PlayStation 6 Rumored For A Massive Performance Uplift For A Surprising Price
Sony's PlayStation 6 may have a surprise in its performance gains and its price point for gamers. Simply put, we're purportedly looking at a 3X performance gain in hardware chops combined with a price that sticks with the current PS5 model's $499 sticker. Wouldn't that be something? Some other rumors point to it being codenamed Orion, and a handheld version called Canis.
Consoles are currently in a weird phase, with Microsoft changing what it means for Xbox as a piece of hardware. Combine that with once-exclusive titles like Forza Horizon 5 making their way to the PS5, and we have a perfect scenario for Sony.
Yes, it also looks like the PS6 will be backwards compatible with both the PS4 and PS5. With PlayStation Plus, older Sony classics are also typically available for streaming or playing.
Yes, it also looks like the PS6 will be backwards compatible with both the PS4 and PS5. With PlayStation Plus, older Sony classics are also typically available for streaming or playing.
While a PS6 would likely at the earliest go into manufacturing sometime in 2027 for a release later that year or in 2028, some of the early rumors are interesting. Sony has been working closely with AMD, especially with the development of the PS5 Pro hardware. While the $699 console did not offer much more than just a new performance paradigm with higher frame rates and resolution, it signals the path to the PS6.
As for some high-level specs, the PS6 is rumored to sport eight AMD Zen 6 cores on the CPU side, and in the neighborhood of 40-48 AMD RDNA 5 compute units for the GPU. This puts it at around 3X the PS5, which would be an impressive generational uplift.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned PS5 Pro is on track to get a significant software update in 2026 that will propel its PSSR upscaling technology even further, making it a singular powerhouse console. The PS6 is likely to use the same AMD underpinnings, but enhanced with much more powerful hardware.
While console performance is typically a few generations behind higher-end discrete graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA (like the GeForce RTX 5090), the gap may be decreasing in the next console round. Furthermore, there are rumors that a PS6 generation portable handheld console will also make its way to the market.
This is not surprising for several reasons, starting with Sony's competition. Microsoft has the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally coming soon, which will run a spiced up version of Windows just for gaming. Nintendo has a strong foothold with its hybrid Switch and Switch 2 consoles, too.
Rumors point to the PS6 handheld having potentially 4 AMD Zen 6c Cores, and up to 20 RDNA 5 Compute units. Handhelds tend to be much lighter on the hardware front versus traditional consoles, but Sony can balance it with its software optimization.
This leaves Sony as the last one to introduce a mobile console, and it has the potential to be groundbreaking. With AMD's potent hardware and PSSR, it could perform at a higher level than the Nintendo Switch. With the Sony optimized software, it could likely perform even better than any effort that Microsoft may try to Windows on handhelds. Sony has its PlayStation Portal currently, but that is more of an accessory or sidekick to the PS5 and not designed as a completely independent console.
Upcoming games such as Grand Theft Auto VI will greatly benefit from a powerful console, starting with the PS5 Pro and beyond.
The PS6's leaked details and speculation originate from YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead, who points to a high performance console without the usual price hike. While we obviously don't know Sony's plans for sure, something like this could help it dominate the console market even more than it's currently doing.
With the high prices of PC hardware like GPUs during the last several years, it could also mean that many gamers will jump on such a console with its price-to-performance sweet spot.
