If Sony wanted to create such a handheld, they would face several obstacles, and because of this, there is little chance that it would EVER be able to run PlayStation 4 games.

Digital Foundry editors answered a fan’s question in the video embedded below. They believe that a handheld console capable of running PlayStation 4 titles locally (i.e. not from the cloud!) is not very feasible at the moment, as the PS4’s memory bandwidth is huge (176GB/s), and on the other hand, power consumption would be a major obstacle for Sony. It would have to use a Jaguar CPU for support, and there’s nothing in the mobile space that can match that spec, so running PlayStation 4 games natively is impossible.

If a PlayStation handheld based on modern AMD architecture were made, it could run PlayStation 4 games, but they would have to be ported, so the game library would be limited in size, but there would be no problem running stripped down versions of PlayStation 5 games. The Steam Deck could be a good example of this (current AAA games run on it at low resolution and graphics settings). That said, Digital Foundry thinks a new handheld would be a good idea if Sony actually made one, given the power of PlayStation Portal (but that’s for remote play, not running games locally).

A PlayStation handheld is rumored to be in the pipeline at Sony. It will be powered by a custom AMD APU, and because it’s in the high-level design phase, it’s at least two years away from release, and Sony could still cancel the project. Specifications are not yet finalized, but due to the PlayStation 5’s changing clock speed, it’s likely that the GPU will run at a maximum of 1.8GHz with 18 compute units (CUs).

The PlayStation Vita was a success in Japan, but interest in the West quickly waned. From here it will be nice for Sony to withdraw from this market. That is, if a PlayStation handheld is really coming.

Source: WCCFTech