Sony PlayStation 5 Pro will have significantly improved GPU, promising to be much more powerful than the standard version

Recent rumors suggest that Sony is working on a new version of PlayStation 5 (PS5), called PlayStation 5 Pro (PS5 Pro) and expected to launch sometime in the second half of 2024. Article This is also reasonable because Sony has a tradition of releasing an upgraded version in the middle of each life cycle of a PlayStation console version. The next generation of PlayStation - PS6 is unlikely to launch until at least 2028. Therefore, launching PS5 Pro later this year would be reasonable.

At the same time, PS5 Pro will likely also be developed to "anticipate" the launch of the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA VI) in 2025, promising to create a real fever for the game market this year. after. Details about the PS5 Pro's specs have begun to appear online, hinting at promising upgrades that could satisfy the needs of even die-hard gamers.

Sony PlayStation 5 Pro will have significantly improved GPU, promising to be much more powerful than the standard version Picture 1

Just like PS4 with PS4 Pro, PS5 Pro will definitely have higher image processing capabilities, performance and speed. According to GPU details leaked by Digital Foundry, the PlayStation 5 Pro is said to have a base clock speed of 2.18GHz, with a boost clock of up to 2.35GHz at peak performance. Furthermore, the leak reveals that important cache components will be restructured:

The 4MB L2 cache per WGP remains the same, while L1 doubles from 128KB to 256KB to accommodate the larger number of compute units per shader. The L0 buffer is also improved from 16KB to 32KB, Sony says this change is to meet higher ray tracing performance.

The report cites Sony documents suggesting that the PlayStation 5 Pro's gaming performance at launch will increase by 45% compared to the regular version, with an improvement of about 200% teraflops. The PS5 Pro is said to have 30 WGP that produces 33.5 teraflops of performance compared to the 18WGP that offers 10.23 teraflops of performance of the standard PS5 version. WGP (Work Group Processors), consisting of 2 CUs (Compute Units), allows increased computing power and memory performance (thanks to LDS - local data share) to be transferred to a single workgroup. VRAM memory bandwidth is about 29% from standard PS5 to P55 Pro.

Therefore, the report suggests that the PS5 Pro will be limited by VRAM bandwidth more than by shaders. That's why despite the big change in TFlops, Sony is clearly still expecting a 45% improvement in performance.

Recent revelations from Sony show that both PS5 and PS5 Pro models have some CUs disabled, i.e. PS5 has 18 active WGP out of 22 WGP in 5-4-5-4 configuration, while The PS5 Pro is said to have 30 WGP active out of 34 WGP in the 8-7-8-7 setup. This means that the PS5 Pro's lower clock speed of 2.18GHz can be boosted to 2.35GHz, and only certain titles can push the system to this limit.

In addition to upgrading hardware specifications, Sony is also expected to equip a series of advanced technologies for the PlayStation 5 Pro's GPU, including more DirectX 12 Ultimate features and variable-rate shading capabilities. changes to display details in different ways across areas of the screen.

Advanced features like "hybrid" MSAA will help developers enhance visuals and deliver smoother gaming experiences along with full support for mesh shaders that simplify processing geometry. Sony is also expected to reengineer the engine, which should benefit the 60FPS gameplay on the PS5 Pro that the standard PS5 struggles with.

All are currently just rumors, although they come from many reputable sources, they are still for reference only. We will need to wait for official statements from Sony before making more in-depth comments about the product.

Marvin Fry

Update 09 May 2024