Skip to main content

Sony reveals PlayStation 5 specs, details backward compatibility

PlayStation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny gave a glimpse into what the new console’s architecture has to offer gamers today.

In a pre-recorded speech titled “The Road to PS5,” Cerny discussed the goals for Sony’s next system. A key decision was to balance evolution and revolution. Evolution came in the form of adding backward compatibility and minimizing architecture differences between the PlayStation 4 and the PS5. Cerny believes that it will take developers less than a month to get up to speed, which is down from the one to two months it took on PS4. Meanwhile, revolution comes in the form of new features and higher efficiency hardware.

The Road to PS5

During his speech, which was originally meant to be given at this year’s Game Developers Conference, Cerny revealed that the number one request from developers was to include a solid-state drive. While it takes the PlayStation 4 hard drive 20 seconds to load a gigabyte of data, the PS5’s SSD can load 5.5GB in one second. The company’s goals for the SSD were to load games in a second, feature zero load screens, de-duplicate game data, and get rid of long patch installs.

Cerny also revealed some PS5 specifications and confirmed that the system will feature 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, which is the same as what the Xbox Series X packs. It will also have 36 compute units capped at 2.23GHz, which means the PS5 will have 10.3 teraflops of processing power. The system will support external HDD for playing last-gen games, but those looking to store and play more PS5 titles will need to purchase an M2 SSD, although it’ll announce which specific drives are supported at a later date. This is in contrast to Microsoft, who will be selling a proprietary 1TB expansion card for its console.

The system architect also wanted to clear the air on the PS5’s graphics processing unit. Cerny reaffirmed that the system will use a custom RDNA 2-based AMD GPU and that Sony collaborated with the company on its development. “If you see a similar discrete GPU available as a PC card at roughly the same time we release our console, that means our collaboration with AMD succeeded in producing technology useful in both worlds,” Cerny explains. “It doesn’t mean that we at Sony simply incorporated the PC part.”

PlayStation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny
PlayStation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny Image used with permission by copyright holder

Cerny also explained how Sony achieved backward compatibility on the upcoming system. Rather than including the last system’s chipset like Sony did with launch PlayStation 3 systems, it included the previous system’s logic in the system. The PS5 will have both a PS4 Pro and PS4 legacy mode and can run titles with boosted performance. “We recently took a look at the top 100 PlayStation 4 titles as ranked by playtime and we’re expecting almost all of them to be playable at launch on PlayStation 5,” Cerny notes while saying that games need to be tested.

Editors' Recommendations

Tyler Treese
When not playing or writing about games, Tyler Treese serves as the Senior Editor at Wrestlezone. An experienced writer that…
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sets an incredibly high bar for future PS5 games
EMBARGOED FOR 9/15 8 AM PT Miles leaps through the air in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

When Sony set out to highlight the power of the PS5 and its SSD, it did so with a modified version of Marvel's Spider-Man. We were treated to a flythrough of the city from end to end at speeds greater than even our web-slinging hero could hope to match without a hiccup or drop in graphical quality. That makes it fitting that the first game that feels like it fully lives up to the promises the PS5 was sold on is none other than Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

This generation has had a notably more drawn-out separation from the previous. Nearly all of Sony's first-party releases, including God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, have seen dual releases on PS4 and PS5. Having played the technically astounding Spider-Man 2, it now seems clear that developers had been holding back to get their games to run on older hardware. Even Insomniac's own Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, a PS5 exclusive, now feels like an opening act that was warming us up for the headliner. Spider-Man 2 finally feels like the first game that could not exist on any console other than the PS5.
Tipping the scale

Read more
PS5 slim vs. PS5: everything you need to know about the new PS5 model
The slimmer PS5 console laying on its side.

Sony consoles have always gotten multiple versions and editions ever since the original PlayStation 1. As technology becomes cheaper and more advanced, refreshed models that are both smaller and less expensive to produce typically come out a couple of years into a console's life cycle, and we have now hit that point for the PS5. The PS5 slim, as it is being referred to, is a smaller version of the launch models, and will eventually become the standard unit available to consumers once the stock of existing PS5s runs out. However, is this version worth getting if you're an existing owner, or is it only for new purchasers? There's also the question about which of the two versions to buy. To answer all these questions, let's compare the PS5 slim to the OG PS5.
Specs

Let's start with the most important part, which is whether or not there's more power under the hood of the PS5 slim compared to the launch models. No, the PS5 slim is not in any way more powerful than an existing PS5. This is not a PS5 Pro, which is currently just a rumor. Games will not look, run, or play any better or worse on either version. The only difference in terms of specs is that the slim versions have slightly more storage space at 1 TB compared to 825GB, which is just a small 175GB upgrade. There's nothing here that makes it worth buying a new system when you can expand the storage of your console yourself.
Size
Obviously, a slim model would mean that this new version would be smaller than the frankly comically large launch version. While that's true, it isn't a huge reduction in size. The PS5 Slim disc version weighs 3.2 kilograms (18% less that the original PS5) while the discless version weighs 2.6kg (24% less), and both are 30% smaller by volume.
Versions
Once again, you will have the option to choose between an all-digital and standard version of the PS5 Slim. However, unlike the original discless PS5, the new version will give you the option to add a disc drive later on if you purchase a separate detachable drive.
Price
The current PS5 models are priced at $400 and $500 for the digital and standard versions, respectively. While the PS5 slim standard version that includes the disc drive will remain at $500, the discless version will get a price increase to $450. This price increase had already been seen in other territories outside the U.S., but will now be introduced here once these new versions launch. It is also worth mentioning that the detachable disc drive you can get to upgrade your discless version will cost $80, meaning you would spend more to buy the digital version and add the drive than you would by simply buying the version with the drive already included.

Read more
PS Plus members can cloud stream PS5 games in 4K later this month
Aloy stands on a mountain in Horizon Forbidden West.

PS Plus Premium is adding a new feature next month that will allow subscribers to cloud stream select PlayStation 5 games. The initial list includes heavy hitters like Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West. Sony is targeting an October 30 launch in North America.

Cloud streaming has been one of the primary selling points of PS Plus since its relaunch last year. Subscribers can use the feature to access several games in the service's catalog, including PlayStation 3 games. The new feature will now extend that technology to newer PS5 releases, with Sony saying it plans to make "hundreds" of games streamable.

Read more