PS4K information (~2x GPU power w/ clock+, new CPU, price, tent. Q1 2017)

You want a console that was releasdd in 2013 to the baseline until 2021? That isn't happening.

If people want to bring up PC's, the lower limit of PC's is going to do that anyway.

Fine, 2020 is my lowest concession. This thing is supposed to have twice the power and supposedly a brand new CPU. If you want better performance, its there. And game design stays with a clear baseline for developers, its a win win.

If your arguing against having a baseline like this, what's the point of having PS4K? It goes out of style 2 or 3 years after it launches and people are required to buy a new unit in PS5 that takes full advantage of the platform?

If we're moving to "two units a cycle" then the cycle has to be long enough to support two units.
 
I also wouldn't completely dismiss the PC argument entirely although I imagine not many switch.

Console gaming used to be the very convenient and usually cheaper way to enjoy gaming. Now if you were to buy the PS4 and PS4.5, you are looking at $800-$900 during the gen. Add $250 or so for the privilege to enjoy online gaming and your now over $1000.

From a financial standpoint, console gaming wouldn't really be cheaper. PC games are generally cheaper and you can enjoy mods and often superior performance/presentation. The only major advantage I see with consoles now is the exclusive games. However, this gen seems to have less console exclusives. Hell, less big budget games also.

So I can understand why some would use this as a reason to jump into PC gaming.

You are not factoring in the fact that someone could sell their PS4 and use that money towards buying a PS4K. If they didn't sell then they would have two consoles which has added utility over a single PC. Also if someone wanted to spend $1,000 for a PC then the PS4K doesn't change that equation. They could have already done that years ago.

Of course you could just wait a few years into a generation and but the upgraded console to save money. However, that would obviously screw Sony if many started doing that. Their new goal of course is to get people to pay full price on both.

For me, the amount of great strategy games on PC will likely be enough to go back to PC gaming.

If waiting to buy the PS4K actually did screw Sony (which it doesn't), why would that make it a bad strategy for you? In fact unless you are a "money's no object" type of gaming enthusiast, I'd say that would be the best thing to do. The PS4 is going to have the largest market share by far over the PS4K for years to come. Because of that no developer is going to code for the PS4K to the detriment of the PS4 for quite some time.

As for Sony getting screwed by people waiting to get the PS4K, I seriously doubt that is true. While Sony doesn't sell the console at a loss, they also aren't making much money on them either. Sony makes their money off subscriptions and game royalties which you'll be paying regardless of if you upgrade.

I view the PS4K as a defensive move to keep enthusiasts. First, VR is going to be improving quickly and Sony wants to remain relevant. Sony will have the biggest market share out of Vive, Rift, and PSVR, but would have a hard time keeping it if they tried to use the same hardware for the next 4 years or so. Second, Microsoft will be releasing an upgraded console. If Sony didn't have a new improved console of their own to compete, they'd lose the enthusiast market that would jump to the next big thing. Finally Sony would like to sell 4K TVs so anything they can do to create more 4K content and justify people upgrading the better for them.
 
OP sure doesn't sound like a firmware update.
Op is just one of several conflicting rumors floating around.

People confusing a slim hardware revision coinciding with additional resources being made available to devs through a firmware update is not a completely unreasonable hypothesis.

Personally, I think it's weird timing with PSVR on the horizon. But the process shrink could be pushing the release of new hardware with graphical improvements specifically targetted at 4k owners.

But let's face it, some of the rumors are ridiculous, and do betray some level of confusion on the part of the sources.
 
So basically older games must get patched (have the fps lock removed) to benefit from the increase in power? What about games that have fixed time-steps? I am kinda clueless about console games; I am just wondering.

What about new releases that are optimized for the PS4K? Are the owners of the old PS4 going to be forced to upgrade for new releases, or will they just get lower performance?

I am interested in 60fps Bloodborne (if there will be such a thing) and Nier2.
 
What is the equivalent of a GPU twice as fast as the PS4 GPU?

Around a 7970 in PS4 GPUish terms, as opposed to a 7850..if we were around the PS4's launch right now, it would be the high end to PS4's lower mid tier.

So basically older games must get patched (have the fps lock removed) to benefit from the increase in power? What about games that have fixed time-steps? I am kinda clueless about console games; I am just wondering.

What about new releases that are optimized for the PS4K? Are the owners of the old PS4 going to be forced to upgrade for new releases, or will they just get lower performance?

I am interested in 60fps Bloodborne (if there will be such a thing) and Nier2.

Nier 2 is already 60fps on original PS4.

From what we understand, games would be shared across both 4K, but 4K would be the one getting patches to take advantage of the performance, and PS4 would get priority as a base line..or that's how i understood it...or devs could just optimize for both SKU's, but smaller teams i doubt could do that all at once.

Older PS4 games would have to be patched to take advantage of the power, which is supposedly not going to be common
 
You sure about that? I cant find any info on that. I always thought UHD BluRay's used a different laser?

Wanted to get this answered finally so I just read the BDA white paper. Basically wavelength and numerical aperture has not changed at all, going from BD to BD-XL to UHD BD. It is still 405 nm laser with 0.85NA optics. BD-XL and UHD drives has to be able to write smaller marks, so that means that not all pure BD laser systems are compatible with UHD requirements. I would not expect, for example, that PS3 BD drive can be made compatible. It is quite likely, though, that the newer ones have the suitable laser system.

The main reason for incompatibility between BD-XL and UHD players is due to "incompatibility of video coding methods, content protection systems, Disc Information, etc.."

This may drive some difference in the read-out electronics, so if one didn't plan the compatibility/upgradeability beforehand, simple firmware update may not be possible. If you did, however, it is quite possible that you can retrofit the UHD compatibility.

Sorry if its still sounding vague, but this is because its not clearly specified, they leave a lot to the manufacturers to provide them with maximal flexibility.
 
No same laser but needs a firmware update.

The 2013 Microsoft employee quote supports this:The Xbox One supports both 3D and 4K Blu-ray discs at present. “There’s no hardware restriction at all,” said Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi at the time to Forbes.

Sony employees (3 different people) say in 2013: 1) The PS4 can support 4K media, 2) The PS4 has a HDMI 2 port, 3) The PS4 hardware is feature proved to support many new coming features.

But one thing to consider is that a lot of this information was from before the standards were agreed, and there was apparently a lot of wrangling over licensing issues. I doubt many manufacturers would've signed up if there were already 50m capable players at singificantly lower prices out there.

I think anyone waiting for UHD BD playback on existing hardware will be waiting forever.
 
Op is just one of several conflicting rumors floating around.

People confusing a slim hardware revision coinciding with additional resources being made available to devs through a firmware update is not a completely unreasonable hypothesis.

Personally, I think it's weird timing with PSVR on the horizon. But the process shrink could be pushing the release of new hardware with graphical improvements specifically targetted at 4k owners.

But let's face it, some of the rumors are ridiculous, and do betray some level of confusion on the part of the sources.

That rumor is far too specific to be a confusion with a slim model. It specifically mentioned GPU and potentially CPU upgrades. More importantly it talks about an increase in cost. A slim version would cost less, not more.

I agree that it is weird timing for the release of the PS4K but Sony is getting pushed by Microsoft. One of the reasons why the PS4 is selling so well in comparison to the XB1 is that the PS4 is more powerful. If Microsoft comes out with an upgraded console and Sony has no counter, Sony would see the enthusiast market switch back to Microsoft. Therefore Sony has to make the PS4K and tell developers about it or else no one would make games that took advantage of the extra power at launch.
 
What is the equivalent of a GPU twice as fast as the PS4 GPU?

I didn't create it but I found this following comment by Beerman462 helpful.

Btw, due to console specific optimization PS4 is 60% faster than equivalent spec'd PC.
Sources:
For those asking where the PS4K theoretically stands I made this. By made I mean I took Tom's Hardware GPU Hierarchy Chart and added consoles to the Intel column. I feel it's a good representation of where the consoles stand compared to PC GPUs.

pL2MzDo.png
 
Being tech literate and being able to parse Jeff's unsupported ramblings are two different things entirely.
Brad, they may at times be rambling but they are never unsupported. Only those that ignore the cites would think so.

When you reverse engineer there is often more than one way to support features and that leads to ramblings...speculations. BUT absolutely 100% the Southbridge is the ARM SoC Media TEE and HDCP 2 takes place in the TEE not the HDMI chip which is a requirement of the Movie industry for 4K. Because this is true the various HDR schemes take place in the TEE and can be firmware updated. They are not tied to a HDMI chip version which is also confusing professional Tech writers. The TEE must of course have hardware powerful enough to support it.

There is so much "Professional" ignorance and that confuses everyone. As a Professional Electronics Tech who has an EE background I can understand the terms and hardware. But I am not a professional writer and my posts are often hard to follow.
 
So this pretty much means backwards compatibility going forward, right? As long as they stick with this plan.

This is one thing I want confirmation on, potentially forever-BC is the game changer I've been hoping for on consoles. I hate 'losing' my collection when moving on a generation and boxing my old console.
 
It's always weird how people obsess on this upgrade-culture. Do you like your PS4 as is? If so, good. If they make a better PS4, your current one won't get any worse. If you feel it is, then it means your value in the PS4 wasn't just on the system itself, but it being he "top console".

Except that all of a sudden you're no longer getting the premium treatment, you're getting scaled down versions of games with missing features.
 
Brad, they may at times be rambling but they are never unsupported. Only those that ignore the cites would think so.

When you reverse engineer there is often more than one way to support features and that leads to ramblings...speculations. BUT absolutely 100% the Southbridge is the ARM SoC Media TEE and HDCP 2 takes place in the TEE not the HDMI chip which is a requirement of the Movie industry for 4K. Because this is true the various HDR schemes take place in the TEE and can be firmware updated. They are not tied to a HDMI chip version which is also confusing professional Tech writers. The TEE must of course have hardware powerful enough to support it.

There is so much "Professional" ignorance and that confuses everyone. As a Professional Electronics Tech who has an EE background I can understand the terms and hardware. But I am not a professional writer and my posts are often hard to follow.

I appreciate the posts Jeff.

I can't always quite 100% make sense of what's going on in them as my knowledge is kinda patchy in this field, I'm an Electronics Engineer too, but I find them interesting nonetheless.
 
Except that all of a sudden you're no longer getting the premium treatment, you're getting scaled down versions of games with missing features.

You got that direction reversed. You are getting the exact same content you would have always gotten. Instead PS4K owners get scaled up versions of games possibly with additional features.
 
This is one thing I want confirmation on, potentially forever-BC is the game changer I've been hoping for on consoles. I hate 'losing' my collection when moving on a generation and boxing my old console.

Even on PC, "forever BC" is sometimes finicky to achieve. Even on the same architecture and OS there are problems and sometimes games need some kind of tweaking to run. But usually there's always some solution, even emulation.
 
Even on PC, "forever BC" is sometimes finicky to achieve. Even on the same architecture and OS there are problems and sometimes games need some kind of tweaking to run. But usually there's always some solution, even emulation.

Yeah, but it will be a lot closer than what we have now and PC emulation usually catches up nicely in around three generations. If I can have three gen of games on one console, with the older gens moving to PC I'll be happy with that.
 
Except that all of a sudden you're no longer getting the premium treatment, you're getting scaled down versions of games with missing features.

No, go read any digital foundry thread n any multiplatform game.

Ps4 gets the middle ground, PC ultra always wins and has the best settings and framerate, LOD, Shadows....unless the odd game that is bugged beyond reasoning.

So instead of PC >> Ps4 > Xb1 we will get PC > PS4K > Ps4 > Xb1

You can then add XB2 and NX into that list wherever you think they will fall. XB2 will be > PS4 thats pretty certain guess, NX who knows.
 
I find the news of the PS4K quite baffling to be honest. Up to this point I have been able to splurge on gaming a little owning multiple PC's and consoles and even this has me worried.

Whilst I am a tech enthusiast I can't but think that Sony have really turned their back on what is the millions of people who have decided to buy into their platform thinking that they would have the next 5+ years in. Whether the landscape has changed remains to be seen but what I do know is that VR hasn't taken off just yet to invest this deep into it. It just seems incredibly risky and kudos to them if it takes off although one can't help but feel the market is being saturate and confused by this.

I have friends who have no idea what the New 3DS is but are well aware of the OG 3DS. Will parents or the average joe go to a store and have any understanding of what the hell a PS4K will be? My concern is that developers will still heavily invest in the PS4 considering the enormous user base.

Also didn't Phil Spencer mention he wasn't going to go the half step route? That would mean a pretty wide gap between both platforms if true.

I am pretty excited for what's ahead I mean hell I'm definitely picking up an NX at launch and will probably go Playstation VR also once it's released in Australia although I'm just not 100% this is something I want to support yet.
 
No, go read any digital foundry thread n any multiplatform game.

Ps4 gets the middle ground, PC ultra always wins and has the best settings and framerate, LOD, Shadows....unless the odd game that is bugged beyond reasoning.

So instead of PC >> Ps4 > Xb1 we will get PC > PS4K > Ps4 > Xb1

You can then add XB2 and NX into that list wherever you think they will fall. XB2 will be > PS4 thats pretty certain guess, NX who knows.

Meanwhile some gamers fed up with the fact that the PS4 would no longer be at the top of its category say they are going to take the money they would have spent on the PS4K and buy a PC. Now correct me if I am wrong but if someone absolutely had to own the top hardware in a category, wouldn't they have to spend A WHOLE LOT MORE on a top end PC than they would to buy the latest console revision every three years?
 
So instead of PC >> Ps4 > Xb1 we will get PC > PS4K > Ps4 > Xb1

The gap between a high end PC and a new-spec PS4 isn't going to narrow.
PC hardware doesn't just stop advancing. In fact the new console hardware is likely partly a result of research and engineering in the desktop PC area.
By the time the new spec consoles come out, there's only going to be newer, faster, more efficient PC hardware again.
Putting that aside, the gap between even current high end PCs and future 'PS4K' is still going to be substantial.
 
The gap between a high end PC and a new-spec PS4 isn't going to narrow.
PC hardware doesn't just stop advancing. In fact the new console hardware is likely partly a result of research and engineering in the desktop PC area.
By the time the new spec consoles come out, there's only going to be newer, faster, more efficient PC hardware again.
Putting that aside, the gap between even current high end PCs and future 'PS4K' is still going to be substantial.

The main thing for me would be a PS4K/XB1.5 version that offered 60fps over the standard version. That would be enough for me.

Don't see it happening though.
 
Hopefully they incorporate all the tech for 4K in the system, there's more to 4K than just a larger resolution. It'll be awesome if developers code the metadata for ideal picture settings into their games.
 
I wonder how BC will work for current games, on a technical level.

In PC-world, a game is always developed with scalability in mind. A dev must plan for the fact that someone is going to play the game with a Titan or whatever, so they make sure that nothing 'breaks' when it's run on overpowered hardware.
A hardcore gaming PC doesn't (except on REALLY old games) have to pretend to be weaker than it is.

For PS4 development, is there any contingency for 'forward compatibility'. What would happen to a game if it suddenly found that all its processing requests were being returned twice as fast as expected?

Or would the PS4K and PS5 have to run in a special "PS4 compatibility mode"?
 
The gap between a high end PC and a new-spec PS4 isn't going to narrow.
PC hardware doesn't just stop advancing. In fact the new console hardware is likely partly a result of research and engineering in the desktop PC area.
By the time the new spec consoles come out, there's only going to be newer, faster, more efficient PC hardware again.
Putting that aside, the gap between even current high end PCs and future 'PS4K' is still going to be substantial.

Let's keep up then, yearly iteration here we go!
 
Being tech literate and being able to parse Jeff's unsupported ramblings are two different things entirely.
Indeed. Jeff generally doesn't post "in depth" information, but random gibberish. He uses that gibberish to form the most strange conclusions unsupported by reality.
 
They don't do their homework.

So you're saying you just copy and pasting random patents on a video game message board is more legitimate than the WSJ article?

We've both been on GAF and Beyond3d long enough to have seen this level of insider leaks come true without something like the WSJ backing it up. You claiming it's all firmware related misunderstanding is an Incredible Hulk level jump, it's delusions of grandeur on your part.
 
So you're saying you just copy and pasting random patents on a video game message board is more legitimate than the WSJ article?

We've both been on GAF and Beyond3d long enough to have seen this level of insider leaks come true without something like the WSJ backing it up. You claiming it's all firmware related misunderstanding is an Incredible Hulk level jump, it's delusions of grandeur on your part.
It's whitepapers, technical PDFs, news articles and Patents not just patents. If you don't know this then you haven't been following my posts and have no ability judge my accuracy.

First I've said it's possible and agreed with Semiaccurate in 2013 that Sony might be supporting PS4 iterations like the PS4.5. That said, all PS4 models including the launch version will be getting firmware updates to support 4K media and UHD blu-ray, it is not a PS4K only feature, nor is upscaling to 4K.

Also Phil of Microsoft just said that there would not be a Xbox 1.5, they would be waiting for a 2.0 version. Since they can't easily use GDDR5X I think the 2.0 version will use HBM. So while it's possible I doubt it's happening at the end of this year for either console. A PS4.5 could use GDDR5X and come earlier but a XB2 would be the ZEN + Polaris + HBM but that I think will be a 2018 or later model.

If Sony comes out with a PS4.5 using GDDR5X and then one year later comes out with the ZEN + Polaris or later GPU + HMB, doesn't that seem like a waste of effort for a VR feature that is going to be Niche for 2 years or so. Mainstream is going to start with Browser and UHD blu-ray VR. If a PS5 is a 2020 4K using ray tracing with 10TF performance then a PS4 iteration would be a must have as Sony's VR goggles are going to move to 1080P for each eye before 2020 and maybe higher res.


Google these terms and you will find Game Console mentioned somewhere. I've fount the references and cited them.
Vidipath
Sony passage
FCC DSTAC Downloadable Security Scheme
HEVC
UHD Blu-ray BDA
UHD Blu-ray digital bridge
Playready ND DVR & Live streaming
HTML5 <video> MSE EME
C-ENC
ATSC 3
Ultraviolet
Cadence-Tensilica-Xtensa
Xtensa IVP
Trustzone
AMD Trustzone UVD
 
First I've said it's possible and agreed with Semiaccurate in 2013 that Sony might be supporting PS4 iterations like the PS4.5. That said, all PS4 models including the launch version will be getting firmware updates to support 4K media and UHD blu-ray, it is not a PS4K only feature, nor is upscaling to 4K.

Also Phil of Microsoft just said that there would not be a Xbox 1.5, they would be waiting for a 2.0 version. Since they can't easily use GDDR5X I think the 2.0 version will use HBM. So while it's possible I doubt it's happening at the end of this year for either console. A PS4.5 could use GDDR5X and come earlier but a XB2 would be the ZEN + Polaris + HBM but that I think will be a 2018 or later model.

If Sony comes out with a PS4.5 using GDDR5X and then one year later comes out with the ZEN + Polaris or later GPU + HMB, doesn't that seem like a waste of effort for a VR feature that is going to be Niche for 2 years or so. Mainstream is going to start with Browser and UHD blu-ray VR.

Sorry, but where's the evidence for this?
 
Whats going to happen in year 4 and 5 if PS4.5 gets 10s of millions of units, the PS4 will get the less than castoffs. Developers can't be arsed to optimise games for the PS4 properly right now let alone when a newer, faster PS4 comes out.

Then I'd assume the OG PS4 would have sold at least 70 million consoles, so why would devs not care about them more than the 10 million unit sold PS4K? 70>10.
 
It's whitepapers, technical PDFs, news articles and Patents not just patents. If you don't know this then you haven't been following my posts and have no ability judge my accuracy.

First I've said it's possible and agreed with Semiaccurate in 2013 that Sony might be supporting PS4 iterations like the PS4.5. That said, all PS4 models including the launch version will be getting firmware updates to support 4K media and UHD blu-ray, it is not a PS4K only feature, nor is upscaling to 4K.

Also Phil of Microsoft just said that there would not be a Xbox 1.5, they would be waiting for a 2.0 version. Since they can't easily use GDDR5X I think the 2.0 version will use HBM. So while it's possible I doubt it's happening at the end of this year for either console. A PS4.5 could use GDDR5X and come earlier but a XB2 would be the ZEN + Polaris + HBM but that I think will be a 2018 or later model.

If Sony comes out with a PS4.5 using GDDR5X and then one year later comes out with the ZEN + Polaris or later GPU + HMB, doesn't that seem like a waste of effort for a VR feature that is going to be Niche for 2 years or so. Mainstream is going to start with Browser and UHD blu-ray VR. If a PS5 is a 2020 4K using ray tracing with 10TF performance then a PS4 iteration would be a must have as Sony's VR goggles are going to move to 1080P for each eye before 2020 and maybe higher res.

This makes sense to me. I honestly can't see Sony releasing new hardware for 4k and vr as its current adoption is small or will be small for a few years.I'm not totally sold on vr as the price point and accessibility aren't where it needs to be in order for a smash success.
 
Sorry, but where's the evidence for this?

There is none and it's pointless arguing with him. He's faith is unshakeable and even Sony saying the PS4 can't read UHD disks doesn't shatter his delusion.

From a Sony Exec.

During the recent interview, 4Gamer brings up the topic of Ultra HD Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray, and asks the Executive Vice President about Sony Computer Entertainment&#8217;s thoughts on the subject, and whether we&#8217;ll have some sort of compatibility with it in this era of the PlayStation 4. &#8220;The Blu-ray disc drive that is currently installed in the PS4 is made exclusively for the Blu-ray disc player, so it cannot read the 3-layer media that is standardized by Ultra HD Blu-ray,&#8221; says Ito. &#8220;For this reason, the PlayStation 4 models that are out in the market cannot be compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray.&#8221;

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/10/24/sony-talks-enhanced-ps4-blu-ray/
 
You're going to regret that post. But seriously, there's a whole thread if you have a few days to spare.

Cheers for the link, I'll have a look.

There is none and it's pointless arguing with him. He's faith is unshakeable and even Sony saying the PS4 can't read UHD disks doesn't shatter his delusion.

From a Sony Exec.



http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/10/24/sony-talks-enhanced-ps4-blu-ray/

That's what I thought. The BDA have said existing players won't work with UHD BDs too, so it seems a big leap to assume otherwise.
 
Cheers for the link, I'll have a look.



That's what I thought. The BDA have said existing players won't work with UHD BDs too, so it seems a big leap to assume otherwise.

He's going to say that the bluray player in the PS4 can be firmware upgraded to read UHDs.
 
And yet a Sony exec has directly said the OG PS4 drive cannot support it.
His tinfoil hat theory is that Ito was lying to adhere to a non-disclosure agreement. Before that, he insisted that the man who leads the PS4 hardware team is ill-informed about both UHD BD and the PS4's technical capabilities, making his unwavering certainty about an imminent firmware update that much more baffling. (If Sony genuinely doesn't believe that it's technically possible, how can a firmware update be a couple of months way?) Bear in mind that his firmware timeline has shifted two years at this point.

I'm certainly open to the possibility that Sony will be able to get this working on launch PS4s, but to my mind, it's a mistake to treat that kind of speculation as dead certain fact.
 
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