PS4 Rumored Specs. and Explanation

So the rumored specs. of the PS4 have supposedly been leaked, and to a lot of people it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Well here's a detailed, but simplified breakdown of what those specs. detailed. Could this possibly be the innards of the PS4. Keep reading to find out.

APU:

APU = (CPU + GPU)
(CPU = processing aka what makes your console run)
(GPU = graphics what makes games look great)

Details: The APU rumored to power the PS4 is the successor to AMD's current APU's (Trinity) that released earlier this year. The "Steamroller APU" is scheduled to release next year. The current APU's aren't the best at processing data, but they are the best for graphics processing, since they basically have a built in GPU on the CPU. It's a Quad core processor with 2 pairs per core so it basically acts as an 8 core processor which should be more than enough.

Opinion: If Sony goes with the Steamroller APU as the brains of the PS4 then the PS4 will be a moderately powerful console from the get go. The current Trinity APU's are practically on par with current consoles when powered by a standard PC by todays standards (Trinity APU, 4GB RAM), and with the release of Steamroller APU's we should expect them to be on par if not better than your current Xbox 360 or PS4, and that's running off of the APU alone.

Verdict: HIGHLY POSSIBLE. A Steamroller APU should fit perfectly with the PS4. I myself was thinking they would go with a Trinity APU based on what's available now, but the Steamroller APU should be much better at handling graphics, and hopefully get better processing scores (for less loading, better data crunching, etc...).

GPU:

Details: Sony is planning on going with a Tahiti model GPU from AMD. This means they plan on using one of AMD's flagship GPU's the AMD HD7900 series cards. These are the best cards AMD currently has to offer. Going into detail regarding the GPU's. There are 4 cards in the 7900 series. The 7990, the 7970Ghz, the 7970, and the 7950. They breakdown like this:

7990: $700+, should be comparable to GTX690
7970G: $500, comparable to GTX680
7970: $450, comparable to GTX670
7950: $350, should be comparable to GTX670SE (which is rumored to cost $300)

So by these price points, it's safe to say the 7950 is the card Sony is most likely to go with. The difference in power between the 7950 and 7970 isn't great enough to justify the $100 price increase, and if they go that route they may as well pay for the 7970G which will have a small increase on overall performance.

Overview: They're capable of playing any current gen game on PC at 1080p, 4xMSAA, Ultra settings, at a solid 60fps. Again if you saw what Battlefield 3 looked like on PC, expect that to be running on your PS4 with ease. As a matter of fact the only game that doesn't run on those settings is Metro 2033, but with some visual tweaking by the developer and bumping the resolution down to 720p, even Metro should be able to run 4xMSAA at 60fps on the PS4 with the lowest end HD7900 GPU powering it.

Verdict: HIGHLY POSSIBLE. Let's get one thing out the way. The DX11.5 was stupid. Sony doesn't use DX anything, nor would a professional label something DX11.5. It's either DX11 or DX12. But the rumor of the 7900 series GPU is highly possible. The PS4 is scheduled for a 2013 holiday - 2014 holiday launch, and by that time these cards will have dropped in price by 10% - 20% normal retail value. And buying in bulk will net Sony another 10 - 20% off discount (which I calculated in the previous post, but some people can't do math). Therefore the price Sony's looking at paying for these cards are as follows.

7990: $700 - 20% = $560, $560 - 20% = $448 (This card may very well cost more than $700 since the GTX690 it's competition is selling for $1,000 right now)

7970G: $500 - 20% = $400, $400 - 20% = $320

7970: $450 - 20% = $360, $360 - 20% = $288

7950: $350, (GTX670SE rumored to cost $300 so AMD will likely cut price soon)
7950: $300 - 20% = $240, $240 - 20% = $192

So looking at those price it's either the HD7950 for $192 (most likely), or the HD7970Ghz for $320 going into the PS4.

Memory / RAM:

Details: 2GB - 4GB of RAM for the PS4.

Overview: I don't understand why they just don't go with 8GB of RAM. I know it's to keep price down, but really RAM is SUPERCHEAP, and one of the biggest complaints about the PS3 and Xbox. Make developers lives easy and just drop the cash on 8GB of RAM that way you can have a but load dedicated to your new OS (Xmedia bar is gone for sure), have plenty left for games, and have some left for future needs. 8GB of RAM is only $40 now, and will be less next year.

Verdict:

2GB: NO WAY. The PlayStation systems generally shoot for a 10x more powerful console than the previous one. 2GB of RAM is only 4x the amount of RAM the PS3 had, aka not going to happen, unless Sony doesn't use any of these parts I previously stated / rumored, and decides to build a Wii-U me too.

4GB: Possible. 4GB is 8x that of the PS3, and closer to the 10x Sony pushes for. No one uses 5GB of RAM so 4GB is the closest you're going to get. 4GB is generally enough to get anything you need done, and would be acceptable for the PS4, just not recommended.

8GB: MAKE IT HAPPEN. Crytech, Epic, and Square Enix has laid their claim. They want these consoles to be as powerful as they can so their engines can shine, as well as make porting from PC to the consoles easier. And RAM has always been their biggest complaint (and now GPU as PC has leapfrogged consoles). Making things easier for people, will make them support you more, and make your product better than the competition, so give them the 8GB they want. Not to mention it's needed for great Xfire support.

Overall Verdict: HIGHLY POSSIBLE. If Sony decides to go with AMD then these are the parts I see them going with. I conjured up a demo PS4 as if it came out today, and it sported a Custom Trinity A-10 APU, HD7850 GPU, and 8GB of RAM and if that console was to come out this holiday season it would cost a little over $400 this holiday season. By waiting a year Sony can implement better parts and still keep the price down to $400 (which I think is the magic number). The Steamroller APU's will likely be compatible with the higher series GPU cards, the HD7950 will be a lot cheaper for Sony to purchase by then $200, thus making it possible to purchase 8GB of RAM. You could build a PS4 right now with these specs. and that PC would last you for the next 3-5 years easily as a PC only gamer, and that's great for a console.

As for fans of the Cell and NVIDIA here's a comparable version of the PS4 using those parts.

CPU: Cell Processor 2012: 4PPE's (dual / quad threaded), 32 SPE's (was in production, but IBM ceased, but that doesn't mean Sony has)

GPU: GTX670SE (pretty much the NVIDIA version of the HD7950)

8GB RAM: I'm still holding out for this one.

Very similar specs, the only real difference is the AMD console will be better for game graphics, while this Cell + NVIDIA mix is much better at processing data for games and other applications.

[ABizzel1]

For those of you who want to see what the GPU can do here are some links to the current APU (Trinity) that's out now.

Dirt 3: 720p+, 2xMSAA, High settings, 60fps
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Deus Ex Human Revolution: ?????, no details, but the game runs well
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim: DX11, 720p, Ultra Settings (probably 4xMSAA), ??fps (the game isn't running 100% smooth at all, but the fact it runs it is the point, and this is on last year's APU not Trinity)
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

The Trinity APU's have a performance boost of around 20% - 30% over the previous llano models, and you can expect a similar boost in the steamroller models. So you can imagine that the new Steamroller APU should be capable of running PS3 quality games via the APU alone.

[NewMonday]

Is the 7950(or 7970) inside the APU? or outside the APU?
meaning will APU be able to xfire with GPU for extra graphics than the standard 7950(or 7970)?

also how fast will loading levels be with the rumoured 6x blue ray speed, background caching to HDD and 4g ram? will games like Mass Effect be less annoying? and games like Skyrim more stable?

[ABizzel1]

It's outside the APU. The Steamroller APU, and the 7950 GPU are two completely separate parts. So basically it has 2 GPU's. 1 dedicated for the APU, and a second much more powerful standalone in the 7950.

The question is will the new Steamroller APU's be Xfire compatible with the 7900's series GPU's. If so, then there should definitely be a leap in graphics, but since Steamroller APU's aren't out until early 2013, I have no idea if they'll support Xfire. But it would be in Sony's best interest to make sure AMD makes one that can.

The links I placed in the comment above are all games running solely on the current Trinity APU with no dedicated GPU (with the exception of Skyrim which is running on the 2011 model). Again that's what the APU is capable of by itself, which is close to what our current consoles are capable of.

"also how fast will loading levels be with the rumoured 6x blue ray speed,"

That's something that we'll only know in practice. But more than likely the days of mandatory installs will be over, unless it's needed on both consoles.

"background caching to HDD and 4g ram? will games like Mass Effect be less annoying? and games like Skyrim more stable?"

Those are generally developer issues. Downloading a game to the HDD and having more RAM is always a great thing for running games smoothly, but if there's a problem with the coding of the game then that's not going to help as much as you would like it to.

[ZoyosJD]

Reasonable predictions, but you should make a list of all the expected prices of the parts you noted as most likely and add them together to wrap things up.

I also noticed a few things you skiped over like BR drive, controllers, and the case.

expected costs by holiday 2013 release

APU..........$???
7950.........$190
HDD..........$50
BR drive.....$40
case.........$20
controller...$20-70(if they use a screen)
RAM..........$40

That alone is nearly $400 without the APU or worker/production/shipping costs taken into consideration.

If you want those specs holiday 2013 expect a $450- 500 pricetag at launch.

[tee_bag242]

Nice write up champ. I enjoyed the read. This is my opinion, but I think if we were to look into what sort of PSU is going into the next console, it would shed some light on the components they are putting in. Ie. 200 or 300W
Reply with your thoughts but I was under the impression the AMD Mobile GPU's would be candidates. For example the new AMD 7970M runs on 100 watt and produces the best results per watt. In terms of speed they compete with some of the Desktop monsters too.
I'm thinking that the PS4 is likely to be a 200W deal again too. Either way I'm sure it will be based on the 7xxx series. They will be the right price by the time of release.
As far as RAM - I sure hope they dont decide to skimp here (again). I agree, it's so cheap and its always one of the first things DEVs complain a lack of. Will they listen?
I'm pretty sure any modern CPU will do they job. The GPU is the big '?' IMO. CPU's are seldom the bottleneck now days.. It's always GPU GPU GPU.

[ABizzel1]

Thanks for the compliment. I'm not the biggest PC tech out there, but I do like to know about new technology out there, so I decided to take make it easy to understand for those who don't know anything about PC's. It also helps so they can better understand what exactly their console is capable of, so their expectations are realistic and founded with knowledge and not BS :D

Actually I haven't heard about the 7970M until you spoke of it. After reading up on it it's a great GPU (around the HD7850 range) which is definitely great for Mobile (as in laptops).

It's possible they could use the 7970M since it's powerful enough, and it would be more energy sufficient, but the question is how much does it cost?

As far as the rumored specs. This is pretty much a PS4 right here. The PS4 will have a more powerful APU / GPU combo, but not enough to blow this away, so if you can find some footage of this desktop running games in 1080p then you'll see PS4 games right now. If you have anything else to share about new tech just PM me, I'm about out of bubbles for this conversation.

http://shop.amd.com/us/All/...

"I'm pretty sure any modern CPU will do they job. The GPU is the big '?' IMO. CPU's are seldom the bottleneck now days.. It's always GPU GPU GPU."

GPU and RAM -_- (8GB please)

[ABizzel1]

Alright and here's even more support that the 7950 would be the GPU of choice for the PS4.

http://www.techspot.com/rev...

As you can see the 7950 is the best overall GPU of FPS = Performance = $$$. The GTX670 is right there with it, and with slightly better FPS & Performance, but the ratio of cost is a bit more. The PS4 should be able to play almost any game released on the console in 1080p, 60fps (Action, FPS, Fighting, Sports, Racing) with the 7950, with only a few at 720p 60fps (Crysis 4, Killzone 4, Doom 4, Watch Dogs, Naughty Dog, God of War 5, Metro, Battlefield 4, etc...) or 2K 30fps (Strategy, Puzzle, Platformer,) or 2k 60fps (games like SuperStardust etc...)

[DaThreats]

The cost of making controllers are in consideration of course when making the systems. If the controllers have a screen in them, it will be more costly making them so it will be hard trying to say put 8gb of ram in the system, even though we want it to. People tend to be 4getting the cost of the controller

[zeal0us]

Im pretty sure Sony will get the parts they need for a discounted price.

Thx for going into details and explaining it.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Yea, i hope PS4 will be a powerhouse in gaming but probably not as great as a PC but still a good console.

[tee_bag242]

I hope it can be as good as or a touch better for a short while. It definately won't be on paper but the console only needs to run the game. Any the DEVs can work their magic knowing what the limitations are. I just want games to be running at 60fps. It gives games such a nice feel. I'd rather play 720p at 60fps than 1080p at 30fps. Who knows, maybe we'll have a choice, but I doubt it.

[PoSTedUP]

awesome man thanks for that. you should get a career in this.