Sony PlayStation 5 Console Confirmed Powered by 8-core Zen 2 CPU, Navi and Ray Tracing Confirmed

[Raevenlord]

Sony's own lead system architect Mark Cerny spilled the beans on the company's upcoming "PlayStation 5" games console - the name isn't confirmed, but it's a PlayStation, and it's the fifth, so, following from the previous nomenclature just makes sense, doesn't it? One particular detail, however, is of most interest to us PC hardware junkies, and that one little fact is the confirmed Navi GPU that will power it. This is, almost certainly, a semi-custom Navi-based GPU, however; but the tidbit that PlayStation 5 will have raytracing support is the one game changer for hardware expectations - on paper, at least.

Of course, Navi is expected to debut much sooner in the consumer space than on next-gen consoles, but the fact that PlayStation 5 development kits are already being seeded - and an increasing rate, according to Sony - bodes well for the feature's inclusion on AMD's consumer-based cards. Either that or the company is taking a software approach to raytracing, which, if NVIDIA's 1000 and 10*0 series is any indication, wouldn't go very well with performance intentions. This does mean that raytracing is about to receive a much-needed market penetration boost for its adoption by developers. NVIDIA will of course be able to wave the flag of having been the first company to introduce the technology to consumers.





Another thing of interest for us is the fact that Cerny said that 3D audio will finally have its own dedicated hardware, which Sony wants to leverage in bringing a qualitative leap in audio quality compared to the PS3 and PS4 (on which audio stayed basically the same).

Other interesting tidbits that have been confirmed is the usage of an AMD 8-core, Zen 2 CPU, alongside 8K resolution support (note that "support" doesn't equal "output") and a faster-than-SSD storage subsystem that is much faster, according to Cerny, than current consumer-grade SSD solutions. Backwards compatibility is, of course, a must by now - Microsoft has made it so with their push that spans the entirety of Xbox's lifetime. Excited already?

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Basard]

Well, Raytracing at 30fps on a console shouldn't be to hard.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

AMD has supported raytraced audio for a long time. It sounds like Sony is actually going to stress using it. I can't think of any reason why PS4/PS4 Pro couldn't do raytraced audio other than the GPU being too busy doing other things.

The beautiful thing is that the underlying technology to accelerate graphic rays also work for audio rays. Instead of translucency for visual rays, they consider surface type for reflection or absorption of vibrations.

I really want more information about Navi. We know what it can do but we don't know how it does it.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Well, Raytracing at 30fps on a console shouldn't be to hard.

If the rumors of Navi having native(hardware) RTRT support are correct, then 60FPS@4k should be possible. We'll see what happens.

 

[Crackong]

After all, console is the definitive factor here.
Let's see if hardware accelerated RTRT will prevail, or soon be forgotten and turn into software emulation.

 

[gmn17]

PS5 PSV FTW

 

[FordGT90Concept]

If the rumors of Navi having native(hardware) RTRT support are correct, then 60FPS@4k should be possible. We'll see what happens.

My guess is that it targets 30 fps 1080p raytraced (upscaled to 4K if necessary) and 60 fps 4K non-raytraced. Game developers will probably have to decide which they will pursue because it won't be a choice given to players.

 

[renz496]

After all, console is the definitive factor here.
Let's see if hardware accelerated RTRT will prevail, or soon be forgotten and turn into software emulation.

RTRT is too intensive for software. DX11 is roughly 10 years right now. tessellation still use dedicated hardware instead of being "simulated" on software only.

 

[lexluthermiester]

My guess is that it targets 30 fps 1080p raytraced (upscaled to 4K if necessary) and 60 fps 4K non-raytraced.

Possible.

 

[steen]

Either that or the company is taking a software approach to raytracing, which, if NVIDIA's 1000 and 10*0 series is any indication, wouldn't go very well with performance intentions.

Previous NV uarch is more constrained by concurrency & lacks coissue & VRS. Turing improvements in these areas & cache structure yield substantial gains regardless of the RTX pipeline in the SM. 1660Ti DXR performance is closer to 1080 with far lower resources.

 

[kastriot]

Good, more money for AMD they need it for ongoing battles.

 

[M2B]

It might sound a bit silly but the best, yet the worst way for console makers to compete with the PC platform and the best way for AMD to compete with Nvidia is to not support RTRT.
First of all, these consoles are going to be in the market for 6 years or so, that means they're gonna suck really bad against even an RTX 4060 in 4 years.
And secondly wider developer support for RTRT will probably benefit Nvidia more than anyone else.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Am I the only one not impressed with the RTRT in ALL recent games??
I consider for now that RTRT it's just a gimmick bringing only marginal graphic improvements with massive performance hit, which in the end it's no way worth it.

 

[Xzibit]

It might sound a bit silly but the best, yet the worst way for console makers to compete with the PC platform and the best way for AMD to compete with Nvidia is to not support RTRT.
First of all, these consoles are going to be in the market for 6 years or so, that means they're gonna suck really bad against even an RTX 4060 in 4 years.
And secondly wider developer support for RTRT will probably benefit Nvidia more than anyone else.

Nvidia put RTX under GameWorks. Even if the consoles get RTRT. Nvidia would have to continue to incentivize the publishers to use GameWorks.

 

[Crackong]

It might sound a bit silly but the best, yet the worst way for console makers to compete with the PC platform and the best way for AMD to compete with Nvidia is to not support RTRT.
First of all, these consoles are going to be in the market for 6 years or so, that means they're gonna suck really bad against even an RTX 4060 in 4 years.
And secondly wider developer support for RTRT will probably benefit Nvidia more than anyone else.

I think it will be opposite.
Bringing RTRT support to console means the future 5 years of RTRT development will be limited by the console hardware.
And Game developers will optimize their RTRT game to the consoles.
There is no need to sacrifice die space for ASIC specialized for RTRT calculations.
Meaning the RT cores in the RTX series cards will be less and less relevant.

Am I the only one not impressed with the RTRT in ALL recent games??
I consider for now that RTRT it's just a gimmick bringing only marginal graphic improvements with massive performance hit, which in the end it's no way worth it.

Me2

RTRT itself might be the holy grail of computer graphics.
But the horrible execution and implementation of Nvidia RTX series and RTRT games (Only 3 in existence) just ruined the whole thing.
They built the Hype train and failed to deliver.

DXR will live on, like PhysX and Tessellation, as an option in the graphics menu, NOT as a marketing gimmick.

 

[HwGeek]

Like others thought- looks like NV knew that next-gen Consoles will have RTRT so they jumped first to sell Premium RTX cards and claim RTRT as RTX branding. lets hope the next gen Xbox will do the same and that will confirm that many new games will be AMD RTRT optimized + DXR support and not only RTX limited.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

If the rumors of Navi having native(hardware) RTRT support are correct, then 60FPS@4k should be possible. We'll see what happens.

Total rubish, does the 2080ti with a very expensive chip, no.

 

[HwGeek]

If 2080Ti were made on 7nm then they could have more powerful RT Asics, IMO they were space limited.
Also- if it comes on Q3 2020- maybe it will be made on 7nm+ ?

 

[B-Real]

"a faster-than-SSD storage subsystem that is much faster, according to Cerny, than current consumer-grade SSD solutions."

1. This is the best this console can get alongside AMD hardware.
2. How can it be faster if SATA3 vs. NVMe videos show that there is exactly ZERO performance gain for the latter in OS and game loads (performance gains in other programs is a horse of another colour).

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

PS5 PSV FTW

Man. I saw so many Vs last few years I hope Sony sticks with PS5 instead of PSV. BF V, AC V Unity, GTA V, Civ V.

 

[ppn]

i want slimmer pro ITX sized no bluray version on 6nm EUV and water cooling.

 

[Ruru]

I suppose PS4 compatibility wouldn't be very hard to achieve?

PS5 PSV FTW

I'd consider PS Vita already as PSV.

 

[Recus]

Thanks Nvidia for pushing graphics evolution.

 

[Moofachuka]

When I read the title on my phone I read 2 CPU's...

 

[Vayra86]

Am I the only one not impressed with the RTRT in ALL recent games??
I consider for now that RTRT it's just a gimmick bringing only marginal graphic improvements with massive performance hit, which in the end it's no way worth it.

No you're not, but let's be fair, we haven't seen a single game where it was not competing with rasterized.

Its an uphill battle, that is why the console market is so so important for this technology. Its a much lower bar in terms of performance and IQ and has a huge and varied target audience.