PS6 Reportedly Targets 30GB of RAM and Sony Might Finally Get It Right

On May 6, 2026, hardware leaker Moore’s Law is Dead said on a podcast that the PS6’s memory is largely set at 30GB of RAM, with a companion handheld targeting 24GB RAM. As of publication, Sony has not confirmed any plans related to either device.

A cautiously positive read makes sense here. Those numbers at least do not feel random; they look more like Sony finally learning from the cross-platform headaches of this generation. A 30GB console and a 24GB handheld put the gap at under 30%, which is a far friendlier split for developers than the near-cliff between Xbox Series S and Series X. The real problem in development is rarely that one machine is weaker. It is when the gap is so wide that every port turns into a chain of compromises.

The most important part of this leak is not 30GB by itself, but the claim that the difference between the two devices is “under 30%.” Moore’s Law is Dead specifically argued that the roughly 60% VRAM gap between Xbox Series S and Series X is the core reason the smaller box has held back cross-platform development. You do not have to buy every part of that argument to see the logic. For the past few years, performance debates around new releases have kept circling back to the same issue: why does the lowest-spec machine so often drag the overall experience down? In the console space, developers usually feel that pain even more than players do.

That does not mean 30GB and 24GB are cause for celebration on their own. What this kind of split really solves is adaptation overhead, not some magic leap in visuals. The leak says the gap between the PS6 console and handheld would likely show up mainly in resolution, with lower-resolution textures handled through automatic scaling. That is a practical division of labor, similar to how different models in the same hardware era were handled once pipelines matured. Let the higher-end machine push resolution, let the handheld protect frame rate and resource use, and avoid making teams rebuild assets twice. Developers are far more likely to get on board with that setup.

Sony’s interest in handhelds is not exactly hidden. Back in March, industry sources said Sony was developing a portable device capable of running PS5-level games locally to compete with Nintendo Switch 2 and Valve’s Steam Deck. Last year, Sony Interactive Entertainment co-CEO Hermen Hulst also said handheld gaming was a key growth area. The direction there seems pretty clear: PlayStation does not want to be tied only to the living-room TV anymore.

If another part of this leak is accurate, the handheld could be even more interesting. Moore’s Law is Dead said it may reach Intel Panther Lake-level performance at half the power draw, with floating-point performance around three times that of Switch 2. Interesting, yes. Proven, no. Veteran players have seen plenty of impressive spec sheets before, and paper performance has a habit of collapsing fast under real-world scrutiny. Whether the machine is actually good will depend on cooling, battery life, system-level scheduling, and the launch software lineup. Miss on any one of those, and “day one buy” quickly becomes “wait and see.”

The buying advice is straightforward. Do not start planning a launch purchase yet, and do not treat a leak like an official announcement. If you mainly play on consoles, this is worth watching because it suggests Sony may be laying the groundwork for a more unified development environment next generation. If you care more about handhelds, keep your eye on the claim that it can run PS5-level games locally. If Sony really pulls that off, it would be more than just another Remote Play accessory trying to keep up with Steam Deck and Switch 2. The main takeaway is not whether the PS6 will simply be more powerful. It is that Sony may finally be taking the harder question seriously: how a console and a handheld are supposed to coexist in the same ecosystem.