PS4 Neo GPU Is Point-For-Point A Match For RX 480

[DonFerrari]

Intrinsic said:

Normchacho said:
Doe anyone else think that the Giant Bomb leak may not have been final hardware? I mean, if it's going to use the RX480 why would they down clock it by so much? It already seems like an efficient GPU and it's really inexpensive.

So? Maybe we'll see a regular RX480, and a more significantly upgraded CPU? Just a thought.

In one word; Yeild. But its a little more complicated.

The 480 chip is designed to run at 1200mhz+ and a max power draw of 150W. For AMD that may be a good sweetspot. For sony that may need a 20M of those coupled with a CPU (which in itself increases the comolexity of the chip design) the problem becomes that for eveey 5 chips you make, 2 of them may be defective. You are still paying for all 7 chips though. The yeild determines just how expensive your chips actualky are. Now downclocking them helps allevate this issue. Cause some of those fective chips may only be defective when being clocked higher than 1100mhz or even 980mhz. 

Another issue is heat. The power draw of the system determines how much heat it generates. Higher temperatures means higher failure rates or general instability. Downclocking the GPU pretty much ensures the power draw and thus heat is kept at manageable levels. Its also likely that sony wamts to make the Neo smaller than the original PS4. 

As for significantly upgraded CPU; forget it. They will only bump it up as much as they need to cover the added GPU overhead so it doesnt become a bottle neck. Reason   being that they want to ensure feature and content parity between the stock PS4 and the neo. The favt that they are only chanhing the GPU should make it xlear what direction they want a neo mode to take. All the things that a much more powrrful cpu could add to a game are things that would make that game well...... be a conoeltely different game more or less. With exception to things like doubking a framerate though which is tied to both the cpu and gpu. 

The payment of the ships and the cost will depend on the contract... there is no reason for sony to pay for the defective chips, but that will probably  make good chips more expensive... and in any way the supplier must work to improve their yield.