PlayStation 5 Memory Bandwidth Vs. PS4: What Upgrade Should You Expect?

One part of the recent PlayStation 5 specs reveal that often goes unmentioned is the system’s increase in memory bandwidth over PlayStation 4. While that specific number isn’t as sexy or ridiculous sounding as teraflops, memory bandwidth is perhaps the most important part of delivering a game that maintains a high frame rate at high resolutions. As a result, low bandwidth is a problem that can doom a console’s performance, as we’ve seen with current-generation hardware.

To put it simply, system memory bandwidth represents how fast the system can move data to and from memory. All of a game’s files are initially stored on the console’s drive (which would be an HDD on a PS4 and an SSD on a PS5), but to make use of it, the console has to move copies of those files around so that it ultimately results in images being displayed on a player’s screen. This process is often referred to as “throughput” as well. The fastest SSD on Earth, working with infinite teraflops would be absolutely useless if the system didn’t move that data quickly.

Based on information from Sony’s PlayStation 5 “deep dive”, we now know PS5’s memory bandwidth is 448 GBs per second. That makes it higher than PS4’s 176 GBs per second, and on par with that of Xbox Series X. Memory bandwidth as a number is typically represented as a maximum, meaning PS5 is capable of transferring a maximum of 448 GB/s but it won’t always have to. As a result, it’s a great metric to measure the graphical capability of a system, in addition to its speed, and comparing that to older generations really puts these advancements into perspective.

What Higher Memory Bandwidth Means for Games

In practice, greater bandwidth should mean not just greater resolution and image quality, but also high frame rates and smoother gameplay. The standard for PlayStation 4 titles was 30 frames per second at 1080p resolution. PlayStation 5 will easily eclipse that, guaranteeing at least 1440p and 60 frames per second. With that kind of pixel drawing capability, PS5 games should run smoothly, but without any compromises.

Game’s like Doom Eternal and most Call of Duty titles manage to uphold 60 frames per second on PlayStation 4, but they typically do so through a process called dynamic resolution. Those games will lower image quality as on-screen elements become more complex, in an attempt to reduce the system’s workload and keep the frame rate stable. In most cases, though, the vast majority of games lean in the direction of cutting the frame rate in half to prioritize resolution and image quality (even on PS4 Pro). The increased PlayStation 5 memory bandwidth removes those kinds of sacrifices, so expect games to look as good as possible while still performing smoothly, at least until we pass 4K resolution.

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