AMD and Sony's PS6 chipset aims to rethink the current graphics pipeline

Sony’s hardware “novelty” and the console lifecycle

• Commenters note a recurring pattern: each PlayStation launches with touted architectural innovations that, after a few years, mostly feel like “just another console.”
• Many still see value in Sony taking calculated hardware risks in a world where consoles have converged toward PCs internally.
• There’s broad agreement that hardware is only fully exploited late in a console’s life; cross‑platform development disincentivizes deep, platform‑specific optimizations.
• Some point to PS5’s fast SSD, haptics, and low-noise 4K performance as genuinely impactful, while others argue nothing truly novel originated there.

Ray tracing: promise vs. payoff

• A large subthread criticizes hardware ray tracing as an overhyped, expensive feature with modest perceptual gains and major performance hits.
• Skeptics argue:
  • Developers are already extremely good at faking lighting with rasterization.
  • Current RT largely adds “5% better reflections” for “200% cost.”
  • It tends to push homogeneous, realism-obsessed art styles.
• Defenders counter that RT simplifies content creation (fewer baked lights/shadow maps), enables more dynamic scenes, and will matter more once games are designed around RT‑only lighting.
• There’s technical disagreement on whether full real‑time path tracing is ever practical on consumer hardware; some see consoles as ideal fixed targets for that, others say it’s fundamentally too expensive.

AI upscaling and frame generation

• Many worry PS6’s ML focus just institutionalizes “fake frames” and lower native resolutions, masking poor optimization and degrading image quality (ghosting, blur, temporal artifacts).
• Others compare it to video compression tradeoffs: most people prefer higher fps at slightly lower clarity, especially on midrange hardware.
• There’s debate over how noticeable upscaling artifacts are, heavily dependent on display size and user sensitivity.

Future of graphics vs. gameplay

• Several comments argue we’re in a “plateau”: gains from more pixels and Hz are diminishing, while development costs and timelines (e.g., decade‑long AAA cycles) are exploding.
• Some foresee transformer‑ or NN‑based rendering dominating by the 2030s; others doubt such models can handle strict latency, determinism, and world‑state consistency.
• Many say they’d rather see investment in gameplay, simulation depth, and faster iteration than ever‑heavier RT/AI stacks.

PS5 library and platform positioning

• Strong disagreement over whether PS5’s game lineup is underwhelming or industry‑leading; critics highlight few true exclusives and heavy reliance on remakes/ports, defenders cite GOTY nominations and robust first‑party output.
• Rising dev times and cross‑platform ports erode the sense of each console having a distinct library.
• Nintendo’s success with lower‑spec Switch is repeatedly cited as evidence that fun and exclusives matter more than cutting‑edge graphics.