Sony is expanding its collaboration with AMD to create artificial intelligence technologies aimed at improving graphics and gameplay across PlayStation and other platforms, the company’s PS5 chief architect Mark Cerny said.
The companies plan a deeper partnership focused on machine learning and neural networks to boost visual clarity and frame rates, and to enhance in-game behavior and systems.
Existing hardware and shared features
AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture already powers the GPUs in the PS5 and PS5 Pro. Sony pointed to features such as PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) on the PS5 Pro as examples of current implementations that enhance image clarity and frame-rate performance.
Project Amethyst: optimizing for machine learning
Cerny outlined a long-term initiative called “Project Amethyst,” a joint effort to optimize architectures for machine learning. A central aim is to refine the use of lightweight convolutional neural networks (CNNs) tailored for game graphics.
- The project intends to develop a toolkit of high-quality CNNs for graphics tasks.
- Those networks are expected to raise visual quality and broaden the use of techniques such as ray tracing and path tracing in games.
Cross-platform deployment and timeline
Sony emphasized the technology under development will not be exclusive to PlayStation. The resulting methods and tools could be applied to PCs, other consoles and cloud gaming platforms.
However, Cerny cautioned that integrating outcomes from Project Amethyst into consumer products may take years. Some innovations might only appear in future hardware generations, with the PlayStation 6 mentioned as a potential platform from 2028 onward.
