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The game has no limits
Here we are, On November 19, millions of fans will finally get their hands on PlayStation 5, Sony’s next-generation console, which promises not only to immerse us in more detailed and immersive worlds, but also to innovate, thanks to unique technologies, radically the way we play.
Sony comes from an exceptional generation, where more than 120 million PS4s have been sold, annihilating the competition and laying the foundation for a future brighter than ever. This success, however, did not come out of nowhere but was the result of years of hard work, exclusive thickness and, above all, thanks to a well-balanced console, capable of balancing power, innovation and an excellent quality / price ratio. .
This generation, however, will start in a different way: the competition has returned to its senses and is fiercer than ever. Therefore, it is essential that the Japanese company does not lose the compass as it did at the beginning of the PS3 generation. We must necessarily continue to develop high-level cinematic experiences, surrounding everything with unique features and technologies capable of convincing consumers to prefer PlayStation 5, even in the long term.
Sony, although it believes in the cloud and services, you still don’t want to deviate from your classic internal ecosystem idea, relegating its exclusives only to PS5 and limiting itself to occasionally offering some of its titles first party also on PC, subsequently promoting the purchase of your console.
This important factor generates an equally important reality: PS5 is one of those game machines that you cannot stop buying if you want to enjoy its exclusive titles from Sony. This is the true strength of PlayStation, a collection of important, iconic and varied productions.
This point is intimately linked to the console hardware, designed not to be the highest performance but the most balanced with its own internal productions. The latter, in fact, have now become true towing vehicles for the public and for the PlayStation brand itself, now considered a cultural phenomenon, practically unattainable.
PlayStation 5 is, therefore, a platform that wants to be, above all, an old-fashioned console. Linked to their games, and to their cultural iconography, without being carried away by a market in clear transformation, by diametrically opposite paths. In recent weeks at your company we have experienced it as fans and as players, analyzing it from a technical point of view, yes, but also, and above all, experiential.
Without giving ourselves too many laps, we can already reassure you by telling you that PlayStation 5 is a console that you cannot miss in your homes. Sony has done a meticulous job, creating a machine, not only well thought out in terms of performance, but also innovative and very fast, where the exclusives promise to surprise and take your breath away.
Technical specifications
From a performance point of view, PS5 is a significant step up from PS4 and PS4 PRO. Thanks to the collaboration with AMD, we have an APU with custom ZEN 2 and RDNA 2 architectures, as well as the introduction of a prodigious SSD, which not only improves loading times, but also promises to change game design within video game experiences.
The GPU is 10.28 TFLOP with 36 Cu traveling at a variable frequency speed of 2.23 GHz. As you can see, it is a dynamic frequency and therefore can change based on dire need. What does this mean? Well the moment the APU starts generating too much heat the frequency drops, balancing everything. It must be said that Mark Cerny has promised a fairly constant frequency, also thanks to a dissipation system – which we will see later – quite interesting, which uses a huge air cooler, as well as a liquid metal system. Such a high frequency could give a lot, in technical terms, to video games, however, it will have to be evaluated in the long term.
There has been a lot of talk about the architecture of the GPU in recent months. Today we can say, also thanks to AMD’s confirmations, that it is RDNA 2 custom. We are talking about a hybrid between RDNA 1 and RDNA 2, with some exclusive Sony technologies, using Primitive Shader and with full support for ray tracing. So what is missing compared to RDNA 2? Assuming it hasn’t been talked about, PS5 GPU may not support VRS And everything related. It is not a great loss it is clear, also because it is possible that a system made by the same Sony engineers explodes and, therefore, everything is simply presented under different names and terminologies.
The 3.5GHz Zen 2 8-core CPU, as in the case of Xbox, it is a fundamental step forward for video games. Finally, developers will be able to dare more, creating bigger worlds, better artificial intelligences and above all more advanced physics. For RAM, however, Sony has decided to go a more classic route with 16GB GDDR6 RAM with 448GB / s bandwidth speed. This RAM will allow you to view high resolution textures more consistently than before.
Obviously we come to the real leap, which will forever change the way you enjoy video games on consoles: l’SSD. The one on PS5 is particularly portentous, jostling with I / O performance of 5.5 GB / s raw, fine at 8-9 GB / s in compression. In PC we are already starting to see these PCI 4.0 SSDs, but the difference is in the optimization of the hardware and in what Mark Cerny and his engineers have created. The SSD is a fundamental part of the entire system and affects any technical operation of the machine, being exploited 100%.
A feature that it could change the way games unfold forever, which brings benefits also for the PC market, where SSDs, although improving, are never exploited to the maximum of their real potential, still unable to overwhelm the use of HDD. However, with the possibility of being able to program video games only on SSD, we will see experiences like Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, where it will be possible to change the game world in less than half a second.
All of this can only confirm the fact that the PS5 is a console that, on paper, turns out to be the fastest ever built, bringing games to life without loads. Unfortunately, these huge performances cost a lot and consequently we don’t have a 1Tb SSD but only 825GB, of which 667GB can actually be used for gaming. Fortunately, PlayStation 5 allows memory expansion through a classic NVMe SSD slot, which will support multiple PCI 4.0 SSDs for years to come.
Due to a little support for the audio chip. PS5 doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, and neither does Dolby Vision, but just like the GPU, it uses fully proprietary technologies. The engineers worked on the Tempest Engine, a 3D audio chip that allows, in addition to a more realistic and complex sound, also to be able to obtain the maximum performance from headphones, or audio systems, not necessarily high-level.. For our part, we can say that we have not noticed any particular difference with respect to PS4 but it is very likely that titles that can really improve it still do not arrive.
We get to the console ports. On the front we have the start button and the one to eject the disc of the 4K UHD Blu-Ray player. A little higher up, Sony has put a USB A port to charge the controller (the cable is inside the package) and a Type-C port for fast charging or useful for some WiFi dongles. From this point of view, the Japanese company had the right idea: introducing a high-speed port will allow faster recharges, but also support for certain accessories such as external SSDs.
In the back we have two more USB A 3.2 ports, an HDMI port with 2.1 support for 4K at 120Hz – does not support 1440p –and 8K expansion, a must-have Ethernet port, and a power port.
Design
As in the case of Xbox, it’s hard to objectively judge the aesthetics of PlayStation 5Consequently, we leave all consideration to you. But, as always, we can talk about its design, inspired and strongly projected towards the future.
You can’t say that PS5 goes unnoticed. Sony has opted for the first time since day one for a white color, where the blue of the LEDs and the black of the bright central part generate a pleasant visual contrast. The bright part didn’t quite convince us.Both because it leaves multiple fingerprints and because there is a risk of long-term scratches, it might have been better to keep it opaque like the bulkheads, which leave no fingerprints and are more resistant.
However, there are some important considerations to make regarding its size. PS5 is imposing, statuesque, maybe even too much. The size of 39 cm high, 26 cm deep and 10.4 cm wide They are definitely important, especially when you decide to place it horizontally, a choice that inevitably forces you to reserve a lot of space just for it.
Vertically it takes on a completely different shape, rising like a splendid ivory tower. Even in this case, however, we are talking about a rather bulky console, mainly due to a pedestal, far from being intuitive, which increases the width of the console even in this position. The base necessarily serves to prevent the PS5 from sliding in its two positions, in addition to favoring proper ventilation when placed vertically, and if horizontally it is enough to fix it with its interlaced fins, vertically it is necessary to screw it with a coin or a screwdriver. . We are not talking about a complex operation but, as already mentioned, it is not a very intuitive action either. For a gaming console, which we normally expect to be plug & play, more elegant solutions could certainly be considered.
Not very comfortable, but in our opinion more functional, it is the NVMe SSD expansion slot, present, as mentioned above, under the right bulkhead of the console. Both covers can be removed easily and without difficulty, a clear testament to the different customizations that may be applied in the future. The slot needs to be unscrewed with a screwdriver and then you can immediately insert a compatible PCI 4.0 SSD. It’s not intuitive, true, but it’s not that uncomfortable either.
Another important thing to say is that by removing the plastics, you can also see the fan. This means that, in addition to the holes dedicated to collecting the dust deposited inside the machine, cleaning with a can of compressed air is very easy compared to what has been seen in the past with PS4. Great job Sony.
