Some recent testing on a base PS5 running Linux gave rough performance numbers for path tracing in a few PC games. The results looked all over the place depending on resolution, settings, and whether upscaling or frame generation was used.
Is this mostly a sign that path tracing is just too heavy for the console, or does it suggest there is still some room to make it workable with aggressive settings and optimization?
The short version is that it looks workable only in a very cut-down form. At native-ish output, path tracing is basically too expensive for a base PS5 in these examples. Once you push the internal render resolution way down and lean on upscaling, the numbers start looking less hopeless.
That said, these results are from Linux on a jailbroken setup, so they are more of a rough hardware ceiling than a clean console comparison. A native port could squeeze out a bit more through better engine integration, but it would not magically turn full path tracing into a standard 60 fps mode.
The interesting part to me is the spread between the tests. One game barely gets into the teens at a full 4K output, then another gets into a usable range once the internal render resolution is dropped hard and the workload is tuned better. That tells me the hardware is not totally out of the game, but the software side matters a ton.
If a developer built around a lower target resolution, aggressive denoising, and maybe a mode that is clearly meant for quality over sharpness, you could probably ship something acceptable. But if the expectation is high fidelity path tracing with solid frame rates and a clean image, the base machine is still not the right fit.
TansyForge29:
That lines up with how I read it too. The big gap is less about a yes or no answer and more about what kind of compromise the game is willing to make.
BlueMorrow55:
And there is also the usual caveat that test scenes are not the same as a full game. Real gameplay can be heavier in different ways, so these numbers are useful, but not the whole picture.
I would treat it as a proof that path tracing on fixed hardware is possible, not a proof that it is a good idea for every game. The strongest takeaway is that optimization and resolution scaling do a lot of work here. Without those, performance falls off fast.
For players, that probably means expecting a niche graphics mode rather than a default option. For developers, it means the base PS5 can be part of the conversation, but only if the visual target is carefully controlled from the start.
FallowDrift33:
That is probably the cleanest way to frame it. Possible, yes. Comfortable, only in a very specific setup.
Answers are reviewed before publication.
PaperWren08:
Yeah, the main lesson seems to be that the console can touch path tracing, but only after the image quality tradeoffs get pretty extreme. That is a lot different from saying it is practical as a mainstream feature.