Sony revealed the specs for its upcoming PlayStation 5 game console way back in March, but the company wasn’t ready to actually show us what the PS5 would like until… today.

Meet the Sony PlayStation 5 and the new PS5 DualSense controller.

Actually, it looks like there will be two versions of Sony’s next-gen game console — the PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition. The difference is that the standard model will have a Blu-ray drive, while the Digital Edition version will not.

Both will support game downloads, but the disc-less version is a bit thinner and I suspect it will also be a little more affordable.

Sony has also revealed a line of accessories including controllers (with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, headphones (with 3D spatial audio), a media remote control, and an HD camera. They all have the same black and white color scheme as the game console itself.

Oh, and it looks like the PlayStation 5 can stand up tall or lay down sideways.

Of course, it’s what’s under the hood that counts, when it comes to performance. And the new PS5 is expected to feature an AMD processor with 8 Zen 2 CPU cores, custom AMD RDNA graphics, 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, and a custom 825GB solid state drive. Overall it has the specs of a pretty decent gaming PC… but in a console.

Unfortunately it also seems to fall a bit short of the upcoming Xbox Series X in some areas. So it’ll be interesting to see whether the specs tell the full story when both game systems hit the streets later this year.

For now, here’s a comparison of the specs for the PS5, Xbox Series X, and the current-gen PS4 and Xbox One X.

PS5Xbox Series XPS4Xbox One X
CPU8x Zen 2 Cores @ 3.5GHz (with variable frequencies)8x Zen 2 Cores @ 3.8GHz8x Jaguar Cores @ 1.6GHz8x Custom Jaguar Cores @ 2.13GHz
GPUCustom RDNA 2 w/10.28 TFLOPS, 36 CUs, @ 2.23 GHzCustom AMD RDNA 2 w/12 TFLOPs, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHzCustom GCN w/1.84 TFLOPs, 18 CUs at 800MHz6 TFLOPs, 40 CUs @ 1.172GHz, Custom GCN + Polaris Features
Memory 16GB GDDR616GB GDDR6 w8GB GDDR512GB GDDR5
Memory bandwidth448GB/sUp to 560GB/s176GB/sUp to 326GB/s
Built-in storageCustom 825GB SSD1TB Custom NVMe SSD500GB HDD1TB HDD
IO throughput5.5GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9GB/s (Compressed)2.4GB/s (Raw), 4.8GB/s (Compressed w/custom hardware decompression block)50-100MB/s (dependent on data location on HDD)120MB/s
Expandable storageNVMe SSD Slot1TB Expansion CardReplaceable internal HDDN/A
Optical disc drive4K UHD Blu-ray Drive4K UHD Blu-ray DriveBlu-ray Drive4K UHD Blu-ray Drive stuff

And if you want to see Sony’s promo video for the PS5, just skip to the last few minutes of the video below (the first 2+ hours highlight upcoming games that will be available for the console).

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9 replies on “This is what Sony’s PlayStation 5 looks like”

  1. I’m sure this design will look great on the front cover of Gamer’s Digest Quarterly, but will look nothing but garrish and out of place in nearly everyone’s living space. With no mechanical HDD and a 15% compute defecit vs the Series X, I was actually hoping the PS5 would be around the same size as the launch PS4, not the largest f’ing console in history. Probably could’ve happened, had they not decided to keep the same low CU count as the PS4 Pro. Instead, they needed to overclock the living hell out of it to be remotely competitive to the SX. Might’ve at least understood the rationale behind that, if the console had 100% native backward compatibility, but even that isn’t very clear. And while the super-duper fast SSD could potentially be a game-changer, any cross-platform titles will surely be limited to the SX’s slightly slower speeds. Adding an expansion drive will certainly be more expensive for the PS5, while the SX allows hot swapping of cards While not an elegant solution, it should be vastly cheaper to buy 4x 1TB cards vs only a single 4TB expansion drive. I’ve been buying SONY products since the 80s (televisions, laptops, consoles, cameras, phones, alarm clocks, you name it) and for years have been looking forward to upgrading my PS4 to something that will allow me to continue playing the hundreds of games I bought for the system. Sadly, I think SONY royally messed up this time in a number of ways that may be detrimental to not only the PlayStation brand, but eventually the gaming industry in general. Just my long-winded opinion, but I’m personally beyond disappointed.

  2. As a huge fan of Sony since day 1 of PS1, I think MS is going to own, completely and utterly OWN this gen. Everything MS has done with the XS has seemed effortless and smooth while the PS5 has been like pulling teeth and we STILL dont have arguably the most important info. Im bummed they didn’t even touch on pricing or backwards compatibility for software and hardware. I still do NOT believe their bandwidth numbers (a “custom” ssd pumping over 2x as fast as the top end NVME drives….. sure) but honestly even if they are true, that metric isn’t going to be a real factor. MS clear and mapped support for extensive backwards compatibility alone is basically enough to crush the PS5 IMO. The majority (if not all but like 2) of the announced games, while pretty, will certainly be released on the PS4 (not to mention XB1 and XS) so at the moment at least, aside from a SAVAGE looking Oddworld game (that again, will be on the PS4 also), I see zero compelling reason to drop, Im going to guess about ~$800 bucks. Props for being “brave” and moving away from the black boxes, at least initially.

    1. See, this is where I’m going to wait and see. There are videos of people assembling the XSX, and the cooling system is enormous. It is too reminiscent of my original PS3, which would overheat any room I used it in. If the XSX doesn’t give off too much heat, I’ll be happy to get one to replace my XOX. I’m okay to wait though, as there aren’t any exclusives that come to the Xbox that aren’t also on PC.

      But, the PS5 is a day one purchase for me… if I can find one. It is the only place I can play Demon’s Souls, HZ2 and Spiderman:MM. So I’m going to get one, lay it on its side behind the TV and not care what it looks like. 🙂

  3. These gaming companies are going pretty far into attracting 10 year old gamers nowadays with their designs. I wonder if they’re going to release a red one with a bunch of RGB LEDs.

    1. Thanks, I needed this.

      One thing I don’t get is why Sony is risking it.
      We know MS can and will beat them in price. And we know the PS5 hardware is notably inferior to the Xbox. And we know the software and BC are also worse. And we know things are economically bad for Sony and consumers this year.

      A master move would be to do all this and announce the price at say USD $599. Then come November, Sony announces the cancellation of the PS5 blaming the coronavirus like all other companies. Then they announce to delay the PS5 launch for 1 year.

      Out of nowhere, the Xbox is now priced higher (USD $599 ?) and competing with itself. And the only solace it has is it’s Backwards Compatiblity. The PS4 and PS4 Pro ecosystem is strong enough to thrive for another year. Whilst Sony could release the PS5 with some tweaks: increasing the storage to a flat 1TB, doubling the memory to 32GB GDDR6, and improving the cooling solution… all at a more competitive $499 price. Not to mention a lot of games. Quid Pro Quo. That’s how they win.

      1. I understand where you come from, but consider seasonal games into the mix! Sure, a large part of console gaming is exclusive deals, and they can do those whenever they want, being the only platform for the software (probably not thou, a year wait would wreck any developer studio while waiting for the return of their investment). But an even bigger part is games that are on every console and PC and if Sony were to delay the Plash Speed 5 a year 1: they won’t get a large cut of the football/soccer/basketball/whatever_trendy_shooter pie, and if the developers are forced to publish those titles to the PS4, it would take them years to purge the Sony vs MS comparisons where a PS4 game is compared to a XSX one. Besides given the cancel culture these days can you imagine the collective hate and pitchfrork-grabbing mobs if they were to announce a $499 device only to cancel it later? They also enjoy a pretty solid user base in Japan and Korea, and those users are able and willing to buy for $599, no questions asked. In my opinion as a console is basically a dumbed down PC the only value they can offer is ease-of-use and exclusive titles. The ease-of-use is also granted for the XSX and to be honest the PS exclusives somehow always seemed better to me than what MS had. Maybe the type of games I like is more compatible with them. That being said I don’t have either, in fact I never owned any consoles except my old Wii. Also, while I said exclusive titles are the main thing for a console, it is also something I regard as a shady marketing tactic and I hate this practice, the devices should compete based on their capability not what the suits managed to bargain behind closed doors. But I digress. The PS5 looks stupid, but I see no problem even with $599 as a price (you can’t get a comparable PC for that price!) and with the announced titles.

  4. I’m very curious if the “non-pc” aspects of the PS5 (dedicated sound processor equivalent to at least one of the processor cores) and of course the blisteringly fast SSD, will edge it even (or even past?) the XB1XS(?)

    1. It won’t.
      If anything, the Xbox SeX looks to be running faster, quieter, cooler, and maybe even use a little less electricity too. First-party exclusive titles are free to exploit as much performance as possible.

      Though the majority of games will be cross-platform, and in that case they’ll be similar/identical in physics, AI, sound, etc etc since these are pretty much “hard set” properties. What is much more malleable is the graphics. And it’s here the Xbox has a rough +30% advantage, which translates into more stable dynamic resolution, or higher framerates, or simply better quality enhancements… or all of the above.

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