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After Xbox revealed brand new details on the Xbox Series X, it's time for Sony to do the same with the PlayStation 5. Mark Cerny will be explaining some new information about the PS5's architecture and technology, giving us an idea of what to expect when the console launches later this year. Get ready to watch the stream with us, when it begins at 9am PT, where we'll be covering all the announcements made during the broadcast.

Live Coverage

In place of their canceled GDC plans, this stream will explain Sony's goals for the PS5's hardware.

They mentioned the difficulty of developing for the PS3, saying that they made sure they listened to the developers for the PS4 and going forward. "Game creators matter".

The most requested feature of a new PlayStation made by developers was to have an SSD. The goal is to create a console that developers can easily get used to, and realize their creations faster.

Here are the specs for the PS5, compared against the PS4 on the right.

The PS5 plans to target 5 GB/s bandwidth, instantaneous seek times, and 0.27 second load times, with no load screens.

PlayStation is explaining how they use strategies to hide load times, or how developers need to compromise their game in order to fit it on a Blu-ray.

The SSD will have a size of 825GB, and those who want more storage can easily add it.

Cerny is now talking about custom decompression methods for game data, and the custom processors in the SSD.

The PS5 will ideally have 100x faster I/O over the PS4.

If you want to use PS4 backwards compatibility, it's recommended to use an external hard drive for your titles as to not encroach on the premium SSD space.

Sony will have an expansion bay for an extra m.2 drive, with supported drives and their physical sizes to be revealed at a later date.

The PS5 will have a custom RDNA GPU. They're working together with AMD.

Not every game will be supported by backwards compatibility, but Cerny says a list of the top 100 PS4 titles will likely be supported by the PS5's launch.

Primitive Shaders allow for on the fly rendering. There's a new feature called the Geometry Engine.

Ray Tracing is supported, though developers don't necessarily need to use it.

Mentioning that previous PlayStation consoles haven't always handled power consumption and overheating issues in the best of ways, the PlayStation 5 will be able to run off a constant amount of power, with the CPU and GPU varying depending on the game, rather than previous generations where systems ran on varying power consumption and a constant CPU/GPU output.

The GPU freq is capped to 2.23Ghz and the CPU is 3.5 GHz. The variable frequencies won't make the system get as hot or loud as the PlayStation 4/Pro did as often.

Audio helps immerse and enhance the gaming experience. That's why the PS5 will have 3D audio that'll assist players in making the best experience possible. In a graph detailing how humans hear sound, Sony explains how they use HRTF to create directional audio.

Tempest 3D AudioTech is what the PS5 will use.

Instead of using Dolby Atmos, Sony wanted to not be held back by licensed use scenarios and limited to the support of specific sound bars.

Audio engineers are implementing digital surround sound, for those that don't have fancier audio setups to make the most of the Tempest Audio Engine.

According to Cerny, PS4 audio sounds "flat" compared to the PS5's audio.

There will be 5 HRTFs to choose from, for players to get their best sound for their personal experience.

 

[DANTENDO]

dead space remaster 8k pls sony

 

[ombus]

well... this is less than series x right ? and they even have all backwards copatibility...of 2 consoles....without paying...mmm

edit: also... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz the guy on the stream..should have discarded this talk and just released spec like microsoft.

 

[osaka35]

Someone tell him that those "new SSD techs" had been used by many since three or four years ago lol (I will buy one anyway haha).

New nextgen console is not released but HW is already old as my pc build 3 years ago, at least i don't pay to go online.

Really dissapointing, pls give me reasons to buy console again?

The nvme and gpu will have access to pcie4, so there won't be any bottle-necking. It's out there on a few boards and supported only on AMD's latest cpus. Assuming the nvme will be pcie4, it'll allow for quicker loads and os interactions.

The gpu hasn't been released yet to the public (it comes out later this year). You've got to remember that since it's custom, they can remove all the fluff needed for more general purpose stuff required for PCs. A pc with the same specs will not do nearly as well due to code optimization and many other tech benefits. The cpu is also the latest, and is customized to remove the generalized code. It's going to perform far better than it's generalized bretheren in games.

For the price, it's going to be many many years before you can play the same quality on a PC. It's the benefit of having a dedicated machine. I'm sure a 2x 2080ti and the best water-cooled threadripper would be stronger, but you might be surprised by well the ps5/xboxSx will be competing for quite a few years.

 

[Dartz150]

The nvme and gpu will have access to pcie4, so there won't be any bottle-necking. I'm assuming the nvme will be pcie4, allowing for quicker loads and os interactions.

The gpu hasn't been released yet to the public (it comes out later this year). You've got to remember that since it's custom, they can remove all the fluff needed for more general purpose stuff required for PCs. A pc with the same specs will not do nearly as well due to code optimization and many other tech benefits. The cpu is also the latest, and is customized to remove the generalized code. It's going to perform far better than it's generalized bretheren in games.

For the price, it's going to be many many years before you can play the same quality on a PC. It's the benefit of having a dedicated machine. I'm sure a 2x 2080ti and the best water-cooled threadripper would be stronger, but you might be surprised by well the ps5/xboxSx will be competing for quite a few years.

Yeah, one of my main interests by this is that the new gen could standarize overpriced PC components (dedicated for gaming) and open doors for developers that had to adjust their games for consoles first, then port those to average PC's, carrying on the constraints and drawbacks.

 

[AlexMCS]

This was a fun stream if you're into science and technology like me, but terrible for pure gamers.

 

[Fugelmir]

God bless Mark Sony. It felt like a software engineering guest lecturer.

It gave me a boner the size of a small Vietnamese fishing community. Good on them.

 

[GeigerCouncilmanX]

"Not every game will be supported by backwards compatibility." Oh Wow... Not even PS1 or PS2. Meanwhile Xbox Series X backwards compatible with XBONE, 360 and Original Xbox.

 

[Shadowfied]

That was pretty disappointing to me.
Disappointing that we're still not getting true backwards compatibility, in terms of it being a case by case basis.
Also, while I wasn't expecting it at all, I was hoping for even further backwards compatibility. It would be amazing to just have an all in one PlayStation even though I realize it's absurd.

 

[DANTENDO]

"Not every game will be supported by backwards compatibility." Oh Wow... Meanwhile Xbox Series X backwards compatible with XBONE, 360 and Original Xbox.

A good reason to support those making new games - beggars belief why people are fussed about bc lol

 

[KingVamp]

I was distracted at that moment, did they even mention PS1 and PS2?

At least they mention VR.

 

[GeigerCouncilmanX]

A good reason to support those making new games - beggars belief why people are fussed about bc lol

Yeah, well you can focus on new games and have BC at the same time. It's not like BC had slowed down game development before.

 

[Kioku]

Yeah, one of my main interests by this is that the new gen could standarize overpriced PC components (dedicated for gaming) and open doors for developers that had to adjust their games for consoles first, then port those to average PC's, carrying on the constraints and drawbacks.

I sincerely hope this is not the case. I prefer developers having two separate teams that specialize in either console or PC. The method of developing for one and then the other presents issues. Granted, nowadays the hardware is very similar between PC and Consoles. With no true proprietary chips.

 

[wartutor]

I've been waiting for this reveal for a while now just to walk away disappointed. Small ass "custom." hard drive and talking bull shit about teaching game companies to fit there games on a single bluray. Its been 20 years (over emphasizing here but still) since a game has came out that didnt need a massive day one update just to squash the most common game breaking bugs. And on top of all that nothing about ps1, 2 or 3 backwards compatability and very limited ps4. Way to drop the fuckin ball sony

 

[leon315]

"Not every game will be supported by backwards compatibility." Oh Wow... Not even PS1 or PS2. Meanwhile Xbox Series X backwards compatible with XBONE, 360 and Original Xbox.

well both ps3/4 are retrocompatible, but you have to pay $ony to get proper converted ps1/2 games, and ps4 games on ps4 is possible: through PSNOW, that means it's out of $ony's interest to bring flawless backward compatibility

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Very interesting presentation, but I'm a bit disappointed they didn't at least give us the design of the console or a sneak peak at the internals so we could see their "custom" cooling solution. Would've been nice to at least have some visuals to go along with Mark's vague description.

More info on backwards compatibility would've been nice, too. Would've liked to see them announce PS1-PS3 compatibility out of the box, but seems they're either not doing it at all, or waiting for later in the year to announce it during a more gamer-focused presentation/when they work out more of the kinks. I think a lot of people here forgot this was supposed to be a GDC presentation, not some magical E3 hype train thing, that's obviously going to be later. Dunno why you all expected fireworks and explosions from a technical presentation.

I'm glad they're going with a bog standard NVMe slot for expandable storage and not proprietary BS like MS, so that's good.

Not sure why they're bothering so hard with 3D audio, though, seeing how most of their users are probably using shitty TV speakers or $40 soundbars or $20 headsets that will never take advantage of it. But eh, whatever they want to do I guess.

Overall I'm still moderately interested, if it's a decent price I'll still probably grab one at launch for those few exclusives/for review stuff.

 

[tech3475]

"Not every game will be supported by backwards compatibility." Oh Wow... Not even PS1 or PS2. Meanwhile Xbox Series X backwards compatible with XBONE, 360 and Original Xbox.

Funnily enough, I saw comments by people on other sites saying NOT to buy PS4s when they were on sale because the PS5 will have BC.

It will be interesting to find out why they can't have near complete BC.

That said, at least Sony is using standard M.2 and not something proprietary which MS may be doing.

 

[Plasmaster09]

I'm just waiting to see if they have much in the way of innovation or new features other than "ps4 but our numbers are BIGGER lol"

 

[Shadowfied]

It will be interesting to find out why they can't have near complete BC.

As Mark said, it was so powerful that "the code just couldn't handle it"

obvious /s but he did say it

 

[Plasmaster09]

wonder what the controller's gonna be like
oh right
probably almost the same thing as the ps4 but slightly adjusted or something

 

[kumikochan]

Funnily enough, I saw comments by people on other sites saying NOT to buy PS4s when they were on sale because the PS5 will have BC.

It will be interesting to find out why they can't have near complete BC.

That said, at least Sony is using standard M.2 and not something proprietary which MS may be doing.

well maybe not but they will be selling us classics again for a price because according to them not all games are supported. Pretty sure the games that won't work are on Psnow