Mark Cerny, a high-ranking PlayStation employee, has recently mentioned some of the features which should make an appearance when the upcoming console will be released.
The device will be quite powerful as the specifications include a mighty eight-core CPU, a high-performance SSD, and an 7nm SoC. It seems that Sony aims for maximum performance and many will remember the fact that the PS4 offered a superior experience before Microsoft released the Xbox One X.
A highly-reliable news outlet released a piece that offered questionable information and appeared to be quite convoluted. A part of the article claimed that Sony would use a 7nm 8-core Ryzen CPU manufactured by AMD. The chip should support 8K and ray-tracing, and it will be linked to an AMD Navi GPU. The outlet then suggested that it is likely that Sony will opt for the AMD Ryzen 46000 which was showcased at CES 2019. The estimated $200 cost per CPU would make it a great candidate for the console.
As many may have guessed there are several mistakes which undermine the validity of this theory. We can start with the fact that ray tracing and 8K capabilities are usually linked to graphics cards, not CPUs. This is a minor mistake, and it can be overlooked easily, but there are bigger caveats.
AMD did not announce or reveal the Ryzen 3600G. It is also unlikely that Sony would spend $200 on APU alone and even if it did, it wouldn’t opt for a chip that will be sold on the open market. While the APUs used by for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles are based on AMD technology, they are developed and produced exclusively for Microsoft and Sony. Since we are looking at custom solutions, it is likely that both companies paid AMD a handsome price for the development costs and any losses that could stem from the decision to keep exclusive.
Even the 8K capabilities are quite far-fetched since 8K TVs represent less than 1% of the market. It is likely that Sony will reveal more details in the future.
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.
