Rumor mill: The frequency of leaks regarding the next-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles has recently intensified. Onlookers should take the information with a pinch of salt, but if the predictions prove accurate, forecasting next-gen performance may already be possible. Still, details are likely subject to change until at least the end of this year.
Prominent leaker KeplerL2 recently stated that next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft could perform similarly to the latest high-end PC graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia. The prediction is based on recent reports by Kepler and YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead, who have made several claims about the upcoming consoles over the past few months.
The PlayStation 6 and next-generation Xbox are expected to utilize AMD's Zen 6 CPU architecture and RDNA 5 GPU architecture, also known as UDNA. Through UDNA, the upcoming consoles may make ray tracing, path tracing, and numerous neural rendering features standard, with substantial performance improvements.
Kepler noted that with UDNA, AMD has devised equivalents for all the rendering technologies the Blackwell architecture introduced with Nvidia's RTX 5000 GPUs this year. UDNA's feature set could include support for or equivalents to opacity micromaps and shader execution reordering, which Microsoft recently unveiled with DirectX Raytracing 1.2. Combined with AMD's ongoing progress in RT performance, these features are expected to lower the technology's computational cost considerably.
Recent patents from AMD also describe Dense Geometry Format, Workgroup self-launch, and other features. Dense Geometry Format resembles Unreal Engine 5's polygon-per-pixel Nanite technology but operates at the hardware level, while Workgroup self-launch reduces front-end CPU and GPU bottlenecks.
AMD is likely attempting to match Nvidia features such as RTX Mega Geometry and RTX Neural Textures, which use machine learning to assist polygon and texture rendering, significantly improving performance and reducing VRAM usage. AMD recently demonstrated similar tech that procedurally generates objects in real time.
Kepler's comments came in response to a recent report from Moore's Law is Dead, which suggested that the PS6 will double the PS5 Pro's rasterization performance despite having fewer compute units and running at a lower wattage. However, the numbers come from a 2023 AMD presentation and could be outdated.
Sony is expected to finalize the PS6's specs later this year, so anything leaked before then is subject to change. The console will likely be available in late 2027 or early 2028, with the next-generation Xbox arriving slightly sooner.