Mark Cerny Explains PlayStation's Focus On GPU Power Over CPU Upgrade For PS5 Pro

PlayStation lead architect Mark Cerny has offered an explanation on PlayStation's focus on GPU power over CPU upgrades for the PS5 Pro.

[andy85]

Only logical really. Had this argument loads on here. "Why have they not changed the CPU". Well it's costing £700 without doing that. How much did you want it to cost exactly doing both? CPU based games are probably 1/10 to GPU games' 9/10. That's why the money should be in the GPU

[Fishy Fingers]

Its easier/cheaper to manufacture (at least one chip on the APU is the same).

And more importantly, console games are mostly GPU bound (as they have ass CPUs compared to modern PCs) so keeping it the same makes life easier on devs to build the CPU requirements for both PS5 & Pro and just scale up on the GPU side of things.

[DivineHand125]

He could have made compromises to improve not only the GPU but the CPU as well. The CPU inside the PS5 is equivalent to the Ryzen 7 3700x. If he had approached it with the same logic as a PC gamer/builder, he would have left out the wifi 7 card and used a 1 TB internal storage instead of 2. That would have reduced the total cost of the system enough for him to add a CPU that is equivalent to a Ryzen 5 5600x or better while releasing it at $700.

That would have felt like a true generational leap over the base PS5 without having to rely on PSSR.

There is a reason Digital Foundry asked that question because they too believe the CPU could have been upgraded.

[Dreadbourn]

The 3700x is perfectly fine for 60fps. A 5600x like upgrade would have been a waste of resources for what they want out of it.

[DivineHand125]

So let me get this straight. You are fine with getting less for your money when there was a way for you to get more for that $700?

There are some titles that struggle to reach a locked 60 fps because of this CPU limitations and some titles that looks visually worst that the base PS5 because of the developer's poor implementation of PSSR. The more power inside the PS5 pro means, less issues from devs and a better product for you the consumer.

Don't blindly defend everything from Sony.

[Dreadbourn]

No, divinehand, I'd rather them do what they did with the SSD than a CPU upgrade. I have a PC I built with a 3600x and a 6800xt, I can count the number of titles I've tried that are CPU bottlenecked on one hand, and none of them are on console. You wouldn't see a real measurable difference in 99% of titles going from a 3700x to a 5600x until you start getting to 100+ fps, and that territory means next to nothing for consoles.

[mkis007]

You are ignoring the fact that the cpu bound games are all countable on one hand vs the gpu ones. It isn't worth it in this case. Any upgrade wouldn't have been enough even with other cutbacks. He's been lead architect for the past 4 consoles for a reason.

[DivineHand125]

How would reducing the drive space from 2 TB to 1 TB and keeping Wifi6 in the PS5 pro impact the performance?

Those are expensive components and the budget of those could have gone towards a better CPU while keeping the same GPU the PS5 Pro currently has.

[The_Algorithm]

The Pro was never meant to be a "true generational leap over the base PS5", that's what the PS6 will be for.

[richie007bond]

Tell that to the folks forking out $700

[Firebird360]

Anybody else get the feeling after that presentation that ps6 might not be backwards compatible and almost certainly not with ps4 games.

[mkis007]

not at all, he even said he didn't need to butterfly ps4 pro after all. "once it's in it's in." He said something in a digital foundry interview about timings not having to line up as he once thought.

[Reaper22_]

I'm not impressed at all with what PS5 PRO brings to the table. It's not worth the price imo.

[SonOfOsiris]

Rip sony

[mkis007]

As they bring home record revenue lol.

[SonOfOsiris]

yep sinking

[xenz]

Sony stock price has surged with 30% the last 6 months. Just FYI

[SonOfOsiris]

LOL

[mkis007]

Don't go to you for financial advice got it. You're the kind of guy who would say something obvious about finances and then something crazy would happen just so fate could make you wrong again.

[PRIMORDUS]

The CPU should have been upgraded if it was possible, but it can't because primarily due to compatibility concerns. I do think that the older CPU in the Pro does hold it back a bit.

[mkis007]

Explain backwards compatibility with ps4 then...

[Hedstrom]

I think Cernys walkthrough was interesting. Alot of the Ps5 pros build is to keep it as simple as possible for developers, you dont want them to have to make two versions of a game. With the Pro its about them just having to activate a couple of shaders in the program.