Bottlenecks ahoy.
Sony has previously acknowledged that their latest PlayStation 5 console has fallen short of sales expectations, with the system now perceived to be nearing the latter stages of its life cycle as there are no plans for major first-party releases for the platform until 2025.
This prompts speculation about Sony’s future strategy: will they forge ahead with a proposed PlayStation 6, or instead opt to capitalize on their loyal fanbase with a budget developed mid-generation side grade, such as a PlayStation 5 Pro?
A mid-generation update appears increasingly probable, with leaked specifications suggesting significant enhancements in graphics capabilities for what is believed to be a PS5 Pro. Nonetheless, it’s evident that the overall system, equipped with its new SoC, has been engineered with cost considerations in mind.
Insider Gaming’s latest report unveils several specifications of the PlayStation 5 Pro. It details that while the console’s CPU remains the same as the standard PlayStation 5, that being an AMD Zen 2 based design featuring 8-cores.
Sharing the same CPU design was always the most pragmatic decision for Sony to economize in designing the PlayStation 5 Pro, especially considering that the initial system was also crafted with cost-effectiveness in mind. The company, perhaps, underestimated their competitors Microsoft in terms of system specification.
The standard PS5 features three distinct frequency states that developers can leverage: one prioritizing a higher CPU frequency, with the maximum reaching 3.5GHz, another emphasizing its unique RDNA 1 / 2 hybrid graphics capability, reaching a peak frequency of 2.2GHz on the GPU, and a middle ground between CPU and GPU frequency, clocking in at 3.2GHz on the CPU and 1.8GHz on the GPU.
It’s believed that the PlayStation 5 Pro will feature alternative power states, one where its Zen 2 CPU can reach a maximum of 3.85 GHz, representing a 10% increase over the standard PS5.
Furthermore, system memory witnesses a notable 28% enhancement over the base model, escalating from 448 GB/s to 576 GB/s. Additionally, audio quality is set to improve, with the console’s ACV operating at a higher clock speed.
Additional information regarding the PlayStation 5 Pro’s GPU emerged today. As per Tom Henderson, it will feature 30 WGPs running specialized BVH8 traversal shaders, compared to the base model’s 18 WGPs running BVH4 traversal shaders.
This revelation, according to AMD leaker Kepler, is intriguing as it confirms the utilization of RDNA 4’s Ray Tracing engine. Moreover, it unveils a new architectural detail, indicating double ray tracing throughput per cycle compared to current generation RX 7000 series hardware even, hinting at significantly enhanced ray tracing performance for the console and it also provides excitement for PC players as well for what the next generation of Radeon will offer in terms of RT capabilities.
The graphics prowess of the PlayStation 5 Pro has undergone a substantial upgrade. While the standard PS5 console boasted 36 Compute Units, 2304 Stream Processors, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs coupled with a 256-bit memory interface, mirroring the configuration of the Radeon RX 5700, the graphics solution within the PS5’s SoC actually adopts a hybrid design encompassing both AMD’s RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 architectures, whereas the XBOX Series of consoles features a full fledged RDNA 2 based solution with true support for features such as DXR Ray Tracing, Rapid-packed Math, Mesh Shading and Variable Rate Shading.
The PlayStation 5 Pro is reportedly predominantly based on RDNA 3 architecture, incorporating the anticipated RT capabilities of the next-gen RDNA 4. Sony seems to be stepping up their game, purportedly equipping the console with about 60 Compute Units (3840 Stream Processors) with approximately 33.5 TFLOPs of FP32 capabilities, boasting a maximum boost frequency of 2.18GHz.
These specifications bear striking resemblance to the current-generation Radeon RX 7800 XT, which boasts 60 RDNA 3 derived compute units, offering 37 TFLOPs of FP32 compute performance at 2.4GHz. Overall, the PS5 Pro’s GPU is believed to deliver a remarkable 45% boost in performance compared to the previous PlayStation 5 console, marking a significant leap forward.
The GPU of the new PlayStation 5 Pro will drive the innovative temporal upscaling technology named “PSSR” (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), anticipated to support 8K resolution in a forthcoming SDK update. Presently, PS5 Pro dev kits are utilizing SDK 9.0, with SDK 10 anticipated before the console’s release.
The upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro is slated to be “as competitive as possible.” It will also feature a detachable disc drive, akin to the recently unveiled PS5 Slim, and will come with 1TB of storage as standard. T
he system is currently aiming for a Fall 2024 release date, with some sources suggesting a potential launch in November, however I wouldn’t get overly excited for this system.
Although the specifications on paper appear impressive, boasting remarkable graphics and ray tracing capabilities, it’s crucial to recognize that the PlayStation 5 Pro’s specifications don’t directly equate to those of a PC with similar specifications, excluding ray tracing.
Over the past decade, the console landscape has undergone significant transformation. Global economies are grappling with challenges, and game developers are increasingly prioritizing avenues for easy cash injections, such as ESG capital investments, which are closing down left and right.
In recent generations of gaming consoles, manufacturers have either released devices leveraging older-generation hardware or, as seen with the XBOX Series X, launched more affordable alternatives to PCs. However, such affordable alternatives are very short-lived as technology moves forward.
Take, for example, the CPU housed within the PlayStation 5 and soon the PS5 Pro. Despite featuring 8 cores and 16 threads of AMD’s Zen 2 architecture, the cornerstone of these consoles is swiftly approaching five years old, posing limitations on system capabilities.
Yet, this is not the sole issue. The CPU and GPU within these consoles share the same system resources, including the 16GB of GDDR6 memory, which offers an effective bandwidth of just 448 GB/s. This starkly contrasts with traditional PC ecosystems, where the CPU and GPU each have dedicated memory pools. Moreover, the XBOX Series X presents a similar capacity, but with 10GB of memory operating at 560 GB/s and the remaining 6GB at a slower 336 GB/s, a configuration that has left developers frustrated.
With such severe memory limitations, one might assume that the CPU inside the PlayStation 5 rivals that of an eight-core Ryzen 7 3700X. However, this assumption would be incorrect. In fact, AMD has repurposed defective PS5 SoC silicon, branding it as the Ryzen 4700S Desktop Kit.
The kit essentially offers a budget-friendly bundled solution that integrates the CPU, motherboard, and memory into a compact form factor. It’s available with either 8GB or 16GB of GDDR6 memory, diverging from the traditional DDR4 system memory. Notably, the integrated graphics solution of the 36 CU RDNA 1 hybrid was disabled.
The CPU performance, as evaluated by Tom’s Hardware, proved to be dismal at best. The severe limitation in memory bandwidth effectively starved the Zen 2 CPU, resulting in considerably higher memory latency compared to traditional DDR4 memory. This restriction significantly hampered performance, to the extent that its single-threaded capabilities were on par with the Zen 1-based Ryzen 7 1800X, despite the Zen 2 architecture boasting a higher IPC throughput.
Multi-Threading performance was significantly hampered as well, despite featuring 8-cores and 16-threads, the Ryzen 4700S offers inferior multi-threaded performance than the Zen 1 based Ryzen 7 2700X which features the same core count, but crucially when compared to a traditional 8-core 16-thread offering from the same architecture, that being the Ryzen 7 4750G, the Renoir APU is over 25% faster.
Though of course cores aren’t everything, you’ll still achieve far greater single-threader throughput and maximized gaming performance on even the $134 Ryzen 5 5600.
Moving on to graphics, despite Digital Foundry’s somewhat misleading comparison of the PlayStation 5’s GPU to the pure RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6700, the PS5 falls short in terms of raw performance when compared to the $239 Radeon RX 6650 XT. Furthermore, the pricing disparity becomes even more pronounced considering that a brand new Zen 3-based Ryzen 7 5800X costs $215, providing a substantial 61.52% increase in multi-threaded throughput compared to the 4700S, as assessed by Tom’s Hardware.
The PlayStation 5 Pro is likely to increase resolution and push ray tracing to the very maximum to offset the significant limitations imposed by its outdated CPU. However, I have reservations about its 60CU RDNA 3-based graphics matching the performance capabilities of the Radeon RX 7800 XT. This skepticism arises from the fact that both the CPU and GPU of the PlayStation 5 will contend for the same limited memory reserve, which has only been upgraded to a modest 576 GB/s.
It’s probable that a higher resolution will help alleviate the inevitable CPU bottleneck, especially considering the significantly enhanced ray tracing capabilities, which place added strain on the graphics. In terms of real graphical performance, I anticipate it aligning more closely with the Radeon RX 7700 XT, which boasts 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute ability and only 54 Compute Units.
I anticipate that the PlayStation 5 Pro will come at a higher price point compared to the base version. Despite its upgrades, we’re likely to see both AMD and NVIDIA releasing their next-generation hardware by the end of the year, coinciding with the proposed launch of the PS5 Pro.
Ultimately, you’ll still have the option to build an equivalent PC system for a similar price point, excluding the mandatory monthly fees associated with a PlayStation Plus service subscription. This PC system would offer far greater longevity than a side-grade console could ever achieve.
Indeed, it’s worth noting that the PlayStation 5 console lacks a significant number of exclusives. Sony has been prioritizing game releases for third-party titles and, notably, their first-party games on the PC platform. This shift is largely due to the system’s relatively low adoption rate.
Additionally, the development costs for Sony’s first-party games reportedly run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, making it imperative for them to maximize sales across platforms in order to turn a profit, the only positive aspect about these leaks certainly revolves around the doubled ray tracing throughput for AMD’s upcoming Radeon RX 8000 series versus the previous generation.
