PS5 System Architect Mark Cerny takes aim at the Xbox Series X
We’ve finally got some information on the PS5. It’s been a long wait and Sony have been very tight-lipped, but today gamers got to see some specs. The presentation was dry and very technical, but one comment caught our interest.
Mark Cerny, Lead System Architect on the PS5, took direct aim at rival console, the Xbox Series X.
“It’s dangerous to rely on Teraflops as an absolute measure of performance” said Cerny. Following Microsoft’s recent announcement that the company’s next-gen console would pack 12 teraflops of computing power.
Related: PS5 vs Xbox Series X
Comparably, the PS5 will have 10 teraflops, which doesn’t quite match the Xbox Series X on paper.
However, Cerny was keen to argue that counting teraflops is an over-simplification of the computing power these machines will make available to gamers. Cerny claims that GPU power should not be judged in terms of teraflops, but we’ll have to wait until we actually see these consoles working to know which runs smoother.
Here’s the full comparison table of PS5 vs Xbox Series X specs:
| Xbox Series X | PS5 | |
| CPU | 8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU | 8x Zen 2 cores @ 3.5GHz (variable frequency) |
| GPU | 12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU | 10.28 TFLOPs, 36CUs @ 2.23GHz |
| Memory | 16 GB GDDR6 w/ 320mb bus | 16 GB GDDR6/ 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 10 GB @ 560 GB/s, 6 GB @ 336 GB/s | 448GB/s |
| Internal Storage | 1 TB Custom NVME SSD | 825 GB Custom NVME SSD |
| I/O throughput | 2.4 GB/s (Raw), 4.8 GB/s (Compressed, with custom hardware decompression block) | 5.5 GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9 GB/s (Compressed) |
| Expandable Storage | 1 TB Expansion Card (matches internal storage exactly) | NVMe SSD Slot |
| External Storage | USB 3.2 External HDD Support | USB HDD Support |
| Optical Drive | 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive | 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive |
| Performance Target | 4K @ 60 FPS, Up to 120 FPS | – |
Related: Best PS4 Games
We’d tend to agree with Cerny that you can’t rely solely on such a spec to judge overall gaming performance, but the Xbox Series X does appear to have the edge at this early stage. We’ll have to wait until both consoles launch to get a better idea of the performance these consoles are capable.
One thing the PS5 does look to have the advantage in is SSD speeds,being capable of 5.5GB/s opposed to the Xbox’s 4.8 GB/s. This should theoretically mean the PS5 will load games quicker, so you can jump into the action that little bit faster.
But in the end of the day, these are slim performance margins wherever you look. Both consoles look very powerful, and should provide a substantial difference to gaming when they launch at the end of the year.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
