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[cormack12]

First a moment to remember the fallen from the previous thread. We salute you brothers and sisters. More, will no doubt join you. I've tried to collate what I can, if anything is wrong just give us a shout and I'll correct it and try to keep the first thread updated Base data is pretty much ripped from here.


Names
PlayStation: Strongly expected to be PlayStation 6
Xbox: Helix (codename only)


Unconfirmed Specifications (pieced together from leaks/articles)

Specs	PlayStation 6	Xbox Helix​
Process node	TSMC N2 (2nm)	TSMC N3P (3nm)​
Die size	280mm²	408mm²
CPU	8× Zen 6c +2 Zen 6 LP cores	3× Zen 6 + 8× Zen 6c (hybrid)​
CPU clock	4–5 GHz	At least 5 GHz, likely 5.5–6 GHz​
GPU	54 RDNA 5 CUs	68 RDNA 5 CUs
GPU clock	3 GHz	At least 2.5 GHz
RAM	30–40GB GDDR7 (TBC)	36–48GB GDDR7 (TBC)​
Memory bandwidth	640 GB/s (160-bit bus)	TBC (192-bit bus)​
Rasterization	3× PS5 (34–40 TFlops)	5–6× Xbox Series X​
Ray tracing	6–12× PS5	20× Xbox Series X​
Target output	4K/120Hz	4K/120Hz+

Hardware details

• Key RDNA 5 Technologies: Three technologies co-developed by AMD and Sony under Project Amethyst are expected to feature in both consoles. That is confirmed for the PS6 by Mark Cerny, and presumed for Project Helix, given that they are core RDNA 5 architectural features, though Microsoft has not explicitly confirmed this.
  • Radiance Cores: Dedicated hardware for ray and path tracing, taking full control of ray traversal and freeing shader cores for their primary functions
  • Neural Arrays: GPU compute units grouped to function as a unified AI engine, enabling better upscaling and denoising at lower GPU cost
  • Universal Compression: A pipeline-level software layer compressing all data types to effectively boost memory bandwidth without additional hardware cost
• Dedicated NPU: Both consoles feature a Neural Processing Unit to handle ML-driven tasks, which will be a lot more important in the next console generation.

Handheld crossover
Rumour | Sony's heavily rumored Project Canis, a dedicated PlayStation handheld reportedly launching alongside or shortly after the PS6. Leaked specs point to a monolithic APU on TSMC 3nm with 16 RDNA 5 compute units, 4× Zen 6c cores for games, and LPDDR5X memory. It would deliver roughly a quarter of the PS6's rasterization performance in handheld mode, with stronger-than-expected ray tracing thanks to RDNA 5 efficiency gains. Sony has been updating PS5 developer kits to support "Low Power Mode" with games running on just eight CPU threads, widely interpreted as quiet preparation for handheld hardware.
Rumour | Cancelled


Rumoured Pricing
Both consoles are expected to be priced as premium products in a speculated range:
Sony: $550 - $800
Xbox: $900 - $1200


Fidelity Strategies
Both companies seem to be pushing for 4K/120Hz as the premium experience, which will be facilitated by heavy investment into

• Neural engines for upscaling resolution: Xbox is expected to persist with FSR, while Sony continue to develop PSSR
• AI frame generation
• Ray regeneration

The different approaches/strategy
Microsoft (PC-Console hybrid)
Seem to be banking on high end, premium device to really focus on ray tracing and high frame rates
Seems to be focused on bringing together different ecosystems with Xbox as the access point (e.g. boot up Xbox or into Xbox mode and load up multiple libraries/storefronts)
Backward compatibility is a core mandate for legacy libraries and game preservation

Sony (Traditional immersive living room experience)
Seem to be seeking a more balanced, power efficient means of delivery and relying on RDNA+ features to deliver the premium feel
Continuing on their core business of closed, highly optimised hardware and a renewed focus on first party exclusive titles
Core integration with other devices like the rumoured handheld and companion devices

 

[Branded]

Imagine if XBOX actually launches in that price range. Fully embracing the downward spiral into irrelevance and ensuring that Sony and Nintendo will dominate the market for many more years to come.

 

[roosnam1980]

with those specs i expect a price tag of 1 grand for the ps6 at the minimum .

 

[Radical_3d]

Imagine if XBOX actually launches in that price range. Fully embracing the downward spiral into irrelevance and ensuring that Sony and Nintendo will dominate the market for many more years to come.

I don't know. A PC with 4080 performance for that price is a bargain. Specially in this economy.

with those specs i expect a price tag of 1 grand for the ps6 at the minimum .

You expect 1K € for a console that has 3,5X the bandwidth of the PS4 and only 5 times more memory? The bloody FOUR.

By the way, OP, can't see shit with the font in gray.

 

[roosnam1980]

I don't know. A PC with 4080 performance for that price is a bargain. Specially in this economy.

You expect 1K € for a console that has 3,5X the bandwidth of the PS4 and only 5 times more memory? The bloody FOUR.

By the way, OP, can't see shit with the font in gray.

so what do you expect the price to be?

 

[Sept Terrion Of Nothing]

This thread will age well allright

 

[realcool]

To all the homies out there from the previous Next-Gen OT thread who never made it to the new one:

 

[Mownoc]

Didn't Kepler say he expected the next Xbox to be $1200 all the way back in October? Before the memory crisis really started getting bad?

$900-$1200 range for helix seems optimistic AF lol.

 

[Radical_3d]

so what do you expect the price to be?

600-700. This thing must sell 95 millions before allowing something like the 650€ price tag on the PS5 that we have now. And its build to be cheap. To use what nobody in the high end market uses.

If the AI bubble burst I even expect lower prices for both. Something like 500 diskless PS6 and 700 diskless Helix.

 

[andreacusi]

This is gonna be a long one, i'll take a seat

 

[roosnam1980]

600-700. This thing must sell 95 millions before allowing something like the 650€ price tag on the PS5 that we have now. And its build to be cheap. To use what nobody in the high end market uses.

If the AI bubble burst I even expect lower prices for both. Something like 500 disk less PS6 and 700 disk less Helix.

this is 40gb of GDDR7 we are talking about but....................

 

[Physiognomonics]

You forgot the 2 Zen 6 LP (low-power) cores for the PS6

 

[Cumulus]

. And its build to be cheap. To use what nobody in the high end market uses.

this would have been cheap...well, at least affordable..... 1.5 years ago. Now....

 

[Pedro Motta]

So the PS6 with 54CUs is 3x the PS5, but Helix with 68CUs is 5-6x Series X? Math isn't mathing.

 

[Radical_3d]

this is 40gb of GDDR7 we are talking about but....................

The smallest jump of any generation ever and a 160bit bus. The smallest one since the PS3 era. Not to mention that is not even close to Helix performance but closer to a meager 9070. The PS5 was near 2080 performance when it released. I'd say Sony is saving some serious bucks this generation.

 

[Branded]

I don't know. A PC with 4080 performance for that price is a bargain. Specially in this economy.

Don't see that happening. We're reaching an era now where the graphics hardly matter any more and it's all down to creativity and production pipelines.

So why would John Casual care for something called "path tracing" when he can just play CoD, Fortnite and Rocket League at 120fps on a PS6 (or its handheld for that matter) at half that price?

If that new XBOX launches as some sort of hybrid PC I can't see the mainstream audience caring for it. Especially at that price. Might as well go grab a full phat PC.

 

[Radical_3d]

Might as well go grab a full phat PC.

 

[ValiantInstance]

Prices are going to be eye-watering. I have a 9070XT in my pc so I can make it through this decade without being bent over a barrel. We need to hope the next generation eventually sees a return to manageable prices or this hobby will start becoming unaffordable for the mainstream.

 

[Negotiator101]

How accurate are the specs? On paper the new Xbox looks significantly better, is this actually likely? Or will there be a price difference? I suppose that would explain the difference.

 

[Negotiator101]

So the PS6 with 54CUs is 3x the PS5, but Helix with 68CUs is 5-6x Series X? Math isn't mathing.

Larger bit bus maybe?

 

[Prodyhig]

I think this thread is going to age poorly. 2028 is still a long way off to talk about PlayStation 6, and we still need to see how GTA VI performs in current-gen console sales. If PlayStation 5 sales increase during 2027, Sony can rest easy.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

No disc drive no buy.

I still have 64GB of DDR5 lying around here, along with two NVMe SSDs that I bought before the RAM crisis.

Maybe I'll just build a new gaming PC instead. The PS5 launch lineup was pretty lousy.

 

[Negotiator101]

I think this thread is going to age poorly. 2028 is still a long way off to talk about PlayStation 6, and we still need to see how GTA VI performs in current-gen console sales. If PlayStation 5 sales increase during 2027, Sony can rest easy.

What are you talking? These consoles are coming regardless, how will it age poorly?

 

[Radical_3d]

I think this thread is going to age poorly. 2028 is still a long way off to talk about PlayStation 6, and we still need to see how GTA VI performs in current-gen console sales. If PlayStation 5 sales increase during 2027, Sony can rest easy.

I don't know if Sony would want more time for the RAM prices to stabilise. They can afford it since they are alone in the market now. Helix on the other hand is all but confirmed that is coming next year. So brace for spending!!

 

[Audiophile]

Believe both are rumoured to be N3P, haven't seen any mention of N2 for PS6.

 

[Darius87]

let's argue which console is better over fake spec.

 

[Pedro Motta]

Larger bit bus maybe?

To be double the performance of the PS6? lol Are you mad?

 

[Mownoc]

So the PS6 with 54CUs is 3x the PS5, but Helix with 68CUs is 5-6x Series X? Math isn't mathing.

Yes it's very strange. Those multipliers at the bottom don't match up. Especially when the table says the minimum GPU clock for Helix is 2.5ghz.

How can 2.5ghz 68 CU's beat the PS6 3ghz 54 CU's by about 80%? (3x PS5 vs 5x Series X)

Previous speculation has put the Helix at having a 25-30% advantage but that 3x PS5 Vs 5-6x Series X is putting it at something like an 80% to 130% advantage lmao.

 

[Pedro Motta]

Yes it's very strange. Those multipliers at the bottom don't match up. Especially when the table says the minimum GPU clock for Helix is 2.5ghz.

How can 2.5ghz 68 CU's beat the PS6 3ghz 54 CU's by about 80%? (3x PS5 vs 5x Series X)

Previous speculation has put the Helix at having a 25-30% advantage but that 3x PS5 Vs 5-6x Series X is putting it at something like an 80% to 130% advantage lmao.

It's fanboy fiction, I'm ignoring this thread.

 

[Victhemic]

It's fanboy fiction, I'm ignoring this thread.

 

[Mokus]

CPUs clocked at 5 GHz in a console? I highly doubt it.

 

[Mownoc]

How accurate are the specs? On paper the new Xbox looks significantly better, is this actually likely? Or will there be a price difference? I suppose that would explain the difference.

I think the specs in terms of ram (30gb for PS5 and 36gb for Helix) are likely accurate. No way they're going to use higher capacity chips for 40/48gb. That would be a bigger leap in memory capacity than we had this generation when we're now in the middle of a memory crisis lmao.

The CU's I also trust within a couple depending on how many they disable on the chip.

The multipliers compared to the previous console are nonsense.

Helix is likely to have around a 30% GPU advantage but will be significantly more expensive than the PS6.

 

[tusharngf]

Nice thread..let's goooooo

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[Pedro Motta]

Saved this for the real tears later. You guys never learn.

 

[StereoVsn]

Believe both are rumoured to be N3P, haven't seen any mention of N2 for PS6.

Yeah, 0 chance that Sony/MS (and AMD) are going to pay to reserve N2. That's for AI cards and Apple. Hell, I am not sure AMD will get N2 for its flagship Enterprise side.

 

[Fake]

PS6 will help sell more PS5 thats for sure. I'm curious about the portable. If will be a hibrid just like NS.

 

[StereoVsn]

PS6 will help sell more PS5 thats for sure. I'm curious about the portable. If will be a hibrid just like NS.

It all depends on pricing. If PS6 releases at something like $900+, sales will be slow.

It's going to be interesting to see PS5 sales at current $600-900 pricing once GTA releases as well.

 

[saintjules]

Thank you cormack12 . The successor of SonGoku

 

[Fake]

It all depends on pricing. If PS6 releases at something like $900+, sales will be slow.

It's going to be interesting to see PS5 sales at current $600-900 pricing once GTA releases as well.

$900 will be brutal. I expect the portable to be less expensive because they are underpower in comparison with the base form.

And PS6 need that layer to run PS5 games with the PS5PRO support, just like PS5 is doing with PS4pro.

 

[Cyborg]

The only way to keep these new consoles somewhat affordable is if Sony/MS are willing to chip in on every console sold. MS will do everything to be as close to Sony with (apperently) 25% higher performance.

 

[PlayerNumber0ne]

Yeah, 0 chance that Sony/MS (and AMD) are going to pay to reserve N2. That's for AI cards and Apple. Hell, I am not sure AMD will get N2 for its flagship Enterprise side.

Server/Desktop zen6 chiplets are on tsmc n2

https://overclock3d.net/news/cpu_mainboard/amd-confirms-2nm-zen-6-cpu-ramp/

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

40+ year olds nerds who only play on PC anyway argue about the most miniscule of details of a SoC design that nobody that actually buys the damn things later on will ever care about. Sounds like a good time.

 

[StereoVsn]

Server/Desktop zen6 chiplets are on tsmc n2

https://overclock3d.net/news/cpu_mainboard/amd-confirms-2nm-zen-6-cpu-ramp/

That's quite an important get from AMD then. Wonder if this will extend to APUs, and it would make sense to simplify their production.

 

[Radical_3d]

Do you realise that the two generations where Xbox has been more clearly ahead of PlayStation technically (the first one and the Series) are the worse performing ones in sales? Maybe powerful machines and wiping out your space in shops and malls because you've tried to make Netflix work in games wasn't the answer

 

[PlayStaytion]

It's pretty much all but confirmed helix will have 1TB+/s memory bandwidth, and that 3nm on xbox chip is incorrect, N3P and 2 are more likely on both of these chips.

 

[PlayerNumber0ne]

That's quite an important get from AMD then. Wonder if this will extend to APUs, and it would make sense to simplify their production.

I dont think console soc's will use n2 and all leaks claims that they are on n3p

If you compare Price Performance of n3p vs n2 it makes sense (n2 is only about 10 to 15% more dense vs n3p)

 

[PlayerNumber0ne]

It's pretty much all but confirmed helix will have 1TB+/s memory bandwidth, and that 3nm on xbox chip is incorrect, N3P and 2 are more likely on both of these chips.

Wasnt the claimed bandwith of Helix somewhere around 720 gb/s according to mlid's leak

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

40+ year olds nerds who only play on PC anyway argue about the most miniscule of details of a SoC design that nobody that actually buys the damn things later on will ever care about. Sounds like a good time.

 

[Bojji]

CPUs clocked at 5 GHz in a console? I highly doubt it.

At some point MLID was talking about 7GHz, hahaha.

Can't wait for 2027.