Gadgetory

- Hey guys, this is Austin. Today, we got a sneak peak at what will ultimately become the PlayStation 5. So Wired sat down with Mark Cerny, the man who not only designed the PS4, but also the upcoming totally unnamed next-generation PlayStation, a.k.a. the PS5. There is a ton that we can learn from this chat, including big specs such as 8K support, Ryzen processors, and a standard SSD in the next-gen PlayStation. So let's jump right in. By Sony announcing this before E3, which, of course, they're not attending this year, they really are getting the jump on Microsoft, who are very widely expected to show off their own next-generation Xbox at the show. The top line here really is that this is the next generation of consoles. Unlike what we saw with the PS4 Pro, as well as the Xbox One X, both of which require sort of half generation steps, this should be a full break with the previous generation. But importantly, the PS5, at least, will still have backwards compatibility. So we take a trip down nerd town, which we will be living in for the rest of this video. The PS4 and the Xbox One had very similar specs. Now one of the main downsides here was the CPUs. They're based on AMD's very old and very mobile-focused Jaguar architecture, and essentially, this meant that, even when they first came out, they were really underpowered. I mean, the PS3 and the Xbox 360 were basically roughly on par with them as far as CPUs. That's not exactly a good thing, what, like, 14 years later? This time around, while they are sticking with an eight-core design, it will be a massively more powerful Ryzen-based processor. Now this is very similar to what we will be finding in the third generation of Ryzen that will be coming out for the PC side later this year, and while the current Ryzen is already similar in the neighborhood of about three times faster than the last gen consoles, this new Ryzen 3 should be even faster. CPU performance really has taken a backseat this generation because of how underpowered the current consoles are. Now, sure, games look great, but that's very much because all the really heavy lifting is being done on the graphics side of things. With the idea that pretty much all consoles and, of course, PCs going forward, will have powerful CPUs, it should really change the way that a lot of games are developed. Think about things like giant open worlds with tons and tons of characters. We've seen games such as Assassin's Creed attempt this, sometimes not with the greatest results. However, with that extra CPU resource, we really should be able to see a much better simulation of huge worlds than we did in the past. The graphics are also going to be a decent leap. So built on the same seven nanometer process is the Ryzen processor and of course, it should actually be the same APU styles, what we found on the PS4 and the Xbox One. This is utilizing AMD's new Navi architecture. Navi, Novi, Naevi? Pronunciation aside, this should be the same architecture that we see on the PC side later this year. Now if this seems really familiar, it should be. The PS5 is very much like a high-end AMD PC that we'll be able to buy later this year. Same CPUs, same GPU, just obviously in a very customized shell. Well, customized software, customized RAM, and customized SSD. But a PC? Now this is where details start to get a little bit thinner. Now we know a fair bit about what AMD has for the next-generation Ryzen CPUs, but on the graphics side, there's not a lot that we really know. Now it should support next-generation graphics memory, which should most likely be GDDR6, but I'll assume somewhere in the neighborhood of like 12 to 16 gigs. But beyond that, we really don't know exactly how Sony is customizing it. Yes, they're using the latest generation building blocks for their graphics, but they could build as big or as small of a GPU as they want. And hopefully, it's very much on the bigger side. Mark Cerny also mentioned that the PS5 is capable of supporting a full 8K resolution. Now that sounds really impressive, but I highly doubt that we'll be able to see games actually running at 8K. Most likely, it'll be similar to what we see on the Xbox One S. Sure, it plays 4K video, but you will never game anywhere close to that resolution. I assume the PS4, or rather, the PS5 will be very similar. It will be focused on 4K and you can do things like watch 8K Netflix or something. Now there are some concrete details we know. So the PS5 will support ray-tracing. Now this is the first time we've seen this on any kind of AMD graphics. Previously, it's been relegated to Nvidia's RTX line, which, of course, is a very powerful line of graphics cards, so it's going to be very interesting to see just how they're pulling this off. Now incidentally, this does not mean that the next-generation AMD GPUs just support ray-tracing by themselves. It very much could be a thing where Sony is customizing it as they have customized the PS4, as well as the PS4 Pro, as far as the graphics side of things. But at least we will have some kind of ray-tracing support on the PS5, and on top of that, they are actually using a version of ray-tracing to upgrade the audio side of things. So supposedly, we'll have much better spatial audio awareness, but, I mean, that sounds very buzzwordy until I actually get to try it. But regardless, this should be a major step up on the graphics side. Because Sony is continuing to stick with AMD for the architecture, it means that we do still have backwards compatibility with PlayStation 4 games. Now this shouldn't be a huge surprise. That is of course one of that major advantages of having such a PC-like architecture. If something works well for the PS4, it should be relatively straightforward for them to get that game up and running on the PS5. In fact, it sounds like Sony has done exactly that. Something else that's interesting is that they did mention PlayStation VR support. Now this is one of those weird things where when PS VR first came out, I feel like it didn't actually blow up the way that I expected it to, but over time, they've steadily but continuously improved, not only the VR headset, but, of course, also the software that it runs. So it does sound like while they might not necessarily announce a new version of PS VR immediately, at least the existing version will work on the PlayStation 5. In addition to the CPU and the GPU upgrades, the next-generation PlayStation will also come standard with an SSD. Now that's kind of a big deal. Now, sure it is cheaper to go with a hard drive, but it very much is a bottleneck for the current generation of consoles. If you look at like loading times, for example, a lot of games can be 20, 30 seconds, where as with an SSD, you might have like, three or four seconds for that same load, especially when you consider that you have these giant assets, these huge open worlds. This should make a big difference. It also sounds like they're going for a pretty fast SSD. Quoting Mark Cerny, it should have a "raw bandwidth "higher than any SSD available for PCs" right now. Now whether or not that's a PCI 4.0 driver, remains to be seen. It could very well be something custom. But it is really exciting to see this level of performance, which will be standard for the next generation of consoles. Now as far as capacity, it's hard to say. Right now, most consoles are a base of one terabyte, and I can definitely assume that games will continue to get bigger and bigger. So I assume that they've gotta keep it at least in that realm, which means that this very well might be a more expensive console than the PS4 was. As long as it's not like $800 like the PS3, I think we'll be okay. The PS5 is also not walking away from physical media. Of course, it should support downloads like every other console, but it does have an optical drive. Now whether this is Blu-ray, or they're upgrading to Ultra HD Blu-ray, which I very much hope that they are, it remains to be seen. But at least, with this generation of console, you should still be able to buy physical games for them. One of the most interesting aspects of this whole story is the timing. With Sony jumping out ahead of Microsoft and announcing the next-generation console, it very much sounds like it is on track to be released late next year. Now, that's actually kind of surprising, because a lot of the rumors were pegging the PS5 being somewhere in the neighborhood of 2021, a full couple years away. So the fact that they're announcing and sort of releasing this level of specs beforehand and, of course, before E3, very much makes me think that the PS5 is way farther along than anyone realized. Put this all together, and it looks like the PS5 is a major upgrade in pretty much all aspects compared to the PS4. You're getting a significantly better CPU. Better graphics with ray-tracing and 8K support, as well as a lot of fast SSD storage, and, of course, that backwards compatibility with the last generation. So I'm really curious, what do you guys think about the PS5 and what are some of your predictions? Is it going to be super expensive like the PS3 was? Is it going to come out before the Xbox One or two or whatever it is called is? Let me know in the comments below and I will catch you guys in the next one.