The PlayStation 4’s graphical processing unit, which already has an impressive graphical output, appears to have additional processors that weren’t counted in the original figure.
The PS4’s GPU, entitled "Pitcairn," is clocked in at 1.84 teraflops of processing per second, thanks to the former count of 1152 stream processors, which allow devices to better manage and delegate information for faster loading. However, after a closer look by MyDrivers.com, the PS4 has more.
Pitcairn, or the AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series, according to the images provided, houses 20 graphic cores, and each core has 64 stream processors, which totals to be 1280, leaving 128 of these stream processors unaccounted for. Now, as the report on the WCCF Tech website indicates, these extra processors could simply be dead.
However, the chance that these extra processors are merely dormant is worth consideration, which means that the PS4 could have more graphical power in the future than it does now. Sony has done things like this in the past: the PS3 didn’t use all the processor cores that the Cell Processor had, which was chalked up to avoiding redundancy, and the PlayStation Portable didn’t have its maximum 333 MHz output either in order to better manage battery life.
Until Sony issues a formal statement on this extra hardware, the existence of the extra stream processors can only inspire speculation. Once official word releases, be sure to find out more about the PS4 and its future right here at PSU.