New Console Technologies for PC Gamers to Look Forward To
PC gamers tend to be more interested in hardware launches from Nvidia and AMD, but there are good reasons to be interested in the new consoles too. Both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X use AMD Zen 2 and RDNA 2 chips. Although the newly-released AMD Zen 3 CPUs are more likely to be used by PC gamers, the consoles’ new technology is still noteworthy. In particular, both consoles have ray-tracing capabilities and their new graphics technology will likely make its way to PCs.
The PS5 has some unique features, such as Sony’s 3D audio algorithms, super-high bandwidth I/O, and SSD controller. The Xbox Series X has its own features, such as the “Xbox Velocity Architecture” and advancements introduced with the DirectX 12 Ultimate API.
RDNA 2 is the next big thing in graphics, and the PS5’s custom technology has a lot of similarities with the Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6800. While not all new technology will make its way to PCs, much of the graphical features developed for the new consoles will be included in the RDNA 2 line. The 6900XT, for example, comes with 80 compute units compared to the Xbox Series X’s 52 and the PS5’s 36. The PS5 also showcased two new technologies: Lumen and Nanite.
Lumen and Nanite will help developers create beautiful game environments using real-time ray tracing and streaming and scaling assets in real-time. These technologies were showcased in a PS5 tech demo but are not tied to any specific platform.
Overall, the new console technologies are exciting and will likely be integrated into PC gaming in the future. Gamers can look forward to improved graphics and other advancements as they become available.
