Despite claims that were proudly displayed on the system’s box, the PlayStation 5 could never deliver proper 8K resolution at 60 frames per second with HDR output due to some technical reasons.
Commenting on the recent removal of the 8K sticker from the console’s packaging, Digital Foundry provided a rather interesting explanation of how a proper 8K resolution output at 60 frames per second with HDR was never going to be a thing for the console. The system’s HDMI output is limited to 32 gigabits per second, which is not enough for 8K resolution at 60 FPS unless some compromises are made, such as at 420 chroma subsampling. Chroma subsampling is used to reduce bandwidth costs by reducing the resolution of specific color channels, a reduction that is not really noticeable at high resolutions. In addition, HDR could never be enabled at 8K resolution, as it required 10 bit per channel, as opposed to the 8 bit per channel offered by the PlayStation 5. Interestingly enough, the Xbox Series X could deliver the 8K resolution at 60 frames per second with HDR output, as the HDMI output of the Microsoft system has higher bandwidth, although chroma subsampling would still need to be used.
Ultimately, 8K output support for both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X was never enabled via a firmware update, and it’s easy to understand why, as there’s no gaming or video content available at 8K resolution, and the adoption of 8K displays is extremely limited at this point. The only reason Sony and Microsoft would have had to enable 8K output support was to let the consoles handle the scaling instead of the TV, but due to memory constraints, they wouldn’t have been able to do a better job than TVs.
The 8K output resolution support sticker shouldn’t also be expected to return with the PlayStation 5 Pro rumored to release later this year. As 8K resolution has lost its marketing value in the past few years, we should expect Sony to focus on other features to entice players to upgrade to its new system.
