Earlier this week, we noticed a rumor gaining a bit of traction that we found quite interesting thanks to its implications for console gaming. It concerns Sony, and a potential set up for the PlayStation 6 that prioritizes memory capacity and bandwidth to make the upcoming console a powerhouse that to no one’s surprise surpasses even the PS5 Pro in its capabilities.
Hold your horses, though, as this is an unconfirmed rumor from KeplerL2 as reported on Neogaf, which we discovered on our Reddit feeds. Nothing’s official yet, but it did get us thinking about what it could mean for the future of Sony’s popular line of gaming machines that blend incredible exclusives with reliable hardware to present an excellent experience.
But how does a bump in memory capacity and bandwidth matter? Well, they could be as crucial as a console’s GPU in determining just how well it can handle ray tracing, image upscaling, and streaming big open worlds, all of which have become quite commonplace in modern gaming experiences.
Join us as we take a dive into the rumor itself, and what a future in which it’s true could look like.
What’s Being Claimed
To save you a lot of reading and a fair bit of time following comments and the like on the Reddit post that started this entire train of thought, we’re going to give you a simple list of what exactly is reportedly changing from the PS5 and PS5 Pro’s setups for the PS6.
The rumor suggests changes to three specific areas that are aimed at playing to the PS5’s strengths, with the added firepower being used to improve on the value offering it already brings to the table and surpassing the PS5 Pro’s improvements over it.
- First is the addition of 30GB of GDDR7 unified memory.
- Second, the memory bus now sits as 160-bit, which is often considered as five 32-bit channels working together.
- Third, the rumor thread suggests a whopping 640GB/s memory bandwidth, a feature which might sound like it’s too good to be true.
How is that going to be achieved, you ask? It’s done using 3GB modules laid out in a clamshell design, with 10 of them laid out equally on either side of the board, totalling up to a purported 30GB of RAM power for the PS6.
But does the 32GB/s value in the post really make sense? Not on its own, as that doesn’t take an important factor into account. Besides, 32GBs would be quite a small number for a console as powerful as the PS6 is touted to be.
However, the 640GB/s figure does if we’re considering a 32Gbps per pin value. That’s a common way to measure GDDR speeds and calculating the value that such a set up offers from there is quite simple if you know the right formula. Essentially, what you need to know is that gigabytes and gigabits are entirely different values, and that the latter is important in computing a device’s memory bandwidth. Gigabits refer to the amount of data being processed on each pin every second, and with 160 pins being rumored for the PS6’s set up, that’s 32 gigabits per second on each pin.
Your bandwidth is approximately equal to the product of your data rate and bus width divided by eight. That would mean 32Gbps multiplied by 160bits, which is then divided by eight to land at 640 GB/s. With GDDR7 pushing higher per-pin speeds through newer signaling methods (such as PAM-based signaling), and with JEDEC’s GDDR7 specification already published, the underlying tech to reach those headline bandwidth figures is well established.
Just how much of a bump in power does that number translate to, though? Let’s pit the rumored PS6 against its predecessors to find out, beginning with the PS5. The base console of Sony’s current-gen console line up brings 16GB of DDR6 RAM to a 256-bit interface, placing it a respectable 448GB/s bandwidth.
With the PS5 Pro at an advertised 28% higher computing capability according to Sony, that would place it at about 576GB/s – a number that’s well short of the PS6’s alleged 640GB/s but still high enough to run new titles with all of the graphical bells and whistles that make them stand out. That makes it about 43% more powerful than the PS5 and goes about 11% over what the PS5 Pro is capable of.
So what would the PS6’s noticeable leap in power bring to the table if the rumor turns out to be true?
A Successor With Serious Firepower
The PS5 has largely been a success for Sony but we did take issue with the fact that we could choose either higher resolutions or higher framerates but not both in most titles released for it. But just as we were about to make peace with those compromises, the PS5 Pro came along with a mode that allowed for a balance between the two, giving us the definitive way to experience titles like Marvel’s Spiderman 2 and Ghost of Yotei in all their current-gen glory.
The PS6 isn’t going to need that compromise, as the jump from 16GB to 32GB is going to make processing hi-res assets and ray tracing or machine learning workloads go a lot faster and probably smoother if the setup is well-optimized. For developers, that means a console that allows them to realize even more of their ambitions than what the current generation of consoles has to offer, and of course, it means more immersive and astounding games for us!
Improvements in processing assets and managing RT and ML requirements is part of what made the PS5 Pro such a worthy mid-gen upgrade over the PS5. A higher memory baseline on the PS6 could mean even better textures and better open world experiences thanks to less aggressive streaming requirements. It would mean better ray tracing thanks to more computing power for BVH and deionizing calculations to happen as you interact with a game. It would mean better image upscaling for PSSR, leading to a wider bevy of games looking and feeling their best.
For Sony, whose emphasis on great single player experiences, this would mean titles that are even more stunning than the ones currently on offer from its first-party developers, while other titles are going to run quite well on the new console if it does indeed come with such a bump in its bandwidth.
But is this even possible today? There’s good news on that front!
A Slow And Steady Evolution
Considering a late 2027 release for the PS6, hitting the rumored bandwidth numbers is plausibly within reach. Samsung has already announced 24Gb (3GB) GDDR7 in 2024, and reports suggest SK hynix is developing 24Gb (3GB) GDDR7 as a step up from the long-standing 16Gb (2GB) standard.
That means that the technology could very well be in operation by the time mass manufacturing begins on the PS6, if Sony follows its usual 7-year pattern for iterations on its PlayStation console. The clamshell design certainly seems plausible although time will tell if that’s indeed what Sony is going for. And that’s the biggest problem with our theory.
There have been no official announcements from Sony, and rumors like these often end up way off the mark or might only feature half the story as the official picture becomes clearer. The entire theory of a PS6 that hits the 640GB/s benchmark is based on reports that have been circulated on popular forums at this point in time.
And while it is certainly a possibility, we’re not discounting the fact that it’s a rumor that needs to be corroborated by multiple sources and Sony before we can even begin to smile with anticipation at a new powerhouse from PlayStation. But if it’s true, it’s an indication of a shift in the RAM-focused approach to console design that’s been in play, instead choosing to create more memory headroom as a way to squeeze more juice out of a console’s set up in order to produce next-gen visuals.
The PS6 is still a while away, though, and we’re going to suggest watching closely for more chatter about its unknown powers at the moment, with more consistent reporting, potential opinions from developers who receive early devkits, or perhaps a consistency in details from reports that happen too many times to be discounted as rumors.
But whether or not this particular report is true, we’re quite sure that Sony is cooking when it comes to the PS6. All that remains is to see if the new console is as appealing to the gamer’s palette as the PS5 was when it made its debut. We’re going to be waiting and watching quite eagerly for more on what the next generation of a beloved presence in modern gaming is poised to bring, and you can be sure we’re going to be telling you all about it the second we get more news!
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.