Friday, November 2nd 2012
Sony PlayStation 4 "Orbis" Kits Shipping to Developers, Powered by AMD A10 APU
According to a VG 24/7 report, Sony began shipping development kits of its upcoming game console, PlayStation 4, codenamed "Orbis" to developers. The kit is described as being a "normal sized PC," driven by AMD A10 "Trinity" APU, and 8 or 16 GB of memory. We've known from reports dating back to April that Sony plans to use a combination of APU and discrete GPU, similar to today's Dual Graphics setups, where the APU graphics core works in tandem with discrete mid-range GPU. The design goal is to be able to play games 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, with 60 Hz refresh rate, and with the ability to run stereo 3D at 60 Hz. For storage, the system has a combination of Blu-ray drive and 250 GB HDD. Sony's next-generation game console is expected to be unveiled "just before E3," 2013.
Source:
VG 24/7
354 Comments on Sony PlayStation 4 "Orbis" Kits Shipping to Developers, Powered by AMD A10 APU
2GB of shared RAM but with 1GB always detected to games, three core Boradway CPU, GPU on the same die being based on either the HD4000/5000 AMD.
All past Playstation hardware were always ahead of its time at launch. It took PC a couple of years to catch up PS3.
PS4 looks more like a cost-cutting exercise.
consoles never launch with high end PC hardware. this launch is no exception - and its generations faster than what we have now.
Its own HDD, BR player built in, multi output, four USB 2.0, memory card reader, etc
And the STI produced Cell CPU was pretty high end for the time.
I mean really Uncharted 1/2/3, God of War 3, Killzone 2/3, GT5, and many of the smaller titles on PSN like Journey has made owning a PS3 worth it.
My first A8-5600 is together and based off the tiny cooler they included and very cool running temps I am almost scared of what it is actually going to be able to do.
Benchmarks to follow shortly.
To avoid a double post.
3D11 at stock with memory @ 800 Mhz 9.9.9.24 stock.
Score
P1189 3DMarks
Graphics Score
1056
Physics Score
3932
Combined Score
1087
PC Health Check
Your PC is performing properly.
Overclocked
GPU at 1000 Mhz, core speed bumped to 4.1Ghz no change to memory speed as the memory doesn't like it.
Score
P1371 3DMarks
Graphics Score
1229
Physics Score
4163
Combined Score
1206
PC Health Check
Your PC is performing properly.
4.2Ghz CPU, 1000 Mhz GPU
Score
P1370 3DMarks
Graphics Score
1227
Physics Score
4239
Combined Score
1208
PC Health Check
Your PC is performing properly.
I'd like to thank the folks who have dabbled in game development for lending their comments despite the overwhelming wave of blatherskite. That is all.
Works rather well as the silliness stops.
I don't think they'll change from the existing lineup of A4; A6; A8 and A10 cpus because that would introduce more complexity. But that's on the desktop which, for this thread, doesn't fit into the equation. What will be in the PS4 is going to be a different beast to what we're used to and it could be based off the A10-5700 and a HD6670 GPU. So lets leave the desktop out of this for now because, as everyone in this thread is eager to point out, they're not directly comparable. Similar in terms of hardware, yes, but with software they are very different performers. I also think that coding for an x86-64 architecture and more modern instruction set will make the developers life easier but I'm not sold on the dual-GPU portion just yet (even on the desktop I'm hesitant to recommend SLI or Xfire to anyone). I haven't seen results from an APU and GPU combo that shows frame rates over time and from what I've seen with SLI and Xfire, the stuttering issues are enough to put some people off dual GPUs completely. However, I do know that with a strict hardware configuration the Xfire rendering could be tweaked so that instead of rendering alternating frames the devs could choose to divide up the frames between the two. Unfortunately, only developers with access to these machines can answer our questions and until then, everything else is just assumption. TDP requirements and less complexity, mostly (along with cost, which is going to be a big factor). You can build a APU setup into a thin client-like/ITX chassis without having to worry too much about cooling and your GPU requirements are mostly catered for already. When I was working at a computer repair shop a year ago I received three PS3s to diagnose and fix. When I could finally open two up for myself, one a launch version and the other a Slim I was stumped at how the launch versions could have survived the heat generation. You had these massive, (relatively) power-sucking chips that needed a good amount of cooling to stay functional for as long as the warranty remained valid and I often found with other units that the cooling wasn't always up to scratch. I had to re-flow the boards, clean out the cooling systems and lap the heatsinks so that the older units wouldn't overheat.
With desktop-class APUs, the stock cooler is perfectly fine. In fact, cooling requirements for the A10-5700 peaks at only 65W TDP which means there's much less work required in designing the console's cooling system. I think we might even see a launch version that is as slim as the PS3 Slim (not the recent swanky one which, IMO, looks fugly) and in future could become as small as the PS2 Slim. Considering that the APU in question might even be the mobile A10-4600M, its plausible. No-one's ever said that the PS3 can't run games at 1080p. In fact, there's a handful that can, Prince of Persia being the only recent one I can remember. Its down to the developers that have to figure out what they want to sacrifice the most: visual fidelity and potentially higher performance or more stuff on the screen but potentially lower performance.
To those of you who say that a game running at 30fps at 1080p is crap, I'd have to agree with you initially. If I notice it, it becomes a problem until I play the game enough times to not notice it and then its smooth sailing from there on. Even Forza Horizon, which I got to play recently, runs at 720p and minimum 30fps. Technically the developers could run the game at 1080p and get similar performance, but they'd have to sacrifice some visual fidelity and the beautiful world the game is rendered in. Personally, I don't have a problem with the speed at which the game is rendered, only that it looks good and doesn't suffer hiccups.
Likewise, you can't directly compare today's consoles with desktops. Well, at least not the PS3 because the RSX GPU lacks some components and instruction sets that make it comparable to a desktop-class GPU. The Xbox 360 is closer to a proper desktop setup but again can't be compared directly because it can't render anything in DX10. A good deal of games today include a DX10/DX11 render path so that makes the comparison even more moot. 720p30 DX9 and 720p30 DX11 with their highest settings will look different and will behave differently due to the rendering mode. With the PS4 and the Xbox 720 being based off modern hardware, at least we'll have consoles and computers on the same footing again in terms of graphical ability, if not in performance.
And I'm sad that the shift to an x86-64 architecture means my existing PS3 library won't be compatible with the new system, but I guess that its only fair that six years on a new standard is introduced. The PS3 has had an incredibly long run and its time for something new.
lets get nerdy, I have provided a spec sheet and huge calculations in comments, enjoy
Edit: www.ted.com/talks/melissa_marshall_talk_nerdy_to_me.html
Are they forget?This is a console,a consumer electronic,a set-top-boxes attached to a TV set.Sony had to make their console compatible for a wide range TV,so they attached A/V RCA output legacy for analog TV and sporting HDMI for SD/HD/Full HD TV.They didn't have to do 60fps because if doing so it violates NTSC standards (29,97fps),PAL standards (25fps) or non-popular SECAM.
Current PS3 using Linux kernel 2.4,i bet Sony will use Linux 3.0 with some HSA optimization :p
Lets look at the PS3. It was launched in Nov/2006. It used basically the core from a 7800GTX, but with lower memory clocks and less ROPs, but lets just say it was a 7800GTX for the sake of argument. At almost the exact same time, within days actually, nVidia released the 8800GTX which was a huge leap ahead of what the 7800GTX was capable of. Not only did it provide 50-100% more performance(depending on the game) in DX9, it also introduced DX10.
The Xbox360 wasn't that much different. It used, basically, an X1800XT GPU(again lower clocks and memory speeds, but we'll just say x1800XT). And while it was a little more up to date when it was released, thanks to be released a year earlier than the PS3, it was still behind as ATI had just released the x1900 series as the Xbox was coming out.
They are talking about an APU or in the best case scenario maybe paired up with HD6770 or something like that. It's as if PS3 had shipped with a GeForce 6600 instead of a 7800. Plus in 2004/2005 when the PS3 was spec'ed the 7800 was the fastest card.
So yeah let's stop with that argument. No one's saying it had a high-end GPU when it launched, but it definately had a (slower) variant of the high-end GPUs when they were designed. PS4 by the time it launches, it will have a low-end GPU 3 generations behind.
here are the facts, im not wrong and its been said before, even in this thread, game consoles only need a fraction of the power a pc needs for gaming because there is no heavy multitasking, no os throttling, and devs get a dev kit that PROMISES 100% performance so the devs have time to work with what little they have without worrying about component upgrades. even today I bet any of you cant play gta iv with 256mb ram and even a hd7970 on windows xp and up with as good frames as a ps3 gets... lol and with a core i7 3770k.. I doubt gta iv will even open, it will just say fuck you im busy.