PlayStation 5 will arrive at the end of 2020, but its final price is unknown. We know you will have SSD, ray-tracing, a remote with haptic technology, Blu-ray 4K … so, how much will you have to pay for all this?
Sony has already announced that PlayStation 5 will be launching in late 2020 , and has revealed a multitude of new details, such as the new controller , which will include haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, as well as the inclusion of a 4K Blu-ray drive with 100 discs GB or the possibility of partially installing the games , among other details.
The launch price of other PlayStation consoles
In the coming months, there are still many unknowns to reveal PS5, obviously one of the most important will be the aspect of the console and its graphics power, but mainly its price, a determining factor for many players to decide to buy it from the first day. In the current generation, he is about to turn six.
We already saw how the launch price of PS4 for 399 dollars, was decisive in the initial success of the console, compared to the 499 dollars that cost Xbox One. Sony had learned the lesson with what happened with PlayStation 3, a console that put up for sale for 600 dollars, after wiping out PS2, and it took quite a while to take off, something that several company representatives have admitted was a mistake, So we can almost say that PS5 will not launch a price of around 600 dollars.
Estimate on the price of PS5 according to the cost of its components
So how much could PlayStation 5 cost? Well, the answer is not simple. With PS4 launched in November 2013 for 399.99 dollars and its improved version, PS4 Pro, which arrived in November 2016 for the same price, it would be reasonable to imagine that Sony wants to repeat the play and bet on a similar price, of 400 dollars. Still, it seems complicated considering what we know of its ambitious hardware so far. Already in May of this year, several market analysts pointed out that their price could be 499 dollars.
The PlayStation 5 specifications
- AMD Ryzen third generation CPU with eight cores and 16 threads of Zen 2 7nm architecture
- Radeon Navi family GPU with ray-tracing technology
- SSD storage memory
- 3D audio unit
- 4K Blu-ray drive with 100 GB discs
- Control with haptic technology and adaptive triggers
This data is only a small approximation since it is crucial to know the frequency rate of your CPU and GPU, as well as the amount of integrated memory that the system will have, which is expected to be about 16 GB. Knowing this data, we will make an approximate calculation of what it would cost to mount a PC right now with all these features.
How much would it cost to mount a PC similar to PS5 right now?
First of all clarify that what we put here is something merely indicative since, today we do not know the technical specifications of PS5 in full beyond the small details with eyedroppers that we have of the new Sony console that, as you know, will be driven once again by AMD that has become strong in the video game industry manufacturing the heart of the current and next-generation consoles of both Sony and Microsoft, which has already confirmed that its Xbox Scarlett will also “dress” AMD .
The PS5 APU (CPU + GPU)
From PlayStation 5, we know that you will use an AMD APU with a Ryzen Zen 2 processor, that is, the third generation, which will have eight cores and 16 threads, ignoring their frequencies or other more specific details. In addition, the CPU will be accompanied by a GPU with Navi graphics that will be compatible, via hardware, with the real-time ray tracing or Ray Tracing that is so fashionable today in the world of video games and that improves graphic aspects such as lighting, shadows or reflections to give you some examples of its graphic benefits.
The closest thing we find today in the products for players to the PSU APU is the AMD Ryzen 5 3400G, a processor with integrated graphics that costs about 160 dollars. Of course, keep in mind that, on paper, this APU is inferior to the Sony console that uses a manufactured exclusively for PS5, with Navi technology , the 8 cores mentioned above (it only has 4) and the GPU with Ray Tracing via hardware that, today, does not “exist” within AMD products (that is, that today AMD does not yet have a graph with ray tracing in real time via hardware in the market).
Storage, only SSD memory?
Turning to the storage, for now, we know that the PS5 will use a solid storage unit or SSD that is already common in computers, and that provides read and write speeds well above the hard drives that until now used Sony consoles. We also know that this SSD will use the PCIe 4.0 standard and that it will have some magic since Sony has assured that it will be faster than those that use today, computers, and has even done various tests with games such as Spider-Man. Beyond this, for this report, we have chosen, as an example, a 500 GB Sabrent PCIe 4.0 SSD that costs about 137 dollars.
Beyond all this, at least we believe that in addition to the SSD, the PS5 will also have an HDD as a backup for several reasons. The first is that we believe that the SSD will not exceed 500GB to save costs, due to the higher price of these units with respect to HDD since it is expected to rise for next year. This economic saving joins that, for a next-gen console, it would be a little scarce for us to have only 500 GB of memory, especially in an industry that is evolving towards digital, so our commitment is that This 500GB SSD would be complemented with a 1TB HDD to store.
With this combination we could, for example, select in which unit we want each game to be installed (remember that the new interface will allow us to even install games by “piercing” being able to install only the campaign or the multi) being able to use the SSD for more demanding at the graphic level and the HDD for more modest games. Also, this HDD could also serve as a storage center for videos or screenshots that we record with the Sony console.
With reading unit Blu-Ray 4K
Another piece of hardware confirmed is the reading unit of the console that will be a Blu-Ray 4K player that can read optical discs up to 100 GB that will be precisely those that will be used to distribute the physical games of PlayStation 5. In this case, we meet again without a clear reference in the market, although we estimate that this reader will cost Sony about 50 or 60 dollars.
A very sophisticated and possibly expensive remote
Finally, we find the command, a new DualShock model that will have different improvements as a haptic technology that will replace the rumble system used so far and that will allow us to receive a more realistic touch on the responses of what happens in the games. In addition, we will also have another novelty that will be the “adaptable triggers” incorporated into the R2 / L2 triggers. Thanks to this technology, developers can program the resistance of these triggers to give us different sensations when we wield and shoot a weapon or tighten the bowstring. To all this, we must add the USB Type-C port to get a faster charge and better autonomy in the command. This time as a reference, we want to take the DualShock 4 that costs 59.99 dollars, but we assume that the new controller will be more expensive.
The theoretical cost of a PS5
In total, we find that with these references, “building” a PS5 would come out for about 419.58 dollars, yes, without having a series of essential elements for its operation, such as the power supply.
Our guess on the price of PS5: 500 dollars
Keep in mind that to this total and to have a functional system, you have to add other elements such as mounting, cooling system, power supply, HDD if you finally had it, and other details, which make the price of the product can Increase about 150 dollars without dishevelled. With this in mind and playing again in the field of speculation, our bet will be that PS5 will cost when it goes on sale in 2020 about 500 dollars for the public, with Sony repeating the PS4 formula, losing some money with the manufacture and sale of the console to later recover it thanks to software and services such as PlayStation Plus.