Former Frostbite Dev on PS5 Specs: 'Disconnect Between Numbers And What It's Capable of'
Yan Chernikov says that specifications mean nothing "until you can actually see that in practice."
Yan Chernikov, a game engine developer who previously worked as a software engineer on DICE's Frostbite engine, gave his thoughts on the console's performance numbers in a recent YouTube video. He noted that, "I don't generally like looking at numbers like this because in my experience, looking at clock speeds and frequencies and teraflops and all of that stuff, it's fine and it might look good on paper.
"But when you actually start programming for that hardware and you start stress testing it and you have an actual full game that you've built up, which is a difficult thing to do, it's not something you can get to within a few months of just having this new PS5 hardware.
"When you finally get to that stage you may notice problems and again numbers are fine, it's cool it meets certain specifications. But to be honest, that means nothing until you can actually see that in practice. So, I don't know…you know this is just my opinion and my thoughts. But when I look at these numbers, it's very difficult for me to be like 'Oh! though it is a lot better!'
That being said, when it comes to the solid-state drive, the numbers do offer something more concrete. "Like when I look at SSD space and it says 5 gigabytes a second or whatever like that that's an amount that I'm sure that the console could sustain and I can actually you know picture myself streaming 5 gigabytes per second that's like something tangible.
"But a clock speed and teraflop count, for me personally at least, is a little bit harder to look at that and be like 'Oh, I can draw this many triangles, Oh I can make a game that suddenly supports this.' Because until I start programming for that hardware and I see what other people have done and how sustainable it is and all of that stuff, it's very difficult see kind of a specific upgrade in a particular department. Even though obviously the numbers are there but there's a bit more of a disconnect I feel between those numbers and what's actually capable of being achieved on that platform."
gamingbolt.com