PS5: SSD, 8K, backward compatibility PS4, here is the first official news

The PS5 officially delivers its first secrets. A PlayStation executive has announced part of the hardware of the next-generation console from Sony and promised heavy with high-performance SSDs, support for 8K definition, 3D audio, ray-tracing or compatibility with PS4 games.

After months or even years of rumors, we finally have the right to first official information about Sony PS5 (its final commercial name has not been confirmed). Mark Cerny, chief architect of PlayStation, gave some very interesting elements to Wired, who relays all of this.

PS5: retro-compatible PS4 games

Cerny promises that the next generation of PlayStation will offer graphics in 8K quality, ray-tracing and 3D audio. To achieve such achievements, a serious hardware upgrade is planned. The PS5 is equipped with an eight-core AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen CPU, 7nm engraved via the Zen 2 process. It is associated with an AMD Navi GPU.

Another major change, the console has a "high speed" SSD instead of a traditional hard drive. We suspected, Sony is not ready to bet on cloud gaming for the moment. And more than for storage, it's for performance that changes everything. The Wired reporter was able to test the latest Spiderman on a PS5 development kit, and the result is bluffing: a quick trip on the game requires about 15 seconds of loading time on PS4, against only 0.8 seconds on PS5.

No news for the games, services and features that will be offered at the exit. But we know however that the PS5 will be backward compatible for PS4 games, as announced by a previous leak. A report even mentioned backward compatibility for PS1, PS2 and PS3 as well, Mark Cerny did not mention it. In addition, the current PSVR headset will still be compatible with the PS5.

Regarding the release date of the console, we have the confirmation that it will not be available in 2019. 2020 is not confirmed, but it is now almost certain that the marketing will begin next year. A recent report mentions the price of 499 dollars for the PS5, up if it is the base model tariff. But it does not look shocking given the hardware and promised promises.