PS5 specs laid bare in biggest leak yet and the Xbox 2 should be worried

The PS5 is expected to be released in 2020 as a counter-punch to Microsoft’s Xbox 2, but beyond that, precious little else has been revealed about the next-gen Sony system and its specs – until now.

That’s because respected chip leaker @TUM_APISAK (H/T) took to Twitter to share details of the APU they claim will power the PlayStation 5 – and it’s a next-gen AMD chip currently codenamed ‘Gonzalo’.

AMD Gonzalohttps://t.co/uSTurBfcx3

— APISAK (@TUM_APISAK) January 18, 2019

Deciphering the code, we learn that the PS5’s chip will feature eight CPU cores as on the PS4 Pro, but these CPUs will likely be based on the next-generation AMD Zen 2 architecture – or at worst get an upgrade to the company’s incremental Zen+ update.

Whatever the case, it’ll almost certainly represent a significant power gain compared to the PS4’s current Jaguar-based chip, and we should be looking at a max CPU clock speed in the region of 3.2GHz.

In terms of the GPU, the leak claims we’ll be getting a top clock speed of 1GHz or better, but still no word on if AMD’s forthcoming Navi architecture will feature – though it’s surely odds-on to.

So yes, while it probably doesn’t come as a shock, the PS5 is going to be significantly more powerful than the current crop of PlayStation 4’s on the market. We may still be piecing together early-stage guesswork, but that much is virtually certain.

Just how powerful remains to be seen – as does how the PS5 stacks up against the Xbox Two when that’s released.

Both next-gen consoles are tipped for an E3 2020 reveal, but we could get a new Xbox as soon as this year judging by the rumour mill, which tips a streaming-only Xbox system to launch in 2019.

There’s also a new challenger console in the form of the Mad Box, but it’s safe to say it’ll have to be one heck of a beast to truly disrupt the Xbox vs PlayStation duopoly.

Like the sound of the PS5’s specs? Let us know @TrustedReviews.