Sony reveals the PlayStation 5’s tech specs

Sony has confirmed the PlayStation 5’s technical specifications.

In an exclusive breakdown with Eurogamer‘s Digital Foundry tech analysis division, Sony provided the following list of specs:

• CPU — 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz (variable frequency) [PlayStation 4: 8x Jaguar Cores at 1.6GHz]
• GPU — 10.28 Teraflops, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz (variable frequency) [PlayStation 4: 1.84 TFLOPs, 18 CUs at 800MHz]
• GPU — Architecture Custom RDNA 2 [PlayStation 4: Custom GCN]
• Memory/Interface — 16GB GDDR6/256-bit [PlayStation 4: 8GB GDDR5/256-bit]
• Memory Bandwidth — 448GB/s [PlayStation 4: 176GB/s]
• Internal Storage — Custom 825GB SSD [PlayStation 4: 500GB HDD]
• IO Throughput — 5.5GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9GB/s (Compressed) [PlayStation 4: Approx 50-100MB/s (dependent on data location on HDD)]
• Expandable Storage — NVMe SSD Slot [PlayStation 4: Replaceable internal HDD]
• External Storage — USB HDD Support [PlayStation 4: USB HDD Support]
• Optical Drive — 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive [PlayStation 4: Blu-ray Drive]

In particular, Digital Foundry singled out the SSD on the PlayStation 5 as one of its most notable components. According to Digital Foundry‘s John Linneman, the speed of the SSD is “*REALLY* fast on paper — a lot faster than Xbox Series X even.”

The craziest thing about PS5 is the speed of the SSD. 5.5 GB/s is just part of the story – there is a lot of custom silicon in there to ensure that the system isn't bottlenecked in other areas. It's *REALLY* fast on paper – a lot faster than Xbox Series X even.

— John Linneman @dark1x.bsky.social (@dark1x) March 18, 2020

The PS5’s beefier specs will result in “no load times,” according to Sony, as well as improved game streaming. The PS5 is also emphasizing new ‘boost’ functionality. Essentially, the console uses an internal monitor to analyze workloads on both CPU and GPU and will adjust frequencies to match. This will allow the PlayStation 5 to hit GPU frequencies “way, way higher” than even Digital Foundry expected. During Sony’s recent keynote outlining the PS5’s various technical capabilities, the company also placed an emphasis on the importance of “3D audio” with the upcoming console.

Meanwhile, Digital Foundry confirmed that the PS5 will support external hard drives. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X supports both a proprietary external storage device and standard USB 3.2 external storage hard drives.

So far, Sony hasn’t shown off any games in action on its next-gen console, so all we have to go off is this old video comparing Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 Pro and PS5. As you can see, the game loads many times faster on the PS5.

If you’re interested in reading Eurogamer‘s full report on the PS5’s specs, you can do so here.

It’s important to note that Sony still hasn’t shown off actual next-gen games. In its ‘Road to PS5’ presentation, PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny said announcements related to games will come at a later date.

For now, Cerny said that the PS5 will be backward compatible with nearly all of the 100 most-played PlayStation 4 games on day one. It’s unclear exactly which games fall into this category, however. Ultimately, Sony’s goal is to have every PS4 game playable on PS5, according to Cerny.

While there are some concerns that COVID-19 will result in the PS5 being delayed, a Sony PR representative insists that the console is still on track to launch this holiday. The PS5’s price has not yet been confirmed.