PS5 With Two Hardware Modes for PS4 Game Support
Reliable information about the backward compatibility of PlayStation 5 has surfaced on the web. According to the infor, the console's GPU will have two additional modes of operation, designed specifically for PS4 and PlayStation 4 Pro games.
The arrival of a next-gen econsoles will undoubtedly be the most important event in the industry next year. Thanks to a massive leak of information, we've learned a lot about how backward compatibility will be implemented in PlayStation 5.
It turns out that the console's GPU will have three modes of operation. The basic one, called Gen2, is designed to run games designed for PlayStation 5. It will unlock the full power of the Navi chipset, running at 2GHz.
Two additional modes, called Gen 1 and Gen 0, will be used for PS4 Pro and standard PlayStation 4 games respectively. In the first mode, the Navi chipset will be limited to 911 MHz and 218 GB/sec, and the number of rendering units (ROPs) will be 64. For Gen 0, it will be 800 MHz, 176 GB/sec and 32 ROPs.
The Gen 1 and Gen 0 configurations are compliant with specifications from both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro. The fact that such modes have been implemented in Navi itself shows that Sony takes the issue of backward compatibility very seriously and we should expect good results.
The question is whether PlayStation 4 games will be able to run in Gen 2 mode and thus use additional power, e.g. for higher resolution or greater smoothness. Unfortunately, it is not yet clear what solution Sony will choose.
Backwards compatibility of PlayStation 5 with PS4 was already confirmed in April this year. But it may not end there. Last month, there were interesting rumors that the new Sony console is expected to be able to read almost all the discs from previous generations, allowing it to run games fom PS, PS2 and PS3.
Let's recall that PlayStation 5 is due to debut next year. It is possible that the console will be officially disclosed as early as the beginning of January, during the upcoming CES 2020.
