What does Project Amethyst mean for the PS6?

With PS5 Pro out for over six months now and vague details of the next Xbox emerging, speculation is inevitably turning what Sony will do next. Presumably, there will be a PlayStation 6. But for now, all we really know about Sony's vision for future hardware is that it's working with GPU-maker AMD on an AI collaboration called Project Amethyst.

What is Project Amethyst and what does it mean for PS6 and future PlayStation consoles? Sony isn't revealing much about its hardware, but it is talking about the AI tech (also see our pick of the best games consoles).

PS5 Pro Technical Seminar at SIE HQ - YouTube

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Revealed in a PS5 Pro technical seminar last year, Project Amethyst began in 2023 and focuses on using AI to enhance game visuals and performance. The codename refers to the combination of brand colours: PlayStation's blue and AMD red to create purple (don't start with the argument that purple doesn't exist).

Although Amethyst's algorithms will be available for all AMD customers – and AMD has already released FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) for PCs, Sony sees the project an important part of its own hardware development for future consoles.

The aims include improved AI upscaling, equivalent to Nvidia's DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction, virtual frame generation and ray tracing and support for multiple models to help developers improve games.

With upscaling, the tech will allow developers to render a game at a lower resolution for improved performance at higher framerates, with machine learning hardware will using a super resolution library to scale that to 4K.

Mark Cerny, lead architect on PS5 and PS5 Pro at Sony Interactive Entertainment, recently told our sister site Tom's Guide, that FSR 4 will come to PS5 Pro next year as a "drop-in replacement" for the current PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution.

It seems that it may be limited to increased resolution for now, unlike PCs using FSR Redstone. That's because the PS5 Pro's bespoke hardware complicates the implementation. But Sony looking towards a future when co-developed hardware is available.

What does that mean for PS6 or other future PlayStation consoles? If each console takes around four years to develop and Amethyst began in 2023, we could see a new device as soon as 2027. And it seems that the focus from the start will be on using AI to allow it to punch above its weight.

CNET quotes Jack Huynh, SVP, GM, Computing and Graphics Group at AMD, as saying: "We knew we had to go with machine learning because Moore's Law is diminishing … the old school way of adding more performances, more transistors, more flops, more memory bandwidth."

But there's no clarity on what the next PlayStation hardware could look like. However, CNET notes the trend for powerful handhelds. Xbox revealed its ROG Xbox Ally, a collaboration with ASUS just last month.

ROG Xbox Ally World Premiere Reveal Trailer | Xbox Games Showcase - YouTube

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Sony doesn't currently have a handheld of its own, but surely it won't allow Nintendo Switch 2 and the upcoming Xbox handheld to battle it out between the two of them?

While Cerny said he wouldn't discuss new hardware, he did tell CNET that Project Amethyst's algorithms are scalable, while Huynh added that handheld is important for AMD too. "I believe in continuous gaming, gaming on the go," he said.

As for PS6, the only thing I can hope for is that perhaps the shift in focus to driving performance via AI rather than increasingly powerful physical components could finally bring a halt to the the ever rising price tag for newest-gen consoles.

What do you think? Shall we wait, or should owners of base PS5 upgrade to the PS5 Pro to benefit from FSR 4? Let us know what you think, and what want to see in the PS6 in the comments below.