PS5 Coming at the End of 2020 According to Analyst: High-Spec Hardware for Under $500

[Mr Puggsly]

Otter said:

Mr Puggsly said:

If the visuals aren't a significant upgrade from what we're seeing on the X1X, I think people are going to be genuinely underwhelmed. I mean people aren't necessarily blown away by what the X1X is doing either even though its a nice improvement.

Either way, base 8th gen consoles are still the lead platforms at the moment and at the very least 9th gen specs (even if underwhelming) will move lead hardware development forward.

I think people are making a mistake using X1X as a point reference. Firstly it assumes that it's hardware is fully  being utilised in most games (it's not) & it assumes that native 4k will be the target for most AAA PS5  games (I don't think it will).

With all its beefed up specs the X1X still does not have a game which looks as good of God of War, Uncharted 4 or The Last of Us II.... fundementally its playing Xbox One S games with resolution cranked up & some minor texture/stability improvements. Resolution is nice but it's really not responsible for the wow factor when a new shiny game is shown off.. There are still people on this forum who think that TLOU2 demo is secretly running on the PS5 ( ND have confirmed its running on PS4Pro) and Sony didn't need 4k to achieve the illusion of next gen.

... 

So really our question should be looking at the base PS4 which doesn't have a significantly lower spec system holding back (unlike Xbox One X being held back by base systems), and manages to achieve stellar results, normally at 1080p 30fps. With PS5 developers will be working with a new base system 6-8x the flops, 6-8x the memory bandwith, 2-3x the overall RAM, a CPU which will run circles around  Pro or X1X's jaguar cores and Navi architecture which will bring efficiencies everywhere. The only thing 1X games show us, is that cross gen PS5 titles will comfortable output 4k, 60fps with all the bells and whistles.

Where games built for the next gen are concerned, I think many AAA developers will go for upscalling solutions and push CGI quality visuals before pushing native 4k. The audience (and TV's) just isn't there to make 4k the target, not when there'll be new up-scaling solutions which offer something comparable to 4k at half the performance cost. Pro and 1X solely exist to offer resolution jumps (and aren't exactly selling like hotcakes) but when the new wave of systems are the baseline I'm sure we'll see targets (and gfx settings) all over the place including unapologetic 1080p. And on that note I do not think sony will offer 2 SKU's at launch. For Microsoft it's important because they need to find a way to undercut Sony and rejoin the race, but offering separate 1080p and 4k systems out the gate doesn't sound like it's ideal from a development standpoint and I think Sony will just release one SKU. Supersampling will still benefit 1080p users, users won't have to purchase a new system when they decide to update their TV sets and developers will feel more free to create games in their own vision, their own targets and have a more powerful baseline to work with as opposed to a gimped 1080p box (Lockhart/re-purposed X1X with a new CPU).

I didn't think the TLOU2 demo looked that amazing per se. I will say those cut scenes have some of the most impressive character models ever in a game, but the actual gameplay graphics are a big step down and more at par with other PS4 games. I think what's most impressive in the gameplay is the character animations and faces. Kinda makes me think of Halo 5, amazing cutscene graphics while gameplay graphics was a big step down.

I'll argue Assassin's Creed Odyssey and RDR2 look at par with some of the best PS4 exclusives, they also have a level of polish on X1X that can't be matched on PS4 hardware. So yeah...