PS5 already beats gaming PCs with this key feature

PS5 already beats gaming PCs with this key characteristic

(Image credit: Epic Games)

The PS5 is going to be a powerful system; that'southward not really in dispute. We know from previous press conferences that Sony's new console will characteristic eight cores of 3.five GHz processing power, 16GB of RAM, a GPU capable of calculating more than than x teraflops and a custom 825GB SSD that tin can access memory faster than most anything on the market today.

The PS5 may, in fact, be powerful plenty to change the conversation effectually the future of gaming PCs — at least co-ordinate to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who believes at that place's something unique about Sony's synthesis of hardware and development tools.

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Information comes from The Verge, reporting on an Unreal Engine 5 press conference on May thirteen. Sweeney made a number of bold claims about the PS5's technical capabilities, particularly its GPU and SSD:

"[The PS5] has an immense corporeality of GPU ability, but likewise multi-club bandwidth increment in storage management," he said. "We've been working super close with Sony for quite a long time on storage. The storage architecture on the PS5 is far ahead of annihilation you tin buy on the PC for any corporeality of coin right now. It's going to help drive future PCs."

The claim that the PS5'south SSD is beyond anything else currently bachelor isn't unique to Sweeney, incidentally. Mark Cerny fabricated the same assertion at the PS5 hardware reveal event dorsum in March. Cerny clarified that similar SSDs would be bachelor for PCs after this year, but that a standardized PS5 could accept much better hardware/software synchronicity than a custom-built PC.

Sweeney also conceded that in terms of raw speed, PC manufacturers will friction match the PS5'due south SSD sooner rather than later. Simply like Cerny, Sweeney pointed out that the PS5 has a specialized information management system that wouldn't exist possible to implement on a PC SSD. Sony has full command over both the parts and the firmware on each PS5; no PC manufacturer can say the aforementioned, nor would ane actually want to.

All the same, Sweeney believes that level of integration is worth pursuing. He said that when PC manufacturers encounter merely how efficiently the PS5 can admission data, they'll say to themselves, "oh, wow, SSDs are going to need to catch up with this."

If yous need proof of how quickly the PS5 can access information, it's actually already out in the wild. On May xiii, Sweeney and his team showed off Lumen in the Country of Nanite: a tech demo showcasing the Unreal Engine 5, which ran alive on a PS5 console. In this demanding championship, an audacious protagonist traversed a rocky coulee and explored an aboriginal tomb, showing off dynamic lighting and complex 3D objects in both locations.

Granted, Ballsy created the demo from the ground upward to showcase the PS5'south capabilities; it's entirely possible that another team could have done something very similar for a PC or an Xbox Series Ten. (Don't forget: the Xbox Series X has much ameliorate raw specs than the PS5, while you can already build a PC that'south more powerful than the PS5 in every aspect except its SSD.) On the other mitt, Unreal Engine five games will also exist available on the Xbox Series Ten and PC, so Sweeney has no detail incentive to boost the PS5 over other systems.

PC gamers (including myself) may view the claim of a console leading the way with skepticism, merely it's not really that outlandish an thought. My colleague Adam Ismail was quick to point out that consoles generally make new tech cheaper and more than accessible, which benefits PC gamers equally well.

In any case, there will be no way to verify Sweeney's claims until the PS5 comes out this holiday season. But the subtext is clear: Of all the tech to lookout man in the PS5, the SSD may well be the key to the console'due south innovations.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site'due south coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing groundwork, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of scientific discipline and technology. Later hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.