PLAYSTATION 5
There’s no denying it. 2020 has been a turbulent year. And now, for the first time since the original grey game changer 25 years ago, Sony is launching a console generation with a colourful box. Well, monochrome and some blue lighting. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
The PS5 has finally been revealed with a striking design in two flavours. If you’re buying a next-gen console for access to 4K Blu-rays as well as games, you’ll want the full fat version with the UHD disc drive, but if you’ve chosen a physical-media-free future, there’s a slightly slimmer Digital Edition. This should also slim down the wad of cash you’ll be handing over but no pricing has been revealed as yet.
So what’s inside the so-clearly-designedfor-maximum-airflow box? On paper, the PS5’s internals look strikingly similar to the Xbox Series X. Both have a custom eight-core Zen2 CPU, custom AMD RDNA 2 graphics card, 16GB of GDDR6 RAM and even custom SSDs but that’s where the similarities stop and the word custom comes into play.
Sony and Microsoft have very different approaches to console architecture. To save breaking down the silicon-based granularities of lead system architect Mark Cerny’s PS5 conference earlier this year, it’s fair to say that Sony’s focus is on processing power with a 3.5Ghz processor – oh hello ray tracing – but also on ease of use for developers.
The PS5 has what’s known as variable frequency to make the most of the GPU and CPUs respectively when necessary for those ultimate Spidey-swinging-in-4K moments.
The PS5 will be hitting 10.3 teraflops but don’t write off Sony’s console as the loser just because Microsoft says it has the power for 12. Teraflops, a handy measure of graphical performance now being used as a weapon in the console war, aren’t the be all and end all and are entirely reliant on the rest of the system working together. The CPU and GPU aren’t the only things that matter and Sony’s other big focus is that custom SSD. Cerny has confirmed that in comparison to the moving parts of the traditional hard drive found in the PS4, the PS5’s SSD read speed is faster by two orders of magnitude. Yes, that’s 100 times speedier than the current generation if you wondered why everyone was crowing about the lack of loading screens.
And, if you’re concerned about filling up that 825GB of storage space, while you will be able to install individual segments of games, the PS5 supports expandable storage with a standard NVMe SSD slot. Just don’t expect the extra GBs to be particularly cheap or even readily available initially, as
The PS5’s SSD read speed is 100 times speedier than the current generation
the SSD will need to be PS5 compatible with a PCIe 4.0 interface.
Another huge change for PS5 is Sony’s commitment to 3D audio via what’s known as the Tempest Engine. While the PSVR has been Sony’s greatest achievement so far when it comes to sound from 50 individual audio sources, this new revolutionary innovation allows for hundreds of sources. In his presentation Cerny used rainfall as an example. Previously only available as a single audio track on PS4, PS5 could bring weather to life in an all new way with the sound of individual raindrops. Perfect then for Sony’s newly announced Pulse 3D Wireless headset, which looks like it’s not going to stay that shade of white for long.
And finally there’s the DualSense controller. Switching up the Share button for a Create button, with a built-in mic and upgraded to a USB-C charging port, the DualSense isn’t just a pretty set of face buttons. Haptic feedback on the triggers means that firing different weapons and even exploring environments will feel entirely unique. Of course, we’ll also need the DualSense for exploring that teased 100% overhaul of the PS4 interface.
Plus, if you don’t like the current colour scheme of the controller or the console, don’t panic. Vice president of PS5 UX design Matt MacLaurin has confirmed that we “can count on even more beautiful (and hopefully radical) special editions” in the future. You’ll just have to see if you can hold out. Good luck.