Rumors around the next generation of gaming hardware are intensifying, with new claims detailing Sony’s plans for the Playstation 6 and an associated portable device. The living room console, reportedly codenamed PS6 Orion, is said to deliver 2.5-3× the rasterization performance of the PS5 and 6-12× the ray tracing performance of the PS5, setting expectations for a substantial leap in visual fidelity and lighting effects. The leaked performance positioning also describes 3-6× faster ray tracing than the PS5 Pro and roughly twice the raster performance of the PS5 Pro, suggesting a clear tiered uplift across Sony’s console lineup.
The performance gains are attributed to a significantly faster RDNA 5 GPU, which is rumored to ship with 52-54 CUs running at around 2-3.6 GHz and delivering around 34-40 TFLOPS of theoretical performance. These hardware targets align with ambitions for higher frame rates at 4K resolution and more intensive use of real-time ray tracing. Addressing speculation that rising memory costs could push the next generation launch out several years, the leak disputes reports that the Playstation 6 may be delayed to as late as 2029 due to the ongoing memory crisis, arguing that existing memory and APU fabrication contracts make such a delay unlikely. Instead, the expectation is for potential short-term launch constraints, with a brief period of increased pricing or scarcity at release.
The handheld side of Sony’s next generation strategy is described around an AMD ‘Canis’ APU designed for a PS6 portable console. According to the leak, this chip will feature four Zen 6c cores, two Zen 6 LP cores (for running the operating system), and 16 RDNA 5 CUs running at 1.6-2 GHz with a 15 W total board power, pairing this configuration with LPDDR5X memory over a 192-bit bus. The handheld is allegedly targeting 1080p gameplay with a significantly higher power limit when docked, placing it as a flexible device for both mobile and docked use cases. The leaker also speculates that the handheld will feature ‘vastly better’ ray tracing than the PS5, hinting at a focus on modern rendering techniques across both Sony’s stationary and portable next generation hardware.
