PlayStation 5 will feature a solid state drive with higher bandwidth than any SSD available for PC, and a GPU that supports ray tracing. Speaking with Wired, PlayStation’s lead architect Mark Cerny discussed the internal components in PS5. The system uses a third-generation Ryzen CPU with eight cores, based on the 7nm Zen 2 architecture. The GPU, on the other hand, is a custom chip based on Radeon’s Navi family, with support for ray tracing. Sony working with AMD’s Ryzen CPU tech for the PlayStation 5 isn’t surprising. It worked with AMD on components for PS4. The SSD inside the console is super fast. According to Wired, it took around 0.8 seconds to fast travel in Spider-Man compared to 15 seconds on PlayStation 4 Pro. PS5 will support 8K resolution, and will be backwards-compatible with PS4 games. It will contain a disc-tray, 3D audio integration, and will be compatible with the current PSVR model. A recent patent from Sony outed the possibility of backwards compatibility, so this no surprise. Still, it’s nice to have confirmation. And just because disc is still supported doesn’t mean Sony is ignoring the cloud. Cerny told Wired the firm’s vision for cloud gaming will become “clear as we head toward launch.” Not out this year Cerny said the console would not be out in 2019, and he didn’t call it PlayStation 5 or provide a working codename. Sony is skipping E3 this year, so it’s possible a full console reveal could take place either later this year or in early 2020. PS4 was revealed in 2013 during an event in New York and released later that year. PS4 Pro was also revealed during an event in New York back in 2016. It’s likely Sony will continue this trend with PS5. We’ll have to wait and see.<doc-sep>Sony's upcoming PlayStation console will come with upgraded specs from AMD, which will support "ray tracing." Ray tracing creates more realistic in-game lighting effects than conventional methods, and can make for a more visually attractive video game. Ray tracing requires lots of power, so it'll be interesting how it plays out in the next-generation of PlayStation consoles. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Sony revealed to Wired some details about its upcoming next-generation PlayStation console, which is nameless for now but many are calling the "PlayStation 5." The next-gen PlayStation console will run on a chip based on AMD's third-generation of Ryzen consumer processors, which are comparable to Intel's line of Core processors. AMD will also be supplying the graphics chip in Sony's upcoming next-gen console, which will be based on the company's "Navi" graphics chips. With upgrades to the latest generation of hardware, games will surely look better on Sony's next-gen console than they currently do on the six-year-old PlayStation 4, and even the three-year-old PlayStation 4 Pro. It's hard to imagine how much better the graphics will be, as the PlayStation 4 consoles already push beautifully detailed video games to TVs. But there is one thing in the upcoming PlayStation we can imagine today, and we can even see it for ourselves. Sony told Wired that the custom AMD Navi graphics chip will support "ray tracing." Ray tracing is a technology that improves lighting effects in video games and computer-generated movies and TV shows, which helps things look more realistic. It essentially simulates the path of light travelling from a light source in a game, like a light bulb, fire, or the sun, more accurately than conventional video game lighting. The result is more realistic lighting, reflections, and shadows in a video game. Read more: We already know a surprising amount about the PlayStation 5 and next Xbox — here's how the two consoles compare Ironically, to show you what kind of added effects ray tracing brings, we have to turn to AMD's main rival in the graphics chip world — Nvidia. Indeed, Nvidia has already released its consumer "RTX" graphics chips for PCs that support ray tracing in 2018, which should give us an idea of what to expect on Sony's next-gen PlayStation. Here's what conventional video game lighting and reflections looks like in "Battlefield V": And here's what the same scene looks like with ray tracing, which reveals what's going on outside the shot through the reflections on the car door: That's just one example of ray tracing, which can be used to better simulate lighting realism in pretty much every aspect of a game. TV and movie studios have used ray tracing to add realistic lighting to computer-animated scenes in the past. But it's only recently that ray tracing has been added to video games. It takes a lot of power to simulate realistic lighting with ray tracing, especially in real-time while responding to a player's movements in a game. It will be interesting to see how Sony implements ray tracing into its next-gen PlayStation. Ray tracing is so power intensive that it can dramatically reduce the smoothness of video games for the sake of visual effects. On PCs running on Nvidia's RTX graphics chips, some gamers reduce a game's graphics settings to keep the game playing smoothly while ray tracing is enabled. PC gamers also have the option to turn off ray tracing altogether, but we'll have to wait and see whether Sony offers the same option in its upcoming PlayStation.<doc-sep>Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021. Sony has revealed the first details of its next video game console to Wired. While the machine does not have a name yet, the company will likely dub it the PlayStation 5. Mark Cerny, who was the lead system architect for the PlayStation 4 and is now working on the new console, told Wired that the new console will not be coming out in 2019. It will represent a big upgrade from its predecessor, including a new chip from AMD, Intel’s rival for CPUs. The machine will support ray tracing, a graphics technique that has in-game lighting project itself and bounce off of surfaces as a multitude of rays, just like light behaves in our world. Sony also said that the PS5 will include an SSD hard drive. This will make game loading times much faster on the new machine. The console will also support 8K resolutions, although that’s something that most modern TVs do not yet feature. But by the time the PS5 launches and in the immediate time after, 8K should become more prevalent. Many of these features will make the PS5 comparable to current high-end gaming PCs, which are the only machines that can support ray tracing at the moment. The PS5 will also get a big sound upgrade with 3D audio, which should make for a more immersive experience. It will make audio feel more like something that surrounds you instead of coming from a source like a TV speaker. The PS5 will be backward compatible with PS4 games. It will still include a disk drive, so Sony isn’t ready to make the dive into an all digital device yet. The PlayStation legacy The PlayStation brand is one of the most successful in all of gaming. The first PlayStation launched in Japan in 1994, with the U.S. release following in 1995. It sold over 102 million machines, establishing Sony as the new market leader over Nintendo. The PlayStation 2 remains the most successful gaming console ever, moving about 155 systems. The PlayStation 4 has also been a success for Sony. It launched in 2013 and has since sold over 94 million console. Sony released the PlayStation 4 Pro in 2016, an upgraded version of the system that helped extend the PS4’s lifespan. The PS4 is now entering its twilight years as Sony gets ready to rev up the PS5, but the system is not done yet. Big games like The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima are sill coming to console. Although it is possible that those titles will make their way over to the PS5 in an upgraded form as well.<doc-sep>The AMD Navi, the company’s potential next-generation graphics card, has long been rumoured to launch sometime this year. TweakTown has even suggested we’ll see a reveal during E3 2019. Unfortunately, there’s not much information on the card’s specs or features so far, besides that the card is expected to use next-gen 7nm architecture and it will be a mid-range option with a comparable performance to Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. However, with Wired recently confirming Sony’s next-gen PlayStation (speculatively called the PlayStation 5) will feature a custom-variant of the AMD Navi graphics card – as well as a bucket-load of extra information – additional detail on the AMD Navi can be assumed. Related: Sony’s next-gen console will have ray tracing, AMD tech, and PS4 backwards compatibility First of all, the custom-variant AMD Navi graphics card found in the PlayStation 5 will reportedly support ray tracing. This is the first legitimate source to hint towards such a high-end feature for AMD Navi. If you’re not familiar with the term, ray tracing is a new technology that sees GPUs render more realistic lighting effects and reflections. Sun gleaming through a window will behave similarly to how it does in reality, and doesn’t need to be pre-mapped like with traditional rendering techniques. So far, Nvidia’s RTX cards are the only GPUs that can offer a high performance for ray tracing, but it looks likely AMD will be joining the party shortly. Related: What is Ray Tracing? Of course, you have to bear in mind that the PlayStation will be rocking a “custom variant” of the GPU rather than a commercially available card, so there’s no absolute guarantee the AMD Navi cards made available to the public will also support ray tracing . That said, if the PlayStation news is accurate (which is likely) then this is confirmation that AMD Navi architecture is at least capable of ray tracing, which means the likelihood of the next-gen AMD card featuring the light simulation technology is sky high. Are you excited to see potential ray tracing support with the AMD Navi graphics card? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter<doc-sep>
The end of our current console generation is just over the horizon, and now Mark Cerny, lead architect on PlayStation 5, has finally spilled the beans on Sony’s next-gen console, which won’t be coming in 2019. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) In an exclusive interview with Wired, Cerny revealed that the PS5's specs include ray tracing, 3D audio support and an SSD for super-fast load times. It will also support the PSVR headset and will be backwards compatible with PlayStation 4 games. Cerny confirmed that the CPU will be based on AMD’s Ryzen line and feature eight cores of the 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture, and that the GPU is a custom version of the Radeon Navi series that supports ray tracing. An interesting point that Cerny made about audio was that there hasn’t been a dramatic change between PS3 and PS4. He stated that the AMD chip will have 3D audio built-in, so that you’ll be able to experience immersive sounds simply through your TV speakers or headphones. To show off the benefits of including an SSD, Cerny demonstrated the process of fast-traveling in Spider-Man for PS4. On a regular PS4 Pro, it took 15 seconds to successfully load, but when he used a PS5 devkit outfitted with the SSD, it took a mere 0.8 seconds. While confirming support for PSVR and PlayStation 4 games, Cerny also stated that certain games will be simultaneously released for both PS4 and PS5. On top of that, he confirmed that the PS5 will have 8K compatibility, but let’s be honest, 8K TVs won't be affordable for the masses anytime soon. We’ll most likely hear more about the PS5 closer to the end of the year, but hopefully we’ll get a little State of Play (PlayStation’s latest Nintendo Direct-style announcement stream) somewhere around E3.