Many were hoping for a release date, specs, or the look of the PlayStation 5 stream in vain. During the presentation of the PS5, there were many technical details. We present you the 6 most important findings and explain what lies behind them.
In brief:
- The new hardware specs of the PS5
- The backward compatibility of the PS5 with the PS4
- Realism through ray tracing
- What is 3D audio?
- PS5 update policy and loading times
- Technology that is supposed to make the PS5 faster
Which stream are we talking about? On March 18, 2020, Sony had made up its presentation in a stream that was actually intended for the Game Developer Conference (GDC).
Many found the stream quite boring, as it was very technical. It was aimed primarily at developers and a technical audience, not at the mainstream. The viewers were expecting completely different things, but PS5 Lead Architect Mark Cerny only offered “technical details and subtleties.” Many also hoped that Sony would finally reveal the official design of the PS5 and still hope that the PS5 will at least look as cool as this fan art.
Can I still watch the stream? In the following, we would like to present the 6 most important facts of the stream in more detail and what exactly lies behind them. The entire video can still be viewed on YouTube:
If you are interested in a stronger comparison between the PS5 and Xbox Series X, take a look at our colleagues from GameStar, who compared the PS5 and Xbox Series (via GameStar).
1. Stream delivers new hardware specs for the PS5
How much power does the PS5 offer? For many viewers, one of the most important findings of the stream: Cerny finally revealed something about the performance of the new console. Previously, there had been speculation about performance and an image fueled the ideas.
The PS5 features an eight-core Zen 2 processor from AMD with a clock speed of 3.5 GHz. The graphics unit (GPU) is supposed to provide 10.28 teraflops of performance. In comparison: The Xbox Series X is said to provide 12 teraflops, while the PS4 Pro achieves 4.2.
That’s why teraflops are not that important: He explained that teraflops alone do not determine the console’s performance:
- The PS5 does not have a special console processor installed, but a PC CPU
- AMD’s Smartshift technology is supposed to ensure that the GPU and processor support each other.
In the end, the host noted, the actual performance counts, not the theoretical number on paper. A developer has now reported and claims that fans completely misunderstand teraflops.
What is a FLOP? FLOP actually stands for “Floating Point Operations Per Second.” A FLOP describes how many floating-point operations (additions and multiplications) can be performed by the computing unit per second. Usually, this refers to the maximum possible, but this rarely corresponds to practical performance.
In our article about the Xbox Series X, we have broken down what a TFLOP actually is. What these FLOPs mean for the player and how to calculate your own processor:
2. On the PS5, you can play (almost) all PS4 games
Some time ago, Sony explained that next-gen crossplay between PS5 and PS4 is possible and had already assumed that there would be backward compatibility with the old generation. Now Sony has specified what the PS5 will actually offer and has also excluded certain games:
- Pro Legacy Mode: This supports games that were specifically tailored to the PS4 Pro. On PS4 games, you still find the tagline “PS4 Pro optimized.”
- PS4 Legacy Mode: The legacy mode supports the games of the previous PS4 generation. Initially, not all games are supposed to be supported.
- At launch, the “top 100” PS4 games are expected to be available. There will still be quite a bit missing, since there are over 4000. However, Sony aims to make a large portion compatible.
- PS3 and older generations: these will not be supported according to the stream. This is said to be too complicated and too expensive. Even with the PS3, backward compatibility was very expensive and complicated due to a special chip, and thus disappeared in the new models of the PS3.
3. Graphics and sound will become even more realistic
The stream explained that ray tracing will play an important role on the PS5. Ray tracing…
- … for calculating shadows,
- general lighting,
- calculation of reflections,
- as well as audio calculation.
Also on the Xbox Series X, audio is calculated by ray tracing, which is probably not surprising now, as both the Xbox Series X and the PS5 rely on AMD’s RDNA2 architecture.
What is ray tracing? Ray tracing is a technology that aims to represent light and shadow particularly realistically. An algorithm calculates how light falls into the human eye and subsequently where the gaze falls.
The downside is that these calculations are very hardware-intensive and can only be handled by powerful machines. Anyone who wants to use ray tracing at this current time also necessarily needs an Nvidia graphics card, as only these currently support ray tracing. However, this could change with RDNA2 for AMD in the future.
If you want to take a look at ray tracing: The shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare supports ray tracing and it looks impressive:
4. Sound should draw you further into the game
What technology does the PS5 use for sound? Sony already relied on its self-developed 3D audio with the PS4. This is a special form of virtual surround sound. Sony intends to further improve this while staying true to the old technology. However, Sony does not reveal what exactly will be changed or improved in its stream.
What is 3D audio? Behind 3D audio lies a proprietary (i.e., protected) sound system developed by Sony itself.
It is most comparable to Dolby Atmos or similar sound standards that rely on spatial sound. All of these systems create a virtual surround sound. The player should feel like they are in the middle, being able to precisely locate sounds. But how does 3D audio work?
- With 3D audio, sound is already programmed to specific positions in the room, instead of being distributed across different channels as usual.
- During sound data playback, a special software processes the sound, and the final calculations are then sent to the headphones or speakers.
With a PlayStation VR headset or a regular PS headset from Sony, you can already use the 3D technology today. By the way, we consider the PS headset to be one of the best gaming headsets in 2020.
5. PS5 needs neither patches nor long loading times
Cerny emphasized that the PS5 should be 100 times faster than the previous console generation. He listed several points why it is so much faster:
- Fast boot times: Thanks to the SSD, the boot times of the system should be very low. Loading times should also significantly decrease, as noted regarding the Xbox Series X.
- Hardly any loading times anymore: Long loading times annoy many players and are, for example, a major problem in Destiny 2. Especially when games are very large, this can take some time. If these are eliminated, it would likely be a relief for many players.
- High-speed streaming: A fast SSD supports streaming by allowing games to run faster. However, most of the streaming work itself is usually handled by the processor. According to Sony, this but has more than enough power.
- Deduplication of game data: This involves a system that identifies and removes duplicate data. Deduplication mainly serves storage optimization, so that games or data become significantly smaller and therefore take up less space.
- No patch installations needed anymore: According to the stream, no additional downloads should be necessary. How this will be reflected in reality will be seen at the PS5 release.
Lead technician Cerny also explained that the mere transition from HDD (PS4) to SSD (PS5) would bring a massive speed boost. He demonstrated this in a brief comparison:
| PS4 HDD | PS5 SSD | |
| Bandwidth | 50 – 100 MB/s | 5 GB/s |
| Seek Time | 2-50 milliseconds | Instant |
| Loading time | 1 GB in 20 seconds | 2 GB in 0.27 seconds |
What exactly is seek time? Seek time refers to the time the hard drive takes to find a file on the hard drive. Once found, it can also be used. The lower the “seek time,” the faster the hard drive.
SSDs are a good investment to revitalize a sluggish PC. And for those who still do not have an SSD in their system, we have some tips on why it is particularly worthwhile to buy SSDs right now:
6. That’s why the PS5 is so incredibly fast
Sony plans to focus primarily on speed with the PS5:
- Sony relies on a heavily modified chip with eight cores from AMD, which, while only clocked at a maximum of 3.5 GHz in base mode, also has a boost mode that is supposed to deliver more in appropriate situations.
- A special I/O unit is also built in, which is supposed to ensure speed. Overall, two co-processors are integrated into the modified chip.
- The I/O unit includes a so-called “Kraken Decompression” that is supposed to make data decompression 12% faster than with the PS4.
- The chip also contains a dedicated DMA controller.
- Furthermore, the GPU integrates what are known as cache scrubbers.
- Sony also relies on a modified flash controller.
All these components are supposed to ensure high speed in simple terms. Data is processed in seconds by the system, allowing players to play without any losses.
The components of the PS5 explained quickly
What does I/O unit mean? I/O stands for Input/Output and describes how quickly a device can communicate with or process users. This includes read and write operations.
The I/O unit, for example, is responsible for how quickly data is transferred from the hard drive to the system memory, where it can then be processed.
What is DMA? DMA stands for Direct Memory Access and allows connected devices, such as a sound card or network card, to directly access the RAM without asking the CPU first. This increases data transfer and relieves the processor.
What does cache scrubbers mean? The GPU cache can read any system memory and detect memory errors. If it detects memory errors, it writes the corrected data back to the same/right position. This simplifies the work and requires fewer steps. For the user, this means more speed and more performance.
Therefore, Sony relies on a special flash controller with the PS5. This is responsible for quickly taking over the data from the system.
What comes after Sony’s presentation? Many had high hopes for the stream, and in our article, we tried to break down the technical details for you. Nevertheless, many questions remain open after the stream:
- After Sony’s presentation, we asked you which console you would choose: Are you buying a PS5 or would you prefer the Xbox Series X?
