In-Depth Look at PlayStation 5 Pro Features: Mark Cerny Addresses ‘FLOPflation’ Claims

Yesterday, PlayStation treated us to an intriguing video where Mark Cerny, the system architect, took the stage at Sony Interactive Entertainment HQ to unravel the mysteries of the new PS5 Pro in a Technical Seminar. He not only shared insights into the console’s advanced hardware but also aimed to clear up a whirlwind of rumors that have been swirling around. One of his key topics was addressing “FLOPflation,” a term used to describe the hype around an incorrectly reported figure of 33.5 TFLOPs. This figure was apparently a misunderstanding stemming from a leaker who assumed a deeper integration of RDNA 3 elements into the new console.

The truth of the matter is that the PS5 Pro produces 16.7 TFLOPs, improving on the PS5’s 10 TFLOPs. Among the pre-release leaks that hit the mark was the notion that the PS5 Pro could reach 300 TOPS with 8-bit calculations, and 67 TFLOPS with 16-bit calculations. Cerny explained that the PS5 Pro employs RDNA 2.X, a custom iteration of AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture, which borrows several RDNA 3 features while retaining enough of the original system to avoid necessitating major code overhauls.

If you’re interested, the full seminar has been shared online and offers a treasure trove of details.

Mark Cerny pointed out the most significant upgrades for the PS5 Pro, particularly highlighting the revamped Ray Acceleration structure that uses BVH8 (Bounding Volume Hierarchy) alongside enhanced “Stack management in hardware.” This results in more efficient and high-performing management of graphics shader code on the new console.

In 3D rendering, BVH is crucial for handling complex graphics tasks like reflections. The PS5 used BVH4, organizing bounding boxes in groups of four for real-time calculations. With the PS5 Pro, this has evolved into BVH8, which complexes calculations significantly. Moreover, the Ray Intersection Engine has doubled its capacity, now checking rays against 8 boxes and 2 triangles instead of just 4 boxes and 1 triangle as seen in the PS5.

These advancements in the PS5 Pro’s ray tracing hardware, thanks largely to a finely-tuned version of the RDNA 2 GPU architecture, lead to remarkable performance boosts especially with details like curved and textured light reflections, although improvements are more modest when it comes to shadows and flat surfaces.

For those eager to dive deeper, the entire 37-minute video on the PlayStation 5 Pro is a must-watch. It’s packed with fascinating insights about the console market and the tech leaps necessary to stay competitive.

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