DF Direct Special: PS5 Pro Deep Dive Reaction - Tomorrow's Tech Today?

PlayStation lead system architect Mark Cerny has just 'quote-unquote' dropped a big new deep dive into the technology of the PlayStation 5 Pro. Oliver Mackenzie had the chance to see the presentation several weeks ago and we have an interview on the channel - but the Digital Foundry team have much to talk about based on the presentation - and here they are to do just that.

00:00 Introduction
01:53 GPU overview: RDNA 2.x, 16.7 TF
06:32 Ray tracing improvements
15:01 Machine learning and PSSR
26:27 The future: Amethyst, ML exploration, and next-gen

[karls.]

You forgot to ask about the missing disc drive.

[MrFrexxia]

YouTube comments aren't great at the best of times, but I feel like the level of discourse in the DF comment section falls off a cliff whenever the PS5 Pro is mentioned.

[TheNerd]

Congratulations. The legend Mark Cerny himself quoted you guys in an official Sony PlayStation Video.
I take off my hat and bow.

[DyeHard]

Speaking on Project Amethyst I found it surprising Mark Cerny reiterated it is not a Playstation Proprietary initiative but meant to further the Raytracing and Machine Learning of all AMD hardware the same approach Microsoft uses with AMD and their custom silicon team trying to create an industry standard which will help them advance much faster and farther

[froggydarren]

Just had a extremely clever guy give us a talk and all I see in the comments are keybored experts questioning and bashing everything he's presented 🤦 gaming nowadays is rife with miserable and toxic people and it's making this hobby un fun 😢

[stevel]

This is the most excited ive ever seen Alex talking about Sony. Possibly because he knows AMD's biggest weakness was no ML plans so were only going to get left behind even further if they didnt act on it.

[andrewfield]

My take from all these Mark Cerny videos today is that the PS5 Pro and PSSR are just tools for a massive shakedown period ready to launch in good spec for the PS6. I'm happy to wait this out with my base PS5

[Youtube-Censorship-Police]

i don't wanna be a console in alex' house, imagine feeling like the least favorite child all the time.

[starmanhov]

It's crazy Sony had the coconuts to try and make their own ML upscaler in a relatively short time.

[cacheman]

9:18 Yes, they added HW stack management in RDNA3. See section 12.5.3, "DS Stack Operations for Ray Tracing" of the "RDNA3 Instruction Set Architecture: Reference Guide".

[ShayONFarsi]

We're objectively seeing some really cool and clever tech implementation where offerings matches and even exceeds $700 price tag and ofc, DF's discussion around it but some people in this comment section add nothing but childish jokes, or petty comments to feel better whatever they own over PS5 Pro.

[JeannieLove]

The future looks bright. Also, you're welcome PS5 Pro haters, it's because of ppl like me, the PS6 is gonna be where it's at.

[SlayerSeraph]

When you realize you have 110 Minutes worth of Mark Cerny Analysis published on your regular Wednesday

[kusumayogi]

My prediction is right, PS5 PRO is still use RDNA 2 but with extra better ray tracing and AI.

RDNA 3 and 4 use double shaders per SM per CUs, like nvidia rtx 3000 and 4000. That is why RDNA 3 have double Tflops but not double performance.

Ps5 pro doesnt have double tflops. It is 16.7 tflops not 33 tflops like others prediction.

I believe sony do that for backward compatibility by using custom RDNA 2

[captainthunderbolt]

I thought the 'spectral' part of the acronym meant that there would be a lot of ghosting.

[Alcatraz]

The only thing that kept entering my mind as I watched the presentation was "Nvidia did that". Like better ray tracing performance, the idea of a machine learning upscale, even the hint of frame generation and ray tracing denoising as future playstation spectral targets. Mark cerny is definitely watching that NVIDIA CES 2025 conference.

[credfield]

Sold my PS5 and 2 games for $450.00

Got a few gift cards for Christmas totalling up to $150.00

Snagged a disk drive at MSRP.

Purchased the PS5 Pro hassle free.

Best Christmas ever.

[VoxyGon]

Really enjoying the openness being displayed by Sony here with their hardware and their goals, its very fascinating to get insight into such specific details.

[fungerhord]

After all this coverage, I still don't feel like I am missing out on anything with skipping the Pro and I would fall into the target audience. Lack of disc drive and price in my country was a bridge too far for me.

[devilmaycry]

Like my PS5 Pro i have always been a console gamer. Sometimes, i questioned why i spent so much on building a 4090 gaming PC, which i hardly get time to use.