The bits about snorm could be a misunderstanding on his part, but the most interesting bits is the PS5 and Xbox having wildly different RT solutions, Will Sony make custom modifications for RT this time?
To me, the probability that they are using the same RT hardware base is still very high, given that they are using the same architecture base and have access to the same future technologies from AMD.
That sort of leaves the following possibilities:
a) both use the same RT hardware from RDNA2
b) one chooses to use RT hardware from RDNA2, and one does not
c) both choose to not use RDNA2
I think if I were to spread the probabilities, I would bet on A and B, but not C. If the statement is true by that developer, then B is likely the answer, because C would mean that there are at least 3 ways to approach RT acceleration, possibly a 4th. That doesn't make a lot of sense considering form a high level standpoint we see how close Nvidia's RT setup is to PowerVR for instance. That's already 2 methods but they are close in nature. AMD provides their own, that's a 3rd method; then Sony and MS make their own ones as well? How many realistic high performance methods remain that could be "wildly different".
So naturally I will bet towards (B) if what he says is true. You either have a RT solution that you think is better than RDNA 2. Or you just use RDNA 2 - and you can go back and forth testing with 2 designs right up to the cut off line. That's how I would see this.
And if it is true, I will bet on MS being the different one and Sony rolling with RDNA 2. Nothing to do with talent or skill; just thinking back to
a) wanting to release in 2019
b) rushing a lot of headcount for BC such that they moved the vega team over to Navi for Sony
c) perhaps blindsided on the release of Ray Tracing hardware since they planned on 2019 release.
Basically hardware needed to be finalized about now to begin console development for launch next year. These types of changes may have a real impact here. Perhaps Sony did make their own RT solution, but with resources being shifted or what not, perhaps it doesn't outperform RDNA 2, so you just change the design to RDNA 2 because AMD is paying for it and it's going to deliver for 2020.
With MS - they would have known for some time that this was coming since they were developing RT in-tandem with Xbox One X
a) they may be looking at creating an RT solution that can be used in a variety of different applications
b) they have shown that they have other groups working on different things (Xbox One BC hardware) for instance that was added to the final product.
c) with AMD being generally behind on RT and DX features, perhaps they felt they wanted to roll their own solution anyway.
And while it's possible that perhaps they didn't develop a solution that could outperform RDNA 2, knowing the types of things that developers are asking for in the RT pipeline, it's possible they rolled their own solution to support more features down the road.
To be clear I am referring to the hardware. Not the API pipeline. I'm not sure what the developer has specified.
All the people keeping "old" CPU because the bar for 60 fps was low will need to change CPU.
