PS4 Specifications Play Station Four Latest News Updates Photos/Pics Release Date CPU Advantages

PS4 Specifications Play Station Four.Play Station-4 Latest News.Play Station-4 Updates.Play Station-4 Photos.Play Station-4 Pics.Play Station-4 Release Date.Play Station-4 CPU(Central Processing Unit).Play Station-4 Advantages.Play Station-4 complete details.

We keep up with the latest PS4 Spec leaks and rumors - the latest details are based on what little details we got from the Febuary 20, 2013 announcement of the PS4 combined with information from the PS4 development kits (model# DVKT-KS000K) earlier this year. Looks like some of the media, like the piece Forbes wrote awhile back and I quote - "It's an intriguing notion, but I'm willing to bet that the PS4 will, in fact, be a new piece of hardware that will use relatively cheap modern components and then utilize cloud-computing in order to beef up the specs and capabilities of the hardware" - are turning out to be true. We must say that the PS4 is looking great for both the gamers and the developers.

PS4

First up is the PS4 CPU (Central Processing Unit) For comparison the PS3 uses a cell based processor with 1 PPE (Power processing element) @ 3.2 GHz which is dual thread i.e. capable of processing 2 streams of instructions at a time and 8 SPEs (Synergistic Processing Elements) @ 3.2GHz of which 1 is disabled for yield purposes and 1 is reserved for security purposes such as encryption and decryption of the hard drive in real time. The cell in the PS3 has an overall performance of 204 GFLOPs.

Looks like the hundreds of millions Sony had invested into the development of the Cell Processor and on building fabrication factories (of which cost over $500,000,000 each!), may all go to waste now that they have chosen to go with the X86-64 AMD "Jaguar", likely the A8-3850 APU and Radeon HD 7670 GPU. Believe it or not this deal is actually going to save Sony a lot of money in R&D and production, making their deal with AMD a great move!

PS4 CPU Specs:
A customised version of AMD’s A8-3850. This is a specially adapted CPU which basically has an AMD HD 6550 GPU integrated which has been shrunk down to fit into a CPU. What does this mean for games exactly? Well when combined with a AMD GPU developers can utilise a technology called CrossFire which essentially means that they can put some of the graphical tasks onto the GPU built into the CPU allowing the main GPU to do more tasks.

The AMD A8-3850 is a quad core CPU which has its 4 core clocked at 2.9 Ghz however this can easily be changed by Sony if they upgrade the cooling system which we can imagine since they’ll make it as small as possible. This APU as they call it is already more powerful than the current generation of consoles. And since it isn’t a PowerPC processor developers won’t have as much of a hard time developing for it then they currently do.

Play Station-4

PS4 CPU Specs Update: November 8th, 2012
Leaked development kit specs place the CPU as the AMD A10, which features many of the same specifications as the A8 but with slightly more power behind it. The exact statistics of the A10 in the PS4 are not known, however it is safe to say that whatever the specifications of the A10 are it will be a slightly faster APU than the A8, most likely in clock speed. We will update this article when more information is known.

Second up is the PS4 GPU (Graphical Processing Unit)
Now we know for sure that Sony is going with an AMD's 1.84 TFLOPS, next-generation "Radeon" based graphics engine. Looks like Sony will stick with Nvidia and continue their good relationship - the Developer console uses an AMD GPU so things are starting to look real good for Nvidia. The PS4 will need to be able to support 1080p 3D @ 60 FPS per eye so it has to have enough VRAM, which will likely be anywhere between 1-3GB.

PS4 GPU Specs:
An AMD R10xx with 2.2GB of VRAM is supposedly in the PS4 Developer console.
This is a great GPU and if utilised properly games will look amazingly crisp and clear in 1080p and 3D. We know some people are going so to say 'not possible' but the PS4 is a closed system allowing every drop of performance to be squeezed from it and allowing for the code to be more efficient since it is made for 1 specific system and not a myriad of different combinations of hardware as seen in the PC gaming world. This GPU is more than capable for a closed system.

Thirdly the main PS4 system RAM.

PS4 Specifications

PS4 RAM Update: February 20th, 2013
Looks like our predictions weren't too far off. According to Sony's announcement today - we are getting 8Gb of Unified GDDR5 RAM.

For comparison the PS3 has 256Mb of XDR RAM clocked at an amazing 3.2GHz (Super fast!!!!! :o).

The Developer console also contains 8Gb of system RAM so it looks like a match. A unified memory architecture is probably the best choice for next generation consoles. It gives developers the most flexibility to use the RAM exactly how they want. Code will be much more efficient, so the need for installs would be non-existent.

PS4 RAM Update: November 8th, 2012
New development kits have been outfitting the PS4 with anywhere from 8 to 16GB of RAM. While it was already rumored that the PS4 would ship with RAM that could achieve close to to the speed 8GB of RAM provides, shipping with 16GB of RAM would not only put the PS4 at the same level as a top-end gaming PC but it would also future-proof the system. One of the weaknesses of any console in the current generation is the lack of RAM in each one; 16GB would ensure this would never be a problem on the PS4.

Blu-ray or HVD?
Many people have been saying that the next logical step for Sony is to ditch blu-ray and go with HVD. HVD drives are just too expensive (a few thousand dollars) and too big with each HVD disk costing about $120. So we can't see Sony trying to sell something like this for at least a few more years, especially in struggling economies.

Sony spent a lot of money on developing blu-ray, and many people are just beginning to upgrade to blu-ray, so why would they ditch it? Its wasteful and the fact that not a single developer has created a game that uses a full 50gb dual layer blu-ray disc yet makes the extra space useless. And with a 100gb quad layer disc in development who needs HVD anyway?

Anyway to use the 100Gb disc you'll need a better blu-ray drive with faster reading speeds. The PS3 has a 2x blu-ray disc, 4x is the minimum to read a 100Gb disc. However the average read speed nowadays is 8x and it is relatively cheap, so we expect the PS4 to have at least a 8x drive which reads at 36MB/s, so games should load much faster.

PS4 Blu-ray Update: November 8th, 2012
Updated development kits have featured a Blu-ray drive, as expected. As Blu-ray is Sony's own technology and they have made great efforts to make it mainstream, replacing DVD technology, it only makes sense they would continue to use it in the PS4.

Hard drive or SSD? Looks like Sony is goin with the HDD, they may be slower but they allow us to store so much more information at a much lower price. No details yet on how large but I would expect the new HDD drives to match or double the sizes of today’s PS3s. We're not sure if Sony will change the SATA port to SATA 2 or 3 considering hard drives still don’t reach the SATA 1 limit of 150 Mb/s.

PlayStation 4 Hard Drive Update: November 8th, 2012
New development kits have shipped with a 160GB hard drive which seems small, but would help keep the cost of the system down and would most likely be easily upgradable by the user similar to the PlayStation 3. For the average user 160GB would be enough to last most, or even the entire, PS4 generation. With most game installs averaging 6GB this would leave plenty of room for a good amount of content.

Gaikai Cloud Effects - Advantages and Disadvantages If you don't know what Gaikai Cloud is we'll give you a quick update - it's a gaming service that allows you to play powerful games and use applications from their servers on just about any device, weak or powerful, that has a high-speed internet connection and the required client-side applets; and Sony just paid $380 million for them! It takes the games and streams them through a browser where the user can play on just about any device.

The Advantages: You don't need to have powerful, expensive hardware to play high-quality games with amazing graphics and sound because the Cloud servers do all that for you. You can play the game on an old underpowered PC or even a small tablet or smart phone. This would make it cheaper to play any game you want on old, mediocre hardware you already own without the loss of any visual quality. With Sony Computer Entertainment backing Gaikai, things could get really interesting in cloud gaming.

The Disadvantages: Because cloud servers are doing all the work they need to stream that information to you, which requires a high-speed internet connection (at least 3-5Mbps or better). If your internet connection slows down or hickups this can quickly turn those beautiful streaming graphics into ugly, broken artwork. You'll also need client-side applets, like Java, to run those games in a browser (this could create problems for Apple OS X users that no longer get Java through software updates). Gaikai is big but Sony bought the silver medal when it probably should have tried to buy the gold, OnLive - the older and larger competitor in cloud gaming that is already in Sony devices! Cloud gaming as a whole is still pretty young and while it works pretty well it still has issues. We know a lot of gamers who just want to play a 1-player campaign-based game without having to hastle with any online connections. Cloud gaming, if required to purchase and own games, could seriously hurt the smoother running hardcopy game market and even force out any chance of purchasing used games for the PS4.

Sum It All Up (Gaikai): The reason cloud service providers, like Gaikai and OnLive, started with games was because it is probably the largest technically challenging area for their services. We admit that there is a lot of promise here but we don't think it's a good idea to sacrifice one gaming type (a more static, simplistic download or disk) for another (a more dynamic, streaming style that always requires the internet). Now putting these styles together would be great - let a person download or buy the game/serial number at a store then use Gaikai to stream add-ons and additional content to every game we buy without having to update or download anything. This would allow us all to play the basic game without the internet but also allows us to stream the game and add-ons to any of our internet-capable devices whenever we want. But if Sony goes a different direction that forces us to have Gaikai, a fast internet connection, and the required applets in order to purchase and play select games, then we must say - "come on Sony, forcing things on users is MicroSoft's style."

Lastly PS4 USB connections 2 to 4 USB 3.0 connections are to be expected. Anyone who has ever done a full back-up of your PS3 would be grateful for USB 3 connections as backing up 100Gbs of install data, applications and save data can take about 8 hours, with USB 3 this should be halved.

PS4 Features

PS4 HDMI & Wi-Fi Update: November 8th, 2012 As one would expect, the PS4 is also expected to have HDMI slots, an Ethernet port and built-in Wi-Fi exactly like the PlayStation 3.

Redesigned XrossMediaBar

The PlayStation 4 will include the same UI as the PS3, dubbed the XrossMediaBar, but with major improvements to its navigation and overall feel. Unlike the PS3, the rumored XMB for PS4 will allow you to access any menu no matter what you are doing. One example given was pausing a game and navigating to the PlayStation Store and purchasing DLC, all without having to exit the game. Cross-game chat is expected as well along with being able to download system and game updates in the background, similar to downloading an item from the PlayStation Store.

Posted by Henry, you may recognize my user name from the PS4 Forums. I have written an article for all of you about what I believe could* be the the specification of the Playstation 4.

*Disclaimer: This article is speculation only, however I have based this article on facts and figures to make as accurate an assumption as I possibly can. Any similarities with the Playstation 4 (in the event of Sony releasing the specifications of the Playstation 4) is purely coincidental. Enjoy and if you have any questions please leave a message below or message me in the PS4 Forums (registration is free). This article will be updated periodically with the latest information available to us.

Extras:
Well its been confirmed that Sony will not be ditching the blu-ray drive but a more strict second hand system is rumoured which means that buying games second hand will be a huge put off all together and won’t be worth it at all.

It seems that sony are being their usual selves and future proofing todays technology with support for 4k resolutions which is double that of 1080p. Seems good but we wonder how many games will support that if any?
Well that’s the round up over. So what do you think of these specs? Good, bad, ugly? Ha! Certainly not but of course there will always be those who loved the Cell B.E, me included. It’ll be hard to let go of such a wonderful creation.

Rumors
Update 03/01/2012
A recent article from Kotaku has begun a heavy debate on the internet, relating to the processor choice of the next Playstation console. The current processor in the Playstation 3 uses the Cell architecture originally designed by Playstation creator Ken Kutaragi. He originally planned that several household technologies could use this Cell technology to compliment the Playstation, thus increasing its computational power. Sadly, his vision seems to have come to an end as industry experts are reporting that Sony will ditch the current Nvidia design, for the more favored AMD. Although this is currently just speculation, in an interview last year, critically acclaimed programmer John Carmack said that an AMD Fusion-style chip was almost inevitable for the next generation of consoles.

This is a double-edged sword for Playstation fans. If the rumors are true, developers could already be developing titles for the Playstation 4 using currently available AMD technology. The downside, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make current Playstation 3 games or PSN titles, compatible with the Playstation 4. So what are your thoughts? Would you prefer backwards compatibility, or are you happy that developers will be able to program next-generation games far more easily? Leave a comment and let us know.

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