Sony revealed the PlayStation 5 Professional, the upgraded model of its current-gen console, in September. In a technical presentation, Mark Cerny, lead architect of the PS5, gave an outline of the PS5 Professional’s options. Cerny has now gone in-depth into the technical points of the console in a brand new deep-dive video, detailing the PS5 Professional’s superior ray tracing options, the brand new AI-driven upscaling method and extra. Cerny and Sony have additionally revealed a collaboration with AMD on Machine Studying-based know-how for improved graphics and gameplay.
PS5 Professional Technical Deep-Dive
At a seminar at Sony Interactive Leisure HQ, Cerny gave a “bits and bytes” discuss on the PS5 Professional, diving into the technical particulars that went into Sony’s latest console. In a close to 40-minute presentation, shared on YouTube Wednesday, Cerny detailed the “tightly focussed” strategy to upgrades for a mid-generation Professional variant that prioritises maintaining the work wanted from sport builders to an absolute minimal, whereas bringing enhancements that really feel important to avid gamers.
Cerny revealed that the ideation for the PS5 Professional started in 2020, the identical yr that the usual PS5 launched. The upgraded console, which launched November 7 in choose markets, comes with three headline efficiency options — an upgraded GPU, upgraded ray tracing {hardware}, and a brand new AI-based upscaling know-how, dubbed PlayStation Spectral Tremendous Decision (PSSR).
Cerny detailed the technical points of the bigger GPU on the PS5 Professional. The bottom PS5 runs on RDNA 2 GPU, which comes with 18 sub-units, referred to as Work Group Processors (WGPs). The PS5 Professional’s “hybrid” RDNA GPU, however, comes with 30 WGPs. Within the video, Cerny defined the know-how behind the 16.7 teraflops “hybrid” RDNA GPU on the PS5 Professional, that mixes a number of generations of RDNA know-how.
“The bottom know-how for PS5 Professional is someplace between RDNA 2 and RDNA 3. I am calling it RDNA 2.x,” Cerny mentioned. Based on him, that alternative makes it simpler for builders to port their video games to the PS5 Professional.
“Ray tracing makes use of what I am calling Future RDNA know-how. It is roadmap RDNA that is effectively previous the function set immediately. It is exhibiting up right here first,” Cerny mentioned. “And machine studying is customized, or to be extra particular, it is customized enhancements to RDNA,” he added.
Based on Cerny, the PS5 Professional required sooner and extra reminiscence to assist its bigger GPU. The upgraded console’s system reminiscence has a bandwidth of 576Gbps — 28 % sooner than the bottom PS5’s 448Gbps. The PS5 Professional additionally has over 1GB extra reminiscence accessible to video games, which is utilised to combine PSSR, including ray tracing, and rising rendering decision of video games. To realize this, the PS5 Professional comes with a separate slower DDR5 RAM devoted to the working system, thus liberating up sooner reminiscence for video games.
Cerny additionally elaborated on the PS5 Professional’s “RDNA 2.x” graphics. The center-of-the-road improve brings numerous options from RDNA Three know-how, whereas maintaining issues that might trigger problems at bay. He additional detailed the technical points of enhancements to ray tracing and machine studying know-how packed within the PS5 Professional.
Lastly, Cerny introduced the start of Sony’s deeper collaboration with AMD, codenamed Amethyst, with a concentrate on future {hardware} architectures for Machine Studying.
