Last week, following an in-depth analysis of the PlayStation 6 bill of materials and potential pricing, speculation about a PlayStation 6 "lite" model powered by the APU of the Canis handheld began circulating. Some suggested this model could launch at a lower price than both the home and portable consoles. However, the chances of this happening are nonexistent, as such a model would be a “nightmare” for developers, according to what AMD leaker KeplerL2 said on the NeoGAF Forums.
After reacting positively to a post from another user who highlighted how the existence of this third PlayStation 6 model is a complete fabrication, the leaker replied to a user asking if this model is possible. “No, it would be a nightmare for devs."
“How so if the handheld already exists?” asked user kevboard. “Making something look good on a small 1080p screen is very different from making it look good on a large 4K TV. We also still don't know if Sony will mandate Handheld support,” KeplerL2 replied.
In addition, the Canis APU that powers the handheld is built with specialized low-power libraries. It “can't run at high clock speeds no matter how much power you throw at it,” so using it to power a home system with an expectation of 4K resolution output would be a terrible idea.
Upscaling would be of little help. Upscaling from 1080p to 4K resolution is a “16x upscale which is very hard to do without image artifacts/blur. Upscale cost is also based on output resolution, so if we assume 1080p upscale FSR5/PSSR3 is around 2ms on Canis then 4K upscale would be about 8ms. Even with higher clocks from a docked configuration it's likely 5-6ms minimum, so devs would need to do extra optimization for docked config just to hit the same FPS as handheld mode,” the leaker clarified.
Although this PlayStation 6 "lite" model based on the handheld APU is highly unlikely to ever launch, a lower-end SKU could still be possible. However, KeplerL2 believes it would make sense to use the Orion APU powering the home console with a slightly different configuration:
- 6-core CPU cluster
- 16 WGP GPU
- -10% clock speed on CPU/GPU
- 128-bit bus with 24GB RAM
This configuration would reduce the bill of materials (BOM) by $60 for the RAM, plus another $20-30 for the reduced board/cooling requirements. “Shrinking the SSD to 512GB would be another big BOM reduction, but I think they could only get away with that if they forced devs to use NTC,” said the leaker.
As things stand, the PlayStation 6 handheld is set to be the cheaper gateway to the next-generation of console gaming, although with uncertainty regarding mandatory support, it remains to be seen how Sony will handle its next-generation systems and if the company will manage to keep the price of the home system in the $700 range.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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