While the PS6 is expected to feature many modern and future technologies as part of its new hardware, it looks like Sony is also keeping an eye on bringing frame generation to the console through PSSR. As caught by MP1st, the LinkedIn profile for Ayan Kumar Bhunia reveals that he’s working at Sony as a senior research scientist for machine learning and computer vision under the PlayStation umbrella.
Having worked at the company since December 2023, Bhunia’s responsibilities revolve around “leading research efforts to elevate real-time visual quality for PlayStation experiences—spanning video frame interpolation, super-resolution, and generative models.” Frame interpolation is the technology that enables AMD and Nvidia graphics cards to use AI models to generate frames to place between a game’s actual frames.
Bhunia has also noted that a major highlight of his time at Sony has been “core research behind the frame interpolation pipeline for the next-generation PlayStation platforms,” which led to the filing of two patents. Interestingly, Bhunia’s tools and methods used to achieve this include Nvidia technologies like CUDA and Tensor RT, which is odd since the PS6 reportedly runs on an AMD chip. However, the tools may be used only for research, with the actual methods for frame interpolation likely coming from AMD itself.
It is worth noting that Sony itself is yet to officially announce its next-generation console.
Recent speculation has noted that the PS6 will offer 10 times the performance of the PS5 when it comes to ray tracing. However, a recent leak indicated that this won’t directly lead to games running at 10x the frame rate. In a series of posts, industry insider KeplerL2 has noted that the performance boosts would be applied to things like frame pacing, rather than direct frame rates. Taking performance data for Assassin’s Creed Shadows as an example, the PS6 will be able to output each frame for the title in 1.35 milliseconds, rather than the PS5’s capability of 5 milliseconds per frame. Coupled with the fact that the PS5 runs the title at an average frame rate of around 33.33 FPS, the PS6 will be capable of going up to 103.3 FPS.
There has also been speculation about a potential low-power version of the PS6, colloquially referred to as PS6S or PS6 “Lite”. This console could feasibly run on the same hardware as the PS6 handheld and would focus on outputting 1080p visuals. However, KeplerL2 has noted that this is unlikely since it “would be a nightmare for devs”. Rather than using the handheld’s custom Canis APU, the leaker noted that Sony would be better off using binned versions of the home console’s Orion APU instead.
As for when we can expect the next-generation console to be unveiled, many analysts and rumors state that the current memory shortages might lead to a delay into 2028. However, more recent reports allege that AMD has already begun its validation work for the chips powering the next-gen console. This means Sony is still likely on track for a 2027 launch window.
