PlayStation 5 announced hardware configuration, backwards compatible with PS4

It’s been almost a year since Sony started talking about the next-gen console, and the company has shared details about the PlayStation 5 system. The event took place on Wednesday, by head of system architecture Mark. Cerny of PS4 and PS5 introduced. Later, Sony also announced hardware details on the PlayStation Blog after the presentation.

During the presentation, Cerny said the CPU will have 8 Zen 2 cores with a maximum frequency of 3.5 Ghz. The GPU will be “a custom designed AMD GPU based on their RDNA 2 technology”. Maximum GPU performance will be 10.28 teraflops, based on 36 compute units running up to 2.23 Ghz.

Although the PS5 hardware configuration is inferior to the 12-teralop GPU performance that Microsoft applies to the Xbox Series X, the next-generation console will not decide solely based on hardware. One thing’s for sure, the hardware that handles the PS5 will run more efficiently than the PS4, so a single computer should deliver more performance. Cerny says the PS5’s 36 compute units are equivalent to the PS4’s 58, since the PS5’s counter has 62% more transistors.

“The change in frequency diversity approach will give gamers a big advantage,” Cerny said at the presentation.

Perhaps the most important part of the PS5 is that the PS5’s internal hard drive will be the SSD. In an interview last year, Cerny said that Sony built its own software and connected to the console’s SSD, significantly improving runtime and creating in-game environments. Cerny confirms the hard drive will have 825 GB of space, connected via PCI Express 4.0

PS5 owners can expand the capacity by purchasing PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs and inserting them into the machine’s extension. However, there is one shortcoming: Sony participates in the certification program, in order for the hard drive to meet or exceed the available SSD speed of the console and it must fit into the machine. The certification is “likely to come after PS5 is available,” Cerny said, so don’t buy an SSD on your own now.

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION PLAYSTATION 5

Cerny also focuses on the PS5’s audio capabilities. Sony develops its own hardware for 3D audio, called Tempest 3D AudioTech. That’s because of the company’s goals to come out with sound, using already existing technology solutions like Dolby Atmos. (Cerny also says it wants the PS5’s 3D sound to be available to all users, not just those who own Dolby Atmos-licensed headphones or sound systems.)

“Headset audio is now the gold standard for 3D audio on PlayStation 5,” added Cerny, noting that Sony is developing 3D audio through surround and sound systems from TV speakers. He added by the sound arrangement of Tempest 3D AudioTech based on the HRTF (head-related transfer function) mechanism. Depending on the person, PS5 lets you choose one of five different HRTF profiles for the best 3D audio experience.

PS5 will have hardware acceleration for real-timeray tracing through the graphics technology found in AMD PC GPU cards. Sony previously said that the PS5 will support 4K games at up to 120 frames per second. And the console will be fully backwards compatible with PS4 games, but Sony hasn’t detailed how it works. Cerny said that Sony expects the PS5 to run “almost” of the 100 most popular PS4 games when it launches later this year. And users can plug an external USB drive into the PS5 and run PS4 games from it.

Sony plans to launch the PS5 during the Christmas 2020 season, coinciding with the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X.