The PlayStation 5 Pro, a new video game console from Sony Interactive Entertainment that has been dominating gaming headlines this week for a variety of reasons, including its $699.99 MSRP, will deliver lower performance than the Radeon RX 7800 XT and, instead, compete more closely with the Radeon RX 7700 XT, an RDNA 3 GPU that can be had for under $399.99, according to online discussions that suggest the PS5 Pro’s GPU lacks Infinity Cache—a technology that AMD developed to enable greater bandwidth in its graphics products. Described by AMD as being the ultimate 1440p card, the Radeon RX 7800 XT is listed with 64 MB of Infinity Cache, a memory bandwidth of up to 624 GB/s, and an effective memory bandwidth of 2,708 GB/s, specifications that some suggest the PS5 Pro doesn’t meet.
From a report:
- “Since I still see lots of people say that PS5 PRO’s GPU is gonna perform like 7800 XT in rasterization because they’re both seemingly based on RDNA3 & have 60 CUs I need to remind people that PS5 PRO’s GPU lacks Infinity Cache which greatly enhances 7800 XT’s effective bandwidth.”
- “PS5 PRO’s GPU will also have lower mem bandwidth than 7800 XT (576 GB/s vs 624 GB/s) & probably also 4 MB of L2 cache.”
- “That’s just not nearly enough bandwidth as 7800 XT. Couple that with a lower frequency & lower/shared TDP with CPU & PS5 Pro will AT BEST perform like 7700 XT.”
- “[dont forget the vram is shared between the gpu and cpu] I wanted to mention that too but I ran out of space to do it.”
The original word from the @Sebasti66855537 account:
Since I still see lots of people say that PS5 PRO's GPU is gonna perform like 7800 XT in rasterization because they're both seemingly based on RDNA3 & have 60 CUs I need to remind people that PS5 PRO's GPU lacks Infinity Cache which greatly enhances 7800 XT's effective bandwidth: pic.twitter.com/MmA8iZd4ad
— Sebastian Castellanos (@Sebasti66855537) September 11, 2024
AMD noted in some its older marketing materials:
…it was easy to compare the memory bandwidth of GPUs and see the expected performance by simply examining the GPUs technical specifications. For example, the AMD Radeon PRO VII GPU offers 1024 GB/s memory bandwidth, with the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 GPU offering 512 GB per second. Previously, you would have been right to assume that the latter card offers half the bandwidth of the former. However, with the introduction of the AMD Infinity Cache technology the tables are now turned. This new cache (or pools of memory) found within the latest generation of AMD GPUs act as a super-charged bandwidth amplifier, meaning you can no longer look at the GB/s value alone to gauge performance, but also need to consider the resultant amplification for a true performance expectation.