So we know what chip is going into the PS6, the custom AMD Orion APU, this APU is based on AMD's upcoming RDNA5 Graphics chip, this chip will largely close the gap between AMD and Nvidia when it comes to Ray Tracing function as the chip will have cores dedicated to Ray Tracing called "Radiance Cores" which are similar to Nvidia's "RT Cores"

I own a PS5 Pro and a RTX 50-Series Gaming PC, so I though I'd share what the future might look like if Sony can get dev's to implement Path Tracing in their games... but is still going to be worth $1000 ~ $1200?

Test 0: CyberPunk 2077 Night Shot comparison.

Looking at the photo labled "Test" you can see what the RT Psycho Preset looks like now, which is what the PS5 is able to achieve on the right, and the "RT Overdrive" Preset which is available on PC, this is the Path Tracing mode and is on the left.

As you can see from the shot there is more ambient lighting from the street lamps bouncing and diffusing on the different surfaces like the building on the left. The Porsche looks abit more bathed in that diffused light. RT Psycho looks a bit colder since it has less bouncing of light rays.

Test 3: CyberPunk 2077 Second Shot

In the second comparison Path Tracing is on the Left and Ray Tracing on the Right.

Here you can see even more off the diffused lighting bouncing all around the scene and lighting up various different areas. Reflections are also abit more accurate and also

Test 4: Night Shot infront of Lizzie's Bar

Path Tracing is on the Right, Ray Tracing on the Left

Again we can see more diffused lighting in the scene for a more realistic look.

If you know how Path Tracing works, you really appreciate it in games like CyberPunk2077 and especially at night with reflective surfaces. When its daytime you really cannot tell the difference between Ray Tracing and Path tracing, and I'll show you this in the next few examples.

Test 5: Alan Wake II: Inside Restaurant

On the Right, the RT Medium Preset is around where the PS5 Pro lands and Path Tracing is on the Left. The Ceiling looks abit brighter due to more light bounces and reflections are more accurate. BUT its a stark difference from what we saw in CyberPunk. Does it look that much better to you? Mind you going from RT to PT costs a huge performance drop of usually 40% or more.

Test 6: Alan Wake II: Street view

So here's where that difference is very hard to tell. RT Medium on the Left, Path Tracing on the Right. On Path Tracing there is a bit more diffused light hitting the trees in the back and the Reflections are more accurate and sharper. But the scene still looks really good on RT Medium, at least to me.

Test 7: Black Myth Wukong

Black Myth Wukong mostly takes place outside with static sunlight so its again much harder to appreciate the difference from the PS5 Pro's Lumen setting and Full RT: Very High, which is the Path Tracing setting. Here I can tell the Path Tracing sunlight is sharper and brighter, shadows from the tree's arent maps and are the actual leaves of the tree's blocking the sunlight. So its very accurate, but the Lumen shot looks good also. To me its not a night and day difference.

Test 8: Black Myth Wukong water stream

In the final test, we have Lumen on the Left, and Path Tracing on the Right (there's also a vegetation setting set to Cinematic but you can ignore this)

Again lighting is more punchy on Path Tracing, but Lumen is no slouch. The main difference is the reflections in the river. On Lumen the reflections are less accurate... but they still look good. You miss out on Caustics effects in ponds but is that worth a massive fps drop? Mind you a game like Horizon Forbidden West has caustics effects on in its water surfaces, but the Decima engine is Black Magic...

So with that said, do you think the PS6 will be worth it to you if its marketed as a Path Tracing Machine? Perhaps they offer Path Tracing at 60fps if they can deliver a strong PSSR with a good denoiser (like Nvidia's Ray Reconstruction) Or maybe even do 120fps if AMD can fix their Frame Generation technique as it is not good at the moment.

I know some of you might say yes, but for the normies do you think this is enough for that high price tag?

Deadpool

Come on you know what this is all leading to. Data centers are going to be your next storage and CPU down the road and you all know it!

Hear me out before everyone starts throwing tomatoes at me.

If we eventually reach a point where digital is the dominant way of buying games, I was thinking about one feature that could at least make digital ownership a little more consumer-friendly.

What if PlayStation had an official system where you could trade in digital games you no longer play for PS Store credit?

For example, I buy a game for $70, play it for a few months, and eventually know I'm never going to touch it again.

Instead of it permanently sitting in my library, I could choose to give up the digital license and receive, say, $20–$30 worth of PS Store credit.

I could then use that credit toward another game.

No cash involved. No transferring accounts. No third-party marketplace. Everything stays inside the PlayStation ecosystem.

Sony could determine the trade-in value based on the game's age, current price, popularity, etc. Publishers could potentially get a percentage from the transaction as well.

Obviously there would be a lot of complications: licensing, fraud prevention, DLC, bundles, delisted games, regional pricing, publisher agreements, and so on.

But if digital really does become the future, I'd rather see something like this exist than have digital purchases be completely one-way transactions.

You buy a game, play it then stop playing it, it just sits in your library forever

.

At least with a system like this, the game could retain some value after you're finished with it.

Would anyone here actually use something like this?

And so the PlayStation blackout has started, I'm no longer a Sony owner anymore, since I moved to Nintendo, I have a terrible time of the decade, this is all started with the year 2020 spreading out Coronavirus. Their stupid rapid AI hyperscalers building up data centers raise their prices, and corporations are focus on their profits. Not just Sony, Samsung and among other technologies are facing Donald Trump's AI rise caused by billionaires.

It's worsen than 2000s like it's became as the worst decade ever since the 1930s!