PS5 news: gamers call out reports PlayStation 5 can't handle native 4K

Gamers aren't fooled by "unsubstantiated rumours" about the Sony PS5

PS5 PlayStation 5
(Image credit: Sony)

Over the past 24 hours lots of reports have come out, based on some comments by analyst Jeff Grub, indicating that the PS5 could struggle to run PS5 games in native 4K, and instead has to resort to upscaling to make 'fake 4K'.

Luckily, though, it seems that the unsubstantiated leak has not fooled savvy gamers, as evidenced by a fresh Reddit discussion entitled: "PS5 has shown gameplay running at Native 4k".

In the discussion Reddit user LivingLegendMadara kick-starts the takedown:

"I've been seeing a lot of posts talking about Fake 4K and everything.

Check Digital Foundry's analysis of the PS5 Gameplay reveal that happened in June and you can see them confirm that first party games are running at Native 4k. Not upscaled, or "fake". Native 4k.

This is just me trying to call out unsubstantiated rumours."

Other gamers were then quick to agree that the PS5 fake 4K leak was unsubstantiated, with user Hotwheels101 saying that:

"Jeff Grubb said he was speculating that it COULD be an issue for Devs and then asked any Devs to come forward if it's true, absolute FUD. It does my head in its fearmongering."

For those who don't know, FUD is acronym for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, and is a disinformation strategy used to influence perception of a product in a negative way.

User Ewaan agreed with Hotwheels101, adding in that "It's a negative marketing campaign called FUD - Fear, uncertainty and doubt," before concluding that "It's my belief that MS can't best Sony with a more powerful console at a better price (if they do eventually undercut Sony) because Sony will have a better launch line up and more market/mind share going into this gen."

Meanwhile, user Hatsuma1 was also in agreement, opining that "this is radical amount of FUD, considering that you have 3rd party devs already claiming 4k60fps for titles such as Ghost Wire and Deathloop."

Normorealchohol2017 also seemed to find the situation farcical, noting that "Only one guy has started these rumours so it all seems a bit ridiculous".

Interestingly, and something that T3 agrees with entirely, is that many commenters also noted that they thought the whole native 4K thing was not that important, anyway.

User dune7red4 led the charge here, saying that "native 4k is overrated. At least for now and near future", while user parttimegamertom quickly added that:

"More people need to realise this. 4K is just marketing bulls**t. You can make a game look much better by using lower resolutions so you dont have to sacrifice frame rate and other graphical niceties such as ray tracing".

T3 has said for years the higher frame and refresh rates, as well as realism-building special effects like real time ray-tracing are the way forward in terms of gaming immersion, and actually games can look just as good at a lower resolution and required substantially less resources to push out.

And user AznSenseisian succinctly sums this up in the thread's comments, stating that:

"If you have another way to get to 4K non-natively, do it. No sense in wasting resources."

Clearly, then, it seems the "PS5 can't do native 4K" leak needs to be taken with a titanic-sized pinch of salt, as the available facts and evidence just don't back it up. As user tatsumi-sama notes, the "PS5 can do up to 4K120fps", and while we don't expect every game to offer that or a native 4K option, we certainly expect the lion's share to offer at least the option.

Fingers crossed we get some actual official information about the PS5's 4K capabilities soon.

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.