According to a report from RGT, Sony will be launching its PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro consoles as mid-generation upgrades some three years from now. The interesting part is that the channel claims that the consoles will leverage a new 5nm-based SoC rather than the 7nm chip that the current console features.
Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S leverage AMD’s Zen 2|RDNA 2 combo which is based on TSMC’s 7nm process node, same as the Ryzen 3000 and 5000 CPUs. The source believes that Sony will launch a mid-generation upgrade in the form of the PS5 Pro and Slim with a faster and more efficient SoC based on TSMC’s 5nm node.
While this isn’t all that improbable, especially if we look at the previous console cycle: The PS4 Pro and Slim launched on a 16nm node while the vanilla PS4 was based on a 28nm process. However, while the former did feature an improved GPU, the CPU was largely the same. Furthermore, the foundry landscape is much more different these days. TSMC’s 5nm wafers are easily the most expensive silicon on the planet which might make their use in the consoles unfeasible.
Another important point worth noting is that Zen 4 which is slated to launch late next year or early 2023 will be AMD’s first 5nm design. It’s unlikely that Sony will make a full-fledged generational upgrade in just three years. We could, however, see a more enhanced form of the 7nm node (marketed as 6nm by TSMC) along with a more powerful RDNA 2/3 GPU. Of course, this is all speculation and this point so don’t take it too seriously.
