Description
PlayStation 5
The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea, and was released worldwide a week later. The PS5 is part of the ninth generation of video game consoles, along with Microsoft‘s Xbox Series X/S consoles, which were released in the same month.
The base model includes an optical disc drive compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. The Digital Edition lacks this drive, as a lower-cost model for buying games only through download. The two variants were launched simultaneously. Slimmer hardware revisions of both models replaced the original models on sale in November 2023.[10] A PlayStation 5 Pro model was released on November 7, 2024, featuring a faster GPU, improved ray tracing, and introducing an AI-driven upscaling technology.
The PlayStation 5’s main hardware features include a solid-state drive customized for high-speed data streaming to enable significant improvements in storage performance, an AMD GPU capable of 4K resolution display at up to 120 frames per second, hardware-accelerated ray tracing for realistic lighting and reflections, and the Tempest Engine for hardware-accelerated 3D audio effects. Other features include the DualSense controller with haptic feedback, backward compatibility with the majority of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games, and the PlayStation VR2 headset.
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The original PlayStation 5 console with optical drive, and DualSense controller
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| Also known as | PS5 |
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| Developer | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Manufacturer | Sony, Foxconn |
| Product family | PlayStation |
| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Ninth |
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November 12, 2020
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| Units sold | 50 million (as of December 20, 2023)[1] |
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| Units shipped | 75 million (as of December 31, 2024)[2] |
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| CPU | Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 Variable frequency up to 3.5 GHz |
| Memory | 16 GB/256-bit GDDR6 SDRAM 512 MB DDR4 RAM (used as SSD controller cache)[3]2 GB DDR5 RAM (used for system; Pro Model only)[4] |
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| Controller input | DualSense (Edge), DualShock 4, PlayStation Move, PS5 Media Remote, PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers |
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| Online services | PlayStation Network PlayStation Plus |
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Dimensions
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Mass
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| Backward compatibility |
Almost all PlayStation 4 games and PlayStation VR games |
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| Predecessor | PlayStation 4
Hardware The PlayStation 5 is powered by a custom system on a chip (SoC) designed in tandem by AMD and Sony,[45] integrating a custom 7 nm AMD Zen 2 CPU with eight cores running at a variable frequency capped at 3.5 GHz.[46] Zen 2 is a 64-bit x86-64 instruction set CPU microarchitecture. The integrated GPU is also a custom unit based on AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture.[47] The GPU has 36 compute units running at a variable frequency capped at 2.23 GHz, making it capable of a peak theoretical performance of 10.28 teraFLOPS.[48][49][50] The GPU supports hardware-accelerated real-time ray tracing, a rendering technique that allows for realistic lighting and reflections.[17] It is programmed via Sony’s new AGC graphics API.[51][52] The console has 16 GB of GDDR6 SDRAM with a peak bandwidth of 448 GB/s,[46] and integrates Bluetooth 5.1, and 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6).[53] Both the CPU and GPU are monitored by a special boost system incorporating AMD’s SmartShift technology that adjusts the frequency of these units based on the current activities of both to target ideal constant power drawn and a model SoC performance profile.[54][55] For example, if the CPU is running at lower activity, the boost system may reduce its frequency and increase the frequency of the GPU for higher performance without otherwise affecting power use or cooling.[46] The cooling system includes a double-sided cooling fan for air intake that is 120 mm in diameter and 45 mm thick, and a large heat sink with a standard heat pipe design that Sony says has a “shape and airflow [which] make it possible to achieve the same performance as a vapor chamber“. SoC cooling includes a liquid metal thermal conductor which sits between the SoC and the heat sink.[56][57][58][59] The system contains a 350-watt power supply.[56][57][58] Sony developed the PlayStation 5 to consume less energy than the PlayStation 4 for suspended gameplay states.[60] The console has a new audio technology called Tempest Engine, allowing hundreds of simultaneous sound sources compared to 50 for the PlayStation 4.[46] PlayStation 5 Storage architectureThe internal storage of the PlayStation 5 is a custom-built 825 GB solid-state drive (667 GB available)[61] with a 12-channel interface, achieving a raw throughput of 5.5 GB/s. This atypical drive size was found to be optimal for the 12-channel pathway rather than a more common 512 GB or 1 TB unit. With a dedicated decompression unit supporting zlib and the new Oodle Kraken data compression protocol from RAD Game Tools, the unit has a typical throughput of 8–9 GB/s.[46] Mark Cerny stated that a fast SSD was the top request from game developers so the goal not only was to have a theoretical raw read speed 100 times faster than PS4, but to eliminate input/output (I/O) bottleneck points so the performance target could be made effective. To this end, Sony designed a custom chip with multiple coprocessors to work in unison with the flash memory controller to reduce latency and channel data more efficiently around the system. At peak, the custom unit is capable of processing up to 22 GB/s of compressible data.[62] Storage for games is expandable up to an additional 8TB through a single internal NVM Express (NVMe) M.2 solid-state drive, and up to an additional 8TB through an external USB hard drive or SSD.[46][63] Initially at launch, NVMe drives were not supported and the console would not boot if one was installed.[64] Beta system software support for the M.2 port was released in July 2021,[65] while full support was added in a September 2021 system update.[66] The internal SSD is not user-serviceable, since its flash memory chips and controller are built into the PlayStation 5’s motherboard.[67] Though game installation is mandatory, the user has some control of what to install such as only installing the multiplayer component of a game.[68] While PlayStation 4 games can be moved between the internal SSD and an external USB or M.2 drive to free up space on the SSD, PlayStation 5 games must be stored on the internal SSD or external M.2 drive to be played, and at launch could not be moved to an external storage device.[69] An April 2021 system patch enabled users to move PlayStation 5 games to and from an external USB storage device, though the games must still reside on the internal SSD to be played.[70] The base version of the PlayStation 5 includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray optical drive[46] compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, standard Blu-ray discs and DVDs. The PlayStation 5 does not support CDs and will not play 3D Blu-ray content.[71][72] The choice of Ultra-HD Blu-ray as the disc medium means PlayStation 5 game discs can hold up to 100 GB of data, in contrast to PlayStation 4 games which usually came on dual-layer standard Blu-ray discs capable of holding up to 50 GB.[73] An example of this is the title Gran Turismo 7. The PS4 version comes on 2 discs whereas the PS5 version comes on one.[74] |
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