How's the CPU going to handle doule the frame rate with a mere 30% increase in CPU. Double the game logic, AI updates, animations, collision detection, etc. Is the NEO version going to require a whole lot of gpgpu solutions to compensate for the CPU, ie a lot of work? Doesn't sound like it's going to be easy to have 2 versions with such unequally balanced machines.

I Miiiiiight give my current PS4 to my son and nephew, and buy this. But probably not until it's come down in price, so at least 1 year after release

smh

Don't think the CPU has to deal with "double the frame rate" it's the GPU that renders the frames. The CPU has to deal with AI in some cases yes, but double the frame rate doesn't mean double the AI. 

Why do you think it needs to hande double the frame rate? Devs might have been able to make games run at 60fps 80% of the time for a game but for the 20% it couldn't run at 60fps the frame rate drop was not acceptable, so they decide to set the game at 30fps. So perhaps a 30% increase in CPU is all that's needed. Or they may have been able to get a game to run acceptably at 50fps. But no one releases 50fps games, the release at 60fps or 30fps.

The thing I worry about is that Sony is doing this for non-gaming reasins. It wants to facilitate adoption of 4K TV sets, so it puts out a 4K "ready" machine. Nothing about actually improving things for gamers directly.

I really hope it will boost older games, but will it?

Those games that can't reach 60, they're not capping it to 30 and let the machine sit idle for the rest of the time. Early on the decision will be made to optimize for 30 fps instead, squeezing the most out of the cpu and gpu. Your scenario would only happen with remasters, like a choice between locked 30fps with better shadows for tlou or near 60 fps.
I doubt the CPU sits idle long enough in any games currently released to absorb the impact of doubling the responsivess with a mere 30% boost. Higher res makes more sense than doubling the frame rate given the rumored specs. So yeah, 4K ready games, upscaling fun.

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I'm perfectly happy with my poor old PS4 as it is. I'm not planning to upgrade my tv to 4K so why do I need a 4K PS4?

There are a lot of devs who have been very vocal about splitting the PS user base, and they will most likely stick with optimising games for old PS4. 

But here is the real kicker. The standard PS4 will most certainly see a price drop and that will make the installed base of OG PS4 massive. More reasons why the devs will optimize for it and ignore (as much as possible) the more powerful version.

Well, this is annoying. But it seems almost certain that this is true at this point. Part of me hopes that Sony suffers financially for this, because I don't want this to become a trend going forward.
I just hope there is some sort of trade in program where I can get the PS4.5 for less than 200 dollars.