Rumor: New PlayStation Handheld Powered by AMD is in Early Development - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 March 2024 / 7,660 Views
A new rumor has surfaced claiming a new PlayStation handheld powered by AMD is in early development, according to YouTube channel Moore's Law Is Dead and spotted by Wccftech.
The new PlayStation handheld is in the "High Level Design Phase" and will be powered by a custom AMD APU. The handheld is at least two years away and has yet to be greenlit for release.
The specs for the new PlayStation handheld have not been finalized, however, Moore's Law is Dead speculates it will likely use 18 CUs so it can be compatible with PS4 titles available on the PlayStation Store. He also claims it will be compatible with PS5 titles as well. However, developers would have to patch their games to ensure they run properly on the console. He also speculates the GPU could run at 1.8 GHz or lower due to the PS5's variable clock speeds.
This should be treated with a grain of salt until an official announcement from Sony.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Moore Law is Dead is not a trustworthy, verifiable, empirical source of information.
The guy has made hundreds of "claims" in the past which turned out to be a lie.
So take any of his statements with a grain of salt.
I would implore vgchartz to use more credible sources going forth.
He sells himself on baseless "gossip" and will "sensationalize" rumors and try to pass them as facts.
He also goes back and deletes videos that ended up being incorrect...
But will constantly mention stuff he got right to make himself SEEM more legitimate, which can be chalked up to being a lucky guess as he gets more stuff wrong than right.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BustedSilicon/comments/yo9l2i/collection_of_mlidmoores_law_is_dead_past_claims/
Doubt
MLID is just a little more reliable than a 4-Chan post, though.
no thank you, im happy with my switch as a portable and xseries and ps5 at home
Finally the VITA 2
I think there will inevitably be another Sony handheld regardless of this rumour. PS5 spec hardware is kind of the benchmark for conventional gaming experiences & I don't think we'll see needs far beyond it for the foreseeable future because diminishing returns. Things like RT & path tracing is nice but not a necessity.
A portable PS5 at the end of the decade will be an ever green machine with constant software support without too much effort
Native PS4 games playable on a handheld via backwards compatability sounds nice tbh.
Ontop of its own library of games. Like that sounds like a win to me.
So this would be a portable PS4? Could be possible with the way AMD CPUs have become more power efficient over the years. The Steam Deck has similar power to PS4, so anything close to that would be fantastic. Imagine playing Bloodborne on the go.
The advantage Steam Deck has is that...
1) It's CPU is actually more powerful than the Playstation 4.
4 Cores/8 threads @ 3.5Ghz vs 8 Cores/8 threads @ 1.6Ghz.
2) More Ram.
16GB @ 88GB/s vs 8GB @ 176GB/s.
3) GPU.
RDNA 2.0 - 512 Shaders@1.6Ghz for 1.62Tflop of single precision.
Has Delta Colour Compression, Primitive Shaders, Ray Tracing, Mesh Shaders, VRS,
vs
GCN - 1152 shaders@800mhz for 1.84 Teraflops.
In general the chip in the Steam Deck should hold an advantage over the Playstation 4 in every single scenario. Except... Memory bandwidth. - Which hampers texture and pixel fillrates, preventing it from being efficient at higher resolutions.
Which probably explains why at a Steam Decks default resolution games look far better than a Playstation 4 equivalent.
It's a more flexible and efficient chip.
It would be amazing if they release it like 2027 and it could run PS5 games
It would be great if it can run PS5 games, all we need is 1080p 60 fps.
It depends how it can scale. A ps5 on 6nm consumes 200 watts. On 3nm it would probably be closer to 100 watts. On 2N maybe like 70w.
Of course we will also see RDNA5 by then. So you could get PS5 performance in a 20-25W system which is crazy to think of. And you don’t even need 4K output but that would require game modifications.
Only thing is cost. A handheld that can play ps5 games natively and runs for 3h with an OLED screen will cost a lot. You might as well get the next steam deck or rog ally because Sony releases their games on steam and you have 1000s of games available. So it should be super easy to use and priced reasonable.
no, you are talking about at the same clock speeds, but lower clocks speeds massively reduce power consumption
The RTX 4070 Max-Q already works at 35W with 1/3 clock speeds. I'd like to see a portable PS5 which has the full GPU hardware in it but runs at 1/3 clock speeds. A radeon 8600 XT basically, at 3nm. Could run at 30W.
At 1/3 speed we basically have 1080p PS5 gaming on the go.
Im using the PlayStation Portal a lot and I really like it. So if they come with a native way to play without the need to connect the main console, I’m all for it. That being said I have time believing this is true…
I don't think that YouTuber is known for being reliable. That said, a handheld based on AMD's architecture is not rocket science for Sony. They could fart out the hardware within 6 months or so given the mobile engineering expertise at Sony's Xperia division combined with AMD's experiences since helping with the Steam Deck and then put the very same operating system on it that runs on the PS5.
I think the open question is not whether Sony is prototyping such a device (I'm sure they are), the question is more if they are willing to make games for it. It would mean that games either need to scale in a way they could run on both PS5 and the handheld or even make dedicated games for it.
AMD handhelds are a dime a dozen currently.
- Steamdeck.
- Asus Rog Ally.
- Ayaneo
- GPD Win
- AYN Loki
- Lenovo Legion
-
OneXPlayer
And probably a heap more.
So Sony would be building on already established and successful designs already built using AMD hardware but with a Linux based OS like Steam.
...Provided that is what they are even contemplating on doing, which I doubt.
After the colossal failure of the Vita... I think it's a hard ask to compete with Nintendo anymore in the handheld space, the Switch has that market locked down.
Why would Sony switch to Linux when they chose FreeBSD as base for OrbisOS. They would get 100% PS4 (and potentially limited PS5) compatibility for free.
Should add that FreeBSD is Unix-like.
Linux is also Unix-Like.
Linux and FreeBSD do tend to share a significant amount of superficial similarities to the point where FreeBSD can have binary compatibility with Linux.
So you wouldn't loose compatibility.
However in my previous comment I was just providing an example of a semi-custom OS built for the AMD hardware designed primarily for gaming which is the approach Sony would take rather than Sony actually explicitly using Linux.
Honestly I see no point in Sony going back to the handhelds.
Nintendo has now competent handheld hardware, and Steamdeck is there for more high-end demands.
With how long it takes to make games nowdays, Sony would better keep focusing on doing very high quality titles and not downscalling or side branching their franchises.
Their current focus is very succesful both quality and financial wise, keep at it.
Does this rumor have anything to say about an 8" LCD Screen? (I didnt watch the vid).
Without physical games it's just another Ally. Meh
Another one to add to Sony's puny attempts to make a chink into Nintendo's Handheld Dominance. Facts.
You don't seem to understand. No one said PSP wasn't a success but it still got its ass handed to it in sales compared to DS. It was never competitive with DS. It was left in the dust. NIntendo cannot be beat in the handheld space. Every attempt has been the same. More power, more features than Nintendo. It has beaten Nintendo 0 times.
the PSP is one of the best selling systems of all time and we're getting downvoted here
the community at VGChartz is pretty irritating honestly, a bunch of Nintendo-huggin crazy people
there is no discussion at all on this website about anything
they hate Nintendo home consoles, they hate Sony, they hate Xbox , they love the Switch (despite the PS5 being the best selling console for the last year, almost every month, despite the Switch forcing Nintendo fans like myself to have the same tired graphics for 12 years in a row, and I already own almost every great Switch game on my Wii U)
The Wii outsold the PS3, The Switch outsold the PS4. What are you saying 5 generations in a row. But never ever Any Sony Handheld beat Nintendos. Also add in the facts that never ever 1st Party Sony Games ever outsold just
the latest Animal Crossing. Even in the Top 10 Best Selling Games of all time No Sony 1st Party game. Ever. Facts!
I wonder if releasing portal n seeing the sales helped them realise that maybe it’s time to try a handheld again n maybe bite into Nintendo’s dominance
This would be the best time to try a handheld again. Sony is at it's peak right now and people are buying all their accessories without question. This could do really well for them.
Most Sony games run fine on Steam Deck which is available right now.
Well now that you mention it that kind of is true. In another 2 years with newer technology it could work.
Nice.
A portable PS4 would be cool but I think the time has passed. It would make sense as an accessory to play PS4 downloaded games and stream PS5 games from anywhere but requiring dedicated software would be a non-starter.
Dedicated software with Remote Play for console titles is indeed a nonstarter. Vita was a flop, and the best a successor to the Vita could hope for is more sales than Vita but selling far worse than 3DS, GBA, and PSP.
Something I'd like to see (which should've been what the PS Portal is) is a handheld that natively plays digital PS4 games even offline and without a PS4 or PS5 console. And PS5 games could be supported via Remote Play if you have a robust enough connection. Heck, PS4 games could be remote as well if you really wanted that extra option and perhaps even streaming of PS3 games from PS Plus. The device obviously wouldn't be as cheap as Switch Lite, but I don't see it being any more expensive than the cheaper SKUs of Steam Deck.
Still, Sony could always increase their capacities to support a handheld with exclusive Software. If they want there are ways, if they dont they'll find excuses.
Games sell hardware after all. It will need exclusives or its reason to (hypothetically) exist are naught. If this rumor turns out to be true, I'll definitly keep an eye on the device.
And if it is at least as powerful as the Switch 2, then it should have no problems getting the same games. I really want a PSVita successor. I have one myself and I use it just as much as my Switch
For the sake of conversation, it would need to essentially be a portable PS4 with the ability to handle scaled back PS5 games.
Could Sony offer that for about $300 without being much bigger than a Switch? I kinda doubt it.
It's going to bleed Sony dry,
I don't even think they're making massive profits from ps5
An actually good handheld would be 1 million times better than Sony VR. Can't believe SonyPlaystation thought a 2nd rate VR would be a better Idea than a good handheld. It's so easy to be better than the Switch's bad tech and bad controls.
Take the PS5 GPU, the full thing, and shrink it to 3nm. Run it at 1/3 clock speeds. 30W like the ROG Ally. Should be possible by 2026. (the RTX 4070 mobile already runs fine at 35W in the Dell XPS 15 for example, today).
If necessary they can switch the CPU to a 2W 8 core ARM CPU like what Nintendo would be using. The A78 CPUs in the Switch 2 are very old, Snapdragon 695 basically. It was a 3W ARM CPU that released in 2021, 3 years ago.
If you use a 2W ARM CPU cluster in 2026, you can save all your TDP for the GPU part.
Nothing wrong with AMD's current mobile APU's.
The biggest limitation is always memory bandwidth... There is only so much you can do with commodity DDR5/LPDDR5 memory on a 128bit memory bus... Which keeps resolutions low.
Steamdeck is running many PS5 games at 720P just fine... It will be interesting to see how that handheld holds up as we progress through the generation and developers start to more heavily utilize RDNA's more advanced feature set.
As for 3nm... That's just marketing. Geometrically it's not actually 3nm.
Not enough bandwidth for even 1080P with PS5 equivalent settings.
I don't think you understand how much of a handicap having less than 100GB/s of bandwidth is for 1080P... Regardless if you employ delta colour compression, draw stream binning rasterization and more advanced culling. etc'.
720P is the ideal resolution for handhelds with current technology.
because you are trying to school me in something that I already know and is irrelevant to my comment??? (the more you know? huh? you didn't teach me anything...)
i said power usage will decrease a lot with 3nm, and then you tried to school me about the meaning of 3nm despite my comment being 100 percent correct and yeah, I never even disagreed with you
