Detailed Analysis of PlayStation 5 Pro Specs: PS5 Architect Mark Cerny Addresses ‘FLOPflation’ Myths

Yesterday, PlayStation shared an insightful video featuring Mark Cerny, giving an in-depth presentation on the PS5 Pro’s technical features at Sony Interactive Entertainment HQ. As the system architect, Cerny delved into the new hardware of the PlayStation 5 Pro and tackled various rumors swirling around this upcoming release. One topic he focused on was what he referred to as “FLOPflation.” This term arose after a misleading leak suggested a 33.5 TFLOPs capacity, stemming from a misinterpretation of the hardware and an assumption that the console would heavily incorporate RDNA 3-inspired architecture.

In truth, the PS5 Pro delivers 16.7 TFLOPs, an improvement over the standard PS5’s 10 TFLOPs. One accurate pre-launch leak did point to the PS5 Pro’s capacity to reach 300 TOPS when handling 8-bit computations. For 16-bit calculations, the console hits 67 TFLOPS. Cerny explained that while the PS5 Pro incorporates many features from RDNA 3, it’s essentially built on Sony’s customized RDNA 2.X, which minimizes the need for developers to rewrite existing code for the new system.

Mark Cerny highlighted the console’s major advancements focused on a new Ray Acceleration structure using BVH8 (Bounding Volume Hierarchy) and improved “Stack management in hardware.” This upgrade offers better performance and simplified management for graphics shader code.

To break down BVH, it’s a method using bounding boxes, pivotal in 3D rendering, optimizing graphic calculations, such as reflections. The PS5 used BVH4, grouping bounding boxes in sets of 4 for RT calculations. In contrast, the PS5 Pro upgrades this to BVH8, allowing calculations with 8 bounding boxes. Additionally, the Ray Intersection Engine’s capability has been enhanced, moving from evaluating rays against 4 boxes and 1 triangle on the PS5 to dealing with 8 boxes and 2 triangles on the PS5 Pro.

These hardware improvements for ray tracing on the PS5 Pro, made possible through a highly customized RDNA 2 GPU architecture, significantly boost performance for light reflections on curved and textured surfaces, although improvements are more moderate with shadows and flat reflections.

For those seeking more technical insights, the full 37-minute video on the PlayStation 5 Pro is well worth a watch. It offers a fascinating look into the console market dynamics and the technological innovations essential for maintaining a competitive edge.