While the launch of the PlayStation 6 is still several years away, Sony has revealed that its next-generation console will feature re-architected hardware that goes beyond a traditional CPU and GPU. This new design is intended to further enhance graphics using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and significantly reduce processing bottlenecks.
Project Amethyst and Neural Acceleration
The company shared these details in a surprise video on Thursday about its collaborative project with AMD called Amethyst, which is focused on harnessing new AI approaches to enhance gaming graphics. Mark Cerny, Sony’s head of PlayStation architecture, commented that while the technologies “only exist in simulation right now, but the results are quite promising,” he is “really excited about bringing them to a future console in a few years’ time.”
Jack Huynh, AMD’s general manager for computing graphics, called Project Amethyst a source for “gaming breakthroughs,” but acknowledged that achieving “real-time physics, cinematic lighting, [and] efficient asset streaming” requires a new approach. Huynh stated, “Trying to brute-force that with raw power alone just doesn’t scale.” Therefore, the collaboration is combining traditional rendering, known as rasterization, with “neural acceleration”—a collection of machine-learning technologies designed to increase a game’s frame rates while preserving high resolution and visual quality. AMD already offers similar AI gaming boost technologies through FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) for PC GPUs, and FSR 4 is scheduled to replace the existing PSSR AI upscaling technology on the PlayStation Pro next year. However, the future versions developed under Amethyst are expected to be far more powerful. Cerny noted that the technical challenge with FSR and PSSR is that both “are incredibly demanding on the GPU. They’re both computationally expensive and require speedy access to large amounts of memory.”
New Architectural Innovations
In response to these demands, AMD and Sony are developing an entirely new GPU architecture that includes “Neural Arrays.” Huynh explained that this innovation promises to streamline the GPU’s compute units (CUs) so they can “share data and process things together like a single, focused AI engine.” He clarified the scope, saying, “Now we’re not linking the entire GPU into one mega unit… But we are connecting CUs within each shader engine in a smart, efficient way. And that changes the game for neural rendering. Bigger ML [machine learning] models, less overhead, more efficiency, and way more scalability as workloads grow.” Cerny added that these neural arrays “will allow us to process a large chunk of the screen in one go, and the efficiencies that come from that are going to be a game changer as we begin to develop the next-generation of upscaling and de-noising technologies together.”
Another major advancement targets ray tracing, which provides realistic lighting and shadow effects. The teams are working on a more efficient method using a dedicated hardware block called “Radiance Cores,” designed for “unified light transport.” Huynh stated, “Radiance Cores take full control of ray traversal, one of the most compute-heavy parts of the process, and that frees up the CPU for geometry and simulation and lets the GPU focus on what it does best: shading and lighting.” He concluded that the result is “A cleaner, faster, and more efficient pipeline built for the next generation of ray-traced games.” The final enhancement is called “Universal Compression,” which evaluates all data headed to the console’s memory and compresses it whenever possible, thereby freeing up more memory bandwidth. This, according to Huynh, means the GPU can deliver more detail, higher frame rates, and greater efficiency.
What The Author Thinks
The commitment by Sony and AMD to integrate three fundamental, machine learning-driven technologies—Neural Arrays, Radiance Cores, and Universal Compression—into the next PlayStation proves that the era of relying solely on brute-force rasterization power is over. This architectural shift is a strategic masterstroke designed to solve the two biggest constraints facing modern high-fidelity gaming: the immense computational cost of ray tracing and the limited speed of memory bandwidth. By making AI acceleration a core, dedicated hardware function, the PlayStation 6 is poised to bridge the performance gap between consoles and high-end PCs, making realistic lighting and upscaled 4K/120Hz performance a standard expectation, rather than a developer compromise.
Featured image credit: Ahmad Mohammadnejad via Unsplash
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