On September 10, 2024, Sony finally announced the new PlayStation 5 Pro after years of speculation. The model promises to double or even triple the performance of the standard PS5 in certain scenarios and has much more advanced specifications than its predecessor, using cutting-edge hardware from the red side of the force.
In response to the question in this article's title, the PlayStation 5 Pro uses a chip developed by AMD. This was already expected since the company has been responsible for the development of the PlayStation and Xbox for many generations, but the big news is that Sony has decided to significantly improve the technical specifications of this model.
♦ New AMD chip with larger GPU ♦
Since the PS5 was released in 2020 with the hardware of the time, it was assumed that Sony and AMD would only revise the specifications. However, the PlayStation 5 Pro works with a new SoC from AMD, which did not reveal much about the CPU used but guaranteed significant improvements to the GPU.
The console's chief architect, Mark Cerny, commented that developers needed more graphics power to work on games. So AMD produced a custom chip with a more extensive and better-integrated graphics card, which increased the number of CUs (Compute Units) by up to 67%.
The regular PS5 uses 36 CUs for comparison, while the new model has 60 of these structures. The most exciting thing is that the entire GPU is built based on the RDNA 3 or 4 microarchitecture. It is still difficult to pinpoint this information since the companies have not yet confirmed all the details.
With the GPU, AMD worked to make the RAM 28% faster, making the game rendering 50% faster. In a more technical understanding, the system has speeds of up to 18 Gbps and a bandwidth close to 580 GB/s.
Information about the CPU has yet to be revealed. However, the device is expected to continue with the same eight-core processor and 3.5 GHz frequency.
► PS5 Pro has been announced and is coming in 2024! See price, date and specifications
♦ More Ray Tracing ♦
Ray Tracing, a technology sought after this generation, will gain prominence with the PlayStation 5 Pro. Although Sony has not provided many details, the company projects that games will receive more dynamic reflections and greater light refraction.
This will also only be possible due to the improved graphics card, possibly developed in RDNA 3 or 4. AMD's new architectures brought more RT cores and performance to support this technology, although they are still well behind their rival Nvidia.
AMD has yet to officially reveal its RDNA 4 graphics cards, which could be why Sony hasn't commented on the technology used in the console.
According to Cerny, the PS5 Pro will be able to maintain a high frame rate, similar to what happens in the PS5's Performance Mode, without sacrificing graphical quality. Ray Tracing improvements could also help with this issue as processing power increases.
♦ Upscaling and Game Boost ♦
As expected, the PlayStation 5 Pro will use a resolution upscaling technique to maintain performance. Called PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), the technology uses artificial intelligence with machine learning to change the resolution and deliver more FPS on the screen, while quality is not compromised.
Upscaling is
necessary to ensure stable gameplay since games run at 4K resolution. Not even
dedicated GPUs from AMD and Nvidia with similar specifications can run games at
ultra quality without this feature.
The company also revealed Game Boost, a feature capable of stabilizing or improving the performance of PS4 and PS5 games on the PS5 Pro through backward compatibility. This technology will be available in more than 8,500 games.
► Unreal Engine is switching from Intel to AMD CPUs due to instability
♦ Other improvements: Wi-Fi 7 and 2TB SSD ♦
In addition to these three pillars, the PlayStation 5 Pro will have internal storage with 2 TB of SSD with the same fast-loading technology. Users can also add the disc reader available for the PS5 or use the device only with digital media.
The device will still support the updated Wi-Fi 7 wireless network, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and 8K resolution.
♦ Price and availability ♦
The PlayStation 5
Pro will be available internationally on November 7th for US$699.99.