Guerrilla Games: PlayStation 4 Is Not Just a High-End PC.

Xbitlabs ^ | 04/09/2013 11:55 PM | Anton Shilov

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Sony PlayStation 4 Claimed to Have Well-Balanced Architecture

Although the PlayStation 4 was designed to be like a personal computer in a bid to simplify development of video games, it is still a lot different than personal computers, according to game developers who are working on titles for the PS4. As it appears, the difference between custom system and off-the-shelf PC is pretty huge, yet the technical director or Guerrilla Games did not reveal too many details about it.

Michiel Van Der Leeuw, the technical director of Guerrilla Games, which is a studio that belongs to Sony Computer Entertainment and which is currently working on Killzone Shadow Fall title due late this year, claims that there are loads of Sony intellectual property in the architecture of the PlayStation 4 in general and inside the custom AMD Fusion chip in particular. Moreover, the architecture with ultra-fast unified memory architecture can do wonders to games that are developed with this in mind. In addition, there are various AMD’s enhancements that the company calls “heterogeneous system architecture” and which speeds up software designed for both x86 processors and highly-parallel GPUs.

[Durus]

8GB of DDR5 is nice. My desktop is hardly high end anymore and has 2gb of DDR5 (gpu) and 32gbs of DD3. Considering the bandwidth, the memory controllers, etc. A couple year old formerly high end desktop is going to beat the snot out of pretty much any console.

It's price vs. performance where it really shines.

[discostu]

No they won’t, the next generation of consoles will have no effect at all on the PC market. Much like how the last 5 generations of consoles had no effect at all on the PC market.

The big difference in the PC sector now is that changes are evolutionary not revolutionary. If you had a top shelf 486 box when the Pentiums hit you were on the clock, within 12 months everything was going to be written for the Pentium and your 486 was going to be useless because it just plain couldn’t run Pentium software. Now worst case scenario you need to turn down the graphics to run on your last gen machine. There’s a lot of fun toys to get out there to make your PC faster, but not having them doesn’t make your PC a brick anymore, which is bad for PC makers since people don’t upgrade as often, but awesome for PC buyers because we no longer have to replace our machines every couple of years.

[rollo tomasi]

"No they won’t, the next generation of consoles will have no effect at all on the PC market. Much like how the last 5 generations of consoles had no effect at all on the PC market."

You are kidding? Unless you have a very high end card already, the PS4/Nextbox will render anything under a GTX 480 or ATI Radeon 5850 useless and even those cards will struggle at 1080p with next gen console ports. Also I an talking tech, not sales. PC sales are growing along with the tech.

[discostu]

No it won’t. Because the software will be different. That which is written for the PS4 might be ported to the PC but it it won’t be the same code, won’t drive through the same hardware. I’m talking sales, because that’s the discussion. PC sales are dropping, a large part of why they’re dropping is that the tech isn’t changing fast enough to force replacement as rapidly. 4 and 5 year old PCs will be able to run PC ports of PS4 games.

[rollo tomasi]

PC sales Pre-built PC sales are dropping, a large part of why they’re dropping is that the tech isn’t changing fast enough to force replacement as rapidly a large part because people buy tablets or smart phones to check e-mails, people retaining desktops longer to surf the web, and individuals opting for expensive gaming laptops.

As far as software goes Crysis 3 (Borderline Next gen game) minumum requirements:

•CPU: 2.8 GHz dual core processor, Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Phenom X2 or better

•RAM: 2GB

•Graphics: DirectX 10 graphics card with 1 GB RAM, Nvidia 400-series or AMD Radeon 5000-series.

•Operating system: Windows Vista

•DirectX 9c sound card

•16 GB free hard drive space

[discostu]

No, PC sales are dropping, not some sub category, the WHOLE THING. Have been for a while. And it’s not tablets, it’s lack of need, the tech is no longer growing fast. Your own specs prove that. My 6 year old machine that I upgraded a few years ago can run Crysis 3, the newest piece of kit on that list is a THREE YEAR OLD video card. People quite simply do not need to upgrade as quickly anymore, you just showed exactly why, a base 6 year old PC that’s had a hundred dollar upgrade in the last 3 years can run the newest hottest game on the market. The 4 years and your PC is junk era is over.

[tacticalogic]

I think the tanking sales has more to do with the form factor than windows 8. For what most people do a tablet makes more sense.

You're messing with the Apple fanboy propaganda campaign.

[rollo tomasi]

"No, PC sales are dropping, not some sub category, the WHOLE THING."

LOL

The report points out that China is the fastest-growing and largest market for PC games with nearly $7 billion of revenue. Not only does China have a rapidly-growing economy, the console market is non-existent there, giving rise to PC as the dominant platform.

There are over one billion PC gamers in the world now, and DFC expects the industry to grow to $25.7 billion by 2016. As Matt Ployhar, PCGA president pointed out at a press conference yesterday, "you need to add three consoles to get close to that figure."

http://www.shacknews.com/article/78421/report-pc-gaming-software-sales-reached-20-billion-in-2012#

Also, digital sales are not tracked like box stores. Steam (Valve), GOG, Origin,Amazon,etc... are growing in digital sales.

[rollo tomasi]

Whoops, forgot to add that software will drive the hardware, especially with the next-gen consoles arrival.

[discostu]

Now you’re desperately sliding around the point. PC sales are down, PERIOD. China MIGHT cause a bounce but that’s the future, and you have to deal with the fact that China’s economy is built on knockoffs so even if they do start buying lots of PCs they probably won’t be name brand PCs or have name brand parts in them.

I didn’t say anything about the sale of software. That’s a red herring. The software market is fine, really even the PC market is fine. A lot of industries would love to have a sales slump that results in 300 million sales a year.

And no actually the HARDWARE drives the hardware market. Software gets made to run on the hardware companies have a reasonable expectation of their customers owning. If that hardware is compatible with the previous generation of hardware (evolutionary not revolutionary) then that’s a wider range of compatibility, and less reasons to upgrade. But the software is written for the hardware. And again the example you provided shows it. Crysis 3 is the big hot new game that runs on 6 year old CPUs supplemented with 3 year old video cards. They wrote it for the hardware their customers have, and their customers are living in the world where the hardware is no longer leaping forward and making itself obsolete every 3 or 4 years.

[rollo tomasi]

Of course they are down (79 million PCs last quarter lol, but trending lower). Upgrading your hardware is not essential for surfing the web, checking emails, and creating word docs/powerpoint presentation. Heck, editing video does not require upgrades every 3-4 years.

However, the desktop is not going away because of MILLIONS who are gamers/graphic design artist/programmers that need upgrading (Which is occurring rapidly, look at Nvidia tech plus DDR4 later this year). Dell, Gateway, Windows and other manufactures will "suffer" but custom built desktops are thriving.

[discostu]

Upgrading your hardware is no longer essential even for gaming, traditionally the thing that drives high-end PC sales. Again look at your own example, 6 year old desktop that’s been upgraded with a 3 year old video card can run the hot new hardware pushing game. I remember back in the glory days of Lucas Arts you pretty much couldn’t run their games if your hardware was more than a year old. But back then the hardware power was jumping exponentially, 3 year old hardware was dramatically less powerful than brand new hardware. Those days are gone, and with them the need for constant major upgrades, and thus the lower sales. The more gracefully something ages the less need there is for replacement, the fewer new units sold.

I never said desktops are going away, I rebel against the forecasters on that. Largely because the larger form factor will always allow the buyer to get more power for the dollar than a smaller form factor. Shrinking is expensive, just look at how much desktop PC you can get for the price of even the low level iPad.

[rollo tomasi]

Of course PC gaming requirements are still low end (Mid to highend if you want above 1080p and 60fsp), the PS3 and Xbox 360 are 6-7 years old.

Did you read the MINIMUM requirements for Crysis 3? Once nextgen consoles come out, requirements are only going to get more demanding. That is why for the PC gamer community, new consoles that use mid-range/high current tech is a welcome change from 7 year old consoles.

[discostu]

No PC gamer requirements are high end. But the gap between high end and low end isn’t as large because the envelop doesn’t push as fast as it used to. The punchline at this point is that there really is no low end, if you buy a new PC today you have to go out of your way to buy a machine that can’t run the hot new game.

I read the requirements just fine. And I’ve been in the industry long enough to understand what they mean. In the 90s the hot new high graphics video game would NEVER list a 3 year old video card as their minimum requirement. The games AREN’T demanding, that’s the simple obvious point I’ve been telling you for a week now and you just don’t want to believe.

It’s been nice but we’re done. I’ve explained it to you over and over and you just keep insisting, meanwhile your own very evidence proves me right. Have fun out there.

[rollo tomasi]

"I’ve explained it to you over and over and you just keep insisting, meanwhile your own very evidence proves me right."

Lol, "gee look at all that advancing architecture you ignored" that you say has stalled (Tech). Try running Crysis 3 not just on a lower end graphics card but cpu as well.



You do realize that Nextgen consoles, plus engines like newest Frostbite will require upgrades to 64 bit which automatically convolute your arguments.

At least admit that current computer tech gas a huge jump above nextgen consoles, which is a first and shows how rapidly comp. tech is advancing.

[discostu]

I didn’t say it stalled, now you’ve advanced to lying. We’re done. Bye.

[rollo tomasi]

And there’s nothing really pushing the market anymore. PC technology is no longer growing by leaps and bounds, a 5 year old PC is no longer dramatically slower than a new PC, if your machine was an 11 then it’s probably still a solid 8 now. The more gracefully technology ages the less drive there is to replace it with the new hotness.

If there is nothing, then what property is the current trend? Stalled, slowing down, or rapidly advancing, which is it? It definitely is not the first two from Nvidia's chart/advancements/profit. Hell, just looking at advancement/lower price point of hardware in FLOPS the last 3 years proves the first two wrong.

[discostu]

I already told you multiple times what it is but you can’t be bothered to actually read what I wrote. Really, we’re done, I’m not reading any more of your replies, do us both a favor and don’t bother to make it. I’ve shown why you’re wrong, YOU’VE shown why you’re wrong. BYE.

[rollo tomasi]

What you wrote concerns a casual PC user and that I agree. However the gaming market is growing and games demands will/are advancing which pushes the tech, especially with nextgen consoles coming out.

Sandy Bridge, Ivy “”, and Haswell, etc... plus next gen AMD/Nvidia (Kepler) that will be needed to for millions to play multiplats in 1080p, 1440p, DDR4 etc with +60fps, then include 64 bit OS to boot. The tech is advancing tremendously especially for gaming/smaller components/tablets/phones.