Sony Announces the PS4 587
As many expected, Sony has officially announced the PS4 at the Sony PlayStation Meeting today. The new PlayStation will have an X86 processor, "state of the art" GPU, 8 GB of high-speed unified memory, and a hard drive for local storage. The PS4 will allow gamers to share their gameplay stream and even remotely take control of friend's games. Along with the PS4, Sony has unveiled a new DualShock 4 controller which features a built-in touchpad at the center of the controller, and a built-in microphone jack.
Re:"Uses an X86 Processor" (Score:4, Informative)
So what exactly is gonna differentiate this from a mid-level to high-end gaming rig?
It's not even surpassing a low to mid-level right these days. Welcome to the "lets carry it along" generation, instead of "lets improve it along."
Re:Sony on Slashdot (Score:3, Informative)
Slashdot isn't a singular entity. The minority with a burning hatred for Sony may be vocal, but they don't represent us all.
But the same talking points dominating every discussion get tiresome.
Re:"Uses an X86 Processor" (Score:2, Informative)
8 *Bulldozer* cores, which makes it comparable to an i5 - mid-level for gaming. And underclocked to 2GHz - so maybe more like an i3. Which makes it...
Re:Trust Sony? HA! (Score:5, Informative)
Linux on the PS3 was terrible. Anyone that used it could have told you that.
Really??? Tell that to the US Air Force [popsci.com].
It's not all about power....differentiators are... (Score:4, Informative)
Price. It will probably cost $500. A similarly equipped Windows PC would be $1,000+
Ease of use. No viruses. No configuring software and hardware. Guaranteed game performance.
Long life. 7+ yrs of life cycle with no upgrades to play all games.
Re:"Uses an X86 Processor" (Score:5, Informative)
Benchmark-wise, an FX 8350, the 8-core top-end Piledriver, is considered comparable to the i5 3570. The i5 generally takes a large lead in single-threaded performance, but the FX leads on the more parallel stuff. Still effectively a tie, especially with the mere $10 price difference. People I know tend to go Intel, since it's cooler and (if you spring $30 for the 3570K version) it overclocks better, but for most purposes they can be considered equivalents.
However, the 8350 is clocked at 4.0GHz, precisely twice that the PS4 is rumored to have (the detailed specs were not shown tonight, but the stuff that was matches up exactly with what the leaked specs claimed so I'm treating them as reasonably accurate). So it is a reasonable conclusion that the PS4 chip would run approximately half as fast as the FX-8350. Yes, cache hit rates, memory controller clocks and all that will affect it, but at the end of the day, the processor has to run instructions, and if it does that at half the rate, it's running slower. (And yes, you can compare the PS4 and FX clock-for-clock, because they're the same architecture (at least as far as my information goes)).
I simply used i3/i5 as a reference, as they are both more generic names than FX-4300/FX-8350, and Intel has a larger market share and brand awareness, so their labels make for better shorthand.
Re:"Uses an X86 Processor" (Score:4, Informative)
Benchmark-wise, an FX 8350, the 8-core top-end Piledriver,
Anand, who is almost always right about everything in the industry, seems to think these will be Jaguar (slower) cores rather than Piledriver. http://www.anandtech.com/show/6770/sony-announces-playstation-4-pc-hardware-inside [anandtech.com]
Re:It's not all about power....differentiators are (Score:2, Informative)
Are you living in the 90s? Most US consumers don't buy desktop computers anymore, they buy laptops which usually have Intel video.
Also consoles are owned by kids and lower socioeconomic class people that may not own a computer at all.
Re:How long until the PS4 is irrelevant? (Score:5, Informative)
If I want to play the latest game for a PC, I have to check the specs, buy a new video card every year.
I'm still using a GTX260 from 2008. It still meets the Recommended specs for games like Skyrim. "Recommended", not "minimum"; and I can play with graphics settings on "high" without issue. Admittedly I ~am~ now starting to look at upgrading it in the near future, but its pushing 5 years now and I could probably squeeze another year or three out of it.
I'll have to upgrade the CPU and RAM every 2 years or so as well.
A core 2 quad (Q6600) from 2007 is still perfectly fine for pretty much everything on the market today.
A decent gaming rig will set me back $1500 and be a money sink.
None of that has been true for 5+ years. A decent gaming rig costs $600. For that you can get a very solid budget oriented system. And you won't have to upgrade it for several years.
At $1500 you are buying premium brand power supplies with modular interconnects, brand name RAM, deluxe motherboards, nice big solid state primary drives, and seriously flirting with the idea of SLI graphics.
Re:"Uses an X86 Processor" (Score:5, Informative)
I stand corrected - it would appear to be Jaguar-based [scei.co.jp]. Quite an... interesting approach by Sony. I guess expecting them to do the logical thing is going contrary to tradition.
Re:Any optical drive at all? (Score:5, Informative)
Shit n hellfire, the article has a big block of text that outlines the specs. If you didn't see it it's because you didn't actually look.
Main Processor
Single-chip custom processor
CPU : x86-64 AMD "Jaguar", 8 cores
GPU : 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD next-generation Radeon based graphics engine
Memory
GDDR5 8GB
Hard Disk Drive
Built-in
Optical Drive (read only)
BD 6xCAV
DVD 8xCAV
I/O
Super-Speed USB (USB 3.0) ãAUX
Communication Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)
IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth® 2.1 (EDR)
AV output
HDMI
Analog-AV out
Digital Output (optical)
Re:"Uses an X86 Processor" (Score:5, Informative)
CPU : x86-64 AMD “Jaguar”, 8 cores
GPU : 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD next-generation Radeon based
Memory : GDDR5 8GB
Optical Drive : BD 6xCAV
www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/130221a_e.pdf
Re:Is it an Illegal-to-export Supercomputer? (Score:5, Informative)
I thought that they were manufactured in Japan.