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Sony‘s PlayStation 6 is still years away and there’s been no official mention of the next-generation console, but there’s already talk of what kind of specs could come with it, including whether or not Sony will stick with AMD for the APU.
A new rumor suggests that’s exactly what Sony is going to do. Continuing with its decision to use an AMD APU for its future PlayStation hardware. When designing the PS5, Sony reportedly had talks with multiple suppliers for the chip, including NVIDIA. But the company settled on AMD, working with it to manufacture a custom APU for the PlayStation 5 based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture. According to the rumor, Sony has decided to stick with AMD for its next-gen console. What’s more, is that Sony is said to only be considering AMD.
If the rumor is accurate, then Sony is likely pleased with the results of AMD’s chip for the PlayStation 5. So much so that it feels like there’s no reason to consider anything else.
The PlayStation 6 is already in development
Not only is the PlayStation 6 rumored to be sticking with AMD for the APU, but it’s “already in development” as well, says RedGamingTech. Sony is reportedly already talking with studios about the console too. The reason for this is that Sony is gathering input from the studios to find out what they want and expect from the console’s hardware and performance. What’s more, the speculated release window for the PlayStation 6 is said to be 2028.
So in theory consumers are looking at another four years. This wouldn’t be too far off from Sony’s usual release cycle between consoles. The PS4 was released in mid-November in 2013. While the PS5 was released in late November in 2020, making it a 7-year cycle. Obviously, nothing about the PlayStation 6’s 2028 release timing is confirmed by Sony, and anything is subject to change. But if the timing is accurate then that would push the release cycle between the PlayStation and the PlayStation 6 at an 8-year gap.
According to Wccftech, there’s a good reason for this. Sony wants to ensure that the PlayStation 6 is the most powerful console of its generation. And it has no issue with taking as much time as it needs to make that happen. Even if that means pushing out the console another year. Interestingly, RedGamingTech says that because of this timing, he believes that Xbox will release its next-gen console first. He also briefly mentions that Xbox is considering a handheld console.
Sony will focus a lot on path tracing and ray tracing for its next-gen console
Sony’s plans of making the PlayStation the most powerful console of its generation are said to include some huge upgrades for graphical performance. Namely with the company putting a big focus on path tracing and ray tracing for the PlayStation 6.
This wouldn’t be in every single game title. But in certain games development studios could make heavy use of the path tracing and ray tracing technology. To imagine what this might look like, one only needs to look at how Cyberpunk 2077 makes use of these technologies. There’s a heavy emphasis on reflection quality and making things like windows and water have some really detailed reflections. Although this is really only possible on high-end PCs right now. But if Sony is planning to implement these technologies in the PlayStation 6, then console gaming is going to look a lot better than it ever has before.