Playstation 4 Hardware Specs & Features Discussion
Just a few hours ago, Japanese electronics and gaming giant, Sony unveiled the future of Playstation and officially announced the Playstation 4 console. The company showed new gaming engines and the upcoming titles, but did not reveal the actual console. But the hardware glory of the Playstation is available in the press release and this post aims to do a short analysis of Playstation, its hardware specifications and the new features Sony has promised to the die-hard gamers.
Playstation 4 Specs At A Glance
Sony's executives said that the PS4 system is the hypercharged PC like configuration. Which means more raw CPU and GPU power put to some good cause. Here's what you get inside PS4-
As everyone expected, Sony added a few modifications to the PS4 dual shock controller. It's almost exactly the same as we had seen in the leaked screenshots, with additional share buttons. The controller features -
My Analysis & Opinion
Sony's at an important point in the history of gaming and it's not 2006. Back in those days, gaming on mobile devices wasn't just as advanced and tablets were non-existent. Hard-core gamers then were presented with unmatched hardware in the form of PS3. The games created their own class and audience all over the world. But things have changed significantly since the arrival of iPhone and iPad.
Gaming is shifting from consoles to mobiles as the tiny devices get more processing power. Nvidia's Project Shield could be considered as an important step in the direction and I believe Sony's system design engineers must have anticipated this. It however remains a fact that console-class games will continue to have it's own audience and the count is in millions globally. Sony had to target these gamers with their latest offering. That means - the console must address the ever growing needs of the gamers, software developers and the new features and facilities that are available to this entire community. Did Sony succeed in addressing the needs via Playstation 4? I think to a great extent, the answer is 'Yes'.
I think Sony's engineers have done a fantastic job on the hardware side. If I read correctly, the system has 8GB unified RAM, which means the memory is shared between the CPU & GPU; but it's still more than enough for the upcoming games. Because most of the PC games would just do an amazing job with 2GB to render Full HD (1080p) content. Let's say Sony's firmware eats ~1GB and that still leaves the system with ~5GB of memory to play the Games. Add / subtract a few megabytes for CPU and GPU and you still get a machine that'd beat several dedicated gaming PCs.
Sony's gone ahead with the Blu-Ray player in PS4; a medium many predicted is moribund. People might have forgotten that it was Sony's Playstation that made the DVDs popular for a longer amount of time. Upcoming games are going to be content heavy and I'm not aware of any other optical medium that's capable of storing just as much data as Blu Ray discs can.
I'm a little surprised to see absence of Wi-Fi ac or Bluetooth 3.0; which is rapidly becoming a norm. Especially, a faster wireless standard would have meant the 'remote gameplay' - a feature Sony's hugely betting on would be a better experience. I'd however not form opinion unless I try out how the streaming is. Shifting your complete game from TV to your PS Vita (and iOS / Android) device would be fun.
One important thing to note is that Sony has made it clear that the PS4 won't play PS3 games right away. Sony bought GaiKai team that holds the Guinness Record for being the world's most widespread cloud gaming network. PS4 utilises the GaiKai technology by streaming PS3 and PS2, PS1 games as well to PS4. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but that's something interesting to look forward to.
Pricing:
Looking at the GPU and other hardware configuration and the current prices of the similar hardware in the markets, I expect the console not to cost lesser than $500 in the US. That might just mean in India, the PS4 will be priced at about Rs. 40K at the launch time. I wonder whether the default shipment will include the Kinect like sensor (Playstation Move); but if it does; then the price may look on the 'reasonable side'.
Sony demonstrated upcoming launches from several of their partners and their 'partners' slide showed almost every major game development studio out there. A few cool exclusive games may make PS4 more desirable.
I'm saving up for the Playstation 4. What about you?
Playstation 4 Specs At A Glance
Sony's executives said that the PS4 system is the hypercharged PC like configuration. Which means more raw CPU and GPU power put to some good cause. Here's what you get inside PS4-
- 64-bit x86, 8 core, "Jaguar" CPU built by AMD
- Radeon GPU with 8 computing units operating at 1.84 TFLOPS!
- 6x BluRay Drive / 8x DVD Drive
- 8 GB GDDR5 RAM handeling 176GB/sec of data bandwidth
- 802.11n WiFi
- USB 3.0
- Bluetooth 2.1
- HDMI
- Optical Out
- Legacy analog AV out
- HDD - but storage capacity not revealed
As everyone expected, Sony added a few modifications to the PS4 dual shock controller. It's almost exactly the same as we had seen in the leaked screenshots, with additional share buttons. The controller features -
- Touch pad on the front
- Headphone jack
- Light bar to identify players in a unique way
- Share button to upload your game-plays to video sharing and social networking websites
- Built in mono speaker
- Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- Built In Li-Ion battery
My Analysis & Opinion
Sony's at an important point in the history of gaming and it's not 2006. Back in those days, gaming on mobile devices wasn't just as advanced and tablets were non-existent. Hard-core gamers then were presented with unmatched hardware in the form of PS3. The games created their own class and audience all over the world. But things have changed significantly since the arrival of iPhone and iPad.
Gaming is shifting from consoles to mobiles as the tiny devices get more processing power. Nvidia's Project Shield could be considered as an important step in the direction and I believe Sony's system design engineers must have anticipated this. It however remains a fact that console-class games will continue to have it's own audience and the count is in millions globally. Sony had to target these gamers with their latest offering. That means - the console must address the ever growing needs of the gamers, software developers and the new features and facilities that are available to this entire community. Did Sony succeed in addressing the needs via Playstation 4? I think to a great extent, the answer is 'Yes'.
I think Sony's engineers have done a fantastic job on the hardware side. If I read correctly, the system has 8GB unified RAM, which means the memory is shared between the CPU & GPU; but it's still more than enough for the upcoming games. Because most of the PC games would just do an amazing job with 2GB to render Full HD (1080p) content. Let's say Sony's firmware eats ~1GB and that still leaves the system with ~5GB of memory to play the Games. Add / subtract a few megabytes for CPU and GPU and you still get a machine that'd beat several dedicated gaming PCs.
Sony's gone ahead with the Blu-Ray player in PS4; a medium many predicted is moribund. People might have forgotten that it was Sony's Playstation that made the DVDs popular for a longer amount of time. Upcoming games are going to be content heavy and I'm not aware of any other optical medium that's capable of storing just as much data as Blu Ray discs can.
I'm a little surprised to see absence of Wi-Fi ac or Bluetooth 3.0; which is rapidly becoming a norm. Especially, a faster wireless standard would have meant the 'remote gameplay' - a feature Sony's hugely betting on would be a better experience. I'd however not form opinion unless I try out how the streaming is. Shifting your complete game from TV to your PS Vita (and iOS / Android) device would be fun.
One important thing to note is that Sony has made it clear that the PS4 won't play PS3 games right away. Sony bought GaiKai team that holds the Guinness Record for being the world's most widespread cloud gaming network. PS4 utilises the GaiKai technology by streaming PS3 and PS2, PS1 games as well to PS4. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but that's something interesting to look forward to.
Pricing:
Looking at the GPU and other hardware configuration and the current prices of the similar hardware in the markets, I expect the console not to cost lesser than $500 in the US. That might just mean in India, the PS4 will be priced at about Rs. 40K at the launch time. I wonder whether the default shipment will include the Kinect like sensor (Playstation Move); but if it does; then the price may look on the 'reasonable side'.
Sony demonstrated upcoming launches from several of their partners and their 'partners' slide showed almost every major game development studio out there. A few cool exclusive games may make PS4 more desirable.
I'm saving up for the Playstation 4. What about you?
Replies
-
Abhishek RawalI have posted Xbox Loop's official Hardware Configuration some weeks ago.
Let's Compare 'em : #-Link-Snipped-# -
Abhishek RawalCheck out : #-Link-Snipped-#
So who's gonna dominate console-gaming market ?
Hard to say right now.
But my vote goes to Xbox loop for vast game titles & Joystick.
You are reading an archived discussion.
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