PS5: Sony is Reportedly Preparing a Pro Version with TWO Graphics Cards

Gaming By Abdel Sesshomaru December 3, 2020

According to a Sony patent that has just been spotted in the US Patent Office database, a console with at least two GPUs instead of just one is on the list. Enough to give a first glimpse of what Sony is up to, and teaser the upcoming arrival of a formidably powerful “PS5 Pro”.

With the launch of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, the war for consoles is back on track. On the sales side, Sony’s victory already seems overwhelming. This is not entirely a surprise, and is linked among other things to the attractiveness of the PlayStation 5 catalog, in addition to the graphic leap forward that the latter allows. Yet from a strictly technical standpoint, the Xbox Series X is the more powerful of the two consoles.

At least for the moment. Because Sony is obviously preparing a PS5 Pro which promises to double the current capacities. An official Sony patent describing a “power-scalable” console with two or more SoCs (the component that contains the CPU, GPU, various specialized enclaves, and memory) instead of just one.

Sony is already working on a powerful PS5 Pro

The document describes Sony’s multi-GPU console concept as follows: “In a multi-GPU simulation environment, graphics cache management could be implemented by rendering the respective frames of the video with multiple GPUs, or rendering the portions of each video frame. One of the GPUs controls the HDMI output of images while receiving image information from the other (or others) GPUs and playing the complete images through a physically connected HDMI output port. Or the GPU outputs can be multiplexed together ”.

Clearly, in this type of device Sony imagines several types of multi-GPU cooperation. In the first case, one GPU delivers the bulk of the graphics while the second completes what is lacking. It is also possible that each GPU renders an exclusive portion of the image. Other types of cooperation involve the use of a physically connected HDMI port, or the multiplexing of the image from the two GPUs, for example by interlacing.

Of course, this patent is not in itself a guarantee that Sony will release a PS5 Pro. But the fact that this patent is appearing shows that Sony’s engineering team is looking into the matter right now. Which is not surprising. The PS4 was indeed entitled to two variants, a less powerful Slim version and a Pro version capable of rendering games in 4K.