PlayStation 5 Pro specifications thoroughly explained, 'FLOPflation' debunked by PS5 system architect Mark Cerny

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Not a lot of gameplay footage — this is pure console tech talk

A graphic depicting the effective raster (non-RT) performance gain in render time of PlayStation 5 Pro.
(Image credit: Sony PlayStation (via YouTube))

PlayStation uploaded a video yesterday of Mark Cerny presenting a PS5 Pro Technical Seminar at Sony Interactive Entertainment HQ. The system architect provided a deep dive into Playstation 5 Pro's new hardware and chose to clarify some rumors floating around the new console. Mark spent some time addressing "FLOPflation" since an "erroneous 33.5 TFLOPs number" was leaked due to a misunderstanding of the hardware by a leaker assuming deeper use of RDNA 3-inspired architecture.

In reality, the PS5 Pro achieves 16.7 TFLOPs compared to the PS5's 10 TFLOPs. Meanwhile, one of the accurate pre-release leaks pointed toward the PS5 Pro achieving 300 TOPS when performing 8-bit calculations. 16-bit calculations, meanwhile, can achieve 67 TFLOPS. As Cerny clarifies, RDNA 2.X, Sony's customized AMD RDNA 2 architecture, uses many RDNA 3 features but maintains enough of the original architecture to not force code rewrites on the new hardware.

PS5 Pro Technical Seminar at SIE HQ - YouTube PS5 Pro Technical Seminar at SIE HQ - YouTube
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According to Mark Cerny, the biggest improvements of PS5 Pro are considered to be its new Ray Acceleration structure using BVH8 (Bounding Volume Hierarchy) and leveraging improved "Stack management in hardware," which means that graphics shader code is now better-managed, simpler, and more performant on the new hardware.

BVH refers to how bounding boxes, a common feature of 3D rendering, are used to make graphics calculations like reflections. BVH4, with bounding boxes in groups of 4, was used on PS5 for RT calculations, while PS5 Pro can now leverage BVH8 (8 bounding boxes) for its RT calculations. Similarly, the Ray Intersection Engine has doubled from checking rays against 4 boxes and 1 triangle (PS5) to 8 boxes and 2 triangles (PS5 Pro).

These improvements to ray tracing hardware in the PlayStation 5 Pro, made possible through an incredibly customized version of the RDNA 2 GPU architecture used within the PS5, give great performance gains with curved and bumpy light reflections but only moderate gains with shadows and flat reflections.

The full 37-minute video on the PlayStation 5 Pro is recommended for more technical information. It includes lots of interesting hindsight into the console market and the technologies required to compete in it.

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Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Sluggotg
    I wonder how many games will actually be created to support the new features on the PS5 Pro? I do the vast majority of gaming on my PCs or retro computers/consoles. But I do buy all the new consoles when they come out. I was probably a sucker to buy this one. I already have the original PS5.
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    Sluggotg said:
    I wonder how many games will actually be created to support the new features on the PS5 Pro? I do the vast majority of gaming on my PCs or retro computers/consoles. But I do buy all the new consoles when they come out. I was probably a sucker to buy this one. I already have the original PS5.
    A small list compared to the total PS5 list of games. The main problems with the PS5 Pro is that it's 4 years too late. Sony is usually its own worse enemy either with pricing or strategy. They admitted that the PS5 is at its end of life cycle. The PS5 Pro still had not released.

    All the so-called benefits of the PS5 Pro are nit picky where you probably won't notice them while playing a game. The PS6 when it's released in 2-3 years time will probably be a bigger leap.

    I'm tired of hearing and reading that you still have to pick and choose graphics settings on the Pro. I want to play a PlayStation game with all the bells and whistles in native 4K and at minimum, 60FPS. I don't want shortcuts and compromises. I want it all. The PS5 Pro still requires compromises. I'd rather wait and buy the PS6, which will probably still require compromises for native 4K @ 60FPS.
    Reply
  • magbarn
    After seeing how quickly my PS4 Pro went obsolete and that most games weren't that different taught me to never buy a "Pro" Sony console again
    Reply
  • purposelycryptic
    Heat_Fan89 said:
    A small list compared to the total PS5 list of games. The main problems with the PS5 Pro is that it's 4 years too late. Sony is usually its own worse enemy either with pricing or strategy. They admitted that the PS5 is at its end of life cycle. The PS5 Pro still had not released.

    All the so-called benefits of the PS5 Pro are nit picky where you probably won't notice them while playing a game. The PS6 when it's released in 2-3 years time will probably be a bigger leap.

    I'm tired of hearing and reading that you still have to pick and choose graphics settings on the Pro. I want to play a PlayStation game with all the bells and whistles in native 4K and at minimum, 60FPS. I don't want shortcuts and compromises. I want it all. The PS5 Pro still requires compromises. I'd rather wait and buy the PS6, which will probably still require compromises for native 4K @ 60FPS.
    They stated that the PS5 has entered the "latter stage of its life-cycle", not that it is at the end of its life-cycle. That's a big difference. Games are still seeing PS4 versions fairly regularly, which restricts developers of those titles pretty harshly, and the number of games that actually push the PS5 to its limits is still quite low as a result.

    Especially with the release of the PS5 Pro, many projections are for up to 4 years until the PS6 comes around, and longer until there are games that actually take proper advantage of the hardware, since there are few benefits to making a console launch exclusive, with the smallest possible user base.

    That still isn't enough time to warrant buying a PS5 Pro for me, especially with that price tag, but they might get some of the PS4 holdouts to finally jump ship, as fewer games have been getting PS4 versions lately. 'Id rather just get a second PS5 with an early firmware version off eBay to mess around with homebrew and CFW (and finally be able to locally back up my saves!).

    There will always be compromises with consoles, though - if you want the best of the best, you need a gaming PC, and be willing to upgrade your hardware regularly, as the goalposts are always moving.
    Reply
  • purposelycryptic
    Sluggotg said:
    I wonder how many games will actually be created to support the new features on the PS5 Pro? I do the vast majority of gaming on my PCs or retro computers/consoles. But I do buy all the new consoles when they come out. I was probably a sucker to buy this one. I already have the original PS5.
    Keep your non-pro PS5 offline and auto-update disabled, and maybe in a few years, you'll be able to run homebrew/CFW on it. That's what I did with my PS4 when I got my PS5, at least, and it's been a lot of fun to mess around with.

    That way it won't be a total loss. Or you could just sell it, I suppose, but that would be kind of boring.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    PS5 Pro generally seems to be a reaction to how use the PS5. I believe Sony stated 75% of users picked performance modes over visuals. The PS5 Pro mostly just allows you to hit those same performance modes, but with better visuals while doing it. It can also offer more consistent frame times to games that aren't necessarily PS5 Pro optimized.

    I understand why someone would get a PS5 Pro despite the poor pricing, but if I was in the Playstation ecosystem I don't think I'd touch it if I already had a PS5.
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    purposelycryptic said:
    They stated that the PS5 has entered the "latter stage of its life-cycle", not that it is at the end of its life-cycle. That's a big difference.
    For me that means the same thing, that they are beginning to concentrate on its successor and the PS5 platform is now in their rearview mirror. I see NO reason to re-up on their newly released, outgoing console.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Sluggotg said:
    I wonder how many games will actually be created to support the new features on the PS5 Pro?
    If I were way into VR or really wanted better upscaling to 4k, then maybe I'd upgrade. Otherwise, the value proposition just seems to weak.

    Sluggotg said:
    I was probably a sucker to buy this one.
    It lost the disc drive. That's another reason I don't like it. Especially for their premium offering, it should have all the goodies!

    I was also worried they might drop PS4-compatibility, at some point, like how the PS3 first dropped PS1 and then PS2 hardware compatibility. I still have a 1st gen PS3 that I got for that reason and I wanted to make sure I got a PS5 before they potentially did the same thing of removing GCN backward-compatibility from the GPU, which I thought might happen in the PS5 Pro.

    magbarn said:
    After seeing how quickly my PS4 Pro went obsolete and that most games weren't that different taught me to never buy a "Pro" Sony console again
    As an upgrade from the corresponding non-Pro generation, it's absolutely a rip-off. However, if it were priced at least $100 less and you didn't already have a PS5, then I think it'd be compelling.
    Reply
  • Heat_Fan89
    magbarn said:
    After seeing how quickly my PS4 Pro went obsolete and that most games weren't that different taught me to never buy a "Pro" Sony console again
    I also bought a PS4 Pro after buying a launch PS4. I regretted that decision because the games looked basically the same and few games took advantage of the extra performance and the PS4 Pro was released 3 years after the PS4.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Heat_Fan89 said:
    They admitted that the PS5 is at its end of life cycle.
    At the end? No, it should be 2027 before the PS6 launches. That's in keeping with their prior launches and it's consistent with where it seems they're at in the PS6 hardware development process.

    Granted, the PS5 Pro really should've launched more like a year ago and/or shouldn't be as expensive. Especially without the disc drive.

    Heat_Fan89 said:
    I want to play a PlayStation game with all the bells and whistles in native 4K and at minimum, 60FPS. I don't want shortcuts and compromises. I want it all.
    Pfft. Good luck with that. Big GPU performance requires a lot of silicon and that makes it expensive. Even though I feel like the Pro is a rip-off for what it brings to the table, I still don't see you getting native 4k 60 fps at a sub-$1k price point.

    Heat_Fan89 said:
    I'd rather wait and buy the PS6, which will probably still require compromises for native 4K @ 60FPS.
    Yup. Most games will probably render at 1440p and upscale to 4k. That's my guess. Especially if they involve ray tracing.
    Reply