PlayStation Chief Architect Mark Cerny is back to explain the nitty-gritty details of how he achieves his various graphical improvements. Cerny first in September and in explains how the Pro's upgraded GPU uses AMD technology and announces a “deeper collaboration” between Sony and the chipmaker.
The PS5 uses AMD's RDNA 2 GPU architecture originally released in 2020, while the PS5 Pro uses what Cerny calls in the video as RDNA 2.x. The new GPU is a mix of what was already offered from AMD, with some hand-picked features from the more advanced AMD introduced in 2022. That's combined with ray tracing techniques that Cerny says are from future RDNA technology in the AMD roadmap, and a custom machine. Learning features built for the PS5 Pro. Those machine learning components are also apparently a key part of AMD and Sony's future joint work.
“AMD has been a fantastic partner for SIE for many years,” says Cerny. “And I am honored to announce that we have begun a deeper collaboration with a focus on machine learning-based technology for graphics and gameplay.”
“Amethyst,” the name the companies chose for their new joint project, is primarily concerned with creating “a more ideal architecture for machine learning,” according to Cerny. The new hardware architectures that companies are developing could benefit future consoles and AMD's own GPUs, but they are only part of the plan. Sony and AMD are also working towards the “democratization of machine learning,” which appears to be a possible software tool to make it easier for developers to implement ai in games and graphics.
The entire video is packed with information about the thinking and engineering that went into the PS5 Pro and is worth a watch if you're looking for more details on what “Pro” means in this case. It may not convince you to upgrade to the new $700 console, but it certainly shows that Sony didn't take its design lightly.
