Sony PS5's electrifying graphical power teased with cryptic clock speed clue

Another piece of the Sony PlayStation 5 puzzle just slotted into place

PS5 Sony PlayStation 5
(Image credit: LetsGoDigital)

Well before Sony PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny soft-revealed the new console back in April, loyal PlayStation gamers have known that the next-generation console is poised to be a powerhouse system.

Despite Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera stating there would be no new PlayStation until 2021, PlayStation gamers kept their faith and were rewarded when whispers of a secret next-gen shadow war emerged that indicated Sony was actually running a Skunk Works-style division to produce a killer next-gen console to launch before the 2020 holiday shopping season.

This rope-a-dope play was allegedly designed to lure Microsoft and its Xbox Scarlett program into a false sense of security, allowing the US manufacturer to bluster about setting "the benchmark for console gaming" while Sony indicated it needed to "crouch down" and "depart from the traditional way of looking at the console life cycle", before then ambushing it with an insanely powerful new PS5 console out of nowhere.

And now, with the Sony PlayStation 5 set for launch in the back half of 2020 and not 2021, and with leaked benchmark scores showing massive gains over the current generation PS4 and Xbox One consoles, it appears that Sony's plan really is coming to fruition.

Especially so as respected Japanese tech hardware leakster @Komachi_Ensaka has just gone and hinted that the PS5 could be so powerful that its GPU could be clocked to 2GHz, and that "this equates to 9.2 TF (teraflops) of the RDNA architecture". To put that in perspective, the PS4 has only 4.2 teraflops of graphical power.

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There are three different clock speeds listed in the tweet as the PlayStation 5 is reportedly backwards compatible with the current PlayStation generation, meaning that it will be able to act as both a PS4 and PS4 Pro. This is backed up in the Tweet's clock speeds, with 0.800Ghz the speed of the PS4 and 0.911Ghz the speed of the PS4 Pro.

Now, eagle-eyed gamers will have seen that "Oberon A0" is mentioned at the top of the Tweet. That is a codename for a platform which supposedly has ties to both the Ariel GPU and Gonzalo APU that have previously been linked to the PS5, adding weight to these clock speeds.

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Now if that 2GHz clock speed / 9.2 teraflops performance is accurate, then that means the PS5 is going to be an order of magnitude more powerful than any other video console that has been released to date, including the most powerful console in the world right now, the Xbox One X.

That's because that 9.2 TF figure compares in performance to a state-of-the-art Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, which is capable of delivering 10 TF, and is one of the very best graphics cards currently on the market. 

Then, when you factor in the fact that the PlayStation 5 is called to boast a custom-built, highly-optimised GPU that is designed to allow PlayStation game makers to squeeze every last drop of power from it, and all signs are pointing to the PS5 being able to deliver 4K, 120Hz gaming with ease, and even push on into 8K gaming with the help of the new PlayStation's "special sauce".

Here at T3 we couldn't be more excited for the Sony PS5, and are eagerly waiting for the console to be officially unveiled, which according to the latest rumours will take place at the PlayStation Meeting 2020 event on February 21, 2020.

Via: guru3d.com

Robert Jones

Rob has been writing about computing, gaming, mobile, home entertainment technology, toys (specifically Lego and board games), smart home and more for over 15 years. As the editor of PC Gamer, and former Deputy Editor for T3.com, you can find Rob's work in magazines, bookazines and online, as well as on podcasts and videos, too. Outside of his work Rob is passionate about motorbikes, skiing/snowboarding and team sports, with football and cricket his two favourites.