PlayStation 5 tackles heavy text-rendering test with extraordinary computational performance that is way beyond Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 and previous-gen consoles

An interesting comparison test produced by Eric Lengyel, game engine dev and the creator of the Slug Font Rendering Library, has revealed just how the PlayStation 5 can chew up and spit out heavy processing workloads even quicker than it can deal with basic workloads. Lengyel compared the PS5 with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, GTX 1070, GTX 1060, Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, PS4, and Radeon RX 570. It’s a mixed field, but the computer scientist pointed out that he did not have access to a GeForce RTX 3080 card and that he expected the Xbox Series X would perform at a similar level to the PS5.

While the still-decent GeForce RTX 2080 was the fastest in regard to how quickly pixels could be filled with glyphs (letters or symbols used in typography) utilizing a basic font like Arial, with the performance measured by Slug 5.0 software at 27.6 gigapixels/s compared to the PS5 at 25.1 gigapixels/s, it appears when the workload becomes considerably heavier Sony’s console steps up to a new and higher gear. The results for the Royal font, which Lengyel explains is vastly more complex than rendering Arial (average 1,218 control points vs. 33 control points) show the PS5 whizzing along at 4.5 gigapixels/s, which is over 45% faster than the RTX 2080 on 3.1 gigapixels/s.

The comparison test also demonstrates just how far ahead this now current-generation console is compared to the previous-gen machines. In the Royal font test, the PS5 is more than four times faster than the Xbox One X and, incredibly, over 11 times quicker than the PlayStation 4 (see chart below). Lengyel also produced another example of how rapid the PS5 is with text rendering: An image with 20.3% text coverage of all pixels took just 67 microseconds to produce. The former Naughty Dog dev also stated that a 4K screen would take the PS5 just 0.33 ms to fill the pixels with a regular font. Definitely seems the right time for a Zork revival.

The PlayStation 5 is (sometimes) available on Amazon at a price of US$499.99 for the console with disc drive or US$399.99 for the Digital Edition.