Nobody knows for sure if Sony will echo its previous generation with a more beastly console variant, but if a PlayStation 5 Pro does end up happening, it could be twice as powerful as the standard model. As spotted by T3, Sony Interactive Entertainment has published a patent alluding to a gaming console that leverages not one, but two GPUs.
“In a multi-GPU simulation environment, frame buffer management may be implemented by multiple GPUs rendering respective frames of video, or by rendering respective portions of each frame of video,” an abstract reads.
“One of the GPUs controls HDMI frame output by virtue of receiving frame information from the other GPU(s) and reading out complete frames through a physically connected HDMI output port. Or, the outputs of the GPUs can be multiplexed together.”
The discovery has gotten T3 and other PlayStation fans salivating over a potential PS5 Pro console that outclasses the original with twice the graphics performance, which would presumably be enabled by a pair of custom AMD APUs working in tandem. Sony’s patent also suggests that the technology is being floated for some sort of cloud-based console.
A switch to multi-GPU setups in the console space could have interesting implications for PC gaming, potentially reinvigorating technologies such as AMD’s CrossFire and NVIDIA’s SLI. In the meantime, here’s a neat video that hints at what some of Sony’s PS5 revisions might look like.