PS5 GDC Reveal and PS5 specs/performance Digital Foundry Video analysis : 3.5 Ghz 8 core Zen 2 CPU along with 10.3 TF RDNA 2 RT capable and 16GB GDDR6 RAM and also super crazy fast 5.5 GB/Second S

[EricHiggin]

alexxonne said:

EricHiggin said:
Neither console will be running at 100% load on the hardware most of the time. The loads on the hardware will fluctuate on both constantly and not simply between 95% and 100% either. The hardware at times can be running at much lower loads even for demanding games, and can run at lower loads more often for less demanding games.

If PS5 is running at a 50% (GPU) load, then it's basically putting out 5.1 TF at that specific point in time you could say.
If XBSX is running at 50% (GPU) load, then it's basically putting out 6.0 TF at that specific point in time you could say.

So who's being more clear? SNY with their fluctuating performance, or MS with their 'locked' performance?

Nice way to say it. But I suppose is neither of them. Is up to the developers to actually squeeze that performance peak, and show each systems attributes. But that is something that will not happen right away. But basically is all true, what you say and propose.

Digital foundry mentioned that PS5 variable frequency is more similar to Switch power profiles. meaning developers may choose what kind of computing power they need. But the XBOX SX while traditional in a way, still have some unknowns to properly make a guess. We haven't heard any exotic feature or secret sauce yet, just raw brute force performance. If DirectX12.1 is any indication and the new apis are something to make a guess. Microsoft approach for secret sauce will be purely in software. Probably and technically they can create commands or levels of performance to simplify development of multi-platform titles, problem is to actually make it work without rebooting the console each time a game requires a different profile.

DF's most recent video explains things better, but it's still a little unclear as they don't even know for sure either just yet. It sounds as though they can allow the PS5 to shift power dynamically on the fly, which also means a potential reduction in clocks for the CPU or GPU depending on the load/thermals. It also sounds as though they can potentially lock things in from the start and make sure the GPU or CPU is always getting max power and max frequency, while the other receives less power and reduces frequency. Some games are more CPU or GPU bound in general, so if you know your game is going to be more GPU bound, you may very well choose to always push the GPU since the CPU won't be pushed that hard anyway. It certainly sounds more efficient than having beefier hardware always waiting for the occasion when it's put to it's fullest use.

As it was originally explained, PS5 sounded weaker than it would be, and XBSX sounded stronger than it would be. That doesn't change the worthy specs of each and the advantages each certainly hold regardless. As for what the API's will allow and what kind of extra efforts devs will put into each to optimize them, is something we can only hypothesize without more details or seeing actual game play (results). Software is MS specialty though, like hardware for SNY, so it'll be interesting to see how things play out for each.