind, he’s just talking about a handful of edge cases that might not behave nicely, so they’re diligently going game by game and checking. Microsoft are doing the exact same thing.
Also, this was intended for GDC, a developers conference. You could argue that a February console reveal could have led to this, but this was written and intended for developers.
Old School
It’s not really the PS4 b/c I’m worried about. The Series X is b/c with every Xbox generation, why isn’t Sony doing the same? I know PS3 is a nightmare, but it’s a missed opportunity. It’s not a dela breaker but it’s definitely annoying.
And last gen after the E3 PS4 reveal, Mark Cerny did a “time to triangle” PS4 deep dive, this was after E3. It just feels the wrong way around.
I’ll get a PS4 over Xbox regardless, it has what matters most, and that’s the games. But it feels in terms of consoles that Xbox wins here.
MrYd
You want a price? Now? It’d be out of date by tomorrow. If that rumoured $450 to make it was true, and they sold it at that price, it would work out at £421 (including VAT) a week ago. Or £467 right now.
MS didn’t announce a price yet. Or any games ;) They did show us the console though, and everyone laughed.
I don’t think either is the better option, yet. Only real advantage so far is “I’ll pick one based on my previous choices”. Until prices get announced, then Sony might have a big advantage.
Old School
The price thing was barely mentioned in my comment, I listed other stuff along side the price, after mentioning the box, controller, features and games. The price isn’t that important, I was just making a point.
camdaz
Like I’ve said before I don’t think it matters which is the most powerful (except bragging rights) games are going to be great on both.
I think most gamers will stick with their current manufacturer as both will enhance current gen games and new younger generation, or more specifically their parents, will buy the cheaper one which is likely to be PS5.
I was hoping to see what the PS5 looks like but we’ll have to wait for that.
gazzagb
Unless MS go with some crazy pricing, the Xbox looks more attractive to me. More power, full backwards compatibility and they seem to have been preparing for this gen for years (think about how many studios they’ve bought vs how many Sony has closed). Plus when you look at Game Pass, even if the console is more expensive it might be better value for money overall.
planejoker
The spec’s are just the crunching game, has been for years even back in the Spectrum, Cbm64 days (if some of you remember that far back). It’s the games that make or break a system, after all that’s is what it’s for.
TSBonyman
It was a fascinating presentation but lacked any thrills, let’s hope the feature reveal is a bit more exciting.