Sony has finally confirmed the specifications for its next-generation console, the PlayStation 5.
While it is not as flamboyantly named as the Xbox Series X, the hype over Sony’s newest console has been palpable. News of the console first arrived back in 2019 with nothing more official than a Logo as recently as CES 2020. All that the media has squeezed out of the internet until now has been a host of leaked developer images and rumor. That all changed when the PlayStation 5 system lead architect, Mark Cerny, took to the stage earlier today and unveiled a ton of new detail about the next Sony console.
The Tech Talk
The stream covered a raft of detail about the PS5 and is notable for the amount of actual insight the talk gave gamers. This is largely due to the cancellation of GDC due to the Coronavirus pandemic. This particular live stream was due to be delivered at the developer conference. Thankfully, that means we got the full specification below.
- CPU – 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz with SMT (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
Compared to the PS4, this gaming hardware makes some incredible leaps. The IO throughput jumps up by orders of magnitude going from 50-100MB to typically 9GBps. That is joined by eight AMD Zen 2 cores running at 3.5 GHz, and memory that has roughly 2.5 times the bandwidth. This places the latest Playstation a little behind the hardware in team Green’s new game box but largely the speed difference is negligible. If you have the time to watch the whole presentation I really would recommend it. You’ll learn about the console’s clock boosting tech and even the way that Sony is changing the way console gamers hear the enemy.
For those of us in PC land, this might all seem a bit mediocre but the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X are about to bring roughly comparable boxes into the front rooms of homes across the world for less than some top-end gaming accessories.
