PlayStation 5 specs could be bumped up according to bombshell rumors with the PS5 geometry engine allegedly sharing features with RDNA 3

It’s crucial to point out immediately that these spectacular PS5 rumors are typically based on a source of a source. The key details come from a recent video posted by the YouTube channel Moore’s Law Is Dead, where the host, Tom, claims to have received his information from numerous sources. Apparently, one of these sources knew beforehand a lot of the details about the Microsoft Xbox Series X Games Reveal Event that just took place, giving the host more confidence in sharing these “crazy” rumors in the aftermath.

These “bombshells”, as Tom calls them, could really shake up the PS5 vs. Xbox Series X debate, especially in terms of power and performance, which has mostly been ceded to Microsoft’s next-gen console over the last months. First up is something of a hoary chestnut, but it’s a mention of RDNA 3. A while ago, we reported about a rumor that the PS5 would integrate RDNA 3 features, in a potential “RDNA 2.5” technology that could be AMD’s secret sauce for the next-gen PlayStation. However, Tom opines that it’s not so much the PS5 lifting the geometry engine from RDNA 3 as the other way round.

AMD chief Lisa Su has already confirmed that the PS5 utilizes RDNA 2 technology, and with our source here stating “the PS5 handles mesh shaders a bit differently from how desktop RDNA 2 will. But it will be in future RDNA products”, then you can see the argument about how RDNA 3 and the PS5 interact. It’s more of a feature share rather than an outrageous claim of “the PS5 uses RDNA 3”. Moving swiftly on, there are also rumors of spec bumps for the PS5, with possible targets being the memory, the CPU, and the GPU. So just the main components then. Little is mentioned about the CPU though, apart from the conjecture that Sony might overclock the processor a bit, increasing it from the current maximum clock of 3.5 GHz.

The information about the memory and the GPU has more potential to put the PS5 on a better footing against the more powerful Xbox Series X. Tom figures that if Sony chooses to utilize faster RAM for the PS5, it would help it match the XSX more equally. The Microsoft console has 10 GB at 560 GB/s and 6 GB at 336 GB/s; at the moment the PS5 is at 448 GB/s. By going to either 16 Gb/s RAM or even 18 Gb/s memory, that memory bandwidth figure for Sony's console would rise to 512 GB/s and 576 GB/s, respectively. That would certainly please the hardcore PS5 fans who are peeved at the XSX’s specs advantage.

Lastly, the video continues to inform that with TSMC’s yield for chips that are headed for the PS5 being good, there could be a couple of extra compute units (CUs) for Sony to enable. Instead of the confirmed 36 CUs, there could be a chance of the PS5’s GPU utilizing 38 CUs, which would operate at the higher (but still variable) frequencies that have already been announced. It would certainly close the power gap with the XSX and also make the option for a PS5 Pro down the line less viable, as the regular PlayStation 5 with a specs bump like this would see its product life cycle increase. It may all be fanciful nonsense fed to Moore’s Law Is Dead to create a fascinating video, but even if some of it is true then Sony supporters could be in for a few pleasant surprises.