What is PS5 Equivalent GPU?

In the world of gaming, PS5, like its close cousin Xbox Series X/S, hold great value since they are the herald of next-gen gaming.

PS5 is a fairly respectable gaming console and when it was first released back in November of 2020, it could go toe to toe with the heavy weight of the time such as the RTX 2080.

However, over time, it has come to show its age and has fallen among the rank. So what is PS5 equivalent GPU?

Well, taking the current popular and latest GPUs, PS5 can be comparable in performance to somewhere in between the NVIDIA RTX 3050 and the RTX 3060, or somewhere in between the AMD Radeon RX 6600 and the RX 6700.

Also, not everyone can or want to get their hands on a PS5, and some prefer the flexibility of PC gaming. That is where the topic of finding the PS5 equivalent GPU becomes relevant.

The good news is that a PS5 is nothing more than a mid-range PC in terms of performance. However, when it comes to the overall cost, it is quite the bargain at $499.

PS5’s GPU Specifications and Performance Metric

At the heart of the PS5 lies AMD’s customized GPU based on the RDNA 2 architecture.

Since it is a customized piece of technology, you cannot deduce where it stands in the performance hierarchy for the desktop GPU market without relying on some kind of performance metric.

Enter Teraflops

The performance metric MOST relevant for comparing the GPU prowess is Teraflops.

Think of Teraflops as the GPU equivalent of horsepower in cars. The higher the Teralops, the higher the quality, resolution, and frame rate a GPU can pump out.

PS5’s GPU has 10.28 Teraflops of graphical juice. We can use this to compare the desktop GPUs.

However, you should note that there are three separate metrics for measuring the Teraflops of a GPU depending upon the level of precision.

• Half (FP16) – Fastest
• Single (FP32)
• Double (FP64) – Slowest

For gaming, we take SINGLE precision.

What is PS5 Equivalent GPU?

With that said, the following table highlights the Teralops of PS5 and compares them with the popular and latest graphics cards out there.

Comparing the single precision Teraflops of the graphics card from NVIDIA and AMD, we can see that PS5 is equivalent in performance to AMD RX 5700XT/RX 6600XT or NVIDIA RTX 3050/RTX 2080.

The most equivalent in performance today is easily the AMD RX 6600XT as it hails from the same manufacturer, AMD, and is also based on the AMD RDNA 2 architecture.

It should be noted that AMD RX 5700XT and RTX 2080 were high end graphics cards of their time. They were almost the top graphics cards at the time of PS5’s release date.

However, today, PS5 is only comparable in performance to mid / lower-mid range graphics cards at best.

PS5 Still Has an Excellent Value

While it may seem that PS5 is lagging behind in terms of performance, it still offers a great value for your money.

For instance, if you were building a PC today with a mid range graphics card equivalent to PS5 like the NVIDIA RTX 3050, then the graphics card ALONE has an MSRP of $250. AMD RX 6600XT can cost you between $250-$300 depending upon the brand.

If you take the rest of the hardware i.e processor (i5/Ryzen 5 at least to be on par with the 8 core CPU on PS5), motherboard, RAM, solid state drive, PSU, CD Drive, and a gaming controller, the overall cost of the build will easily be around $700-$800.

PS5 costs $500, making it much better in terms of performance/dollar compared to a PC build with a comparable GPU.

PS5’s GPU is Highly Optimized and Cannot be Compared 1:1 with a Desktop GPU

Another point to realize is that PS5’s GPU is tailor made for PS5. The developers that make games are also tailor made for the PS5’s GPU.

As such, it is hard to form a 1:1 comparison simply through Teraflops alone.

Taking the VRAM alone, for instance, PS5 offers 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM. This is DOUBLE that of the NVIDIA RTX 3050 and the AMD RX 6600XT (8GB VRAM GDDR6).

So in essence, PS5 can handle larger texture and complex scenes more effectively as compared to the equivalent desktop GPUs.

Also Read: PS5 vs RTX 3070

Final Words

As far as RAW GPU power goes, the answer to the question what is PS5 equivalet GPU is either AMD 6600XT or NVIDIA RTX 2080. AMD 5700XT and NVIDIA RTX 3050 are also quite close in performance.

However, as mentioned earlier, PS5’s GPU is tailor made for its hardware. The games are also developed tailor mode for PS5’s GPU specifically.

In addition to that, the value for money the PS5’s GPU provides cannot be overlooked and it certainly cannot be matched by equivalent desktop GPUs.