| freedquaker said: In short, the next gen consoles (or at least PS4) is not weak at all but more than capable, because... a) Those Consoles come with octo-core processors, which is well beyond the main stream pc with dual core. It's true that those cores have relatively poor single threaded performance but with the sufficient level of parallelism and low level calls, CPUs had never been this fast in relative terms (compared to PCs). So the CPU performance will never be an issue. Also keep in mind that the CPU performance improvements have slowed tremendously at the last decade. |
An 8 core jaguar is roughly equivalent to a Dual-Core Core i3 processor.
Lets not forget that overall it's going to be allot less than a Dual-Core, because not all cores are dedicated to gaming.
Don't expect to have 10's of thousands of CPU/A.I heavy units on screen at once, whilst having amazing physics.
Basically... On the PC side if you still have a 6 year old Core 2 Quad, your CPU is faster than the consoles.
| freedquaker said: b) The amount of RAM (8 GB) is well beyond the main stream PC (4-6 GB) today, which had never happened. Most games are not even programmed to run on more than 3 GB, and this is the first time in history, where the console ports don't have to be downsized at all. In comparison, 1 GB was the mainstream RAM when the 7th Gen consoles arrived with only 1/2 RAM including the graphics, and 128 MB was the mainstream when PS2 arrived with 32 MB! Also today we have so much RAM on our PCs that the capacity increases came to a crawl. |
True to an extent.
However, you're only comparing the PC's system Ram.
The majority video memory size is 1Gb or higher on the PC, on consoles that memory is shared. (In future, try to compare it apples to apples.)
Besides, the consoles don't have all 8Gb dedicated to gaming anyway, the Xbox One and Playstation 4 actually use more Ram for their repespective Operating Systems than Windows 7 which is easily a superior OS in terms of flexibility.
Another facet to this is, Ram is relatively cheap, it's not difficult to go buy an 8Gb or 16Gb kit and drop it into any PC, instantly giving it a memory capacity edge.
Some people simply see no need to upgrade from 4-6Gb of Ram for the games they play just yet.
| freedquaker said: d) The GPU seems to be archiles heel, at least with the XB1. However, it's unfair to the PS4 as it seems to be just fine with 1080p and up to 60 fps. We know that the graphics will improve over time, squeezing either better graphics or more stable performance. Given that most TVs today are not capable of producing resolutions greater than 1080p, there really is no point in putting a higher GPU than what PS4 has over the long run. |
There is always a point of more performance in a fixed hardware environment that's not going to see hardware upgrades for a decade.
Today it may seem ample, but what happens when developers start throwing tasks at the GPU that requires significant amounts of compute? Suddenly there is going to be less resources for displaying pretty images on the screen.
Besides, the PS4 doesn't have all it's games running at 1080P and 60fps anyway, that is something that will probably become a rare thing later on in the generation outside of indie games.
On the PC if you are willing to pay for it, you can run a 16k (3x 4k) monitor set-up, which makes 1080P seem like a last century resolution, thus you have choice, the consoles you do not, you are spoon fed and told what you have to run your games at whether you like it or not.
| freedquaker said: e) PS4 employs a super fast GDDR5, equivalent to the PC tech, but just much more of it. Games, which are not designed with this in mind will not magically look better, but they will come in time. Couple this with many exciting technologies, none of which has been implemented yet, which are more likely to see on consoles than on the PC. |
Games don't need to be designed with that in mind.
Ram doesn't do any form of processing, it's just a super fast piece of memory, no special programming techniques are needed.
High-End GPU's will end up with more and more video memory anyway, I already have more than double the PS4's GDDR5 Ram in total for my graphics cards for instance and 64Gb of System Ram.
| freedquaker said: In short, PS4 is the most balanced machine out there for the long term, and is more than capable to serve as long as PS3 did. XB1, on the other hand, although similar, is crippled by its inefficient design, with respect to the RAM Bandwidth. If only XB1 had incorporated GDDR5 instead of DDR3 + ESRAM (or at least a DDR3+GDDR5 solution similar to PS3), ditching the Kinect, things would be much rosier for it now. |
Basically, you're saying Microsoft shouldn't have tried to build a different device and instead made a Playstation 4 clone?
Nintendo should have done the same too if that's the case.
Forget competition and innovation with that kind of ideal.
Another thing to keep in mind is the growth rate of PC hardware.
For isntance, it's all well and good to show how the low-end PC's and Average PC's are inferior to your console of choice, but that's a situation that's in flux.
GPU's with 2Gb of Ram or more are seeing the greatest growth.
Systems with 8Gb or more of System Ram are growing the fastest.
Systems with 1080P or higher displays are seeing the largest growth.
Quad Core CPU's are seeing the largest growth.
CPU speeds in excess of 3.3ghz are seeing the largest growth.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Before the Playstation 4 launched, what would be consituted as a low-end PC was actually capable of playing games better than the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, now that the new consoles have launched, we are seeing people upgrade their PC's to meet the new system requirements. (As noted in the Steam statistics.)
In a few years a high-end PC will be a mid-range one, the PS4 will be low-end hardware rather than only 2 year old mid-range hardware, this cycle has continued since PC's and Consoles were able to play games.
Consoles take a jump, PC's continue to advance and take the lead by miles with always more potential performance if you're willing to pay for it.
The Playstation 4 without a doubt is mid-range hardware, it's relative performance to the PC compared to last generation is stupidly massive, my PC is more powerfull than 10x Playstation 4's with extra processing to spare. (In terms of Teraflops.)
--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--
