280°

PS4′s Asynchronous Fine-Grain Compute GPU: What the Heck Can it Do?

Giuseppe Nelva of DualShockers.com explains the technical ins and outs of the future-proofing features named by Mark Cerny for the GPU of the PS4 like Ray casting for Audio, World Simulation, Decompression, Physics Simulation and Collision detection.

Read Full Story >>
dualshockers.com
Timesplitter144375d ago (Edited 4375d ago )

Basically, it allows the GPU to be used for tasks that would normally be handled by the CPU. Whenever the GPU will have unused potential, which is ALWAYS, it will be able to handle computing tasks.

And GPUs are several orders of magnitude more powerful than CPUs, because they are made out of many, many cores that work in parallel.

If you want to see what that means visually, here's a particle system running on the GPU (instead of the CPU particle systems we're currently used to see) : http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Skynetone4375d ago

here's another example of the power of the gpu

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

NewMonday4375d ago

some benefits of this is that it reduces the load on the CPU, meaning it will have more room for tasks only the CPU can perform.

and also puts less load on the RAM because less data will need to travel between the GPU and CPU thru RAM.

this also leads to less burden on the developers, because they don't need to spend much time writing the pipelines/paths for data running between the GPU and CPU.

papashango4375d ago

in short. more multitasking scenarios...

that's about it

I_am_Batman4375d ago

I would like to add that GPGPU can be used to tremendously improve AI in games as well.

mewhy324375d ago

And don't foget the fact that the PS4's GPU is 50% more powerful than the xbone's.

Gardenia4375d ago

In short; PS4 is gonna be an amazing machine

Abriael4375d ago

Potentially, too bad that those features won't come before 2-3 years. Ray tracing for audio is amazing.

Alexious4375d ago

Well, it just depends on developers' skills.

Anyway, PS4 is just teeming with potential. One little turnoff is that Cerny's Knack doesn't look too special, even from a technical point of view.

I guess that depends a lot on the whole development team, though.

piroh4375d ago

gladly, Sony studios are helping each other

AnteCash4375d ago

Ps4 has a modest CPU but custom GPU with 64 compute huge increse from 4 compute that the normal pc verion would have.

Xbox has 2 or 4 i dunno.

Abriael4375d ago

I may be wrong but PC is 2 compute, at least for that kind of card.

a08andan4375d ago

Xbox One has 12 CU's and the ps4 has 18 if I'm not mistaken. Each CU capable of 64 operations per cycle :)

GDDR6_20144375d ago (Edited 4375d ago )

ps4 has 18 compute units

so thats between a 7850 (16) and 7870 (20),

AMD's higher end GPUs, 7950 has 28 CUs, 7990 has 64 CUs

They can all do 64 instructions (SIMD) per second

Show all comments (25)
390°

Mark Cerny: FSR 4 for PS5 Pro is the "next evolution of PSSR"

The RDNA 4 upscaler is the first result of AMD/Sony's Project Amethyst collaboration.

Read Full Story >>
eurogamer.net
Muigi105d ago

Excited by this news lets see how things play out.

Eonjay105d ago

They are basically working together to co-devlop the cnns and strategies for game graphics. So the research benefits borth products and they will share similar capabilities. So its not exactly FS4 that comes to PS5 but rather the models that then used by PSSR. Their long term goal together is to develop hardware that maximizes the execution of ML. This longterm goal will impact things like the PS6 but doesn't sound like it is focused on acceleration graphics only ML. This is big for AMD and will make them more competetive in the AI landscape.

Fishy Fingers105d ago

I always saw PSSR as basically a FSR4 beta.

ZycoFox105d ago

Still behind DLSS but I mean Nvidia have done a ton of research and they're still top dog in AI apps.

hennessey86104d ago

I don't understand the disagrees, the new transformer model along with ray reconstruction is on another level to the very good FSR4

Eonjay104d ago

To be fair we know that FSR4 will bring Ray Reconstruction like tech in the future. Also FSR4 beats DLSS3 and even some aspects of DLSS4. The era of Nvidia having a huge leg up in ML is over. Its not on 'another level'.

hennessey86104d ago

Show me where FS4 4 beats the new transformer model anywhere, I'll wait. It is however better than DLSS 3 like you say, DLSS 4 is on another level when it comes to detail and image stability

105d ago Replies(1)
Destiny1080105d ago

that's good news for pro users, PSSR is about to get a whole lot better

105d ago Replies(3)
Show all comments (46)
180°

Mark Cerny Explains PlayStation's Focus On GPU Power Over CPU Upgrade For PS5 Pro

PlayStation lead architect Mark Cerny has offered an explanation on PlayStation's focus on GPU power over CPU upgrades for the PS5 Pro.

Read Full Story >>
twistedvoxel.com
andy85185d ago

Only logical really. Had this argument loads on here. "Why have they not changed the CPU". Well it's costing £700 without doing that. How much did you want it to cost exactly doing both? CPU based games are probably 1/10 to GPU games' 9/10. That's why the money should be in the GPU

Fishy Fingers185d ago (Edited 185d ago )

Its easier/cheaper to manufacture (at least one chip on the APU is the same).

And more importantly, console games are mostly GPU bound (as they have ass CPUs compared to modern PCs) so keeping it the same makes life easier on devs to build the CPU requirements for both PS5 & Pro and just scale up on the GPU side of things.

DivineHand125185d ago (Edited 185d ago )

He could have made compromises to improve not only the GPU but the CPU as well. The CPU inside the PS5 is equivalent to the Ryzen 7 3700x. If he had approached it with the same logic as a PC gamer/builder, he would have left out the wifi 7 card and used a 1 TB internal storage instead of 2. That would have reduced the total cost of the system enough for him to add a CPU that is equivalent to a Ryzen 5 5600x or better while releasing it at $700.

That would have felt like a true generational leap over the base PS5 without having to rely on PSSR.

There is a reason Digital Foundry asked that question because they too believe the CPU could have been upgraded.

Dreadbourn185d ago (Edited 185d ago )

The 3700x is perfectly fine for 60fps. A 5600x like upgrade would have been a waste of resources for what they want out of it.

DivineHand125185d ago

So let me get this straight. You are fine with getting less for your money when there was a way for you to get more for that $700?

There are some titles that struggle to reach a locked 60 fps because of this CPU limitations and some titles that looks visually worst that the base PS5 because of the developer's poor implementation of PSSR. The more power inside the PS5 pro means, less issues from devs and a better product for you the consumer.

Don't blindly defend everything from Sony.

Dreadbourn184d ago

No, divinehand, I'd rather them do what they did with the SSD than a CPU upgrade. I have a PC I built with a 3600x and a 6800xt, I can count the number of titles I've tried that are CPU bottlenecked on one hand, and none of them are on console. You wouldn't see a real measurable difference in 99% of titles going from a 3700x to a 5600x until you start getting to 100+ fps, and that territory means next to nothing for consoles.

mkis007185d ago (Edited 185d ago )

You are ignoring the fact that the cpu bound games are all countable on one hand vs the gpu ones. It isn't worth it in this case. Any upgrade wouldn't have been enough even with other cutbacks. He's been lead architect for the past 4 consoles for a reason.

DivineHand125185d ago

How would reducing the drive space from 2 TB to 1 TB and keeping Wifi6 in the PS5 pro impact the performance?

Those are expensive components and the budget of those could have gone towards a better CPU while keeping the same GPU the PS5 Pro currently has.

The_Algorithm184d ago

The Pro was never meant to be a "true generational leap over the base PS5", that's what the PS6 will be for.

richie007bond184d ago

Tell that to the folks forking out $700

Firebird360185d ago

Anybody else get the feeling after that presentation that ps6 might not be backwards compatible and almost certainly not with ps4 games.

mkis007185d ago

not at all, he even said he didn't need to butterfly ps4 pro after all. "once it's in it's in." He said something in a digital foundry interview about timings not having to line up as he once thought.

Reaper22_185d ago (Edited 185d ago )

I'm not impressed at all with what PS5 PRO brings to the table. It's not worth the price imo.

mkis007185d ago

As they bring home record revenue lol.

184d ago
xenz184d ago

Sony stock price has surged with 30% the last 6 months. Just FYI

mkis007184d ago

Don't go to you for financial advice got it. You're the kind of guy who would say something obvious about finances and then something crazy would happen just so fate could make you wrong again.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 184d ago
Show all comments (23)
60°

The big PlayStation 5 Pro tech interview with Mark Cerny and Mike Fitzgerald

The Digital Foundry PS5 Pro tech interview with Sony's Mark Cerny and Insomniac's Mike Fitzgerald, discussing PSSR and the PS5 Pro's design and development.

Read Full Story >>
eurogamer.net