PS5 Pro has 'dedicated custom hardware' co-developed by AMD in the GPU block for more perf

Sony's new PlayStation 5 Pro console features "dedicated custom hardware" that was co-developed with AMD that is in the GPU block, revealed by a new interview by IGN.

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The site sat down with PlayStation Senior Principal Product Manager Toshi Aoki, when he started talking about the new PS5 Pro and its 8K gaming support, adding "but that's not our headline". He continued, adding: "It's more of the cherry on the cake...if you are one of the small percentage of people who have an 8K TV, you could get that from supported games. It is something that we have to work together with developers and also the TV manufacturers in the future....But right now we are really focused on the main use cases, which is 4K TV owners having that high-level visual fidelity and playing at [60 FPS]".

In the meantime, the new beefed-up PS5 Pro console will favor improvements to the GPU over the CPU, with Aoki saying that the PS5 Pro packs "dedicated custom hardware" that was co-developed with AMD that resides in the GPU block, and that games will be patched to use that part of the block.

Insomniac Games is one of the developers that has some ideas on how to further improve Spider-Man 2, even after the PS5 Pro hits the market, with the Director of Core Technology at Insomniac, Mike Fitzgerald saying that he ray tracing capabilities of the PS5 Pro are "sort of a level about the standard PS5" and that the development team has some "cool ideas about what we can do with that".

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Guerilla Games is using the additional power inside of the PS5 Pro to get rid of checkerboard rendering -- which is an upscaling method commonly used with the PS4 Pro -- and focus on rendering Horizon: Forbidden West at native 4K. The PS5 Pro update features less jittering and artifacting than the previous versions, including cut scenes.

Lead Lighting Artist at Insomniac Games, Roderick van der Steen, said: "So in cinematics, in close-ups of Aloy and all the other characters, there's a lot more smooth and stable imagery...So yeah, it makes us very happy that we were able to do this".

Guerilla has always had the inside lane when it comes to PlayStation technology, with the engineering team having the most ideas of any developer on how to squeeze everything out of the new PS5 Pro. Guerilla Technical Director Michiel van der Leeuw, added: "These things are very exciting to use, like if you get a toy box, which is a whole bunch of extra power and see what to do with it. Of course, I think the PS5 version in performance mode already looks really good. But yeah, if you have a lot more power, then you can do a lot more to make it look even better".

• Read more: Sony announces PS5 and PS5 Pro '30th Anniversary Limited Edition' bundles
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• Read more: Sony's new PS5 Pro official: 45% faster, 2-3x faster in RT, launches Nov 7 for $699
• Read more: PS5 Pro games to get 'PS5 Pro Enhanced' label: upscale to 4K, constant 60FPS games

• PS5 Pro runs cool and quiet, around 200W of power: The PS5 Pro has recently been rumored to use around 200W of power, the same power connector as the standard PS5, and it runs cooler thanks to tweaks from AMD and TSMC's improved process node on the Viola SoC inside of the PS5 Pro.
• 45% faster than standard PS5: The new codenamed Trinity SoC is a beefed-up semi-custom design from AMD with a larger GPU and faster GDDR6 memory. The higher clock speeds on the GPU and some RDNA 4 tech are going to provide a huge upgrade in performance over the regular PS5.
• 2-3x faster in ray tracing than standard PS5: An increase of 45% in performance over the standard PS5 is impressive, but the new RDNA 4 GPU tricks inside of the PS5 Pro will reportedly provide an insane 2-3x performance increase on new "PS5 Pro Enhanced" games on a PlayStation 5 Pro console.
• AI-powered PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling tech: The new PS5 Pro console will have some AI technology (of course) which will power an exciting new AI upscaling technology: PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution -- or PSSR -- which means we're going to see some of the best graphics we've seen out of a console yet with the PS5 Pro.
• PS5 Pro Enhanced label for games: Sony will have a new "PS5 Pro Enhanced" label for games, which will see games using PSSR to upscale the resolution to 4K, a constant 60FPS, and then add or increase ray tracing effects and performance.