- The AMD chip that will power Sony’s PS5 is reportedly close to the final stage of manufacturing, which signals that the launch is still on track for 2020.
- The chip is a custom AMD Ryzen CPU with eight Zen 2 cores, 16 threads, and speeds up to 3.5GHz
- Sony chose to delay its first major PS5 showcase this week due to the protests in the US.
With everything going on in the world, it wouldn’t be especially shocking to see the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X delayed, but all signs seem to be pointing to the next-gen game consoles launching on time this holiday season. Sony and Microsoft have both made it abundantly clear that they still plan to release their new hardware before the end of 2020, and a new report from DigiTimes on Wednesday backs up that assertion.
A supply chain source tells DigiTimes that “the back-end IC packaging and testing” of the AMD chip that will power the PS5 begins next week before being delivered to downstream manufacturers. Production of AMD’s chip is set to peak in August, which suggests that the console is still on track to come out in late 2020.
Following a prolonged period of silence, Sony finally pulled back the curtain on the PS5 in a system architecture deep dive streamed in March. The chip that the DigiTimes story is referring to is a custom AMD Ryzen CPU with eight Zen 2 cores, 16 threads, and speeds up to 3.5GHz. Combined with an RDNA 2-based AMD Radeon GPU and a custom 825GB solid-state drive, the PS5 will be a major upgrade over the PS4.
Although the launch of the PS5 may not be delayed, the reveal has been a long time coming. Back in 2013, Sony held a major reveal event for the PS4 in February, nine months before the console actually hit store shelves. We are now in early June, and we still have no idea what the PS5 even looks like. Sony had planned to stream its first major showcase for the PS5 on Thursday, June 4th, but announced on Monday that the showcase would be delayed as the company did not “feel that right now is a time for celebration” due to the protests surrounding George Floyd’s murder. As of Wednesday morning, Sony had yet to announce a new date for the virtual event.
In regards to the showcase, Sony said it would feature “a first look at the games you’ll be playing after PlayStation 5 launches this holiday,” but said nothing about the hardware itself. Sony might have planned to wait to reveal the PS5’s design in one of the future updates it referenced in the earlier announcement, but, as VGC points out, the chances of the design leaking are only going to increase as production moves forward. Therefore, it might be smart for Sony to show us the PS5 at the rescheduled showcase, even if that wasn’t initially part of the plan.
