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[BloodMoney]

Nice to see the evolution

Glad to see the last iteration has:
4 GB Unified RAM
USB 3.0
Dualshock!

 

[slider]

We knew a VGLeaks article on the Orbis was incoming but does this one feel a bit rushed? Or maybe light on (new) detail is a better way of putting it. Still, they can only report on what they know I guess.

 

[googleplex]

Dual Camera? Move 2.0?

Sounds like it. These specs please me. Now we just need to hear more about that "other" chip to get the full picture.

 

[Man-is-Obsolete]

So what are the chances of uncharted 4 looking better than star wars 1313 and killzone 4 looking better than crysis 3?

You are talking about 2 of the most talented dev teams in the industry, I'd say it is a forgone conclusion.

 

[Nirolak]

We knew a VGLeaks article on the Orbis was incoming but does this one feel a bit rushed? Or maybe light on (new) detail is a better way of putting it. Still, they can only report on what they know I guess.

To be fair we know most of the higher level stuff at this point.

 

[BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO]

Guaranteed.

100%

According to Timothy Lottes:

http://timothylottes.blogspot.fr/2013/01/orbis-and-durango.html



...maybe not impossible.

My god

 

[Durante]

Yeah, I don't think putting 8GB GDDR5 into a devkit is much of an issue considering their pricing.

Anyway, I don't think this tells us anything new. 8 core jaguar + GCN APU with UMA it is.

 

[nib95]

So what are the chances of uncharted 4 looking better than star wars 1313 and killzone 4 looking better than crysis 3?

Pretty definite imo. Unless there's serious early dev teething issues or something unlikely like that.

 

[pharmboy044]

Any new hints towards BC?

 

[i-Lo]

That's a good question, but yeah, I'd assume a custom motherboard since devkits can be upwards of like $20K to buy.

In essence then, building a next gen system is the development of custom hardwares on two fronts then, retail and development. At least, the number of development kits will be dwarfed by the retail boxes.

Thank you.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

These are really great specs guys. Time to get excited

 

[Elios83]

We knew a VGLeaks article on the Orbis was incoming but does this one feel a bit rushed? Or maybe light on (new) detail is a better way of putting it. Still, they can only report on what they know I guess.

I don't think that's the article they were talking about, this is more a reaction to Kotaku's article.

 

[MikeE21286]

And remember fellow readers, it is 3.5GB not 4 (if the OS figures are true, given, iirc, proelite alluded to it not having a bloated one) is available for game development.



About the same price as the first PS3 devkit.

I am pretty ignorant about RAM and system architecture here, but would 512MB GDDR5 be wasteful?

Why not put like 1GB DDR3 in there for th OS and use the 4GB GDDR5 all for games. Would probably up the cost a little I'm thinking.

 

[slider]

To be fair we know most of the higher level stuff at this point.

Good point well made.

You know how insatiable folk get though...!

 

[iamshadowlark]

No mention of the special sauce Compute module. Hmm..

 

[Sid]

ORBIS Dualshock

Hmm.....

 

[Sidewinder]

I don't think that's the article they were talking about, this is more a reaction to Kotaku's article.

Wasn't the Orbis article supposed to be released tomorrow?

 

[quest]

SOC? Sounds awesome. Super efficient stuff.

If it really a SOC and yields are decent it should help keep costs way down at launch. A much simpler motherboard and easier cooling system.

 

[thuway]

And remember fellow readers, it is 3.5GB not 4 (if the OS figures are true, given, iirc, proelite alluded to it not having a bloated one) is available for game development.

I have a fluctuating OS theory that I think is worth investigating.

thuway
Member
(01-14-2013, 05:59 AM)

I have a theory on how Sony could use 4 GB of GDDR5 with an OS overhead. I am quite certain the PS4 has 4 GB of UMA RAM at 192 GB/S, no more, no less.

The PlayStation 4 OS will take up around 1 GB of of memory when it is booted up. However, when you are gaming, the OS shrinks down considerably to 256 MB of RAM and ONLY allows notifications and one app to "fully" run concurrently (IE Facebook notifications, Skype Calls, etc.). GDDR5 is fast enough so when you hit the "PS" button, your game pauses in the background and the OS reinflates to 1 GB once again. Allowing you the full suite of function while the game is paused in the background.

This technique is currently being used in the Vita. When you game the OS shrinks down considerably and runs a 'lite' version of itself in the background. These numbers are abritrary and pulled out of my ass. I think an economical and common sense approach where Sony allows developers 3.75 GB of GDDR5 to use in gameOS is more than generous, and a financially sound decision as opposed to chucking in another 2 GB DDR/LPDDR RAM module. The cost savings over times will be huge.

This, however, can only be possible, if Sony isn't trying to position this device as an all-in-one DVR, multimedia, set-top, Google TV box.

Edit: I am not a programmer and speaking out ignorance, so please pick this apart GAF.

 

[funkystudent]

Interested in more info on the controller and the OS then hearing more fanboy arguments about specs.


Dual Camera has me interested.

 

[GarthVaderUK]

Dual Camera could be a depth camera, a bit like Kinect.

 

[Kagari]

These are really great specs guys. Time to get excited

Yep.

 

[DBT85]

I honestly cannot wait to see what the Sony 1st party can do with this system, should it all pan out.

I was hoping to hear more tidbits about other bits though, the OS maybe, a USB port on the back, you know, that kind of stuff.

EDIT: also, as AgentP is mentioning below. If they already have dev kits with final CPU, final GPU and the right type of ram, surely they must be close.

Does anyone have info on what the makeup was of PS3/x360 dev kits in the build up to their launches?

 

[slider]

I don't think that's the article they were talking about, this is more a reaction to Kotaku's article.

That was kind of what I was driving at. Like the Kotaku article forced their hand a bit. Still, it seems Kotaku's info was a little dated.

I'm gonna sit tight now and wait for the reveals.

 

[Elios83]

No mention of the special sauce Compute module. Hmm..

It's just a rapid overview on devkits, nothing accurate about the final design.

 

[AgentP]

Dual Camera

Wha?

I wonder how they are providing 8GB, GDDR5? I guess it is possible there are 6GB Tesla and AMD cards that provide >200GB/s on the market.

If the near final hardware dev kits are shipping now, that means the real console cannot be far behind. Interesting, fall is going to be expensive and fun.

 

[NemesisPrime]

[...]If PS4 has a real-time OS, with a libGCM style low level access to the GPU, then the PS4 1st party games will be years ahead of the PC simply because it opens up what is possible on the GPU.[...]

Do these guys actually know what a real-time OS is?

 

[i-Lo]

I have a fluctuating OS theory that I think is worth investigating.



This, however, can only be possible, if Sony isn't trying to position this device as an all-in-one DVR, multimedia, set-top, Google TV box.

Edit: I am not a programmer and speaking out ignorance, so please pick this apart GAF.

I did not see that post before. Oh I hope you are right, because that would bring back the most precious resource in a closed box to be used for the main purpose of gaming console.

I need to reiterate this again, in a closed system, every megabyte counts.

 

[iceatcs]

Dual Camera could be a depth camera, a bit like Kinect.

Automatic measuring my penis?

 

[Durante]

I am pretty ignorant about RAM and system architecture here, but would 512MB GDDR5 be wasteful?

Why not put like 1GB DDR3 in there for th OS and use the 4GB GDDR5 all for games. Would probably up the cost a little I'm thinking.

A single DDR3 chip is very cheap. Adding a separate, additional memory bus to a SoC and MB is very expensive, especially over time (as any additional connections from you chip inhibit your shrinking potential).

 

[DieH@rd]

Specs are good, now we have to wait for official unveil. If the devs received this SoC devkit in January, then we cant expect to see working demos on it really fast.

I think late March or May is a good time for unveil.

 

[Ashes]

Early dev kit having 8core bulldozer is kind of a surprise. Downclocked 8 core...

Edit: oh by early they meant July 2012... Never mind then.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Specs are good, now we have to wait for official unveil. If the devs received this SoC devkit in January, then we cant expect to see working demos on it really fast.

I think late March or May is a good time for unveil.

weeks, not months...

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Automatic measuring my penis?

It only does penis scanning.

 

[Durante]

Do these guys actually know what a real-time OS is?

Are you asking if Timothy Lottes knows what a real-time OS is? I'd think so.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Dual-Camera is definitely a new PS Eye with depth-sensing capabilities similar to Kinect. Guess Sony will include one in every box as well. Hopefully game gimmicks are kept to a minimum and it's mostly intended for use on OS and voice commands.

 

[gofreak]

Dual Camera could be a depth camera, a bit like Kinect.

It sounds like a stereoscopic camera, yeah.

It would explain why they might be able to do 'move' style tracking with just a LED strip on the controller, which is rumoured. The sphere was there, and was so big, to enable reasonable depth calculation. If there's a depth camera, something a lot more subtle should do.

 

[MikeE21286]

A single DDR3 chip is very cheap. Adding a separate, additional memory bus to a SoC and MB is very expensive, especially over time (as any additional connections from you chip inhibit your shrinking potential).

Thank you. Makes sense.

Let's hope thuway's theory is right about the OS's ability to "shrink" its footprint on the fly due to the speed of the GDDR5 memory.

That wolud be very very nice.

 

[shinra-bansho]

At the very least any Move/Touchscreen/pad stuff they're throwing in it hasn't resulted in too much less of a "next gen" system. These look like a really nice spec bump over 7th gen (while getting nowhere near high end PCs of course).

I am pretty ignorant about RAM and system architecture here, but would 512MB GDDR5 be wasteful?

Why not put like 1GB DDR3 in there for th OS and use the 4GB GDDR5 all for games. Would probably up the cost a little I'm thinking.

I think you'd just be adding cost and complexity and they likely think that 512MB/3.5GB is enough given their performance targets.

No mention of the special sauce Compute module. Hmm..

Yeah, interested to see if there's any veracity to this. Presumably Eurogamer's sourcing resulting in the same information on the specs overall means there's some truth there - but remains to be determined.

Do these guys actually know what a real-time OS is?

The guy invented FXAA so presumably knows a thing or two...

 

[Man-is-Obsolete]

Pretty definite imo. Unless there's serious early dev teething issues or something unlikely like that.

Seem to remember most devs saying they actually create much higher level assets than they can use on current gen so that they start with high quality assets and have to whittle them down to get the game running properly. Even team Ico said that about their ps2 games, in that they were able to go back and reuse the original higher res texture assets for the HD collection.

So I got a feeling Naughty Dog and GG have a lot of assets that are well beyond many other devs that would actually give them a leg up.

But anyways I am just excited to see these team's work on the PS4

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

I don't think that's the article they were talking about, this is more a reaction to Kotaku's article.

It seems like it. I want a fully fledged article. Durango's article was awesome.

 

[i-Lo]

I am pretty ignorant about RAM and system architecture here, but would 512MB GDDR5 be wasteful?

Why not put like 1GB DDR3 in there for th OS and use the 4GB GDDR5 all for games. Would probably up the cost a little I'm thinking.

I thought the same thing for a long time, but (I was told) it has to do with latency, incompatibility with the SoC and design complication for the already complicated motherboard. So, the best we can hope for is the an efficient OS, which if anything like Vita, contracts and expands to accord different functions which is dependent upon you either playing or not playing a game.

 

[JordanLMiller]

Are we ever going to get a leak that isn't a stupid list of specs... I want to know the philosophy behind the design, types of games and stuff.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

It also seems like 2.2GB VRAM was real.

 

[Elios83]

But anyways I am just excited to see these team's work on the PS4

Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Sucker Punch and Polyphony will be in first line at the PS4 announcement party.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

My mind is blowing just thinking what will be done by Naughty Dog/Santa Monica/Guerilla/etc... around 2 or so years into the life of the console.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Are we ever going to get a leak that isn't a stupid list of specs... I want to know the philosophy behind the design, types of games and stuff.

Those are the things that will be revealed by Sony themselves.

 

[iceatcs]

It also seems like 2.2GB VRAM was real.

Yeah from July 2011, I'm wondering how it is possible. Custom on-board GPU is only way.

 

[Globox_82]

meh expected more from this leak.
Spec are ok, nothing impressive imo

 

[thuway]

Not very detailed, and doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know.

Hoping that 8GB is GDDR5, which would pretty much confirm at least 4gb GDDR5 for final.

Sony's target specs from early 2012 called for bandwith equivalent to 192 GB/S. Which is somewhere in the median spec of GDDR5. It could be DDR4 but in a specialized configuration (Wide IO, 2.5D, 3D).

I suspect only the initial launch units will have GDDR5. As soon as 3D/2.5D/Wide IO becomes sustainable at 192 GB/S, I expect Sony to shift gears and change the unit altogether.