A week ago we found out that the PS5 Pro will have new features that will improve its ray tracing performance and that will be exclusive to RDNA Architecture 4 from AMD. This architecture will be the one used by the GPU of this new Sony console, although it is not yet confirmed if it is pure or if it will be combined with RDNA 3 architecture features.

It was one of the most interesting news on this list ray tracing dual intersection enginewhich will improve the raw performance of the GPU when working with a large number of beams, and this should translate into higher performance in situations that would lead to loads capable of “drowning” the PS5 GPU.

On the other hand, this function is so important because it is one of those that strengthen a gives more credibility to previous information that said the PS5 Pro could double up to four times the performance of the PS5 working with ray tracing. Yes, this information that seemed crazy at first now makes a lot more sense, although as always we have to take it with a grain of salt as we still have nothing official from Sony.

The difference caused by tracking trajectories is noticeable due to the larger number of rays fired.

PS5 Pro and trajectory tracing, would this be possible or is it too challenging?

That was one of the big questions that arose shortly after the improvements that the PS5 Pro will bring in ray tracing emerged, and the truth is that it’s quite an interesting question. Above all, it must be clear to us We do not know the technical details of the RDNA 4 architectureand that therefore no definitive answer can be offered.

The leak that referenced these new features that the PS5 Pro will incorporate is also tight-lipped possible improvements at the hardware level on the GPU of this new console, and that’s the most important thing to determine if it will actually be ready to work with trajectory tracing, a technology that requires specific hardware acceleration to work properly.

Both NVIDIA and Intel use specific designs in their dedicated hardware to accelerate ray tracing. As I have told you on more than one occasion, AMD has reused texturing units to perform certain functions, such as calculating ray intersections and triangles, following a very simple pattern: every four texturing units act as one ray tracing acceleration unit.

This calculation represents just a part of all operations related to ray tracing, and if we are talking about trajectory tracing, there are other elements that are necessary to achieve a good level of performance. At the hardware level, it is one of the most important transverse acceleration of the beam, which deals with the calculations required when lightning strikes through a BVH structure.

Alan Wake 2 is spectacular with path tracing.

When we work with path tracing more rays are emitted and the number of reflections will decrease. This is why lateral acceleration is so important because we are dealing with more launch beams, which puts a lot more strain on the GPU, so much so that it is unfeasible without specific acceleration due to the enormous impact it will have. on performance.

The RDNA 3 architecture does not have the specific hardware to achieve this cross-beam acceleration, which explains why the performance of the Radeon RX 7000 is so penalized when working with this technology despite the large amount of graphics memory they integrate. This should be one of the most important changes to apply on the RDNA 4 architecture, especially considering the growing popularity of path tracking in games, but it is not confirmed.

We also don’t have any references in the list of new features that the PS5 Pro might incorporate, so we don’t know if AMD will finally introduce this improvement to the RDNA 4 architecture or if you end up reserving it for the RDNA 5 architecture. Without said hardware, it’s clear that trajectory tracing will be too big for Sony’s new console.

Maybe some games with very simple geometry that include trajectory tracing, like Quake 2 RTX to give a well-known example, may be viable on this new console, but won’t be a viable option in current games based on current graphics engines unless very upscaling is used. aggressive and starts from a very low resolution.

To give you an example, Alan Wake 2 configured with trajectory tracing and 1080p only achieves average 28 FPS in 1080p with Radeon RX 7800 XT. This graphics card would be the closest in performance to the GPU that the PS5 Pro will bring, so I’ve used it in this example to give you a performance estimate that is as true and realistic as possible.

What can we expect then?

Noise reduction after trace application.

Noticeable performance improvement in ray tracing, that’s something I’m pretty sure of. Personally, I think talking about multiplying the performance by four is too much of an exaggeration, but I don’t think it’s crazy that the PS5 Pro achieves twice the performance PS5 in ray tracing. This prediction seems much more realistic to me, especially considering the recent leaks that have occurred.

When it comes to tracking trajectories, I don’t think this will be possible on PS5 Proat least not in a truly acceptable way in current games that use current-gen graphics engines, even if this console ends up with hardware designed for cross-beam acceleration.

Keep in mind that trace paths are not only very GPU intensive, but also demanding advanced noise reduction techniques to improve the resulting image quality, which also means a higher consumption of graphics memory even in 1080p resolution. This console won’t exactly be overflowing on the memory level, as all indications are that it will repeat the PS5’s 16GB unified memory configuration.

PSSR technology could help lighten the graphics load with intelligent rescaling, reducing the number of rendered pixels, but even with that in mind it would be necessary to start with a very low resolution (1080p)and very aggressive rescaling would have to be used to make the final performance truly acceptable, resulting in very big effect on image quality.

Would it be worth playing at 540p upscaling to 1080p with less than 60FPS to follow the path? I think the question answers itself and that it perfectly reflects the problem that this technology presents when applied to demanding games that require a lot of graphics power and specialized hardware. I’ll give you another example, a Radeon RX 7900 XTX You can move Alan Wake 2 with only path tracing at an average of 66 FPS using 1080p resolution and FSR 2 in performance mode.

Personally I guess that’s not bad newsAfter all, the PS5 Pro aims to improve the performance of the PS5, and does not seek to position itself as an alternative to a high-end PC. Trajectory tracing still has a long way to go in the PC world, and its implementation on consoles will only happen with the launch of the next generation, i.e. with the arrival of PS6 and Xbox Next.

AI generated cover image.