Is There Any Reason to Be Impressed By the PS 4 Specs??

Calin Ciabai writes on Unigamesity: "Sony announced the PlayStation 4 tonight and everybody got extremely excited about the amazing power of the console and how truly next gen it will be. For me, as a PC gamer, things didn’t seem impressive at all and the only reason why I am excited about the release of the PS4 is that PC gaming can finally take off and explode with quality releases because it was held back by the crappy specs of the current-gen consoles."

[majiebeast]

We click the plus next to the site name and grade it Wtf? and no.

Pc gamers should be happy with this, you will surely see less bad pc ports. As a pc gamers and a playstation one i am very excited for what pc and ps4 will bring.

[LOGICWINS]

The PC will have exclusives that the PS4 will never have and the PS4 will have exclusives that the PC will never have. Anyone who wants the best of both worlds should get em both.

[torchic]

one thing I definitely see this generation is PC traditional PC games making their way to consoles, a-la Diablo III.

D3 is just the start me thinks.

[Scenarist]

ya but diablo 3 porting to next gen system is going to be gay unless they redo all of the assests.. .

i mean whos going to want to play a game that doesnt even look that good on PC@max settings on their next gen system ?

[DigitalSmoke]

PC even needs to step up, 8 GB of unified GDDR5 at 176 GB/s BW.
Good luck finding a PC GPU with that kind of ram behind it.

[TenkoTAiLS]

By the time the PS4 has released the PC will already be way past that. Its how it always goes with consoles.

Besides, game developers BUILD the console games on PC, if a PC couldn't design, build and run the game it wouldn't get made, full stop. When will people learn that they don't make the games on the console itself >.<

[PCpower]

You're not too smart. The GDDR5 on video cards is a buffer frame which means you need less where as your PS4 needs more ram because system data will also be stored on it as well as video information. Also 176 GB/s is a joke because my HD7970 video card has a bandwidth of 264 GB/s. It would be wise to know what you are talking about before you type.

[jmc8888]

Good luck finding a PC GPU that can push that much GDDR5.

Though the problem with a PS4 is, it surely can't.

It can push 2 GB's of that 8, the rest is there for shortcuts when the system gets long in the tooth and 2gb's reserved for the OS. It can properly push somewhere between 2-3 GB's, that's really it. Even then I think I'm overestimating it. A much stronger GTX 670 can barely push over 2GB's, which is why the 4GB version doesn't do crap more than a 2GB version.

I've had a GPU with higher bandwidth than that 176 gb/s since last year, and it cost me less than a PS4 will cost me when I pre-order it. Hell you can buy one right now for $300 with higher bandwidth. Plus a newer line will be out before the PS4 ships.

The PS4 will play fun games, but to compare this midrange 2011 GPU and 2007 midrange CPU as something PC's don't have and that the PS4 will magically properly push 4x the ram it is actually capable of while not accounting for OS reserve is pretty silly and inaccurate.

[ZoyosJD]

The PS4 will be out by holiday 2013 for less than $600, likely $500. It was running 4k, go check the screenshots. A pc that can run those graphics at 4k above 30fps would run you $2000 to build from the ground up.

BTW, 4k tvs will be launching around $2000 for the 50" later this year.

[Eyesoftheraven]

The Radeon HD 7970 has 3GB of GDDR5 capable of 264Gb/s, 3.79TFLOPs, 32 CUs, 2048 Stream Processors, and all that's not even the GHz edition. That 3GB of GDDR5 RAM by the way is for just the GPU——it isn't shared memory.

[PS4 will have similar to a Radeon HD 7850, 1.84TFLOPs, 18 CUs, 1152 stream processors, 176GB/s memory bandwidth]

PCs use dedicated DDR3 (DDR4 en route) system ram up to 64GB (excluding server stations) at very fast speeds of up to 2133Mhz with tight timings of around 9-10-9/24 or 10-9-10/24.

CPUs like the i7-3930k, 6 core 12 thread, easily overclock to 4.3GHz and have 12mb L2 cache.

[PS4 CPU is a 8-core AMD Jaguar notebook/tablet reduced power version with 2mb L2 cache @ a very tame 1.8GHz]

I have 7 TB worth of raided Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HDDs in my rig and a 240GB 550mb/s read-write SSD.

So the high end PC market is already well above the PS4 specs, even more so than back when PS3 & 360 launched, but that is unavoidable and also irrelevant because exclusives and the benefits in "coding to the metal." I love my high end, $2000 computer which I use for games and work, but I'll sure as hell buy a PS4 for the incredible exclusives.

At least now with the x86 transfer, all ports should be of a much higher & consistent quality across all platforms.

[Highlife]

people aren't mentioning that the PS4 will also have a secondary chip so you can download and do background tasks so it won't take away cpu power from gameplay or the os. You pc gamers have a secondary chip for that???
Besides hardware this is why I left pc gaming.
AIMBOTS, hacks and cheats. They are in all multiplayer games.

[callahan09]

@PCPower

So 176 GB/s memory bandwidth is a joke because you have a video card that costs between 400 and 500 dollars that can do better? Come on, man. 176 GB/s is about 5x faster memory bandwidth than the PS3 had, so it's an enormous leap from previous console generation technology. Just because the top of the line out there in the PC world right now is better than what will be in the PS4 doesn't mean much. You wouldn't have them release the PS4 at 1200 or 2000 dollar price point, would you? They'd be crazy to do that. There's no way they put a HD 7970 into the PS4. The cost of that graphics card alone is probably about the same as what the entire PS4 has to cost.

[DigitalSmoke]

Every single one of you is locked up thinking from inside the box, ya'll have no clue what this means, yet attack me, maybe subconsciously for that excact reason.

The PCI-E slot is only able to comunicate at about 37 gig a sec, the X86 CPU in PC also do not fish in the same memory pool as the PS4 does.

Later funny dummy's.

[Bladesfist]

The whole thing bored the hell out of me because I did not get a wow factor from the visuals (PC Gamers are used to it) and the tech demos were old. The social aspects were pushed way to hard. The only thing I enjoyed watching was Watchdogs. Anyway I am going to purchase a PS3 today to play uncharted 3. Anyone got any other games I should pick up?

[Bladesfist]

I guess I struck a nerve, want to tell me what you dsagree on? Watchdogs is the only game that had interesting gameplay shown. The rest was pre rendered and boring linear shooting.

[Eyeco]

I disagreed with your comment because, it just comes across as an ignorant and unfair judgement.

Ok so you weren't impressed with conference that's fine it's your opinion but then you state your reasons for not being impressed, and I'm like what?

You didn't get the wow factor from the visuals because your a PC gamer and that's understandable but that doesn't change the fact that its a substantial leap over anything on the ps3/360, meaning if your a CONSOLE gamer then the visuals on NEW CONSOLE would have impressed you.

You say the social aspects were pushed way to hard, I disagree because there showing of the new revamped PSN, something that overly bitched about on PS3, the abilty to stream, and share your own game play videos, and jump into your friends game, again is a big deal, please name me one console that can do that

And by saying the social aspects were pushed too hard I'm assuming you mean not enough games were shown ? I've also seen people complain about a lack of price range, release date etc, but that's why we have E3 which is 4 MONTHS AWAY, this was the reveal conference, People seem to ignore that when judging the conference, if you want more depth, more games, pricing wait till E3 christ.

Your comment seems to ignore how relevent everything that was shows is to console gaming, let alone to Playstation, you seem to ignore aspects like the partnership with Blizzard, think about it, one of the most iconic, innovative and greatest devs on the PC and gaming in general is gonna be working with a console for the the 1st time in 20 years, can't you see how much that means to a console ?

And again, Sony didn't have to show half of what they did this gen, Just officially revealing the specs and saying that guerilla games, MM, and sukerpunch are developing a game would have been enough, but if they showed this much in a reveal, just think of how much more will be shown in E3 this year.

[akaakaaka]

Bs in your statement .. leave the ego on the side and you will see how much advanced this games are.. no pc games uses 8gb of gddr5 from what I have read here not even 3gb of ram lol this is way ahead pc and you will have to upgrade you pc very soon if you want to keep up with the PS4 .. "next gen games"

Well get gt5, motor Storm Pacific rift, killzone 2, demons souls, heavy rain, infamous 2, resistance fom and 3 campaign are good!
Those are some amazing fun games you must play!

[Bladesfist]

Thanks for the list of games. I will be picking up at least one of the killzones.

"no pc games uses 8gb 5dram" Nor does any PS4 game or you will have an out of memory exception. We have no idea how much memory those games used.

What was BS in my statement? I have no ego here. I just did not find the games interesting or that great visually. Killzone looked like a boring generic shooter. Explosions everywhere. Made me think of CoD.

I doubt I will have to update my PC.

CPU 8 core @4ghz
GPU GTX 660TI
RAM 8GB 2100mhz
SSD 126gb
HDD1 500gb
HDD2 2TB

2 x 1080p monitors

Does not look as good as crysis 3 as a lot of you seem to think http://farm9.staticflickr.c...

[akaakaaka]

it does look good!, it's like how a PS3 game remade in hd for the PS4 will look like, but look at this KZSF pics they are ahead in details and tech..
your pc spec seem good but I still believe you will need to upgrade to reach this quality remember PC specs do not equal Consoles.

the whole city looks photo realistic
https://www.facebook.com/ph...

beautiful!
https://www.facebook.com/ph...

look at the fabric texture.. on the arm.. is just ahead anything on PC..
https://www.facebook.com/ph...

[jmc8888]

No, the PS4 won't push 8 gb's.

It'll push 2-3 gb's properly, if that, and it will have 2gb's most likely reserved for OS, and then the other 3-4 GB's will sit in reserve for five years from now when they need to use tricks like the current consoles use to make them last longer.

The PS4 is 1/8th-1/9th the power of an Uber PC. 1/3rd or so from a midrange 2013 PC. It is comparable to a 2011 midrange GPU with a midrange 2007-2008 CPU.

Those are the facts. They have been confirmed now. The only question is, how long will it take to bump up the raw to effective power by 50-100 percent and how often will developers spend the time to code it properly?

Because what that means is the PS4, at best, will equal a GTX 680 overclocked. AT BEST...YEARS FROM NOW. As for now it's a GTX 580 OC. Or a GTX 660 you can buy for $200.

[mandf]

Is this journalism? Is n4g going to approved it and lower itself further. Where are the articles discussing the games shown? All I have seen tonight is the Pc crowd taking one shot after another at Sony

1 article for Destiny

2 articles for Media Molicle

3 articles for killzone

Now go look at all the fail articles. Now look at the half praise with reference to pc or xbox. Get the picture. Sony released specs, games, and features but the most of the articles tonight don't focus on it. They just gotta crap on something. Such childish behavior in the gaming media.

[xPhearR3dx]

So it's okay for you PS3 guys to complain that Xbox holds back the PS3 versions of games, but it's not okay for PC guys to complain about the PS3 holding back the PC version of games?

[mandf]

I have no problem with any console or platform being less capable. Pc gaming holds itself back. I'll let you in on a little secret other than mmo's, and rts games, consoles are what drives the video game industry. Modders are what saves the pc from going under. This up coming gen you will see more pc centric developers hop over to consoles because that is where the money is (Blizzard just a start). Blame your fellow pc gamers for pirating.

BY the way ask the founder of Steam, Windows is also holding back pc in a really big way

With all these 50 plus exclusives you put on a pedestal you would think some of them would push boundaries on pc but it doesn't happen. Crysis and Metro were the only 2 games that tried. I never said pc is going under. You act like gaming is pc when the money is found in consoles wether you want to believe it or not.

[xPhearR3dx]

They're hoping over to consoles because they want more money in general. After all, that's why they're making games. Why limit yourself if there's millions of gamers on other platforms. Problem is, 7 year old tech limits what devs can do. It's a lot easier to make a game for the weakest hardware and port it to PC and add a fancy little texture pack.

If you honestly think PC gaming is going under, you need a wake up call pal. More and more people are switching to PC gaming every day. It's a wise decision, I suggest you do it as well.

[d3nworth1]

Jesus christ. Explain how the PC version of games which look and run better than the console version is being held back. Explain how my PC version of Street Fighter x Tekken which run at native 1080p was held back by my ps3 version which run at 720p. Explain how my PC version of Super Street fighter 4 which run at 90 fps was held back by my ps3 version which runs at 60 fps.It not okay to complain about the ps3 holding back the PC cuz its not holding it back. You PC elites are always complain about console hold your games back when half you dont even have the specs to run the game any better. What's is worse is the thing you guys mostly complain about the amount of pixels on screen. Why dont you people just shut up and play the god damn game. I swear you guy are annoying. Even though I game on PC i dont call myself a PC gamer mainly cuz I dont want people to grouped me with you guys. You guys are hands down the worst fanboys of any platform.

[ThatXboxGuy]

^

Don't bother man.Every gen, as console games get better and better, PC gamers bitch more and more.No matter what.Massive insecurity issues with those guys.

They need serious mental counseling.

[user9841288]

The next gen for gaming is just trolling and hating everything... It's sad and the main reason the mainstream will always shy away from the gaming crowd. The internet just seems to suck all the fun out of things anymore because you can't even talk about anything without a bunch of depressed people that need meds always showing up to fight about things no normal person would care about.

[mandf]

Rock on man. I totally agree. I came hear tonight to read all about the reveals but all I got was insecure Pc articles defending there system. I got 2 articles about Media Molicule with hardly any info. What a let down. Blame the media for repeatedly fueling this stupid fanboy war.

[Revolver_X_]

Well said...anal......rapist. Its seriously sad I have to agree with this guy. No one enjoys gaming anymore. PCers are glorified graphics whores, and each console has flamboyent fanboys. Im not pathetic enough to troll 720 or WiiU articles. My allegiance is to myself, not a piece of plastic or company. KZ and Deep Down looked amazing, btw, just in case you didnt know.

[TheGamerDood]

@xPhearR3dx

but..but the PC has 50+ exclusives coming out... whenever, so remind me again how consoles are holding back the PC again.

[jmc8888]

What do you think you watched earlier....

Was it a PS4 running demos?

Or was it a PC running what the PS4 target levels will be?

Hint, it was the latter.

Believe me, as someone who will be buying the PS4 and 720 and already bought a Wii U even though I have a PC better than them all, I wish for the sake of the industry, that something would actually push PC's, like last generation.

The starting point of this generation is if in 2005, MS didn't release 2005 tech, but released 2002-2003 tech.

A 360 and PS3 could outperform a 3000-4000 PC (or 2500 in core PC parts to build yourself) from a 2004 PC (the year before the 360 launched).

A PS4 is comparable to a $600-800 in core 2011 PC parts. (motherboard, ram, psu, CPU, GPU).

You make the determination whether or not that is high end and whether or not that is a step back or three from the starting point of a new console generation.

Then wrap your head around that you didn't see much of anything.

You didn't see price. You didn't get a list of games. You got vague references to devs that will eventually support PS4. You got demos ON PC of mostly multiplatform games that ummm, are on PC....thus probably why they were shown, because they are PC games running on a PC, showing merely what the PS4 SHOULD hopefully look like.

But we really don't know, because we weren't watching a PS4 do its thing, we were watching a PC pretending to be a PS4 do its thing.

We should be concerned. We should all want more for what we purchase. PC gamers are ONLY HELPED by consoles being stronger.

Most PC gamers are pointing out to people gushing that no, guys, this isn't a great reveal. They didn't reveal much, and what did, looked pretty ordinary. Nice, sure. Capable of providing fun. Sure. But entirely doable with a $200-300 GPU upgrade by most people with a PC with a decent quad core processor from the last 6 years.

What was the specs behind the PC we were watching during the PS4 reveal?

[squarecircle]

So very true.

[The Meerkat]

I'm a 360 and.......F### YES!!

It looked fantastic.

[NastyLeftHook0]

8GB OF GDDR5!!!!

[steve30x]

Honestly I am mostly a PC Gamer but I am impressed with what sony showed us. With 8GB of ram they can do a whole lot more with Anti Aliasing and Draw Distance in games that was impossible on the PS3. You shouldnt see texture Popups in snadbox games anymore and there should be a lot less jaggies. I could almost bet they will use 8X Anti Aliasing which will make a massive difference. I am definately thinking of ditching PC gaming now but I will wait for the console to get released before I make any decision though.

[jmc8888]

It has 8gb's of GDDR5 ram that only has a GPU capable of pushing 1.75-3 GB's of properly. 2 GB's reserved for OS. The other for late gen cycle tricks to mask the then in 2017-2019 old consoles limitations.

A GTX 670, with 2.46 TFlops and GDDR5 ram, can't push much more than 2GB's properly. (oh and that's stock numbers as well, not with boost or manual overclock)

On PC most of the GPU's only need more than ~2 GB's or so if they are at resolutions like 1600p or 5760x1080p. The PS4 is a 1080p console. Thus anything over 3GB's is really for OS and late cycle. Oh and we don't know the SPEED of the GDDR5. Odds are it won't be as high as in PC GPU's. Because that's a TON of GDDR5 they would have to make, which means it'll be the more common slower speed variety.

[DudeJets]

The spec is nothing awesome but it's as expected console hardware is very well optimised though so in that sense it passes

[NateCole]

They are really good specs for consoles. Consoles were never about high end specs though so it does not matter.

What matters are the games, games and games.

Sony first party are going to rock this new gen with the PS4.

[g-nome]

Specs are fine , the price might be a shocker.

[aussieracer]

It sounds like you are wanting to start something in the console-PC war. What a pitiful article. I'm a PC gamer at my core, but there is a hell of a lot to like about consoles as well. A lot that makes sense to get one, both economically and for the pure gaming experience. Power on, and away you go. While you're messing around tweaking graphics settings, updating display drivers, .NET framework, watching the temps on that OC'd CPU and GPU, and finally being pulled away from your game by that stupid Windows 7 colour scheme message, the console gamer is already far and away lost in the immersion of the latest and greatest game. I agree consoles can hold PC games back, but how often can PC gamers keep upgrading their $1000 graphics cards to keep up with developers progress anyway? In that way it's unfair to put all the blame on consoles. Also, why is it all about the graphics? What about just enjoying the actual gameplay? These next gen consoles sound like they are just what developers need; something easy to make games on. Something that will run very decent games at an acceptable framerate. Put your snobby, superior attitude behind you, because believe me, real gamers just think you're pathetic. No one system of gaming is better. Just different.

[PCpower]

***The following is for those ignorant about PC. I have no beef with console people. Just with people who do not understand PC hardware and try to boast that the PS4 has better hardware***

GDDR5 is on ALL current 600 series Nvidia video cards and ALL current HD7000 series AMD video cards. GDDR4 has been a dead graphics RAM for quite a while in the PC space as old tech. The reason the RAM amount is 3 GB or less on video cards is because the RAM is ONLY being used as a frame buffer to store texture data. On the PS4 the RAM is being used for system processes AND texture data. The value of 176 GB/s bandwidth DOES NOT top PC video memory bandwidth speed. An HD7970 video card has 3 GB of GDDR5 that has a bandwidth of 267 GB/s. The GHZ edition of the HD7970 has over 288 GB/s memory bandwidth. Our system RAM is not part of graphics RAM and it is at DDR3 level because it is only required to move CPU data which does not need uber high bandwidth like video graphic data does.

Finally, the only optimization the PS4 will have will be its GPU. The CPU is an x86 run of the mill processor that all PC's use. The programs written for X86 CPU's are at 100% optimization on the CPU side of things in the PC world because X86 has been around since the 1970's. So, it has had MANY years for developers to understand it. However, our graphic card GPU's must go through drivers and directX, which creates performance penalty overhead. So, you guys have the potential to push high graphics that will wow us.

[Gimmemorebubblez]

Guys I love PC but umless you count tablets its a dying breed.
Meril-Lynch said that the PC buisness is currently worth 160 billion but in ten years it may be worth nothing as the market shifts to touchscreen tablets and slates. As Gakai expands and internet connections improve in plus/minus 10 years you will be able to stream the highest quality game visuals from a server no matter what specs your device has.
This will all probably happen. For better or for worse.

@PCpower bubble up

[pennywhyz]

The new PC gpu is gangsta.Good luck comparing a $400 PS4 to a $1000 gpu.LOL as far as exclusives they are way more aimed at adults on PC then just your basic FPS that ya play for a lousy 25 hrs if lucky.Sux i have no bubbles to defend myself......

[cleverusername]

No bubbles? Mmm I wonder why?

[guitar_nerd_23]

PC gamers need to realize that new consoles raise the lowest common denominator and therefore increase the quality of games made for PC.

There's no need to be a dick about it!

PS4 looks great and that should be good news to PC gamers.

[iMaim]

Dude ... DDR5 man. That's pretty f**king good.

[Dogswithguns]

I just want good games. not high spec.

[telekineticmantis]

in some senses, that's why I was pushing for upgradable hardware on Next gen consoles. Hopefully Sony can and will address that with Gaikai. Streaming games the hardware wasn't exactly built for.

[clintagious650]

I respect all u pc gamers but do remember even with the pc having advantages over the ps4 but the pc can only showcase how far devs can push the pc & so far crysis might be the pc's best looking game but u already know naughty dog, santa monica studios, guerilla, polyphony, & motorstorm devs are going to show crytek how to push graphics even further especially since now they have hardware that can give them more freedom to work with pushing games even further. Heck ill put my money on guerilla, naughty dog, & santa monica studios to surpass cryteks engine with the engine the will use for the ps4.

[vanethe]

it wont make pc ports better , pc's are always way ahead .
im personally not impressed it's just average specs..

that fact that there isn't ssd doesnt help either

if it were 16 GB Ram + 4GB video memory i would me impressed !

but since that's not the case it comes down to the price for me.

[Link079]

The problem with ps4 is alot of games are going on ps3 as well ? so most people will just get ps3 versions where as WiiU will have games like

Beyonetta2
Wonderful 101
Windwaker
X
Watchdogs
Project CARS with full GAMEPAD support,plus the game will look better than Driving Club on ps4,Forza looked better than driving club.

http://entretudo4all.com/wp...

http://www.nintendolife.com...

These features are amazing as well as the graphics.

http://www.nintendofront.de...

[clintagious650]

Its useless arguing because we already seen wat sony 1st party devs can do with ps3 having the best looking games on consoles & I can only imagine wat they will be able to do with the ps4. I mean the jump from ps3 to ps4 is a HUGE jump so ill just let sony's 1st party do the talking. Watch wen the next uncharted hits, I bet it will impress all u none believers.

[Dms2012]

I am a little weary of seeing a question mark at the end of every article title.

[mamotte]

It all goes on how they use that power. I mean, it's not like PC games were the most top rated games from all time.

There's something I said a long time ago, when the world knew PS4 was in development and everything. Someone said "I hope Killzone 4 appears". My responde was: "We're plagued with FPS now. If the first game they use to show power is a generic FPS, then we're f*ed". And then, appears Killzone. I wont say the games are bad by any means, but the most I see at the video from last night, the more I say... it looks good, but's still more of the same. The gameplay... it was more of the same. Watchdogs looks great, but it looks great since the last year, not since last night.

It's not like I have anything against the console. I'm just not happy with what they showed last night. everyone here was saying "But the power will not be only graphics: It'll be revolutionary, open worlds, physics, it'll make you dinner". And then, Killzone. And that "we do amazing graphics" guy, who showed how cute the old man looks, wich only makes sense if the old man is a giant boss like the Andross's Head from Star Fox.

I know, I know: We havent seen anything yet. But if this is all they have to offer... I'll wait a few years to consider buying one.

[Wintersun616]

You do a fine job at ignoring the other games that were shown.

[Christopher]

***"We're plagued with FPS now. If the first game they use to show power is a generic FPS, then we're f*ed"***

Guess we're glad it wasn't the first game shown then.