Sony says PS6 is coming in a few years, and here's the GPU powering it

Sony isn't waiting for a formal PS6 announcement to start showing its hand. In a surprisingly candid video, the company has laid out the graphics architecture that'll likely power its next console—and it tackles problems that have plagued for years

PS5 architect and AMD's Jack Huynh spent nearly nine minutes walking through Project Amethyst, their joint effort to rethink how GPUs handle the computational heavy lifting of modern games. The conversation touched on three core innovations: Neural Arrays, Radiance Cores, and Universal Compression. While Cerny was careful to note everything remains simulated for now, he seemed genuinely optimistic about deploying these technologies in "a future console in a few years' time."

AMD finally confronts its ray tracing problem

The most intriguing piece is Radiance Cores—dedicated silicon built exclusively for ray and path tracing. It's AMD's long-overdue answer to Nvidia's RT cores, and represents a frank admission that the company's previous strategy hasn't worked. Huynh put it plainly: trying to muscle through ray tracing with sheer computational power "just doesn't scale" anymore.

Neural Arrays address the inefficiencies plaguing current upscaling methods like FSR and PSSR. Rather than having dozens of compute units working independently, AMD is wiring them together to function as what Huynh called "a single, focused AI engine." The payoff should be sharper image reconstruction and faster performance. Cerny described the approach as "a game-changer" for whatever upscaling tech comes next.

Squeezing more out of every component

Then there's Universal Compression, which does exactly what it sounds like—compresses everything moving through the graphics pipeline, not just select data types. Less bandwidth strain means headroom for higher frame rates and richer visuals, all while drawing less power.

What makes this particularly interesting is AMD's commitment to sharing the technology broadly. Huynh said these innovations will reach "developers across every gaming platform," which means they're not PlayStation exclusives. Microsoft's multi-year AMD partnership for future Xbox hardware suddenly looks more significant in that context.

The timing could also align neatly with Sony's rumored handheld, where power efficiency matters even more than it does in a living room console. But whatever form the hardware eventually takes, it won't arrive soon—these advancements remain years out from actual production.