Digital Foundry: PS5 Specs

[ScramFranklin]

[Coal Man]

Shame about the meager CPU (+10%) bump. Otherwise everything else sounds decent. Will listen to now. Oh and just a reminder for people still doubting its existence:

PS5 pro is not happening

PS5 pro is just a rumor, there has been no confirmation of one in any way and I highly doubt it's happening. There will only be a slim version that I think will be inferior. I think the pro is being skipped and the PS6 will launch in 2028.

Slim yes, pro no

Also the slim is gonna be trash compared to the regular. Go get your ps5 tomorrow ****ot.

[yabbayabba]

RIP Sony.

Kind of wish I hadn't gotten a PS5 yet. There is nothing out there to justify getting a Pro if you already have the base model.

[OptimusTrajan]

RT needs CPU processing, so idk what they're thinking with this. Zen 2 isn't it mane.

[Coal Man]

RT needs CPU processing, so idk what they're thinking with this. Zen 2 isn't it mane.

I would think they have enough to fully power their RT cores. It's all a custom Sony setup. PS5 isn't really CPU limited in 99.9% of its games so far. The point of the Pro is to make performance mode graphics of base console look as good as quality mode, or even slightly better....which is what most people have been asking of the pro since I first leaked its existence here a couple years ago.

[Akd123]

I would think they have enough to fully power their RT cores. It's all a custom Sony setup. PS5 isn't really CPU limited in 99.9% of its games so far. The point of the Pro is to make performance mode graphics of base console look as good as quality mode, or even slightly better....which is what most people have been asking of the pro since I first leaked its existence here a couple years ago.

This. But its not playing playing 8k at 60fps. Dont know why some people think it will

[OptimusTrajan]

I would think they have enough to fully power their RT cores. It's all a custom Sony setup. PS5 isn't really CPU limited in 99.9% of its games so far. The point of the Pro is to make performance mode graphics of base console look as good as quality mode, or even slightly better....which is what most people have been asking of the pro since I first leaked its existence here a couple years ago.

RT cores can only do what they're told, and that requires CPU power.

Most of PS5s issues are actually CPU and not GPU based.

[Coal Man]

Most of PS5s issues are actually CPU and not GPU based.

Wrong. Over 99% of PS5 games have a performance mode 60fps and higher. The issue is that this causes a huge reduction in image quality as well as removal of finer details like particles and raytracing. A beefier GPU is what solves these issues.

[OptimusTrajan]

Wrong. Over 99% of PS5 games have a performance mode 60fps and higher. The issue people are facing is that this causes a huge reduction in image quality as well as removal of finer details like particles and raytracing. A beefier GPU is what solves these issues.

And is RT running in performance or graphics mode?

[Coal Man]

And is RT running in performance or graphics mode?

Depends on the games. Spiderman 2, Rift Apart and Final Fantasy 16 are examples of Raytracing running in performance mode. In Jedi survivor, the RT was so heavy they had to disable it in performance mode to get a stable 60fps. Since base PS5 sucks so much with RT, this massive bump in the pro will allow these games to render at higher internal res. This is shown in a test example from the insider leak.

[OptimusTrajan]

Depends on the games. Spiderman 2, Rift Apart and Final Fantasy 16 are examples of Raytracing running in performance mode. In Jedi survivor, the RT was so heavy they had to disable it in performance mode to get a stable 60fps. Since base PS5 sucks so much with RT, this massive bump in the pro will allow these games to render at higher internal res. This is shown in a test example from the insider leak.

Prepare for disappointment.

They had to disable RT to alleviate the strain on the CPU.

Bounding volume hierarchy is done by the CPU.

[Coal Man]

Prepare for disappointment.

They had to disable RT to alleviate the strain on the CPU.

Bounding volume hierarchy is done by the CPU.

How do you know the strain wasn't on the GPU? You're just guessing here.

[OptimusTrajan]

How do you know the strain wasn't on the GPU? You're just guessing here.

Oh the GPU is absolutely limited. RDNA2 is really bad at RT.

But a 4090 paired with a 3700x that's running at a lower clock won't do so hot in RT either.

Ultimately you'll probably get the same performance you have now out of the base console with the pro going forward. Base PS5 will be the new series s.

[Coal Man]

Oh the GPU is absolutely limited. RDNA2 is really bad at RT.

But a 4090 paired with a 3700x that's running at a lower clock won't do so hot in RT either.

Ultimately you'll probably get the same performance you have now out of the base console with the pro going forward. Base PS5 will be the new series s.

Yep. Also you gotta remember one important thing...jedi survivor runs like trash everywhere but console versions of games are like "PC lite" versions with settings turned down, not to mention the chitty PC port optimization in general. The PS5 pro version of Jedi survivor will not be using anywhere near the resources of a 4090 to get the game looking good at 60 with just the console version.

[mgftp]

Coals so embarrassed by his posting he is now altering his posts to pretend they are mine, JLoL, new levels of pathetic, "winning".

[OptimusTrajan]

Yep. Also you gotta remember one important thing...jedi survivor runs like trash everywhere but console versions of games are like "PC lite" versions with settings turned down, not to mention the chitty PC port optimization in general. The PS5 pro version of Jedi survivor will not be using anywhere near the resources of a 4090 to get the game looking good at 60 with just the console version.

Meh, just buy better equipment.

But jfl at anything star wars in 2024.

[R3L3NTL3SS]

Shame about the meager CPU (+10%) bump. Otherwise everything else sounds decent. Will listen to now. Oh and just a reminder for people still doubting its existence:

Not really. When targeting higher resolutions, you simply don’t need a lot of CPU power at all. You need GPU power. No sense in adding more heat and power draw when these systems already suck ass at handling heat.
Dudes are playing in 4K with max graphics, RT, etc with two generation old CPU’s on PC…
Unless the PS for some reason handles these things differently than PC, you don’t need a lot of CPU.

[ScramFranklin]

Was really hoping for more of a jump in raster performance. 45% isn’t all that much, but I understand performance gains are slowing. Was hoping for a 2-2.25x increase

Going from 1080p to 1440p is 1.78x more pixels

Going from 720p to 1080p… or 1440p to 4k is 2.25x more pixels

Going from 720p to 900p…. Or 900p to 1080p is 1.5x more pixels

[freeburn]

Coals so embarrassed by his posting he is now altering his posts to pretend they are mine, JLoL, new levels of pathetic, "winning".

I thought this was pretty odd also

[Coal Man]

Coals so embarrassed by his posting he is now altering his posts to pretend they are mine, JLoL, new levels of pathetic, "winning".

It's okay to admit you were wrong about the PS5 pro. It was over a year ago, nobody would blame you for being skeptical.

I thought this was pretty odd also

Lmfaooo right on cue. Pretty sure freeburner is an mgftp burner acct, hence the name. No way another man could be such a submissive beta to a loser like mgftp. Soon as twink boy swings and misses, burner is right behind to swoop in with his tongue of destiny in mgftp's butthole.. If only your aiming in Apex could be that accurate you could actually be a somebody.

[freeburn]

It's okay to admit you were wrong about the PS5 pro. It was over a year ago, nobody would blame you for being skeptical.



Lmfaooo right on cue. Pretty sure freeburner is an mgftp burner acct, hence the name. No way another man could be such a submissive beta to a loser like mgftp. Soon as twink boy swings and misses, burner is right behind to swoop in with his tongue of destiny in mgftp's butthole.. If only your aiming in Apex could be that accurate you could actually be a somebody.

Lol at doubling back to edit your post to be more insulting

Someone's triggered

[Coal Man]

Not really. When targeting higher resolutions, you simply don’t need a lot of CPU power at all. You need GPU power. No sense in adding more heat and power draw when these systems already suck ass at handling heat.
Dudes are playing in 4K with max graphics, RT, etc with two generation old CPU’s on PC…
Unless the PS for some reason handles these things differently than PC, you don’t need a lot of CPU.

The PS5 Zen 2 CPU Is plenty outdated. Show me an example of a beast PC maxing out some Cyberpunk with that CPU and I'll concede that point.

As to the other point there's two areas of debate. As I said earlier, base PS5 games that have 60fps should see the most improvement on the pro. The concerns I would have with the CPU are

1. As @Optimus stated earlier, 3-4x more raytracing would require additional draw from the CPU.

2. Games that are coming out between now and the next 4 years are having worse and worse fps. Dragons Dogma 2 will likely not see much improvement at all over base. Rise of Ronin early previews are saying it drops a bunch of fps as well. What newer games will be having these optimization issues?

[Coal Man]

Lol at doubling back to edit your post to be more insulting

Someone's triggered

More like grossed out seeing an adult male practically worship another one's feet for approval. You dont even give his posts a second to breathe before you're swooping in to white knight him. What's up with that?

[R3L3NTL3SS]

The PS5 Zen 2 CPU Is plenty outdated. Show me an example of a beast PC maxing out some Cyberpunk with that CPU and I'll concede that point.

As to the other point there's two areas of debate. As I said earlier, base PS5 games that have 60fps should see the most improvement on the pro. The concerns I would have with the CPU are

1. As @Optimus stated earlier, 3-4x more raytracing would require additional draw from the CPU.

2. Games that are coming out between now and the next 4 years are having worse and worse fps. Dragons Dogma 2 will likely not see much improvement at all over base. Rise of Ronin early previews are saying it drops a bunch of fps as well. What newer games will be having these optimization issues?

Let me know how many more videos you need before you accept that you don’t need more CPU… PS5 CPU is roughly in line with a 3700X.
As you can see, more CPU rapidly becomes a diminishing return as you increase resolution.
Is there more performance to be found? Sure. Is it enough that it will matter on the PS5, which isn’t hitting anything near PC frame rates? Nope. The PS5 - and the Pro - both need more GPU. Period.
Embed is being fking tetarded on my phone so here: https://youtu.be/_u1ZuCAVOcA?si=zBYSKTOk14Majamy

[Coal Man]

Was really hoping for more of a jump in raster performance. 45% isn’t all that much, but I understand performance gains are slowing. Was hoping for a 2-2.25x increase

Going from 1080p to 1440p is 1.78x more pixels

Going from 720p to 1080p… or 1440p to 4k is 2.25x more pixels

Going from 720p to 900p…. Or 900p to 1080p is 1.5x more pixels

Progress is slowing down. PS5 pro basically got the same bump from what you would expect from one gen Nvidia card to the next. Also, PS4 was pretty weak for its time so bigger improvements could be made.

I think the biggest deal in this system would be the ML upscaling that would be a vast improvement from FSR used right now. Followed by the raytracing improvements. Pretty confident ps5 pro would be a more noticeable improvement over PS4 pro, despite what the raw specs on paper would suggest.

[freeburn]

More like grossed out seeing an adult male practically worship another one's feet for approval. You dont even give his posts a second to breathe before you're swooping in to white knight him. What's up with that?

I posted 4 hours after him, how long should I wait?

[Coal Man]

Let me know how many more videos you need before you accept that you don’t need more CPU… PS5 CPU is roughly in line with a 3700X.
As you can see, more CPU rapidly becomes a diminishing return as you increase resolution.
Is there more performance to be found? Sure. Is it enough that it will matter on the PS5, which isn’t hitting anything near PC frame rates? Nope. The PS5 - and the Pro - both need more GPU. Period.
Embed is being fking tetarded on my phone so here: https://youtu.be/_u1ZuCAVOcA?si=zBYSKTOk14Majamy

Dont do the mgftp thing brah. You're making up fake positions for me that I never said just to counter them.

1. I never said CPU upgrade was more important than a GPU upgrade. I said most games right now (99% of them) are GPU limited.

2. I specifically named a couple examples where CPU is a limiting factor (DD2) and said the main concern would be the next 4+ years of gaming in the more demanding half of the cycle where the CPU will most show its age.

3. I knew for a long time they would keep Zen 2 for compatibility, this news is no surprise. What I was expecting though was a higher clocked boost mode.

[nkiritsis13]

Some highlights from the Digital Foundry/Eurogamer article version:

- The PS4 Pro went from 28nm to 16nm versus the PS5 Pro's 7nm to 6nm (same as the slim)

- "PS5 Pro only has limited clock speed increases (or actual decreases potentially) and the size of the GPU architecturally has not doubled in the way it did with PS4 Pro. Instead, machine learning upscaling is used to make up the difference. Let's look into the specifications in a more detailed manner."

- Jaguar (PS4/Xbone) to Zen 2 was a 4x multiplier, so cross-gen games could hit 60 to 120 fps, but current gen games are already hitting the limit.

- "Activating the 10 percent speed increase means that clock speeds on the GPU decrease by circa 1.5 percent, leading to a one percent performance hit, according to Sony.

In PlayStation 4 Pro, the CPU gained a 33 percent increase in CPU power with no impact to GPU performance at all - the kind of gain you would expect from a new silicon process node. The fact that the PS5 Pro is compromised in comparison does seem to suggest that Sony is doing"

- In real terms, those hoping that PS5 Pro will turn CPU-limited 30fps titles into super-smooth 60fps experiences will be disappointed. With that said, the 3.85GHz mode will bring greater stability to 30fps games that may not be hitting their frame-rate target when CPU limited - and yes, we have started to see those titles.

- "With 33.5 teraflops of compute performance vs the 10.23TF of the standard PS5, the boost here looks incredible. However, these numbers flatter to deceive. AMD's latest GPU architectures, starting with RDNA 3, feature 'dual-issue FP32', the ability to double operations at the same clock speeds. However, this does not mean we get double the gaming performance. Indeed, despite the 67 percent increase in CU count (even factoring out dual-issue FP32), Sony itself says in its developer disclosures that the actual throughput boost in gaming applications is around 45 percent."

- "An increase in compute power alone is only one part of the equation, however. To keep the CUs 'fed', it's important to increase memory bandwidth. Sony moves from 16GB of 14Gbps GDDR6 in the standard PS5 to 18Gbps GDDR6 in the Pro - a 28 percent increase in bandwidth. So, the 448GB/s of peak theoretical bandwidth increases to 576GB/s. Actual throughput may also be enhanced still further with architectural improvements (possibly via improved compression?)."

- "What's curious is that Sony's stated teraflops figure suggests a peak GPU clock speed of 2.18GHz - which is actually a touch slower than the 2.23GHz in the standard PS5. Again, this does suggest either a conservative power limit, retaining the 6nm silicon process technology - or both."

- "There's been conjecture that the PS5 Pro GPU is benefitting from RT architectural improvements AMD is planning for its upcoming RDNA 4 graphics cards. These enhancements look promising but it's important to point out that a lot of the boost here will be coming from the fact that the PS5 Pro GPU is much larger than the standard model's GPU. So, the 2x to 4x boost is coming from both architectural improvements and the increase in compute units.

There's no mention of a custom Sony solution for RT here, which does suggest that PS5 Pro is using AMD technology - and there is precedence for console parts receiving those features ahead of their debut in the PC graphics space. Indeed, PlayStation 4 Pro had aspects (such as dual-rate FP16 and a new compute unit design) that preceded their release in AMD's Vega architecture."

- "However, thanks to machine learning-based upscaling, I believe that PS5 Pro should be able to deliver a far higher perceptual increase in resolution vs PS5 than the PS4 Pro did against its junior variant.

We need to learn more about how Sony is achieving this, but the evidence suggests that the platform holder has created its own custom ML silicon for PS5 Pro, in the same way that custom checkerboard hardware was found within PS4 Pro. The ML solution looks to be integrated into the GPU - as opposed to being a separate AI block in AMD's APUs - and is rated with a maximum of 300 TOPs (tensor operations). As an aside, the fact that Sony has created custom ML hardware may indicate that whatever AMD has planned for future RDNA GPUs (if anything) may not be a good fit."

- PS5 Pro has 1.2GB more memory for games

______________________
My own take:

Spoiler!

Unless something changes, I might just pick up a used PS4 Pro or PS5 if one goes cheap enough because for me, I'm still counting only two games that I'd play on it.

Lower resolutions have less data per frame, which means that the processor can output more frames. When you increase the resolution, use ray tracing, and other such graphical features, you're adding more data for the processor to handle, hence why the graphics modes have to lower the frame rate.

We can see this in action with CPU reviews, so here is the AMD Ryzen 3700x and 5700x at 1080p versus 4k:

3700x
Ryzen 7 3700x - 1080p
Ryzen 7 3700x - 4k

5700x
Ryzen 7 5700x - 1080p
Ryzen 7 5700x - 4k

The main thing that will benefit the PS5 Pro is the additional ray tracing and upscaling tech, the latter of which could at least make those performance mode games targeting a lower resolution look a bit better, but that entirely depends on how it actually works in practice.

For the PS5 as a whole, though, this really is just a bandaid that mostly appeals to people who will buy the latest and greatest Playstation, but it won't fix schit developers who can't optimize, nor will it address the generational elephant in the room of games now taking most of said generation just to develop.

[OneLegSquats]

The launch PS5 has barely depreciated, everyone may as well sell it and get the pro tbh. I know I will

[mgftp]

It's okay to admit you were wrong about the PS5 pro. It was over a year ago, nobody would blame you for being skeptical.



Lmfaooo right on cue. Pretty sure freeburner is an mgftp burner acct, hence the name. No way another man could be such a submissive beta to a loser like mgftp. Soon as twink boy swings and misses, burner is right behind to swoop in with his tongue of destiny in mgftp's butthole.. If only your aiming in Apex could be that accurate you could actually be a somebody.

So much "winning", and we all thought Jay was the most pathetic poster ITT.