PCMag UK | Sony PS4 Pro | News
PlayStation 5 Supports 8K Visuals, Is Backwards Compatible
16 Apr 2019, 4:03 p.m.
Mark Cerny, lead system architect for the PS4, is starting to talk about the PlayStation 5, and it sounds like we're in for a few welcome surprises.
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The PlayStation 4 is fast approaching its sixth birthday and talk is inevitably turning to what comes next for Sony. Now, Sony's lead architect for the PS4, Mark Cerny, is giving us the first hint of what to expect from the PlayStation 5.
As Wired reports, Cerny is once again playing the lead architect role for the PS5 hardware, which makes perfect sense seeing how well the PS4 turned out. He's not willing to give up all the details of the new system just yet, but it's been worked on for the past four years and early development kits are already in the hands of some developers.
SEE ALSO: PlayStation 5 Dev Kits Really Are V-Shaped
Before getting into the details of what the PS5 is going to be capable of, it's worth noting that the console will be backwards compatible with the PS4. That's in stark contrast to the PS4, which didn't embrace backwards compatibility due to the move to an x86 architecture. Cerny also confirmed we won't be getting the PS5 in 2019, but at least you can be happy in the knowledge PS4 games will work on the new machine.
As for the hardware, we should expect a third-generation AMD Ryzen processor with eight cores manufactured using the 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture paired with a custom Radeon Navi GPU. The performance this combination offers will allow for 8K visuals if you have the TV to support them, but there's also a focus on greatly enhancing audio, with the chip containing a custom 3D audio component. Cerny says 3D audio will be possible without need of additional external hardware, but the greatest benefit will be experienced by those gamers wearing headphones.
Now for the biggest surprise inclusion: the PS5 will use an SSD, although it sounds as though this won't be your typical hard drive replacement. Cerny says it's one of the top requests when he spoke to developers about what they'd like to see, but SSDs are expensive and can still be relatively slow, therefore the PS5 has an SSD that's "a little more specialized."
We don't know exactly what that means yet; could it be a small PCIe SSD (64GB?) acting as a huge game cache? The demonstration Cerny gives Wired to show the effect it has involved a PS4 exclusive, Marvel's Spider-Man. The fast-travel feature in the game on a PS4 Pro typically takes about 15 seconds to complete. When Cerny fired up the PS5 dev kit and did the same fast travel it took just 0.8 seconds.
Expect a disc drive, as Sony is not following Microsoft down the route of launching a digital-only games console, which will likely come as a big relief to a lot of gamers.
Sony PS4 Pro
PlayStation 5 Dev Kits Really Are V-Shaped
Suspending Gameplay on PS5 Only Consumes 'Around 0.5W'
Report: PS5 GPU Outperforms a GeForce RTX 2070 Super
PlayStation 5 Won't Launch Before May 2020