Maybe an unpopular opinion, but graphical improvements for me have diminishing returns.
From PS1 to PS2 era the leap in graphics was massive. Suddenly those blocky games with a ridiculously short draw distance looked fairly pretty, and ran much better.
From PS2 to PS3 era it was still quite a leap. Games looked much smoother and better detailed. It still felt like a different generation.
From PS3 to PS4 era it was a decent improvement, but a lot less impactful then before. I mean, games got more photorealistic when they went for that style, environments were maybe more immersive, movement more fluid. Still meaningful, I'd say.
From PS4 to PS5 I feel that the improvement was marginal. Games have better lighting thanls to Ray Tracing I think? Overall a little prettier? I to this day question why exactly I bought a PS5, as I got mostly the same experience from the previous generation.
On the other hand, I think most - if not all - AAA devs have been improving in graphics, whereas the gameplay has been very stagnant and interesting.
Perhaps that is why I love my Nintendo Switch a lot more than either PS4 or PS5.
Big hardware change for the PS5 was memory and SSD. You can stream in a lot of assets and forego the Mass Effect elevator load screens. I can't think of a GPU innovation that isn't iterative from the PS4 to the PS5
From PS1 to PS2 era the leap in graphics was massive. Suddenly those blocky games with a ridiculously short draw distance looked fairly pretty, and ran much better.
From PS2 to PS3 era it was still quite a leap. Games looked much smoother and better detailed. It still felt like a different generation.
From PS3 to PS4 era it was a decent improvement, but a lot less impactful then before. I mean, games got more photorealistic when they went for that style, environments were maybe more immersive, movement more fluid. Still meaningful, I'd say.
From PS4 to PS5 I feel that the improvement was marginal. Games have better lighting thanls to Ray Tracing I think? Overall a little prettier? I to this day question why exactly I bought a PS5, as I got mostly the same experience from the previous generation.
On the other hand, I think most - if not all - AAA devs have been improving in graphics, whereas the gameplay has been very stagnant and interesting.
Perhaps that is why I love my Nintendo Switch a lot more than either PS4 or PS5.