Is it Worth Buying a PS5?
With a release date of “Holiday 2020”, many are anticipating the drop of Sony’s Playstation 5. There’s even chatter among PC users that it may become their prefered gaming platform, come this next holiday season.
Sony has released the technical specifications for the upcoming console with a list of features that are proving to make an impact on console gaming as we know it, that is, if they manage to pull off this incredibly powerful console at the rumored price of around $500.
Here are the Specs released from Sony’s Playstation Blog:
CPU
x86-64-AMD Ryzen™ “Zen 2”
8 Cores / 16 Threads
Variable frequency, up to 3.5 GHz
GPU
AMD Radeon™ RDNA 2-based graphics engine
Ray Tracing Acceleration
Variable frequency, up to 2.23 GHz (10.3 TFLOPS)
System Memory
GDDR6 16GB
448GB/s Bandwidth
Storage
825GB SSD
5.5GB/s Read Bandwidth (Raw)
Disk Drive
Ultra HD Blu-ray™, up to 100GB/disc
Video Out
Support of 4K 120Hz TVs, 8K TVs, VRR (specified by HDMI ver.2.1)
Audio
“Tempest” 3D AudioTech
If you were to build a PC of comparable specs it may look something like this:
Ryzen 7 3700X - $295
Nvidia RTX 2080 Super - $730
16GB DDR4 RAM - $70 (although the PS5 is told to have GDDR6)
960 GB SATA 2.5" Solid State Drive - $195 (shameless plug)
Motherboard - $280
For a total price of $1570 before purchasing:
- A case
- A blue ray disk drive
- A gaming controller
- An OS
It almost doesn’t make sense that Sony could produce a console for this price… Until you take into consideration Sony’s revenue excluding console sales.
Sony has used this method in their sales for a long time. It is called the razor and blades model. Ideally you sell razors for really cheap, hoping that the consumer comes back and buys blades from you for as long as the razor is functional.
If Sony wants to sell the PS5 at the current rates of top teir gaming consoles, they would have to sell the PS5 at a loss. A report from Bloomberg earlier this year noted that the cost for the PS5 has been driven up to over $450.
All this to say, if you’re thinking about building a PC with the intention of playing games this holiday season, maybe you should hold out and see what Sony has to offer come “Holiday 2020”.
Sources:
Report: The PS5 is so expensive to make, Sony may sell it at a loss
PS5 vs. PC: Which gaming platform is better for you?
Unveiling New Details of PlayStation 5: Hardware Technical Specs [UPDATED]