Would you buy a PS4 Portable ?

[haxxiy]

Alby_da_Wolf said:

haxxiy said:

Well, we can try to divide the overall problem in parts and see if they can be attacked and solved separately.

1) PS5 will use Navi based custom GPU. This creates room for performance per watt improvements if PS5 Hybrid will come later and it will use Arcturus tech

2) PS5 will deliver 4k graphics @ high framerate or even 8k at lower framerate, on typically 32" or larger screens, while undocked PS5Hy will use a smaller than 7" screen, that even if watched closer, will need at most 1080p graphics. Maybe native screen res will be higher, the console will be able to use it either for less demanding than gaming uses, like multimedia, or to implement memory consuming, but computing lightweight AA methods. Polygon count needed on undocked PS5Hy will be far lower too. This will probably deliver the largest share of the watt savings thanks just to lower graphics performances needed, and this saving will be multiplied by the performance per watt improvement

3) Savings by game design: if the hybrid is an afterthought, little is possible on this front and the hybrid should count only on scaling down graphics as much as possible (point 2) and performance per watt improvements (point 1), with possible patches allowing some more in the best case, and simply enabling saving 2 in the worst, but if the hybrid is planned since the start (although its launch is planned later), and dev kits take it into account, there is some margin to allow devs to offer more savings in undocked mode and larger performance boost in docked hybrid, and, more important for that audience, home-only version

4) The more Switch and Switch 2 will be successful, the more life will be easy for Sony too if it plans a hybrid, as Ninty philosophy will force devs to keep muliplat games minimum requirements very reasonable, almost frugal. This could apply even to some 3rd party exclusives, if they start developing them before chosing a single console maker to strike an exclusive deal with.

5) VR games with local multiplayer with multiple VR sets linked to a single home PS5 will have to offer gamers lower res than in single player anyway, on this issue gamers taking their own PS5Hy and using its GPU for their VR set could allow other gamers to have less scaled down graphics, or to more gamers to play, or both things.

All the aforementioned points work in favour of a PS5 Hybrid, the only users that could be moderately disappointed are the graphics whores, but the most die-hard ones would find acceptable high-end PC graphics only anyway.

1 - There is no magic sauce. On all likehood, GPUs releasing the same year will match or significantly exceed its performance-per-watt ratio, since PC suppliers work with better binned parts than console manufacturers. This has happened every generation, by the way.

2 - It's unlikely a majority of games will be 60 fps and 4K at the same time. 8K was a marketing gimmick related to the HDMI 2.1 port specifications.

3 - Why would Sony follow Nintendo's strategy, when their own is still outselling it after nearly six years in the market? This reminds me of a certain famous member here who predicted 7th generation consoles would be significantly underpowered because MS and Sony would do a Wii.

4 - You assume EA, Ubisoft, Actvision, Take Two etc. are interested to port their flagship titles to Nintendo consoles. They are not. They never were. Indeed, they never needed them to to sell hundreds of millions of their games (despite how much people complain about them).

5 - Not entirely unfeasible, but still a suspiciously specific scenario to try to justify hundreds of millions of dollars of investment.