A recently published Sony patent filed by Mark Cerny and company hints that Sony Interactive Entertainment might be experimenting with different ways to improve streaming and cloud gaming. The patent focuses on a more efficient way for GPUs to render graphics, currently unavailable on current tech according to the description on the patent itself.
To render even more complex scenes or use even more complex algorithms (e.g. materials, lighting, etc.) when generating a scene, it may be desirable to use multiple GPUs to render a single image. However, usage of these graphical processing units equally is difficult to achieve.
The patent implies that the efficient multi-gpu rendering techniques are for back-end servers that are used to stream games to client devices. However, with recent reports of a PS5 Pro being in development, we could also see these concepts being implemented in the future PlayStation consoles as well.
In recent years there has been a continual push for online services that allow for online or cloud gaming in a streaming format between a cloud gaming server and a client connected through a network.
This patent is quite similar to a patent that was spotted back in 2020 mentioning multi-gpu rendering techniques for home consoles as well as cloud gaming. So there is a possibility that these new GPU rendering techniques could be used for Sony home gaming consoles as well.
It should be noted that Sony Interactive Entertainment hasn’t officially hinted or confirmed any new PlayStation variant, be it PlayStation 5 Pro or PlayStation 6. All we currently have is different rumors related to the upcoming PlayStation consoles. As for streaming video games, Microsoft still has an upper hand over Sony. So the patent technology could just be Sony trying to improve its cloud gaming services.
