How well can Sony’s PlayStation 5 keep up with today’s PCs? Digital Foundry conducted the experiment and came to a clear conclusion.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 is actually a strictly closed system—but what happens when you force the console to act like a full-fledged PC? The tech experts at Digital Foundry addressed this very intriguing question in
Bizarre graphics glitches and memory limits
In tests with other games, however, the limits of the experiment became apparent, sometimes with bizarre consequences. While the PS5 ran slightly faster than the PC version in some scenes of the game Crimson Desert, the sky was rendered as a solid black area due to a rendering error.
In general, the unofficial operating system quickly reached its limits with memory-intensive games. The main reason for this is the PlayStation 5’s shared memory pool, which the Linux system cannot access. This quickly leads to stuttering with more complex textures.
Control outperforms the native console version
The testers at Digital Foundry experienced another surprise with Remedy’s game Control. The Steam version ran on the PlayStation in 1080p with ray tracing enabled and medium settings at 50 to 60 frames per second. What’s particularly interesting here is that the official PlayStation version of the game does not support this exact combination.
In the console’s Performance Mode, the frame rate is 60 frames per second, but ray tracing is disabled.
High barriers to everyday use
Despite the surprising result, the experiment remains a community project for tinkerers at this point. There are several reasons for this:
- The PlayStation 5 must be running the older firmware version 4.5 or earlier.
- The trick only works per session. If the console is turned off, it must be reapplied.
- Video output is currently limited to 1080p and 60 frames per second. Features such as 120 Hz or a variable refresh rate are still in development.
Nevertheless, the team at Digital Foundry is optimistic about what the modding scene is achieving here. They see the PS5 primarily as a perfect platform for emulation once the missing features have been added.
More on this topic:PS5 Games 2026: An Overview of All New PlayStation 5 Releases
Ultimately, the Linux experiment presents a fascinating “what-if” scenario. It brings to mind the PlayStation 3’s OtherOS, which allowed players to use alternative operating systems.
For Digital Foundry, the topic is certainly far from over: At the end of the video, the team announced that they would soon put the PS5 Linux box through its paces with additional PC features that are technically “impossible” on the system, such as path tracing in older games
