The PlayStation 5 Specs Are Beefy, But Not Entirely Necessary

Sony has revealed some preliminary specs for the upcoming PlayStation 5, and while they're impressive, are they really necessary?

[IRetrouk]

100% yes they are necessary, we need bigger worlds, better ai, better interaction, better physics, faster load times, faster framerates and better resolutions, if they give me an option to buy an even more powerful ps5 at launch I would, just cause I know the games are coming.

[KyRo]

Everything I agree with you on except Bigger worlds. I mean look how many absolute trash open world games there have been this generation? Bigger isn't always better. Open world games have been stale for a long time, mainly because of poor mission design, and collectathon missions to make the game seem like there's more to do.

Give me linar games with large areas in between liner segments like Uncharted 4s Madagascar and God of War hub world any day over a nice open world filled with absolutely awful missions to do.

[IRetrouk]

Well I mean not every open world game is terrible or boring to explore or play, I like the way uncharted and God of war went with the semi open levels, but I dont want every single game to be like that, I want bigger worlds to explore too.

[VenomUK]

What gamer actually says a console has TOO MUCH power?!!!

A console can always perform better that's why we have new-generations. Controversial for clicks.

[bouzebbal]

I don't care about bigger world.. I think what we need is more talented developers making great games.. Most of them are only using the console power for graphical improvements.. The rest could easily been made last gen or even a gen before..

[sampsonon]

Horizon zero Dawn and spider - man were great large open worlds. as long as the world is alive it makes it fun.

[bouzebbal]

@sampsonon
Tastes are different but spiderman world is dead.. You find the same herd of pigeons flying the same way in different places of the map..

[fiveby9]

Who is really clicking on and reading this click-bait articles? So obvious what the aim of the article is.

[THC CELL]

Red dead world was huge and boring

[chiefJohn117]

Linear games with larger areas.... that's bigger worlds lol

[darthv72]

I'd say the consensus for this gen is that the 8 core jaguar CPU found in the PS4 and XB1 is the weakest link. The graphical prowess (especially for the Pro/X) is capable of delivering quality visuals but it being paired with the weak CPU is what's really holding things back.

Next gen it looks like they are addressing that weak spot. The use of an SSD is pretty much an obvious choice. Anyone who has swapped a mechanical for an SSD knows the benefits and prices have been coming down for them.

[starchild]

Some of my favorite games this generation, including The Witcher 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn, are open world games. Being open world doesn't guarantee a good game, but I love the freedom they offer and the greater sense of believability of setting.

So, I disagree with you and agree with everything IRetrouk said.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Ok, so a good open world game then. Does that work for you?

[ramiuk1]

same size worlds that load in better,im fed up of pop ups in games,i dont like shadows and details to pop in when im playing a beautiful game.
im happy with the lvl of detail of most games on ps4 pro

[WickedLester]

We need denser worlds, not bigger ones. I mean, No Mans Sky renders an entire universe of planets. You cant get any bigger than that. But those worlds are largely empty and devoid of any kind of diversity. Red Dead Redemption 2 has an enormous map, but does that make it a better game? No it does not. Personally i thought Horizon Zero Dawn struck the perfect balance between map size, diverse environments, game play, and variety of missions. I dont wanr a videogame world any bigger than that honestly.

[Bathyj]

My favourite map in GTA was liberty City. Not cos it's was big but because it wasn't. I knew where I was based on land marks. I never had to look at the map to know where to go.

I could just tell. Maps got bigger after that and samey. Instead of knowing where you were going you were resigned to following your GPS.

[IRetrouk]

Denser works too, but I would also like bigger worlds to explore, just for the record, I loved no mans skys sense of adventure and exploration, now while I wasnt talking about universe size worlds, I would like bigger than what we have now, I enjoy exploring, cant help it, I dont see why we cant all get what we want lol, this gen upcoming gen is really starting to sound good.

[WickedLester]

@IRetrouk,

Imagine a game like GTAV, only now you can enter into EVERY room of EVERY building in the map and totally interact with everything. That's what I want to see. Imagine The Witcher 3 with the ability to completely manipulate the environment. A world with that size and detail, but with the ability to chop down any tree, to excavate the land, to terraform, to build, etc. The ability to totally and completely manipulate your environment. THAT'S what I'm looking for in next generation power. Not simply bigger maps. Don't get me wrong, I love exploration too. But exploration just for the sake of it isn't enough for me. There has to be a compelling reason for it.

[IRetrouk]

Yeah man I totally agree, I wasnt shooting down your idea at all, I think more interactive maps are defo needed, supposedly days gone has something like 99% of buildings can be entered, what you can do in those buildings are yet to be seen though.

[Mister_Wolf]

We need better practices in the industry first. Hardware is useless if the games released are the same old shit.

[IRetrouk]

This I can agree with, although I blame gamers for that, we buy the shite they sell instead of saying no, well some of us do, and that in turn leads to more bull.

[Mister_Wolf]

I agree, gamers have to wake up too. I think that is happening, but it's slow.

On the most part, I haven't enjoyed this gen at all. There's been this focus on who has the more powerful hardware when the focus should be on better games, new IP etc.

Gamers need to stop this preordering stuff, buying into season passes, loot boxes, microstransactions.

[2pacalypsenow]

Industry has their hands tied, since "new experiences" don't usually sell.

[mogwaii]

You will get some of that but at 30fps.that won't change.

[IRetrouk]

Yeah more than likely, a solid 30fps doesn't bother me at all, as long as most fighters and racers reach 60 I'm happy

[Godmars290]

At the same time need certain publishers - corporates - to understand the limits and restrictions of development.

@VenomUK:
"What gamer actually says a console has TOO MUCH power?!!!"

Xbox loyalist who fear "their" console will come in under powered. Cause I know "Most Powerful" has been the cry this gen since the XBX.

[ravens52]

Ye idk, i think the worlds are pretty big as is. Did you go every where in rrd2? I didnt lol. Maybe more mechanics.

[rainslacker]

Don't worry. It's onlySP. They can't allow Sony to have any positive momentum.

I'd say raytracing may still be unecessary given it's computing requirements and the need to keep costs down, but if Sony wants to offer it, it's probably one of the best ways to improve graphics for next gen.

The SSD may be a bit much if it adds to much to the cost, but I have a feeling that the entire storage system won't be SSD, but it'll act more like a cache drive to load more of the game for faster access. The biggest benefit will come if it can be used to stream textures, because it'll allow for much bigger worlds, and free up system RAM for other things since it may not need to keep things that may be used in resident memory if streaming them from the SSD is good enough.

The rest of the system seems fine to me, and I'd like to know more details myself. Even the dev kit SDK documentation doesn't go into as much detail on specs as Cerny put out, and Cerny didn't go into a deep dive of specs themselves.

Sony is good at knowing what devs are going to be looking for in the next gen, or what may be required because of trends in the industry. They've been designing their consoles like that since the beginning. Even the PS3 was designed with GPU compute in mind, it just did it in a different way, which in theory, would have been faster than what was available at the time of last gens launch. The only reason the devs complained about it was because MS had their easy access system with 360 and DX, and CELL compute was a new paradigm that many weren't used to, but ended up learning anyways, and now they apply those skills to modern games through GPU compute.

[darthv72]

Are you saying the PS5 would possibly have two pools of memory to work with in addition to the storage? If the main memory is not busy swapping data back and forth to the hdd but instead swapping to a faster form of cache memory... wouldn't that be something like the xbo (and 360) have for ESRAM/EDRAM?

Obviously it would be Sony's implementation but anything between the main memory and the storage where that data is pulled from can be considered cache. How big that cache is and how quickly it can vacate, and make room for new incoming data, is the key.

[rainslacker]

No, I'm not saying that. SSD would be more like virtual memory. Something common in computer OS's. Ironically it's not recommended if you have an SSD drive, but that has more to do with SSD decay during the read write processes, and the fact that the OS's tend to use the same section of the hard drive consistently.

And no, it would not be like ESRAM at all. ESRAM was a small cache used for bursting small amounts of data. There are usually several types of caches in any given computer system, namely on the CPU, but many hard drives also have their own as well.

What I'm talking about is being able to read large chunks of the game into resident memory much faster than you could from a regular hard drive, or optical medium. This is a key part of how texture streaming works, and a slow hard drive can cause streaming to have visible texture draw. This would be more like how hybrid SSD drives work now, except potentially with a much bigger SSD component which sounds like it's going to run at bus speeds, so it would require more data to fill it to be useful. What I suggest is like a cache, but on a bigger scale, and with a better ability to control it compared to a system cache, which is usually handled by the system controllers themselves.

I don't think that what I suggest is like a computer OS virtual memory though. At least not majorly. It's more as a quick access buffer of sorts, and not for constant random access like you might see in a computer OS when running large amounts of program data. a game system doesn't really need that kind of access to that much data, but the asset data is getting quite large, and it can be helpful to have that readily available for much quicker load times, even in real time.

[Tazzy]

I agree I bet the website thought everything was necessary in Xbox One X though.

[DarXyde]

Raw power has never been my priority, but it does allow for the console to grow and adapt new tech throughout its life (e.g., a more fleshed out VR experience).

As long as the power doesn't drive the price through the roof, I'm agreeable to this, but we'll see. Cerny said it'd be fair, but technically, PS3 was a steal since they were losing money on the hardware.

[Nebaku]

Not one mention of "better gameplay". Modern gaming fans in a nutshell.

[IRetrouk]

Better interaction, better physics, better ai.....that's all part of better gameplay.

[Dark_Knightmare2]

I agree with everything you said except maybe the bigger worlds part. I’m kind of tired of there being almost nothing but open world games this gen because most of them are just filled with junk to stretch out the length. Yeah you get special exceptions like witcher 3,horizon zero dawn,zelda botw etc but a lot of series went open world that previously weren’t which ruined them and the others were just filled with boring and repetitive tasks to say they had 100 hours of gameplay

[IRetrouk]

I get what you are saying, I'm just thinking of the quality ones, the ones done well, I love exploring, hopefully there is a good mix of things to keep everyone happy

[PhoenixUp]

No shit it’s necessary

You can never go wrong with pushing the boundaries

[TheGamez100]

Yes especially that ssd, backwards compatibility, and much better cpu. Sonys already got the games so getting a little crazy on the hardware side isnt so bad. Nobody wants to use outdated tech.

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

I think the author still games on the PS1

[Miss_Vixen]

It's just an unnecessary click bait article guys.

[Zool 08]

Absolutely, as games gets more sophisticated then we need them to perform at their optimum i.e 60 FPS otherwise whats the point of the next gen consoles?

[Stanjara]

Are you serious? This console needs to be on the market for the next 6 years. It needs everything it can get.

[paintedgamer1984]

Said no one ever. Who writes these opinion pieces everyday

[GamingSinceForever]

This writer here can predict the future I see. 8k is clearly way into the future and Sony wants to be prepared so that just maybe there won’t be a need for a Pro version.

In my opinion it would only be unnecessary if Sony forces the consumers to pay a high premium for something that we may never get to use.

If this console launches at $499 or less it’s going to be huge.

[rainslacker]

The system isn't going to render at 8K. 4K isn't even fully adopted yet, and just like this gen, 8K is not going to be relevant except to a very small fraction of people. It'll output in 8K, but it'll do it through upscaling techniques. I can't even see devs making 8K checkerboarded versions of their games, because there is little to no point given how many 8K displays there will be to use it.

[Skuletor]

This is a console that will be getting the latest games til possibly 2027, just because you think the hardware's unnecessary now, doesn't mean it will be unnecessary later in its lifespan.

[Cmv38]

Necessary? Unless you're from the future, how in the hell can you even make that statement? Just say you don't want and or like playstation and end your article. Please and thanks

[soulrebel]

1. You don't know the full specs.
2. Incorrect, they are entirely necessary.

[Judge_Rez]

Agreed on both. I wonder why more people didn't state #1. Saying the console supports ray-tracing does not mean that the support will require only minimal sacrifices in other graphical areas. Same with 8K. Not to mention, we do not know the actual speed of the SSD. (despite the fact that Cerny allegedly claimed a "higher raw bandwidth than any SSD you can get for a PC")

[AK91]

Yes yes they are

[CP_Company]

you are clueless. go and write something else, not about gaming hardware.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

xbox timed, console, indie exclusives? Absolute fluff article.

[Kiwi66]

Yes, yes they are necessary

[Dannylew]

hahahahahahahaha ..

what kind of article is this ?.

[Bathyj]

This isn't a mid green refresh. It's a new Gen. Despite Microsoft's efforts to abolish generations they are still going forward and if you want to usher in a new Gen, you not only have to improve substantially on PS4 and XBOne, you need to improve in Pro and One X.

[Hedstrom]

I dont think 12 Gigaflops or 15 Gigaflops mathers. But of course you need more cpu, gpu, ram, faster hdd's etc. Otherwise a new generation is unecessery, developers need to be able to get the tools to evolve gaming.

[MWH]

Don't start this nonsense. The more the merrier.

[mogwaii]

What a ridiculous click bait article. Piss off.

[Kurupt]

Not entirely necessary?..First and foremost..how do u know its beefy to the point its not entirely necessary?..oh ye cuz sony told you the cores on the ryzen they are using run at 3.6ghz?? Cuz sony told you they have 32gb ram for the system and graphics?or did they tell you the graphics card runs at 3ghz with 5 times the compute units the ps4 pro got?.....shut up and don't just assume whatever u want without concrete proof!!!

[Shikoku]

Clickbait article with a dumb premise. It's about time consoles stopped using weak or old tech. What this article really points too is " geez guys this is going to be expensive" likely not as expensive as most think. The PS4 has sold 90 million units and Sony kicked in a good portion of Navi development that should translate to more generous pricing for parts in PS5.

[ShadowWolf712]

"Mitigate the damage" Oh for the love of god...

[OB1Biker]

What a very misleading article on so many levels. The end even reads like a virtue signalling crap whereas Only Single Player was already promoting Titanfall at the time.

[seanpitt23]

Yes they are, this is built for the future and years to come we don't want it to be outdated before it comes out like the ps4 was no wonder we got a pro version because the ps4 was way underpowered compared to the ps3 when it initially launched

[isarai]

I mean at that point you should ask are video games necessary? Factual answer? no it isnt, Complicated answer? Yes it is, for both what they want to accomplish, and for what fans of their platform want from them moving onward from ps4.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Until we actually have clock speeds, amounts of RAM and actual Benchmark numbers it's impossible to say whether the specs are truly great or good enough. About the only thing that we do know is that the solid state drive appears to be a vast Improvement.

Don't get me wrong it sounds like it's going to be a fantastic machine but until we see actual specs I just don't know how excited we really should be getting or not. And whether or not it is overkill or just about the right amount of an increase in performance for Next Generation. Also the price of the machine is certainly going to factor into whether or not this is necessary or not.

[FanboysKiller]

You won't know until you see it, it wasn't long time ago when devs claim that you don't need more than 2gb memory, it felt like yesterday and they were wrong cause they have no clue even for the next 2 yrs, it's unpredictable.

[Father__Merrin]

Ps5 is going to make PC look very bad. If an alledged Ps4 aka a HD 7870 & 200w psu lol can produce god of war just think what ps5 can do.

[Chaos_Order]

I remember people saying the same things about blu-ray when the PS3 launched. "It's just bloated data!" "You can fit any game on a DVD!" And then Blue Dragon happened. Then Lost Odyssey happened. Then the rest of the industry followed suit because as games got bigger, it BECAME necessary. And even now some games can barely squeeze into 50GB.
I'm not exactly one to champion graphics as the be-all and end-all, and many of my favourite games, including this gen, aren't graphically intensive at all. Doesn't mean we shouldn't push forward and see what we can make of it.

[Dom_Estos]

Whether people on here will like to hear this or not, VR is a prime focus of the new system and you need all the power in hardware you can get when it comes to that. That's not speculation. That's come straight out of the horses mouth, and I couldn't be more pleased about it.

[Guyfamily999]

If it was just a small step up, there wouldn't be a point in the system. Neither the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X are strong sellers. If this was just a "PS4 Pro Pro" with a better GPU, most people aren't gonna bite. 60FPS in games that are 30FPS on PS4/Pro? Super fast load times? Now that's cool. And you need a Ryzen CPU and an SSD for that.

[MetroidFREAK21]

I love the fact it's backwards compatible, and the inclusion of an SSD is incredible. Probably will end up getting it day 1

[Benficaman]

I dont mind to pay a little more and have a more futureprof machine. Yes, its necessary. Bring it on.

[The_Sage]

Yes they are necessary.

[Dragonscale]

And if it didn't have those specs they'd say its underpowered. Theres no pleasing some people lol.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

lol stop with this nonsense

[Kumakai]

they're necessary. power brings more evolution and capability to games. its the same reason the switch bugs me. sure its got some cute, fun games, but thats all its capable of. I want huge experiences - especially because sony's first party games are so cinematic. more power brings that to life. i want tech that takes advantage of my 4k/hdr tvs and dolby atmos setup. theres a reason i purchased them in the first place. power also helps with things like physics, better character models that have more poly's which lead to things like better facial animations etc. better CPUs mean that physics get more realistic for things like racing games, or destructive environments that open up new ways to play.

Power might not be a big deal for ppl playing mario games or zelda, but i want innovation and more lifelike experiences, and for that, you can never have enough power.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

Where's the beef? No actual specs have been revealed, outside of the SSD.

[Ace326]

Well the article specifically is talking about the 8k support so there needs to be a more specific title. Obviously it will be impossible for a console to do native 8k gaming. There just isn't technology available for this yet. Most likely the console will support 8k movies and 8k upscaling which should be possible with the new hardware. I do believe consoles need more power while keeping world size the same. Open world games don't need to be bigger. What they need is more content packed into a large world. With the SSD technology, powerful CPU, and powerful GPU this should be possible and we may see a big shift in level and world design because consoles can now render more. It would be nice to see 4k 60fps as the target setting, but 1080p 60fps is still great and would still allow for better games. With the CPU now being less of a bottleneck we may see games evolve for the better. Consoles do need all this extra power as it will push multiple industries to be better and to actually compete at a higher level again.

[Razuel]

yes, and hopefully moving forward the pro versions will not be held back. If they have 16gddr, 4-8ddr4, pc equivalent cpu then fingers crossed that it will scale like pc's do when they upgrade it.

[carcarias]

People want 4k at a solid 60fps with graphics that are noticeably better than current gen so yeah, they're necessary.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Well yes, common sense tells you future proof it. When I build my PC's I always go for more than what I need now, so in the future it would not be a problem, and would not spend extra $$ for nothing.

[NeoGamer232]

Considering that any computer is out of date pretty much the day you buy it....

No...

Specs can never be enough!