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(Digital Foundry) Inside PlayStation 5: the specs and the tech that deliver Sony's next-gen vision (dark1x, GET ITT!!!)

Sony has broken its silence. PlayStation 5 specifications are now out in the open with system architect Mark Cerny delivering a deep dive presentation into the nature of the new hardware and the ways in which we should expect a true generational leap over PlayStation 4. Digital Foundry had the chance to watch the lecture a couple of days ahead of time and had the opportunity to talk to Cerny in more depth afterwards about the nature of the custom PlayStation hardware and the philosophy behind its design.

As you'll appreciate when you see the deep-dive presentation released today, there's a wealth of new information about Sony's next-generation console plans here, and that's before we go really in-depth with the information Mark Cerny shared with us beyond the content of today's presentation. With that in mind, we'll be presenting our content in two chunks. Today, we'll be looking at what we've learned from Sony's video broadcast, and a little further on down the road, we'll go deeper and share even more detail around the central pillars. In summary, however, these are the core details covered today:
  • The technical specifications of PlayStation 5 and its innovative 'boost' approach to core clocks;
  • The features of the PlayStation 5 GPU;
  • How the SSD helps deliver the next-generation dream;
  • How Sony tackles expandable storage;
  • Unprecedented 3D audio fidelity via the Tempest 3D Audio Engine.
What's exciting about this presentation is that Sony presents a vision for next-gen that recaptures some of the pioneering spirit of its early consoles by delivering state-of-the-art, exotic custom silicon with a razor-sharp focus on taking the gaming experience to the next level. But at the same time, the design embraces the developer-friendly ethos that proved so successful with PlayStation 4. The idea is that developers comfortable with the current generation hardware and can easily get to grips with the basics of PS5 and easily access the extra CPU, GPU and storage features before exploring the new features at their own pace.

The specs
From the gamer's perspective, we know from our audience that there's an almost rabid hunger for the core technical specifications of the PlayStation 5 processor - and thanks to this presentation, we now know much more about the custom AMD processor at the heart of PlayStation 5. In truth, though, Cerny's focus in his presentation is more about the experience delivered by key features such as the SSD storage and the new Tempest audio engine - which is truly exciting stuff - but the anticipation level for the spec is such that this is where we'll start.

On a basic level, we already know that PlayStation 5 uses AMD's excellent Zen 2 CPU technology with prior communications confirming eight physical cores and 16 threads - but now we know how fast they are clocked, with PS5 delivering frequencies up to 3.5GHz. Discussing the nature of CPU and GPU clock speeds is going to require some careful explanation because Cerny actually described frequencies as being 'capped'. For the CPU, 3.5GHz is at the top end of the spectrum, and he also suggests that this is the typical speed - but under certain conditions, it can run slower.

PlayStation 5PlayStation 4
CPU8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz with SMT (variable frequency)8x Jaguar Cores at 1.6GHz
GPU10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz (variable frequency)1.84 TFLOPs, 18 CUs at 800MHz
GPU ArchitectureCustom RDNA 2Custom GCN
Memory/Interface16GB GDDR6/256-bit8GB GDDR5/256-bit
Memory Bandwidth448GB/s176GB/s
Internal StorageCustom 825GB SSD500GB HDD
IO Throughput5.5GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9GB/s (Compressed)Approx 50-100MB/s (dependent on data location on HDD)
Expandable StorageNVMe SSD SlotReplaceable internal HDD
External StorageUSB HDD SupportUSB HDD Support
Optical Drive4K UHD Blu-ray DriveBlu-ray Drive
Sony's customised version of the AMD RDNA 2 GPU features 36 compute units running at frequencies that are capped at 2.23GHz, effectively delivering 10.28TF of peak compute performance. However, again, while 2.23GHz is the limit and also the typical speed, it can drop lower based on the workloads being demanded of it. PS5 uses a boost clock then - and we'll explain that presently - but equally importantly, it's important to remember that performance from an RDNA compute unit far outstrips a PS4 or PS4 Pro equivalent, based on an older architecture.

In fact, the transistor density of an RDNA 2 compute unit is 62 per cent higher than a PS4 CU, meaning that in terms of transistor count at least, PlayStation 5's array of 36 CUs is equivalent to 58 PlayStation 4 CUs. And remember, on top of that, those new CUs are running at well over twice the frequency.

Introducing boost for PlayStation 5
It's really important to clarify the PlayStation 5's use of variable frequencies. It's called 'boost' but it should not be compared with similarly named technologies found in smartphones, or even PC components like CPUs and GPUs. There, peak performance is tied directly to thermal headroom, so in higher temperature environments, gaming frame-rates can be lower - sometimes a lot lower. This is entirely at odds with expectations from a console, where we expect all machines to deliver the exact same performance. To be abundantly clear from the outset, PlayStation 5 is not boosting clocks in this way. According to Sony, all PS5 consoles process the same workloads with the same performance level in any environment, no matter what the ambient temperature may be.

So how does boost work in this case? Put simply, the PlayStation 5 is given a set power budget tied to the thermal limits of the cooling assembly. "It's a completely different paradigm," says Cerny. "Rather than running at constant frequency and letting the power vary based on the workload, we run at essentially constant power and let the frequency vary based on the workload."

An internal monitor analyses workloads on both CPU and GPU and adjusts frequencies to match. While it's true that every piece of silicon has slightly different temperature and power characteristics, the monitor bases its determinations on the behaviour of what Cerny calls a 'model SoC' (system on chip) - a standard reference point for every PlayStation 5 that will be produced.

The PlayStation 5 has variable frequencies for CPU and GPU, with an internal monitor adjusting clocks to keep the system within its power budget.

"Rather than look at the actual temperature of the silicon die, we look at the activities that the GPU and CPU are performing and set the frequencies on that basis - which makes everything deterministic and repeatable," Cerny explains in his presentation. "While we're at it, we also use AMD's SmartShift technology and send any unused power from the CPU to the GPU so it can squeeze out a few more pixels."

It's a fascinating idea - and entirely at odds with Microsoft's design decisions for Xbox Series X - and what this likely means is that developers will need to be mindful of potential power consumption spikes that could impact clocks and lower performance. However, for Sony this means that PlayStation 5 can hit GPU frequencies way, way higher than we expected. Those clocks are also significantly higher than anything seen from existing AMD parts in the PC space. It also means that, by extension, more can be extracted performance-wise from the 36 available RDNA 2 compute units.

Not wishing to draw comparisons with any existing hardware past, present or future, Cerny presents an intriguing hypothetical scenario - a 36 CU graphics core running at 1GHz up against a notional 48 CU part running at 750MHz. Both deliver 4.6TF of compute performance, but Cerny says that the gaming experience would not be the same.

"Performance is noticeably different, because 'teraflops' is defined as the computational capability of the vector ALU. That's just one part of the GPU, there are a lot of other units - and those other units all run faster when the GPU frequency is higher. At 33 per cent higher frequency, rasterisation goes 33 per cent faster, processing the command buffer goes that much faster, the L1 and L2 caches have that much higher bandwidth, and so on," Cerny explains in his presentation.

"About the only downside is that system memory is 33 per cent further away in terms of cycles, but the large number of benefits more than counterbalance that. As a friend of mine says, a rising tide lifts all boats," explains Cerny. "Also, it's easier to fully use 36 CUs in parallel than it is to fully use 48 CUs - when triangles are small, it's much harder to fill all those CUs with useful work."

Sony's pitch is essentially this: a smaller GPU can be a more nimble, more agile GPU, the inference being that PS5's graphics core should be able to deliver performance higher than you may expect from a TFLOPs number that doesn't accurately encompass the capabilities of all parts of the GPU. Developers work to the power limits of the SoC, their workloads affecting frequencies on the fly - but it's those factors that impact the clock speeds, not ambient temperatures.

Cerny acknowledges that thermal solutions on prior generation hardware may not have been optimal, but the concept of operating to a set power budget makes the concept of heat dissipation an easier task to handle, despite the impressive clocks coming from the CPU and GPU.

"In some ways, it becomes a simpler problem because there are no more unknowns," Cerny says in his presentation. "There's no need to guess what power consumption the worst case game might have. As for the details of the cooling solution, we're saving them for our teardown - I think you'll be quite happy with what the engineering team came up with."

Read more at the link above!
 
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THEAP99

Banned
‪Just got done watching digitalfoundry’s new PS5 video. I’m very much looking forward to the audio technology in the PlayStation 5. The audio sounds like it’s going to be a game-changer & I’m glad we are finally getting major breakthrough in that area. It will lead to more immersive experiences for sure.
 

Roxkis_ii

Member
I'm really looking forward to how the ssd speed will effect games beyond loading.

Maybe the next gta will have a greater sense of speed when driving. Seeing people on pc play gta and seeing the would move so much faster than console made me feel jealous of the pc's proformance. Hopefully we get some of that experience on consoles now.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
I’m really excited for the SSD loading times. Are we really looking at the virtual elimination of loading?

I think everyone feeling a bit down on the PS5 ought to read this article. It’s now clear that Sony is heading in a more affordable direction, but there’s quite a bit of ingenuity packed into this thing, from performance (I’ll spare you the ‘punching above its weight’ console zealot cliche, but things might not be as they appear) to really brand new, interesting stuff.

I think the PS5 marketing is taking a turn for the worse, but once you actually look at this thing, and start to disseminate all this info, and imagine the final result being a very capable next-gen system, for less, and with some truly unique features...
 

Tripolygon

Banned
Cross post from other thread.

People not understanding what was presented to them. No the PS5 is not 9.2TF or 8TF, it is 10.28TF theoretical TF just like XSX is 12.155 theoretical TF.

Variable in this sense does not mean the GPU throttles down and performance of the game suffers. Its not like in mobile SoC where the cpu and gpu throttle up for a couple of seconds then throttle down to save power.

First is

Smart-shift AMD tech. The GPU and CPU no longer have independent fixed power budget. Both processors share a common power budget but of course the GPU will demand more than the CPU. This means that when the CPU is not performing intensive tasks, more power will be pushed into the GPU and when the GPU is not performing intensive task and then the CPU gets more if it needs it. No two games or parts of a game demands the same amount of processing power, this allows for dynamic power management between CPU and GPU for any given moment.

Second is Variable Frequency

The GPU and CPU have a capped frequency that all SoC must be able to hit. 3.5GHz CPU and 2.23GHz (10.28TF performance) for GPU. This is the thermal limit of the designed cooling system. It does not matter what environment you place the system within normal use case, it should be able to handle the heat generated from pushing the SoC to the capped 3.5GHz CPU and 2.23GHz GPU. This means that rather than running the GPU and CPU at a constant frequency while varying the power based on workload, they instead supply both CPU and GPU a constant power, enough to reach 3.5 and 2.23 GHz for GPU and CPU but allow the frequency to change based on workload.

Think of it like dynamic resolution, instead of running the game at 1080p constant and tearing a frame or dropping frame rate, you lower the resolution along any of the axis to maintain framerate.

In essence, PS4 runs at a constant 1.6GHz CPU and 800MHz GPU but the power consumed depends on the game. That is why you hear fan ramp up for some games and not others. With PS5 they pushed the system to a limit and designed the cooling system to handle that limit but the CPU and GPU can control their frequency based on the given workload it is doing. It does not mean PS5 will suddenly drop to 8TF because it over heats. No it means the frequency can drop because the game does not demand much from the SoC.

Hope that helps explain some stuff based on how i as a lay person understands it.
 

dangopee

Neo Member
I think the PS5 might be a more balanced and efficient system overall than the XSX, but the XSX just has more brute force. Also it looks like the XSX will be forced to do certain things in software on the CPU or GPU that the PS5 has dedicated fixed-function silicon for. Either way I am disappointed with PS5 specs. Too trade-offy and comprimisey. I wish Sony was willing to take a bigger loss on BoM vs retail price and go all out with the specs like they did with the PS3. It's obvious the PS5 APU has a significantly smaller die size than the XSX. There is really no excuse for that other than they clearly cheaped out and are looking to profit on launch model hardware sales.
 
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I’m really excited for the SSD loading times. Are we really looking at the virtual elimination of loading?

I think everyone feeling a bit down on the PS5 ought to read this article. It’s now clear that Sony is heading in a more affordable direction, but there’s quite a bit of ingenuity packed into this thing, from performance (I’ll spare you the ‘punching above its weight’ console zealot cliche, but things might not be as they appear) to really brand new, interesting stuff.

I think the PS5 marketing is taking a turn for the worse, but once you actually look at this thing, and start to disseminate all this info, and imagine the final result being a very capable next-gen system, for less, and with some truly unique features...
That's why I think by tommorow or the end of the week, people are going to start to realize how great the PS5 architecture really is once the hype-train dust settles.

Reading this article made me realize how meticulous each component of the system is designed with both developers and gamers in mind. The SSD is a genuine game-changer and the six levels of optimization it has is super impressive.

I'm predicting the PS5 exclusives will be just like the PS3 exclusives: unique, beautiful looking, and utterly ambitious in its scope.
 
I think the PS5 might be a more balanced and efficient system overall than the XSX, but the XSX just has more brute force. Also it looks like the XSX will be forced to do certain things in software on the CPU or GPU that the PS5 has dedicated fixed-function silicon for. Either way I am disappointed with PS5 specs. Too trade-offy and comprimisey. I wish Sony was willing to take a bigger loss on BoM vs retail price and go all out with the specs like they did with the PS3. It's obvious the PS5 APU has a significantly smaller die size than the XSX. There is really no excuse for that other than they clearly cheaped out and are looking to profit on launch model hardware sales.
How is it a more balanced and efficient system? The CPU is weaker, the GPU is weaker, the memory capability is lesser, the only advantage it has is a faster SSD which is doubly as fast as an SSD which is already insanely fast and may not result in any appreciable difference.
 
I think the PS5 might be a more balanced and efficient system overall than the XSX, but the XSX just has more brute force. Also it looks like the XSX will be forced to do certain things in software on the CPU or GPU that the PS5 has dedicated fixed-function silicon for. Either way I am disappointed with PS5 specs. Too trade-offy and comprimisey. I wish Sony was willing to take a bigger loss on BoM vs retail price and go all out with the specs like they did with the PS3. It's obvious the PS5 APU has a significantly smaller die size than the XSX. There is really no excuse for that other than they clearly cheaped out and are looking to profit on launch model hardware sales.
That's one way of looking at it.

I see Sony's approach to making an affordable beast of a console with ingenious system architecture as something very positive, unless you guys see the specs wars as some sort of dick measuring contests.

This is why I hate PC gaming because it made people have unrealistic expectations when it comes to specs and costs. My friend spent $1370 on a PC that he hasn't even opened yet.
 

Shmunter

Member
There will always be load screens. Next gen will just be shorter. Soon even those will be to long though.
Seemingly the ssd can refresh the entire ram within 3sec, that’s raw. With that kraken sauce seemingly pushing that even faster. So no loading screens may actually be legit unless intentional to show some logos or tips etc.
 

Filippos

Banned
Seemingly the ssd can refresh the entire ram within 3sec, that’s raw. With that kraken sauce seemingly pushing that even faster. So no loading screens may actually be legit unless intentional to show some logos or tips etc.

doesnt matter for online games though.
And devs have to make use of that, which they won’t for a single platform.
 
After watching the digital foundry video, my initial disappointment has been almost completely dissipated, sure I would've loved more Teraflops, but alas; I really don't think it's all about the flops this time around, I dont think there's going to be huge differences in the games we see.


As they said, the amount of custom silicon Sony has put into these chips for pure efficiency, makes it seem that they could probably get almost identical performance out of something that on paper is less capable.


The absolutely insane SSD and listening to them explain about the Tempest Audio system has me absolutely psyched. How they said that it will pretty much be like being there when the audio engineers actually created the sound for recording has me really excited. And the fact that it can process hundreds of sound samples at the same time, compared to something like Dolby Atmos which can only produce up to 35.


Bring on Next gen.
 

SALVATION_NL

Neo Member
Congrats on XBox making the system about games again. They definitely stepped up their game. Xbox lost this gen because of losing connection with their audience. They never recovered. Things will definitely go more head to head next gen.

I see a couple of key differences in targeting audience tho:
  • Xbox seems to be going with a best graphics pc like approach.
  • Playstation wants to give you an overall gaming experience not experienced before.
Both still targeting gamers, but a slight difference in audience. And according to latest gdc talk: they want to be the cheaper console. Mark repeatedly talked about cost effective, bang for your buck like experiences.

The loading speeds on ps5 will definitely result in more dense worlds because loading assets in wil be as quick as turning your camera. Things don't have to be preloaded anymore. There will be some awesome things created with the futures that ps5 presents unparreleld by xbox.
 
Congrats on XBox making the system about games again. They definitely stepped up their game. Xbox lost this gen because of losing connection with their audience. They never recovered. Things will definitely go more head to head next gen.

I see a couple of key differences in targeting audience tho:
  • Xbox seems to be going with a best graphics pc like approach.
  • Playstation wants to give you an overall gaming experience not experienced before.
Both still targeting gamers, but a slight difference in audience. And according to latest gdc talk: they want to be the cheaper console. Mark repeatedly talked about cost effective, bang for your buck like experiences.

The loading speeds on ps5 will definitely result in more dense worlds because loading assets in wil be as quick as turning your camera. Things don't have to be preloaded anymore. There will be some awesome things created with the futures that ps5 presents unparreleld by xbox.
This is exactly why I'm excited about PS5 and not at all about XSX. Different needs, opinions and priorities are fine and it will be super exiting to see how everything translates into gaming performance, experience and graphics in reality.

Lots of presumptions right now.
 

MrRenegade

Banned
Sony has broken its silence. PlayStation 5 specifications are now out in the open with system architect Mark Cerny delivering a deep dive presentation into the nature of the new hardware and the ways in which we should expect a true generational leap over PlayStation 4. Digital Foundry had the chance to watch the lecture a couple of days ahead of time and had the opportunity to talk to Cerny in more depth afterwards about the nature of the custom PlayStation hardware and the philosophy behind its design.

As you'll appreciate when you see the deep-dive presentation released today, there's a wealth of new information about Sony's next-generation console plans here, and that's before we go really in-depth with the information Mark Cerny shared with us beyond the content of today's presentation. With that in mind, we'll be presenting our content in two chunks. Today, we'll be looking at what we've learned from Sony's video broadcast, and a little further on down the road, we'll go deeper and share even more detail around the central pillars. In summary, however, these are the core details covered today:
  • The technical specifications of PlayStation 5 and its innovative 'boost' approach to core clocks;
  • The features of the PlayStation 5 GPU;
  • How the SSD helps deliver the next-generation dream;
  • How Sony tackles expandable storage;
  • Unprecedented 3D audio fidelity via the Tempest 3D Audio Engine.
What's exciting about this presentation is that Sony presents a vision for next-gen that recaptures some of the pioneering spirit of its early consoles by delivering state-of-the-art, exotic custom silicon with a razor-sharp focus on taking the gaming experience to the next level. But at the same time, the design embraces the developer-friendly ethos that proved so successful with PlayStation 4. The idea is that developers comfortable with the current generation hardware and can easily get to grips with the basics of PS5 and easily access the extra CPU, GPU and storage features before exploring the new features at their own pace.

The specs
From the gamer's perspective, we know from our audience that there's an almost rabid hunger for the core technical specifications of the PlayStation 5 processor - and thanks to this presentation, we now know much more about the custom AMD processor at the heart of PlayStation 5. In truth, though, Cerny's focus in his presentation is more about the experience delivered by key features such as the SSD storage and the new Tempest audio engine - which is truly exciting stuff - but the anticipation level for the spec is such that this is where we'll start.

On a basic level, we already know that PlayStation 5 uses AMD's excellent Zen 2 CPU technology with prior communications confirming eight physical cores and 16 threads - but now we know how fast they are clocked, with PS5 delivering frequencies up to 3.5GHz. Discussing the nature of CPU and GPU clock speeds is going to require some careful explanation because Cerny actually described frequencies as being 'capped'. For the CPU, 3.5GHz is at the top end of the spectrum, and he also suggests that this is the typical speed - but under certain conditions, it can run slower.

PlayStation 5PlayStation 4
CPU8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz with SMT (variable frequency)8x Jaguar Cores at 1.6GHz
GPU10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz (variable frequency)1.84 TFLOPs, 18 CUs at 800MHz
GPU ArchitectureCustom RDNA 2Custom GCN
Memory/Interface16GB GDDR6/256-bit8GB GDDR5/256-bit
Memory Bandwidth448GB/s176GB/s
Internal StorageCustom 825GB SSD500GB HDD
IO Throughput5.5GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9GB/s (Compressed)Approx 50-100MB/s (dependent on data location on HDD)
Expandable StorageNVMe SSD SlotReplaceable internal HDD
External StorageUSB HDD SupportUSB HDD Support
Optical Drive4K UHD Blu-ray DriveBlu-ray Drive
Sony's customised version of the AMD RDNA 2 GPU features 36 compute units running at frequencies that are capped at 2.23GHz, effectively delivering 10.28TF of peak compute performance. However, again, while 2.23GHz is the limit and also the typical speed, it can drop lower based on the workloads being demanded of it. PS5 uses a boost clock then - and we'll explain that presently - but equally importantly, it's important to remember that performance from an RDNA compute unit far outstrips a PS4 or PS4 Pro equivalent, based on an older architecture.

In fact, the transistor density of an RDNA 2 compute unit is 62 per cent higher than a PS4 CU, meaning that in terms of transistor count at least, PlayStation 5's array of 36 CUs is equivalent to 58 PlayStation 4 CUs. And remember, on top of that, those new CUs are running at well over twice the frequency.

Introducing boost for PlayStation 5
It's really important to clarify the PlayStation 5's use of variable frequencies. It's called 'boost' but it should not be compared with similarly named technologies found in smartphones, or even PC components like CPUs and GPUs. There, peak performance is tied directly to thermal headroom, so in higher temperature environments, gaming frame-rates can be lower - sometimes a lot lower. This is entirely at odds with expectations from a console, where we expect all machines to deliver the exact same performance. To be abundantly clear from the outset, PlayStation 5 is not boosting clocks in this way. According to Sony, all PS5 consoles process the same workloads with the same performance level in any environment, no matter what the ambient temperature may be.

So how does boost work in this case? Put simply, the PlayStation 5 is given a set power budget tied to the thermal limits of the cooling assembly. "It's a completely different paradigm," says Cerny. "Rather than running at constant frequency and letting the power vary based on the workload, we run at essentially constant power and let the frequency vary based on the workload."

An internal monitor analyses workloads on both CPU and GPU and adjusts frequencies to match. While it's true that every piece of silicon has slightly different temperature and power characteristics, the monitor bases its determinations on the behaviour of what Cerny calls a 'model SoC' (system on chip) - a standard reference point for every PlayStation 5 that will be produced.

The PlayStation 5 has variable frequencies for CPU and GPU, with an internal monitor adjusting clocks to keep the system within its power budget.

"Rather than look at the actual temperature of the silicon die, we look at the activities that the GPU and CPU are performing and set the frequencies on that basis - which makes everything deterministic and repeatable," Cerny explains in his presentation. "While we're at it, we also use AMD's SmartShift technology and send any unused power from the CPU to the GPU so it can squeeze out a few more pixels."

It's a fascinating idea - and entirely at odds with Microsoft's design decisions for Xbox Series X - and what this likely means is that developers will need to be mindful of potential power consumption spikes that could impact clocks and lower performance. However, for Sony this means that PlayStation 5 can hit GPU frequencies way, way higher than we expected. Those clocks are also significantly higher than anything seen from existing AMD parts in the PC space. It also means that, by extension, more can be extracted performance-wise from the 36 available RDNA 2 compute units.

Not wishing to draw comparisons with any existing hardware past, present or future, Cerny presents an intriguing hypothetical scenario - a 36 CU graphics core running at 1GHz up against a notional 48 CU part running at 750MHz. Both deliver 4.6TF of compute performance, but Cerny says that the gaming experience would not be the same.

"Performance is noticeably different, because 'teraflops' is defined as the computational capability of the vector ALU. That's just one part of the GPU, there are a lot of other units - and those other units all run faster when the GPU frequency is higher. At 33 per cent higher frequency, rasterisation goes 33 per cent faster, processing the command buffer goes that much faster, the L1 and L2 caches have that much higher bandwidth, and so on," Cerny explains in his presentation.

"About the only downside is that system memory is 33 per cent further away in terms of cycles, but the large number of benefits more than counterbalance that. As a friend of mine says, a rising tide lifts all boats," explains Cerny. "Also, it's easier to fully use 36 CUs in parallel than it is to fully use 48 CUs - when triangles are small, it's much harder to fill all those CUs with useful work."

Sony's pitch is essentially this: a smaller GPU can be a more nimble, more agile GPU, the inference being that PS5's graphics core should be able to deliver performance higher than you may expect from a TFLOPs number that doesn't accurately encompass the capabilities of all parts of the GPU. Developers work to the power limits of the SoC, their workloads affecting frequencies on the fly - but it's those factors that impact the clock speeds, not ambient temperatures.

Cerny acknowledges that thermal solutions on prior generation hardware may not have been optimal, but the concept of operating to a set power budget makes the concept of heat dissipation an easier task to handle, despite the impressive clocks coming from the CPU and GPU.

"In some ways, it becomes a simpler problem because there are no more unknowns," Cerny says in his presentation. "There's no need to guess what power consumption the worst case game might have. As for the details of the cooling solution, we're saving them for our teardown - I think you'll be quite happy with what the engineering team came up with."

Read more at the link above!
The gist is: will be cheaper, Sony won't lose money on every console. While MS will, plus they are all about brute force, not in equilibrium with the Earth, so it will result in derainforestation => more orangutans will die.
 
The gist is: will be cheaper, Sony won't lose money on every console. While MS will, plus they are all about brute force, not in equilibrium with the Earth, so it will result in derainforestation => more orangutans will die.
You aren't sick of spouting bullshit yet? I'll say between yesterday and today, you've been on your game spouting literal utter bullshit. Bravo.
 

MrRenegade

Banned
You aren't sick of spouting bullshit yet? I'll say between yesterday and today, you've been on your game spouting literal utter bullshit. Bravo.
This is the only troll post I made. And now ppl like you cling to it, like your life depends on it :). Repeat: Sony will not lose money on the console, MS will, they are all about brute force. MS's strategy is not sustainable. They only can because the company has ~130 billion in cash reserves. that's all. Sony wins, audio will blow such a big hole into XBX's belly that they will fall down like Riki Oh's rice eating fat bastard enemy.
 

KiNeMz

Banned
Omg Kojima. This vid has truly enlightenment me to the beauty of this machine. So caught up in this TF argument. But it's old talk. This box is revolutionary.
 

dyergram

Member
I am the only one that was expecting him to say it was going to be water cooled? It felt like they have something up there sleeves regarding cooling.
 

farmerboy

Member
No joke, but this DF video actually redeemed Sony's presentation for me. Its clear the PS5 has a few tricks up its sleeve, and Sony has much work to do to communicate these.

They ought to send DF a thankyou note for helping out a little.
 

LMJ

Member
The thing is Cerny very much talks like an engineer and is obviously VERY excited about many of these features, but being an engineer his presentation is dry as the Sahara

DF both Leadbetter and John sound like two average Joe's breaking it down and make it considerably more palatable lol

Even if those two do lack Cerny's smooth dulcet tone of speaking lol
 

Entroyp

Member
I think you nailed it. Cerny talks very much like an engineer and his presentation feels like it was prepared for a technical audience.
 
I too was a little disappointed after watching the Cerny presentation. Not understanding all the technical details didn't help but after watching the DF breakdown and having it explained in terms I could better understand I'm actually more hyped than I expected to be by anything Sony might have announced.
 
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