8K support, SSD, and PS4 compatibility: Here’s our first look at PS5 specs

It seems that the time has finally come for us to welcome the new Sony platform we have been waiting for for years, and the first official statement about its specifications has made millions around the world lose their minds. The PS5 is coming strongly, and this is the initial information we know

The successor to PS4 home console, launched in 2013, may be the best in Sony’s history, according to information revealed by the lead technical designer Mark Cerny who is overseeing the PS5 production (or whatever its name will be).

In an exclusive interview with Wired, Cerny spoke about the new device and what Sony aims to achieve this time, with promises to support the latest technology possible with the PS5 to represent the biggest shift so far for video games consoles.

We will not only see graphics-related improvements, but also surround 3D audio, games loading at high speed with SSDs, and even play previous games with official confirmation of PS5 support for all PS4 games in Backwards Compatibility, a feature long requested by fans ever since it was cancelled with PS3 later iterations.

It was emphasized that the next platform would not only be an improvement to the PS4 but rather a whole new platform. Featuring AMD Ryzen Zen 2 processor, a Radeon Navi GPU modified to Sony’s needs with official support for Ray Tracing (similar to RTX in the PC) and support for up to 8K resolution , and of course, an SSD drive instead of conventional HDD.

To illustrate the difference we will see with the PS5, Cerny talked about an experiment on the PS4 Pro with Spider-Man loading in 15 seconds, while only 0.8 seconds was recorded on the current PS5 device thanks to Sony’s high-speed storage disk.

The Backwards Compatibility feature is equally as important. The official confirmation of the PS5’s ability to play all the PS4 games is what we were all waiting for, especially when you realize that all games would benefit from PS5 specs in one way or another as illustrated with the Spider-Man example. Will we see Bloodborne with unlocked frame rates and fast load screens finally? It seems very likely.

Another advantage that we will see a great improvement in is the virtual reality aspect without a doubt. With the success of PSVR on the PS4 platforms, we can imagine how it will be with the new platform, which will inevitably support this technology more extensively. However, no further details have been revealed in this area yet, so we have to see the full announcement first, which is closer than ever before.

When asked whether we would see the next console this year, Cerny confirmed that the PS5 will not see the light this year, unfortunately, but developers have already obtained the initial kits of the device to prepare their games for a possible launch next year. It seems that we may see Death Stranding and The Last of Us 2 coming out for both current and upcoming platforms, especially with the possibility of them releasing next year as well.