Sony says the GPU in the PS5 Pro is mostly very old tech but previews the ray-tracing upgrades from future RDNA 4 graphics for PCs [Video]

The GPU in the hot new PlayStation 5 Pro is mostly pretty old tech. But it does preview the ray-tracing upgrades that are coming with AMD’s new RDNA 4 graphics chips for PC gamers.

That’s the low down from the same PS5 Pro deep dive that also revealed Sony went its own way with AI hardware in the console rather than using AMD technology.

Sony’s lead architect for its PlayStation consoles, Mark Cerny, has explained that the GPU in the PS5 Pro is still RDNA 2-based at its core, just like the original PS5. The reason for that is straightforward, compatibility.

By largely carrying over RDNA 2 technology for the shaders in the PS5 Pro’s GPU, game developers can compile a single code path and have it run on both the PS5 and the PS5 Pro.

However, the PS5 Pro is not identical. “The base technology for PS5 Pro is somewhere between RDNA 2 and RDNA 3,” Cerny says. For starters, while the shaders …