Sony is clearly aiming to make the PlayStation 5 incredibly powerful, but just how much horsepower will the company's next-generation console be packing? According to a new job listing posted by the company, there won't be another system that can match the PS5. The post, which is for a "senior cloud engineering manager," states that the candidate chosen will be "...one of the leaders of an elite team that is super excited to launch the upcoming world's fastest console (PS5) in 2020." That's right: Sony is calling the PlayStation 5 the "world's fastest console," a pretty remarkable claim for a lot of different reasons. For starters, it tells you a bit about how Sony could market the machine, and that the company might focus more on processing speed to differentiate itself from Microsoft's Project Scarlett or cloud-based options like Google Stadia. Not only that, but the post is essentially Sony calling its shot with the PlayStation 5 in terms of how it thinks the console will stack up against Microsoft's system. Sony is confidently stating, at least to a job applicant, that the PlayStation 5 is the "world's fastest," even though there aren't many public details about Project Scarlett, aside from Microsoft doing some bragging of its own. Sony already believes the PS5 has higher clock speeds, so this news may be just as interesting for Xbox fans as it is for PlayStation fans. It could mean Project Scarlett isn't quite as fast as the PS5, but could potentially have advantages in other areas. On October 18, 2019, Digital Foundry took a good, hard look at processors that are suspected to be powering the PlayStation 5, and concluded that we could be getting a machine that's at least twice as powerful than the Xbox One X. The processor in the PlayStation 5 will reportedly have three modes that enable it to run at three different speeds: 2 GHz, 911 MHz, and 800 MHz. The 2 GHz mode would be used for games built specifically for the PlayStation 5, allowing them to tap into every bit of the extra power the new machine will provide. The 911 MHz mode would be used for PlayStation 4 Pro titles: games that are designed to take advantage of the PS4 Pro hardware, but can still run on a base PS4 if necessary. And finally, the 800 MHz modes would be for normal PlayStation 4 titles that were never enhanced for PlayStation 4 Pro. Combine all that with what's been confirmed about the PS5's chip - that it'll come decked out with 8 cores and 16 threads — and you have a machine that can play last generation games while also boasting enough power for next-generation experiences. And if you think Xbox One X games look good and run well now, imagine something that's twice as capable. It's a pretty exciting prospect.
