PS4 Specs for Dummies.

**ps3freak18** · 02-22-2013

There have been some great responses so far guys. I don't have time to read all the information right now. I wish I did but have somewhere to be. I updated the OP with all responses and questions that have been contributed. If I missed anything let me know and I will add it up there. This thread took off better than I expected and I want to thank all you guys for all the information and questions. Please keep them coming. If it isn't too much to ask is there anyway a mod can sticky this thread for future reference and updates? Thanks

Also I may be limited with internet this weekend so don't fret if I don't get your questions or answers posted right away. They will for sure be added Sunday evening when I return back to my apartment.

**mooninites** · 02-22-2013

Thanks for your answers Ixion and Shepard

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2

**Vulgotha** · 02-24-2013

Well, get this. The UE4 demo I showed you guys? And the other games being demo'd?

Yea well.. According to some known devs at B3D that stuff was all done on the old devkits... With basically 1.5GB of usable memory.

Specifically regarding the UE4 tech, that was done rushed and unoptimized. A poster called "MikeR" said thus:

"Honestly you have no clue on what you are talking about. This demo was created/running on approximation hardware - not final dev/PS4 silicon. Also, the demo was created within a constrained timeframe for showing. Just for sh**s and giggles, the demo only used 27-29% of the AH resources - unoptimized. Before you ask, there is no link, I am the link."

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=63140&page=4

**PeanutButterMunky** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by Vulgotha

Well, get this. The UE4 demo I showed you guys? And the other games being demo'd?

Yea well.. According to some known devs at B3D that stuff was all done on the old devkits... With basically 1.5GB of usable memory.

Specifically regarding the UE4 tech, that was done rushed and unoptimized. A poster called "MikeR" said thus:

"Honestly you have no clue on what you are talking about. This demo was created/running on approximation hardware - not final dev/PS4 silicon. Also, the demo was created within a constrained timeframe for showing. Just for sh**s and giggles, the demo only used 27-29% of the AH resources - unoptimized. Before you ask, there is no link, I am the link."

That's good news. :P

**Ixion** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by Vulgotha

there is no link, I am the link.

If I ever became an employee at a game company, I would make that my username on the forums I go to.

I AM THE LINK

**PeanutButterMunky** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by Ixion

If I ever became an employee at a game company, I would make that my username on the forums I go to.

I AM THE LINK

Yeah... lol.

**ps3freak18** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by Vulgotha

Well, get this. The UE4 demo I showed you guys? And the other games being demo'd?

Yea well.. According to some known devs at B3D that stuff was all done on the old devkits... With basically 1.5GB of usable memory.

Specifically regarding the UE4 tech, that was done rushed and unoptimized. A poster called "MikeR" said thus:

"Honestly you have no clue on what you are talking about. This demo was created/running on approximation hardware - not final dev/PS4 silicon. Also, the demo was created within a constrained timeframe for showing. Just for sh**s and giggles, the demo only used 27-29% of the AH resources - unoptimized. Before you ask, there is no link, I am the link."

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=63140&page=4

Dayum! Only 27-29% of resources?! Holy schnikes!

**jj03** · 02-24-2013

Sony should ` under promise, and over deliver`.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

**Nitey** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by Vulgotha

Well, get this. The UE4 demo I showed you guys? And the other games being demo'd?

Yea well.. According to some known devs at B3D that stuff was all done on the old devkits... With basically 1.5GB of usable memory.

Specifically regarding the UE4 tech, that was done rushed and unoptimized. A poster called "MikeR" said thus:

"Honestly you have no clue on what you are talking about. This demo was created/running on approximation hardware - not final dev/PS4 silicon. Also, the demo was created within a constrained timeframe for showing. Just for sh**s and giggles, the demo only used 27-29% of the AH resources - unoptimized. Before you ask, there is no link, I am the link."

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=63140&page=4

Whoa, if that's true then awesome.

I felt a little underwhelmed when I saw the comparsons to UE4 running on GTX680 but from every corner we are hearing how great the architecture and hardware is inside the PS4, including Epic's own Mark Rein. This makes me happy

**Vulgotha** · 02-24-2013

Edit: I was wrong.

Not mark rein.

**Nitey** · 02-24-2013

Mark Rein was on Gametrailer's after show. Seemed really happy with the hardware

**ps3freak18** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by Nitey

Mark Rein was on Gametrailer's after show. Seemed really happy with the hardware

Yeah he sounded like a kid with a new toy. All the devs sounded off the same. I don't think I've ever seen so much widespread joy from devs about a console. The gt post show showed how happy they are.

**Two4DaMoney** · 02-24-2013

Tech heads, is GDDR5 the next gen's cell? Some member seems to think it is. I'm sure it's way out of bounds.

**shepard** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by ps3freak18

Yeah he sounded like a kid with a new toy. All the devs sounded off the same. I don't think I've ever seen so much widespread joy from devs about a console. The gt post show showed how happy they are.

Is there a clip of this online somewhere I can watch?

**Nitey** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by Two4DaMoney

Tech heads, is GDDR5 the next gen's cell? Some member seems to think it is. I'm sure it's way out of bounds.

I think because a lot of developers have really come out and backed Sony on it's architecture and picking 8gb gddr5 the other side of the fence believe it's just a fad and is being overhyped as something that promises big but won't deliver in a gaming sense. Something that people believe Cell was guilty of

Anyway I'm glad it's 8gb of gddr5 and not 4 lol

**ps3freak18** · 02-24-2013

Originally Posted by shepard

Is there a clip of this online somewhere I can watch?

I'll see if I can find it.

**Mikael** · 02-25-2013

Originally Posted by Two4DaMoney

Tech heads, is GDDR5 the next gen's cell? Some member seems to think it is. I'm sure it's way out of bounds.

GDDR5 is just reasonably cheap and fast memory. It's nothing new, since graphics cards have used it for years. It's a first for consoles, though. The point of having high-bandwidth memory like this is mainly to keep the GPU fed with data. GDDR5 in itself probably has little to no benefit for the CPU (DDR3 would likely be sufficient), but having it shared with the GPU could prove beneficial.

So, the memory in itself is just an enabler. Without fast hardware at the other end (i.e. CPU/GPU) it's not going to do any good.

**jlippone** · 02-25-2013

Originally Posted by Two4DaMoney

Tech heads, is GDDR5 the next gen's cell? Some member seems to think it is. I'm sure it's way out of bounds.

Not really.
Cell was powerful, but needed a lot of attention and work to get decent results.
A lot of GDDR5 enables coders to get results easier as they do not need to shuffle data around as much.

**Jabjabs** · 02-25-2013

Originally Posted by Mikael

GDDR5 is just reasonably cheap and fast memory. It's nothing new, since graphics cards have used it for years. It's a first for consoles, though. The point of having high-bandwidth memory like this is mainly to keep the GPU fed with data. GDDR5 in itself probably has little to no benefit for the CPU (DDR3 would likely be sufficient), but having it shared with the GPU could prove beneficial.

To be fair DDR3 would probably be a little better for CPU efficiency but I'm not worried about Jaguar on GDDR5, it looks to be more than capable of working it's way around any memory latency issues.

**ps3freak18** · 02-25-2013

Ok got to get the OP updated. Sorry for the delay.

**Ixion** · 02-25-2013

So from what I understand, the PS3 actually had a higher peak performance than the PS4 in terms of FLOPS. Is that true?

**PeanutButterMunky** · 02-25-2013

Originally Posted by Ixion

So from what I understand, the PS3 actually had a higher peak performance than the PS4 in terms of FLOPS. Is that true?

No, it doesn't. The original FLOPS claim by Sony for the PS3 was largely inflated.

**MonkeyClaw** · 02-25-2013

Yep, I think it real world performance the PS3 produced about 300-400 GigaFLOPS, I don't know the exact number though.

**Cyn** · 02-25-2013

Originally Posted by Ixion

So from what I understand, the PS3 actually had a higher peak performance than the PS4 in terms of FLOPS. Is that true?

The CELL has a higher peak performance than this CPU from AMD, but not the system as a whole no. CELL really is a great bit of engineering, it was just too complicated and I suppose they couldn't make it more user friendly, or else I'm sure it would be back for PS4. The PS3 could have been so much more if the CELL wasn't relegated to babysitting the RSX 90% of the time.

The more you look at the PS4 specs and think about what Mark Cerny said, it's apparent that the CPU will probably be nothing more than the doorman and the Radeon chip will be everything, including handling usual CPU tasks.

**Jabjabs** · 02-26-2013

Yeah Cell has twice the single precision floating point performance but this is a single metric to compare the performance of the CPU on. Cell can still out do the best x86 chips in certain situations, but these are rare and shrinking every day.

Jaguar is much more suitable for it's situation, now that the CPU isn't hand holding the GPU it doesn't need so much floating point performance and as such is a much more balanced and reasonable CPU as a whole.