Yesterday, PlayStation released a video featuring Mark Cerny at Sony Interactive Entertainment headquarters, where he delved into the PlayStation 5 Pro’s advanced hardware. During this technical seminar, the system architect took time to address some of the rumors swirling around the new console. In particular, he tackled the concept of “FLOPflation” after an incorrect figure of 33.5 teraflops was circulated due to a misunderstanding. This confusion stemmed from an assumption that the console utilized more of the RDNA 3 architecture than it actually does.
In truth, the PS5 Pro delivers 16.7 teraflops, a noticeable leap from the PS5’s 10 teraflops. Cerny also confirmed that another leak got it right with the PS5 Pro hitting 300 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) for 8-bit calculations. Meanwhile, the console can handle 67 teraflops with 16-bit calculations. The customized AMD RDNA 2.X architecture in the PS5 Pro integrates several RDNA 3 features, but retains enough of the original framework to avoid necessitating code rewrites for the hardware.
Mark Cerny highlighted significant enhancements in the PS5 Pro, particularly in its new Ray Acceleration structure that employs BVH8, or Bounding Volume Hierarchy 8, and boasts improved “stack management in hardware.” This advancement leads to better management, simplification, and performance of graphics shader code on the PlayStation 5 Pro.
To clarify, BVH refers to the method by which bounding boxes, which are utilized in 3D rendering, assist in graphics computations such as reflections. The original PS5 employed BVH4, utilizing groups of four bounding boxes for RT (ray tracing) calculations, whereas the PS5 Pro now utilizes BVH8, which means it handles eight bounding boxes. Furthermore, the Ray Intersection Engine’s capabilities have been enhanced from handling four boxes and one triangle in the PS5 to managing eight boxes and two triangles in the PS5 Pro.
These advancements in the ray tracing hardware of the PlayStation 5 Pro, which have been accomplished through a heavily customized version of the RDNA 2 GPU architecture found in the PS5, lead to significant performance enhancements for curved and textured light reflections, though improvements in shadows and flat reflections are more moderate.
For those interested in the technical specifics, the full 37-minute video on the PlayStation 5 Pro is recommended. It offers insightful perspectives on the gaming console market and the necessary technologies to stay competitive.
