With the hardware maker promising big things for the next-generation of consoles. In an exclusive interview with Wired, Sony's Mark Cerny also notes that in addition to real-time ray-tracing support fast SSD storage will be a game changer for the PlayStation 5. Although naming-wise it's still referred to as "next-gen".

Full hardware specs weren't revealed, nor a price point or release window - but in terms of hardware we now know that the PlayStation 5 will feature a CPU based on the 7nm third-generation AMD Ryzen line with a GPU being a custom version of AMD's next-gen Radeon Navi technology.

With real-time ray-tracing on PC mostly limited to NVIDIA's RTX line, with spectacular results as seen with Metro Exodus, it's something that will definitely make next-gen releases take that visual leap.

Interestingly Sony is touting that the next PlayStation will also feature a generational leap in audio quality too, with Cerny telling Wired, "It's been a little bit of a frustration that audio did not change too much between PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. With the next console the dream is to show how dramatically different the audio experience can be when we apply significant amounts of hardware horsepower to it." Where the comparison to ray-tracing as a visual tool for lighting is mentioned as being applicable in recreating fully-3D spatial sound via dedicated hardware. Something that will benefit those that game with a headset.


But, back to the whole SSD stuff for a second. In a demonstration Sony showcased Spider-Man's fast-travel taking 15 seconds on a PlayStation 4 Pro, and then switching to a next-gen dev-kit where the same sequence took 0.8 seconds to load. According to the report, the proposed drive will have "raw bandwidth higher than any SSD available for PCs", which is impressive. The game changer aspect comes with being able to stream data faster and more reliably, with Sony able to speed up Spider-Man to present a crisp fast moving version of the game impossible to render on the PlayStation 4.

With all of the Spider-Man talk it was also revealed that the PlayStation 5 will be backwards compatible with the PlayStation 4, and that PSVR will be supported by the console. Plus, 8K output. Which, truth be told, is probably next-next-gen display tech. Finally, with Microsoft and Google set to make their mark in the streaming space, Sony won't be left behind with Cerny adding, "We are cloud-gaming pioneers, and our vision should become clear as we head toward launch".

Source.