A new patent from Sony has shined a new light on what the hardware developer might be working on for improving cloud gaming and streaming services in the future. Specifically, this latest Sony patent looks to enhance the graphical capabilities of cloud gaming services in order to bring a higher quality product through this online specific medium.

The implications for the patent could extend into Sony's PlayStation Now service, since this system does often include the ability to stream games onto the PS4 and PS5, especially for older games from previous generations of consoles. However, there is no direct evidence from the patent that this new technology is specifically for the current version of the PlayStation Now service, or if it could be for an unannounced system in the future.

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Much of the express language in the patent itself is extremely technical, but the simplified terms come down to Sony finding a solution to the many difficulties of having multiple GPUs on a cloud computing data. The major problem stems from evenly distributing the workload on multiple GPUs at once in order to make sure that they all finish whatever process they are being asked to compute at the same time. Without the solution presented in the patent, this could lead to idle time on GPUs and wasting time while they wait for the next prompt, sometimes leading to the lag some players report with services like PlayStation Now.

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According to the claims listed in the patent, this new technology appears to focus on both trying to properly divide data, but also include buffers for the work one GPU has done ahead of the others. This way, instead of keeping any single GPU occupied with something it has already finished, it can pass on the information to storage and then start working on the next required process. Since these computations happen sixty times a second at 60 FPS, deterring this backup could be the key to keeping PlayStation's cloud gaming services producing the best quality possible.

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Given the claims in the patent, this could help cloud gaming services reach much higher performance levels than have previously been possible. For Sony's PS5 system, which has the ability to run games like Quake at 120 FPS on its own, this could make streaming games at even higher framerates possible. If the multiple GPUs can work together to stream out at higher framerates, then several of Sony's most recent consoles should be able to process at receive at those rates as well.

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