I'm kinda with you here, but for now I think multiple possibilities have to be at least listed.

I understand the symmetry of having multiple rumors across each console but maybe a "BS" label after it or something. Add 4 asterisks (****) and at the bottom put **** - BS of the highest degree.

I mean, geez. Rumors are supposed to have some credibility to them, not just be a fanboy tech wet dream. May as well have said it will use a PS704 BladeCenter and 24 GB's of DDR4-4266 RAM while they were at it.

It's not impossible for the PS4 to use Tahiti since GFLOPS/W performance nowadays is some 16:1, so the card itself shouldn't draw more then 130W on full load. At launch both the PS3 and the X360 drew >300W each for the whole system and I don't see the remainder of the Durango/Orbis system making up something even close to that number.

Of course it would be easier to use the Pitcairn core but maybe the architecture is gimped in some aspect Tahiti isn't, or maybe Sony discovered it's going to be cheaper to use the bigger chip and have a much greater wield per wafer due to all the cut components.

Anyways while maybe there are some fanboy dreams from one side there's also PC supremacists and Ninty fans in the other doing the same job...

About the bolded, do you think that an HD79xx could be more credible if done with a 22 20nm fab process?

That is, if TSMC gets it right this time.

After all, the leaked specs are from 2010, when 22/20 nm fab processes where supposed to be mature by 2013.

Pretty sure that was delayed to 2014 many months ago.

Doesn't matter anyways, a console with a something like a 7770/7850 level GPU/4GB RAM would be a beast of a console and a good leap over current gen, but some people don't seem to be satisified unless Sony and MS use GPUs that are out of the realm of possibility for a 2013 console.

What I meant is that when that document was done, in 2010, there supposed that the 20/22 nm fab process would be done and mature by 2013. The problems TSMC had with 40 and 28 nm are not something that they were expecting.

And I agree that a console with a 7850 and 4GB of RAM could do wonders. If we have a look at what they have been able to do on the Xbox360/PS3, one can only dream about what could be done with so much power and memory.

I hope you don't mind if I correct of few of your figures.

The PS3 at launch had a power usage of just 200 watts, not 300 watts.

The HD 7950 has a TDP of 180 watts.  The 7970 a whopping 250 watts.  

And how in the world would it be cheaper to have a larger die size per wafer?  Yeilds with larger dies are always lower.  If you can get 80 chips per wafer against only 15 per wafer, which one is goign to yeild the most usable chips?   The one with the smaller chips.

No.  The law of diminishing returns shows that the drop from 28 nm to 20 nm won't yeild huge gains in thermals.

Personally, I would expect Sony and Microsoft to release a system with a GPU which performed in a similar range to the Radeon HD7750 or HD7770.

As much as a GPU that is more in line with the HD 7970 would match what they did last generation, I'm not convinced either company wants to duplicate their strategy. There previous approach increased the price of their systems, lost them substantial money, it lowered the reliability of the XBox 360, and it cost Sony the bulk of their existing userbase.

Worse that that is that the GPU's in the PS3 and X360 only used 60-80 watts.   As I noted above, the 7950 and 7970 use 180-250 watts.  The ability to dissipate that much heat simply doesn't exist...economically.

Thanks, it's what I expected.

By not economically viable, are you talking about using something like a closed WC setup like Corsair's H80/H100, but for the GPU?