Sony confirms PS5 Professional has next-gen ray-tracing tech and ‘there are not any different AMD GPUs that use it but’

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From a PC gaming perspective, simply probably the most attention-grabbing facet of the brand new Sony PS5 Pro console is its ray-tracing {hardware} and efficiency. For a very long time it has been rumoured that the PS5 Pro may share its RT hardware with AMD’s upcoming RDNA 4 GPU architecture.

Now it has been confirmed by Sony’s PlayStation head honcho, Mark Cerny, that not solely does the PS5 Professional leverage RT {hardware} from AMD’s roadmap that is not at the moment in any accessible GPU, it was Sony that “motivated” AMD to give you it.

Not less than, that is what Cerny claims. Talking to CNET (by way of Overclock3D), Cerny says the “PS5 Professional makes use of the brand new superior [ray tracing] function units that AMD created as the subsequent step of their roadmap structure. However if you happen to go searching, there are not any different AMD GPUs that use it but. We motivated the event, and I am very blissful we did so…the response from the builders has been terribly nice.”

In fact, AMD will definitely have had new RT {hardware} in its roadmap, so we’re a little bit sceptical of the concept it solely occurred as a result of Sony pushed AMD versus Sony plucking that IP from AMD’s roadmap and asking for it to be caught into the PS5 Professional’s up to date APU.

That debate apart, the actually attention-grabbing facet of all that is what it says concerning the ray-tracing efficiency of AMD’s upcoming RDNA 4 GPUs. For starters, Sony says the brand new PS5 Professional has 2-3x the RT efficiency of the PS5. That sounds spectacular at face worth, however maintain on.

The PS5 Professional has 1.67x the graphics compute models of the PS5. So, that alone would offer you a 1.67x bump in uncooked RT efficiency. In the meantime, AMD claimed a 1.5x RT enchancment going from RDNA 2, as utilized by the PS5, to RDNA 3.

So, had been the PS5 Professional to merely use the identical RDNA 3 RT {hardware} as AMD’s present Radeon RX 7000 GPUs, then the calculation can be 1.67 x 1.5 = 2.5. In different phrases, merely utilizing  RDNA 3-style RT {hardware} together with the added practical models within the PS5 Professional will get you, on paper, to a determine that is slap bang in the course of the RT efficiency enhance vary claimed by Sony for the PS5 Professional.

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Anyway, if you wish to put a barely pessimistic spin on all this, you may simply conclude that AMD’s next-gen RT {hardware} is not trying vastly thrilling going by Sony’s numbers.

It additionally squares with what present rumours across the PS5 Professional’s RT implementation. In different phrases, that it nonetheless would not have as full an RT {hardware} acceleration function set as both Nvidia or Intel gives of their GPUs. So, you would not anticipate RT efficiency within the PS5 Professional to be on par with Nvidia.

And that in flip implies that when AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs arrive early next year, they most likely will not shut the ray-tracing hole to Nvidia at any given level available in the market at which they’re competing. Which is disappointing if true, on condition that RDNA 4 might be AMD’s third-generation of GPUs with RT assist.