PS5 Specs – CPU, GPU, Disc Drive, RAM and Backwards Compatibility

Welcome to our PS5 Specs page, where we talk about the technology that will power the PS5. The PS5 releases on November 12, 2020 for the US and major global regions, and November 19th for other parts of the world. With the final specs confirmed by Mark Cerny, it’s time to break down all of the incredible detail that Sony presented during the PS5 reveal events!


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Exclusive – Covid Increases Sony PS5 Productivity

According to our insider sources, who will remain unnamed, Covid has allegedly been a plus for the PS5 productivity. Employees are now more focused and with less distractions often found in the work environment. You might think the opposite but you would be wrong. When Covid struck Sony did what all major companies did, they shut down their US offices to ensure the safety of their workers. Limiting office visits to only critical staff. There were additional steps that needed to be taken, but it was not a major challenge according to our source. Their staff rose to the challenge and were successful.

Our sources tell us that Sony has, allegedly, had to set up remote desktops on PS5 Dev kits in the US so their employees at home could remotely connect to continue their work. This work continues to this day. This is unprecedented, but it makes sense given current events. We are glad Sony is keeping their employees safe. Hundreds of dev kits sitting in Playstation secure labs are allegedly set up in this manner in multiple US Sony locations (San Mateo, San Diego, etc), allowing employees to handle testing on various aspects of the system without having to ship Dev kits out to everyone which would present all sorts of challenges. These stress tests range from UI to payment, processing, PSN network functionality, hardware and more. All to ensure that we the consumer get a rock solid console. There are different PS5 Dev boxes (3 main PS5 dev kits we are told) for different types of stress tests. Stay tuned for more exclusive news and PS5 development stories in the future!

PS5 Specs Confirmed

Before we dive into our in-depth look at potential PS5 specs, lets start with a breakdown of the final specs, compared to PS4. The system’s architect, Mark Cerny, revealed official details in March 2020. Here is what we know from that reveal:

  • CPU: 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz with SMT (variable frequency) vs 8x Jaguar Cores at 1.6Ghz on PS4.
  • GPU: 10.28 teraflops with 36 compute units at 2.23GHz (variable frequency) vs 1.84 teraflops and 18 comput units at 800MHz on PS4.
  • RAM: 16GB GDDR6/256-bit vs 8GB GDDR5 and 256-bit on PS4.
  • Internal Storage: Custom 825GB SSD vs a 500GB HDD on PS4.
  • Expandable Storage: NVMe SSD Slot
  • Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive vs standard Blu-ray Drive in the PS4.

In February of 2021, several months after the launch of the PS5, Twitter user @FritzchensFritz shared some incredible photos of the PS5’s APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), which is an electronic silicon die that contains both the CPU and GPU for console.

The most visually enticing shot is, of course, the way light reflects off of the liquid metal used in the PS5’s cooling solution. Take a look:

There are also shots of the die itself that were taken using a short wave infrared light (SWIR) microscope, which allows someone to take photos without the need to detach and grind it down (damaging it in the process). These are some of those initial shots, included in a separate tweet:

It’s always fascinating to see these kinds of things, revealing the technology and engineering innovation that goes into creating a game console.

With the broad strokes in place, let’s dive into each of these a little deeper and reveal more about the PS5’s specs!


PS5 CPU

Part One: CPU Processing Power

  • 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz with SMT
  • This is compared to 8x Jaguar cores at 1.6 GHz on PS4

The heart of the PS5 will be the processing power that it uses to create the experiences of the next generation. The PS5 is going to use AMD’s Zen 2 CPU technology that encompasses 8 cores and 16 threads here.

Sony’s custom version of this CPU is capped at 3.5GHz, so this is the higher end of the CPU’s availability. Under specific conditions it can also run slower.

This ties into a new approach that Mark Cerny describes as a “completely different paradigm.” The PS5 is able to adjust its frequencies based on the workload in any given moment. An internal monitor within the system analyzes the workload for the GPU and CPU and adjusts frequencies to match, as opposed to constantly adjusting the power levels.

AMD’s SmartShift technology is also at play here, allowing unused power to be transferred from the CPU to the GPU, which increases graphics performance.

All of this results in new flexibility for developers, which, combined with other elements of the system, will result in vastly larger and more realistic game worlds.

Right now, our games look real, but they don’t feel real, and that’s where PS5 is going to differentiate itself. Paul Ross, one of the co-founders of Three Fields Entertainment recently spoke about Planning for the next generation now and he made an excellent point about how physics engines haven’t evolved in several generations.

“Physics engines haven’t changed since I did the physics on TrickStyle for the Dreamcast. They’re all about rigid bodies and solid objects. This is a real paradigm shift because it’s about simulating physics at a molecular level. It’s been a really hard problem to solve for quite a while.”

The PS5’s pure processing power will offer developers like Paul and his team to create worlds that look real, and more importantly, feel real. This is the kind of evolution we’ve been waiting for.

One thing to remember, is that the CPU components used in consoles have more flexibility than typical PC hardware. Consoles offer fixed hardware and APIs, which allow developers to more accurately predict the kind of specs they’ll be able to work with. PCs, on the other hand, have a wide number of different rig possibilities.

As generations go on, developers also become more acquainted with the hardware as well, giving them the power to do more than before as they look for more efficient ways to optimize their coding. So, while we do use modern hardware to make comparisons, the actual specs of the PS5 will be a custom setup instead of standard PC parts.

The Competition
Before we move on, let’s look at Microsoft’s latest console. The Xbox Series X. In this case, the competition has a slight edge. Microsoft is going with an AMD Zen 2 3.8GHz CPU, also with 8 cores. However, that system is not deploying some of the more cutting-edge elements that we mentioned earlier, so it remains to be see how games compare.

Memory – RAM

  • 16 GB GDDR6/256-bit RAM

The amount of RAM in the PS5 is about what we expected, given modern PC comparisons, but it’s a lot of RAM for a video game console, which typically have small amounts compared to their PC cousins.

The PS4 only has 8GB of RAM, and the PS4 before it had a paltry 256MB! Not even a single gigabyte! As we’ll soon discover in the storage section of this page, this amount of RAM is helpful, but it will be pushed to new heights of efficiency in combination with the SSD inside the PS5.

It’s interesting to look back at predictions like this one:

Marc-André Jutras, technical director at Cradle Games, spoke to Gaming Bolt in December of 2018 and offered some insight into what he thinks we will see from the RAM aspect of the PS5:

“One thing that is going to change will be, you will get a lot more focus on the VRAM, which is the big bottleneck right now if you want good 4K games, because 4K frame buffer takes a lot of space,” he said. “So if you end up with a 4K buffer, you need four times the VRAM. So I think you will see, you won’t see shared RAM space next gen like you do with the PS4. I don’t think you will see that because it’s a big bottleneck. You’ll see more VRAM to support 4K and 5K and whatever else comes around. Just how much of that? I wouldn’t be surprised if the PS5 had 8GB of RAM and 8GB of VRAM.”

It seems like Sony is listening to the developers now more than ever. Mark Cerny did mention in his presentation that he spent a good deal of time traveling and talking to developers about what they wanted in the next generation.

The Competition
This is pretty neck-and-neck for Xbox Series X. Microsoft’s console does indeed have 16GB of GDDR6 as well, so nothing too shocking there.


PS5 GPU

Part Two: GPU Graphics and Hardware (4K & 8K Up-scaling Confirmed!)

The PS5 will include totally new hardware.

  • 10.28 TFLOPS, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz with variable frequency
  • A custom RDNA 2 architecture
  • PS4 by comparison launched with 1.84 TFLOPS, 18 CUs at 800MHz.

This is where we hit the largest difference between Xbox Series X and PS5, so let’s address the elephant in the room: yes, Xbox’s GPU can push more teraflops (12 to be exact). In this regard, it has the victory in numbers, which is what a lot of people will point to.

Remember, though, that teraflops are a single metric about a single part of the system. I say this often, but remember how games looked at the beginning of the generation, compared to how they look now. It’s a friendly reminder that, ultimately, games will be the deciding factor.

In his presentation, Mark Cerny emphasized this, offering an example where we pit a 36 CU GPU at 1GHz against a 48 CU GPU running at 750MHz. Both are 4.6 teraflops, but his argument was that the experience would not be the same.

For the technical people reading this, here’s how Mark Cerny broke it down:

“Performance is noticeably different, because ‘teraflops’ is defined as the computational capability of the vector ALU. That’s just one part of the GPU, there are a lot of other units – and those other units all run faster when the GPU frequency is higher. At 33 per cent higher frequency, rasterisation goes 33 per cent faster, processing the command buffer goes that much faster, the L1 and L2 caches have that much higher bandwidth, and so on,”

The gist here is that Sony decided on a GPU that could be more flexible, and push itself further than you would expect from the teraflops, which are ultimately a single part of a larger network within the system.

For some additional detail, see what AMD has said recently about their hardware below. Since they are manufacturing the PS5’s chipset, this is still very relevant:

AMD CEO Lisa Su talks about the PS5:

 

“We are so honored and proud to be part of Sony’s next generation Playstation…We love gaming…What we have done with Sony is
architect something for their application for their special sauce”

PS5 GPU
More information surfaced during AMD’s Computex event in May 2019, revealing that the PS5 will utilize a new RDNA architecture as part of the Navi line. This is part of that “special sauce” mentioned during the keynote. During the presentation, AMD outlined what this new architecture means for future GPUs:

  • 1.5x performance-per-watt
  • 1.25 performance-per-clock improvement over prior architectures
  • New compute unit design resulting in improved efficiency and increased IPC
  • Multi-level cache hierarchy, resulting in reduced latency, higher bandwidth and lower power consumption
  • A streamlined graphics pipeline for optimized performance and higher clock speeds

Since the PS5 will utilize this architecture, we can expect similar improvements from the console’s GPU.

All of this allows us to predict a few things. Let’s look at the specs we’ll be seeing in 2020:

Everything is in 4K UHD
The rise of 4K content was slow in the early years of the PS4, but with the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One X, games began embracing these higher resolutions, with some notable examples reaching that native 4K level. With the PS5, 4K will be the standard, with optional performances modes that sacrifice some resolution for higher frame rates or better detail. Next up is 8K, which I imagine we will see at some point in the PS5’s lifecycle, most likely a PS5 Pro.

PS5 GPU
Photorealistic Graphics
Graphics always take a huge leap forward with each new game console. When the new console releases, we’ll be looking at PS5 graphics that will offer some significant upgrades over what were used to now. If the Unreal Engine V demo is anything to go by, they will only get better with time.

The biggest obstacle we’re facing is human faces. An observations known as the Uncanny Valley describes how we feel a sense of “uncanniness” when we look at someone that seems real, but isn’t quite right. In order to solve this, and other issues like realistic lighting, we’ll have to develop new and more powerful methods.

Ray Tracing
PS5 GPU

Ray tracing has been confirmed for the PS5, allowing developers to create realistic lighting that takes into account reflections and how light interacts with various surfaces. This technology is also useful for audio by allowing sound to come from specific sources.

The PS5’s Intersection Engine powers ray tracing in the new system. It’s not a requirement, but the support is built into the shaders and the system’s hardware.

Mark Cerny also confirmed that he has seen a PS5 title using ray-tracing-based reflection in a complex scene with only minimal costs to the hardware.

Part Three: Hard Drive or the Cloud?

  • The SSD in the PS5 has a 825GB capacity
  • Third-party drives will work internally as well, but specific ones have yet to be named.
  • The new drive loads data two orders of magnitude higher than PS4.
  • This comes out to 2GB of data per 0.25 seconds!
  • SSD confirmed for PS5 with higher bandwidth than anything on the market
  • Spider-Man running on PS4 took 15 seconds to load after fast travel. On PS5 hardware the same task took 0.8 seconds!

Sony has been confirmed that the PS5 will come with a SSD (Solid State Drive) which will improve load times dramatically. In their demo it decreased the load time by over 15 times!

When Mark Cerny traveled to visit with developers, a vast majority of them asked for a solid-state drive (SSD) in the new system. To make this new storage work, Sony has to create a custom design, which is why we get the odd 825GB capacity.

In a recent PlayStation Blog post, developers shared their experience with this new SSD in the PS5.

Insomniac Games, who are working on a Wolverine and Spider-Man title, weighed in saying:

“Beyond near-instant loading and fast-travel, the SSD and its speed allow us to more quickly load and display more detailed assets. This should lead to the city looking better than ever, and this is just the beginning for our team unlocking those possibilities. It’s a fundamental change that we can’t wait to take more advantage of in the years to come.” — Brian Horton // Creative Director, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

The custom flash marries to the SSD modules via a 12-channel setup, which gives you the 5.5GB/s performance. The capacity here is the best match for the 12-channel interface, and it offered the best price as well.

The way the flash controller hooks up to the main processor (using four-lane PCI Express 4.0 interconnects), is designed to reduce bottlenecks by leveraging six priority levels.

All of this is boosted by the adoption of hardware decompression and a new Kraken format from RAD Game Tools, which gives the PS5 a 10% boost in its compression efficiency. Altogether, this results in the equivalent of 8 or 9 gigabytes per second when you take the compression into account.

Now, in terms of storage, Sony has confirmed that you’ll be able to use internal SSDs, but they will need to be close to the spec of the system’s drive to work properly.

There’s a few obstacles to overcome, due to the fact that these drives have varying heights and less priority levels, along with lesser bandwidths than the PS5’s SSD.

All of this simply means that we don’t know which drives will work exactly. Don’t go out and buy one now. We need to wait until Sony identifies specific models that will work with the rest of the system’s architecture.

That being said, you can connect an external drive to store and play PS4 games. As of now, the system is only backwards compatible with those, and only about 100 will work at launch.

Let’s not forget PlayStation Now, which is the service that Sony has been using since 2014 to test this concept. As high-speed internet continues to proliferate, it’s highly possible that PlayStation Now could be an option for people to play games on the PS5.

In this type of scenario, we wouldn’t need a big hard drive since the games would stream. Even so, it has been confirmed that the PS5 will include an SSD of some sort and will offer support for both discs and digital downloads (depending on which version of the system you buy). On top of this, though, Mark Cerny confirmed Sony still has plans for the cloud:

“we are cloud-gaming pioneers, and our vision should become clear as we head toward launch”

It seems we may have multiple options when the PS5 releases.

The Competition
Microsoft is also employing an SSD in the Xbox Series X. They are offering a rounded 1TB of space, which is nice, but you can’t hook up your own drives in this system (you can use external drives, but they won’t support next gen game installs). Instead, they are going to have a proprietary drive that you’ll use to expand system memory. That…sounds expensive.

3D Audio

The PS5 will taking gaming Audio to the next level with 3D audio. If you’ve ever used a PSVR headset with headphones, then you know how this can improve the experience. In VR, the audio comes from different directions based on where you’re looking, making it feel incredibly immersive.
3d audio on the ps5
While the PS5’s audio will support current speaker setups, headphones as always are recommended. Beyond the in-game audio, this also opens up opportunities for developers to leverage audio in strategic ways, like the ability to hear someone sneaking up on you, or tracking an invisible enemy based on their footsteps alone.

The implications for horror are also exciting. Check out this take from an Executive Producer working on Resident Evil Village:

“Audio is a key feature to really push the next-gen experience with PS5. It’s almost as if 3D Audiotech was made specifically with horror games in mind. It used to be that in order to get that spatial audio, players would have to invest a lot of their own time and money. Now, just putting on a headset, they can get a full 3D audio experience.”— Jun Takeuchi // Executive Producer for Resident Evil Village

This is all possible using what Sony calls “The Tempest Engine.” Digital Foundry’s analysis of the PS5’s full specs calls this a “re-engineered AMD GPU compute unit, stripped of its cache and relying solely on DMA transfers.”

In other words, it’s decent hardware dedicated solely to audio. The major obstacle for all of this to work, however, lies within something called “Head-related Transfer Functions,” which are unique to every person based on your ears and your head shape.

At launch, the PS5 will have five profiles based on 100 different people, but they are exploring ways to help you tailor the experience. One potential option is to upload a photo of your ears to analyze their shape. This, of course, has led to numerous jokes and memes about sending Mark Cerny your ear pics.

Hey, if it gets me this kind of audio from my current setup, he can have all the ear pics he wants.


PS5 chip

Part Four: PS5 WiFi / Network

PS5 will ship with Wi-Fi 6 802.11 AX standard which is a big deal! WiFi 6 is a huge improvement and changes the whole game basically. It will be a network beast! WiFi 6 (802.11ax) has better latency as compared to WiFi 5 (802.11ac) and for gaming that is critical. The bandwidth of 802.11g adds about 50ms of latency while the bandwidth of 802.11n adds about 10ms of latency 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) adds about 5ms of latency. Don’t know what WiFi6 is? Watch this video to up your network knowledge game!

Source: https://rehusac.mtc.gob.pe/Home/OIMGEQU?nidregistro=2000631

The Competition
Xbox Live and PlayStation Network are on equal standing this generation. With PlayStation Plus at an all time high, Microsoft has been trying to keep up with their “Games with Gold” program, but the titles are rarely better in both quality and value to what you get on PS+.

Part Five: Television or VR?

Now that we’ve established the relative internet speeds and what’s going to be in the box, it’s time to start thinking about other specifications. The first that comes to mind is the question of whether we’ll be using televisions or virtual reality headsets to view our games? It’s more than likely that it will be a combination of the two, but let’s examine the future of these technologies.

The PS5 will feature a VR element. Mark Cerny did confirm that the current PSVR headset would work on the PS5. He also added this:

“I won’t go into the details of our VR strategy today, beyond saying that VR is very imnportant to us and that the current PSVR headset is compatible with the new console.”

Televisions have always been the primary method of viewing content. While VR may become popular, it will most likely act as a side experience with a television taking the main role. Luckily, televisions are quickly gaining ground with new and exciting technologies. Here are two trends we’ll see come to fruition when the PS5 releases:

1. LG Continues to Dominate the OLED market

For those who are considering an upgrade to go with their PS5, you’ll want to look at both TVs and sound bar options. Your best options, based on budget, are going to be a QLED option, or a OLED option. If you’ve got the cash to spare, LG’s OLED televisions continue to dominate the gaming space. While they are theoretically vulnerable to burn-in, most users who play and watch a lot of different things won’t need to worry about this.

With that aside, the infinite contrast, deep blacks, and incredible color saturation you get with an organic light-emitting-diode (OLED), is unbeatable, and that remains true heading into the next generation.

2. Quantum Dot Technology

At its basis, Quantum Dot technology is a new type of LED-backlit LCD TV. While these won’t revolutionize televisions, they do provide an incredible potential for more vibrant colors, especially in 4K resolution. The dots have the ability to emit one color extremely well, and they can be finely tuned to reach whatever hue is needed.

Not only does this represent an increase in picture quality, but it’s also cheaper than an OLED television. This could result in cheaper 4K displays when the PS5 releases. Since the system will most likely use some sort of television screen, it’s important that something like this is in place to get the prices down to where they need to be.


dualsense haptic feedback adaptive triggers

Part Six: A Traditional Controller or Something Different?

The PlayStation’s dualshock controller has evolved into an almost perfect device with the new Dualsense Controller. The new controller comes with some nice improvements including:

  • Haptics Feedback
  • Adaptive Triggers
  • Extended Battery Life (Yes!)

    • PS5 Controller

  • Lighter
  • Light bar position moved
  • Some very cool minor aesthetic details
  • See all the new dualsense improvements here

The DualSense will improve on the previous controller with additional precision as well. It would also be beneficial for Sony to release a new version of the PlayStation Move controllers for PSVR 2.

Adding thumbsticks to them is a start, but I’m more interested in the rumors and patents surrounding glove controllers. This could be a huge step forward for immersion in VR.

PS5 8K, or even 16K Resolution?

4K is getting its footing with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but it’s just the beginning. Technology is already progressing into 8K and even 16K resolutions! While it’s most likely the PS5 won’t run games at 16K, that hasn’t stopped people from trying to run games at this resolution.

An interesting experiment was done by Linus Tech Tips. They put together a video (see below) where they built a 16K gaming rig. It took $10,000 in GPUs and 16 4K displays built from 16 27-inch Acer predator panels. The GPUs were powered by four Quadro P5000s that had 16GB of RAM each.

They got games like Half Life 2 and Minecraft to play at 40fps. Modern stuff like Rise of the Tomb Raider chugged along at 2-3fps. So, while it’s safe to say the PS5 won’t run at 16K, it will most certainly run at full 4K, and Mark Cerny also confirmed it will have the capacity to scale upward to 8K.

The Competition

The latest sales numbers have shown that PlayStation VR has sold over 2 million units and over 12.2 million titles in the year since it was launched.

Part Seven: Disc Drive or Digital?

The discussion around an optical disc drive for the PS5 revolves around the core concept that games have always been a physical thing. We’ve become more and more comfortable with digital downloads, which is leading people to believe the PS5 may ditch discs altogether. This assumption was wrong. The PS5 will include a disc drive, or it won’t. There are two models to choose from.

Blu-Ray sales have been falling in recent years, and experts have declared them a dying format, but there doesn’t seem to be any rush to replace them. That hasn’t stopped new technologies from emerging though. Blu-Rays can hold up to 50 gigabytes, but we’re going to need more space for PS5 games.

Sony and Panasonic are developing a new replacement for Blu-Ray discs. The idea is to fight back against the rise of streaming content. These discs can hold more than 100 gigabytes a piece, which doubles the storage potential. Again though, we run into issues when games grow in size. Are we looking at a return to the days of multiple discs for longer games? The other option is, of course, digital downloads or streaming.

Sony has already been working on this with a service known as PlayStation Now. This is a digital streaming service where you can rent or buy games and play them over an internet connection. It’s not perfect, nor is it immensely popular in comparison to physical discs, but it does show Sony’s interest in the format.

The Competition
The next generation systems, PS5 and Xbox One Series X, both include 4K UHD Blu-ray drives, so we can rest easy knowing that discs won’t be leaving anytime soon. That being said, there is a confirmed PS5 model without a disc drive if you want that. Rumors are also very certain that Microsoft will also unveil an Xbox Series S that ditches the disc drive as well.

Part Eight: The Future of Online Gaming

I want to discuss two potential elements in this aspect of the PS5. Online gaming is huge, and Sony stepped up their game with the new network on the PS4.

We’ve also seen confirmation that early adopters of the PS5 won’t be cut off from their friends. Sony confirmed that they will support the PS4 for another three years (possibly more), and that people playing PS4 games on the PS5 will be able to play with their friends, so cross-generation support is confirmed!

In order to stay ahead of the game, Sony will most likely go through another evolution when it comes to their online scene. Here are the two major specs for the next gen:

1. Further Social Integration

PS4 brought with it the ability to use a new “share” button to upload video, screenshots, and even stream live. This marriage of social media and gaming is only going to improve and grow over time.

As part of this, the new DualSense controller has a “create” button which is supposed to replace and enhance the share button from the DualShock 4. We don’t have all the details on what it does, but Sony says “We’re once again pioneering new ways for players to create epic gameplay content to share with the world, or just to enjoy themselves.” Sounds interesting!

We’ll talk about how this is possible in a moment, but for now, expect your online life to be intertwined with your gaming life like never before.


2. PlayStation Plus 2.0

PlayStation Plus began as a cool service that gave you free titles each month, but it become so much more since then. Now it fuels Sony’s improved online scene, and it has introduced new concepts like Vote to Play where players can choose which game they want to be the freebie that month. It’s not used every month, but I think it’s an idea that could go one step further in the future:

What if we took this concept and combined it with Sony’s willingness to support independent developers, and you have a recipe for the next stage in the PlayStation Plus’ evolution. The PS5 could allow gamers to vote on games they want to see made. If enough interest in shown, Sony will fund the title and give VIP access to Plus members as the game is developed. When it’s released, those who participated will get the game for a discounted price (possibly, this is all speculation).

This kind of crowd-based development could allow for new ideas and games in the spotlight. It also involves gamers much more in the development process.

Part Nine: A Renewed Focus on Security and Privacy

One of the largest hot-button topics right now is the issue of privacy and security. The PlayStation Network has been hacked and taken down more than a few times. Sony will have to show a new and more stable type of security to win back the trust of the consumers.

Right now there are many different ideas in play, but one that has been getting a lot of interest, and funding, is a sort of verification to go online that involves you showing a digital passport. Once you’re online you can do as you like, but this extra step would add another layer of verification. This concept is being developed by DARPA as part of their National Cyber Range Security Programme.

The other option would be a form of two-step verification that uses biometric security. The popularity of biometric security skyrocketed in 2015 from 6 million users to 770 million. Fingerprint authentication is the major player, and this could easily be implemented into the PS5 in order to verify your identity when you sign in.

Part Ten: Operating System – User Experience

Some key feature of the PS5 UI:

  • The UI is focused around the player with a look and feel designed for 4K tv.
  • Resume where you leave off with games easily with one click.
  • The control center is always one tap of the playstation button away.
  • The UI now includes cards for updates on stories, recent media captured using the create button, activities (to remove barriers to gameplay) and much more.
  • Activities – Includes stats on game progress, key objectives, in-game help (on screen hints including picture in picture), time estimates to complete game activities and allows you to jump into a game easily where you left off.
  • Chat – Interactive features to join chat or party with integrated microphone.
  • Parties – Take on a expanded role. Persistent spaces to connect with groups that you play with. Your friends can share their screen with the group for example to allow players to watch progress and chat.
  • There is a picture in picture mode which can be handy when watching a friend play in real time.
  • Online Multi-Player Gaming – You can join in progress games via cards. The Ultra fast SSD makes this seamless!
  • Taking photos is easy – Simply tap the create button on the dualsense controller. You can capture high quality (4K) screenshots that you can review, edit and share easily.
  • Game Switching – Via the home screen simple and fast access.
  • Home Screen – Each game has its own hub and you can scroll to activities to jump right into via scrolling. Backwards compatible PS4 titles may also be accessible depending.
  • Explore View – This view brings together all your games including stories, trending media (community), etc.
  • Playstation Store – The PS Store is not an app anymore, it is integrated into the system. Easier to buy/download, browse, etc.
  • Sharing – Via recently captured media, also allows you to edit easily. You can share to parties or external services.
  • Voice Dictation supported so you do not have to type messages.
  • Spoiler Warnings – Allows your friends to be warned when you share something they may not have seen yet.

The final specification ties everything together. Microsoft has been working hard to create a unified operating system in the case of Windows 10, and it’s working. Google Drive also allows you to keep your documents safe and on the cloud regardless of which device you’re using.

Sony has yet to do this on a large scale, but with the growing popularity of services that are device agnostic, Sony could develop their own operating system that can work across all kinds of Sony-made devices. Where did this idea come from? Sony posted a job for a Senior Game Designer.

The description of the job entailed working on an operating system which gave me this idea. Sony is going to create an operating system like Windows 10 that can work on your PS5, your VR headset, your smartphone, or any other device that Sony creates to work with the PS5.

PlayStation VR2

PSVR 2 controllers

While the original PSVR headset works on the PS5 with a free adapter from Sony, it has been confirmed that Sony is officially working on the next-generation PlayStation VR headset

In January of 2022, Sony finally revealed the full specs for the PlayStation VR2 headset at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The upcoming headset was officially named the PlayStation VR2, and the controllers are called the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers.

They also announced the first PSVR 2 title, which is going to be set in the same universe as Horizon Forbidden West and is titled “Horizon Call of the Mountain.” PSVR 2 is promising high-fidelity visuals, new sensory features, and enhanced tracking, all in a single-cord setup. So, while not wireless, we don’t need to worry about the mess of cables that the original required.

Without further adieu, here are the specs for PlayStation VR2:

  • 4K HDR OLED screen with 110-degree field of view, foveated rendering, and a display resolution of 2000×2040 per eye. Frame rates between 90 and 120Hz are supported.
  • Inside-out tracking using integrated cameras in the headset itself. No external camera required!
  • Sense Technology includes eye tracking, headset feedback that will let you feel a character’s pulse pounding, or projectiles rushing past your head. 3D audio, and the new Sense controllers that utilize haptic feedback and adaptive triggers will bring the magic of the DualSense controller to the world of VR.
  • The aforementioned eye tracking will also allow for games to interact with you in more lifelike ways as characters will know if you’re looking at them. It also helps with timing gameplay and event sequences to be more natural.
  • Adjustable lens separation for IPD consideration (The Quest 2 has this and it’s quite helpful).
  • USB-C connection for both the headset and the controllers. Wireless tech in the controllers is Bluetooth 5.1.

No release date, but I imagine we will hear more around the E3 season in the summer, even if E3 itself will probably no longer be the event we remember.

The PS5 will be Backwards Compatible

Sony Confirmed this! The PS5 will in fact be backwards compatible with PS4 games as we accurately predicted years ahead of time. The PS4 and PS5 share a similar architecture which is a win for gamers by making cross-gen games much easier to make and support.

The current situation is that the system will only work with PS4 games, so Microsoft has us beat here with their selection of titles going all the way back to the original Xbox. It looks like this could change, however.

In January of 2022, some interesting glitches popped up on the PSN. Most recently was a bug that turned PS4 trophies into PS3 ones.

Prior to that, another potential glitch showed PS3 games available to purchase on the PS5 store, which also kicked up a lot of discussion about what it could all mean.

Tracing this back to the beginning, a patent filed by Sony started this whole discussion around PS3, PS2, and PS1 backwards compatibility, discussions around the Spartacus game pass competitor notwithstanding.

Read our full Backwards Compatible article for all the details!

Looking Ahead

PS5 Specs
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
– Arthur C. Clarke

Technology began as a man made idea, it was something that we had concrete control over. As much as we think we know and understand the flow and evolution of technology, we merely set it into motion. Now it has taken on a life of its own. While we’re not quite at the stage where computers have more processing power than the human brain, we’re not far off either. The PS5 will be a powerful step in that direction.

Time for You to Weigh In!

We’ve outlined the specs for the PS5, but we’re not done yet! It’s time for you to weigh in and share your own thoughts. What are the top must have specs for you in the PS5? Leave a comment below with your own predictions and thanks for reading!

Article by – Bradley Ramsey
Updated – 12/22/2020

See Also:

PS5 CPU and Memory
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