ICE Team Playstation 4 Performance Boost Thanks to GPGPU Rendering

The Asynchronous Compute Engines queue and control the GPU’s task scheduling, effectively ensuring that compute data is being synced up to the current version in memory. Another important task they perform is the scheduling of when a task is performed so that it doesn’t interfere or drain away processing power from graphical tasks. For more information please checkout our article here. Another good source of info is AMD’s own official whitepaper.

[GamersHeaven]

LOL love that pic.

[Gotcha5]

"Hey"... surrender that gun you Nerd before you shoot you eye out?

[user1439414]

Playstation are crushing it right now :) I cannot wait for E3 to see the look on Major Nelsons face when Sony deliver the final blow to the Microsoft Xbox One. This is biblical.

[lsujester]

- MrTehDiNGO

Really? That's what you're wanting?

I'm hoping for both companies to do well so there will be more great games for me to play.

[MadLad]

@Isujester

Don't mind him, Isujester.
Dingo simply has that "Feverish Fanboy Flu" that keeps popping up around here.
It's not contagious, though I still feel isolating those inflicted is the best course of action.

[Revolver_X_]

Dingo is being fanboyish, true. But it doesnt help when the opposing argument is coming from a nitwit.

[isthe]

Let's not look for consoles to kill other consoles. The great thing about competing consoles is that it pushes companies to put out better products for us gamers to enjoy

[Sevir]

It's Hardly a clean slate, they are desperate to change minds and make up the difference, that's why 6 months in the price is down. Not even 1 year.

Sony has the momentum and quite frankly MS will literally have to strong arm them into submission, and in light of what has happened I think This E3 is about be explosive for Sony...

[jmac53]

@nitwit there is no clean slate for MS. They have everything to prove after a year of blunders and 180's.

[Iceman X]

Rumor has it that Sony is about to drop price of PS4 to $350.

[cyclindk]

Such a friendly looking serial killer :)

[morganfell]

Well those are the ones. They always say, "He was a quiet man" ...and then they pick up an ax and wipe out the whole family.

[isthe]

All the successful ones are.

[memots]

shot fired

[miyamoto]

Like Mark Cerny said last February 2013, he designed the PS4 with this old principle from the pioneer's of video gaming:

"Easy To Play Difficult To Master"

Imagine how this principle of the PS4 applies to all classes of game developers!?

The PS4 is truly a phenomenal gaming platform!

Even the PS3 kinda shares this principle. just look at The Last of Us six years in the Ps3's life cycle.

[Magicite]

before x1 gets boost from dx12, PS4 will be 10 steps ahead.

[Copen]

DX12 isn't going to do anything to pull it within parity with the ps4 so mentioning that is pointless.Tired of people arguing against what won't ever and can't ever be changed this generation which is there is a hardware advantage that is REAL and the power gap will only widen.

[Hardcore_gamerxbox]

By what ? Please explain

[jmac53]

What he is saying is hardware is hardware and no amount of software magic is going to improve the raw specs.

[ITPython]

No, no, no, this is all wrong. Only the XB1 is supposed to have improvements and secret sauces. Sony was just supposed to sit there and not improve on anything. Right? Right!?!? Were the fanboys wrong? It can't be!

Repent, the end is nigh!

[Copen]

That's their perspective yeah. It gets old seriously it's like stop moving the goal posts stop with the secret sauce just stop this futility and accept reality. Go take the fan boy anger to MS they're the ones who cheaped out on the specs of your Xbox One to go with Kinect and the casual crowd instead of you hard core guys who built the Xbox brand. Stop targeting Sony it's not their fault or their problem don't hate on them because they chose gamers first and built their vision with the input from many developers and publishers in the industry. Sony was receptive to input and criticism. MS they put their hands over their ears and screamed la la la until it was too late and the damage was done but until fan boys deal with the facts and stop the fan boy drivel this will continue to be one giant circle jerk by both sides.

[NewZealander]

i couldnt give a rats what console has the edge, fanboys on both sides need to stop bitching about specs and just play the games, ps4 is more powerful, i get that, and i don't care....build a bridge people!

[isthe]

@NewZealander YES! arguing over which console is better is pointless. It's not gonna make a person like a system better than the other. If they're not happy with their console they should blame the creators. So many good points made on this page, ah it warms my heart

[user1439414]

DX12 and the Power of the CLOUD will never even come close to what Sony have got up their sleeves. I can't wait to play UNCHARTED on PS4 using GPGPU Rendering ONLY ON PS4.

[Knushwood Butt]

lol power of the cloud.

Like MS are the only ones that have access to online servers...

[XStation]

@Knushwood Butt
It's the fact that they can pay for more servers than Sony.

[DigitalRaptor]

@ XStation

Perhaps you might want to have a read of this article to find out a little bit more about the truth behind what these dedicated servers can offer developers. You don't have to fall for the marketing: http://www.dualshockers.com...

When it talks about "persistence", that is going to become a greater factor in large online games. When PlanetSide 2 hits PS4 later this year, we'll see a game of true online persistence with 2000-player sessions, all provided for free.

[gigoran]

Dingo, you're spot on. MS is going to require xbone users to connect to the internet to get this supposed boost. Sony is plug n play and fully capable of playing games at their max settings WITHOUT an internet connection. So pretty much Sony wins the fight of this secret sauce too. What other petty battles are they going to think of? It's 2-0 so far in Sonys favor. Best of 5?

[ovnipc]

Some one should make a video of hitlers find out that sony its increasing the gap. I own both consoles and im loving the ps4, my only complain for the ps4 its the controller battery life the rest I love. But I have no friends on psn ;(

[nosferatuzodd]

Gamer tag is Xmantaclan come role with us youll have crazy fun my crew is big over 50 people deep

[IRetrouk]

xTSxRetro add me if you like :-)

[ScottyHoss]

ScottyHoss, add me up man

[DLConspiracy]

All for either company boosting their performance on either system. At least both sides are now willing to admit that you can boost the performance. I see kids doubting dx12 will do anything but now that Sony is doing something kind of similar they are OK with it. Like I said I am all about both boosting performance because I own both. Consoles are going to need that boost if they want to fight over resolution and frames.

On topic of the first poster Mark holding a gun seems all too fitting. I hear he has a new game coming out called "Amber Alert".

[UnHoly_One]

I've never seen that pic before.

If anyone else here is a gun owner, I hope they are as bothered by that picture as I am.

That guy shouldn't be allowed to handle a firearm. I don't care what kind of stage event it is for. Or how many people supposedly checked it first.

[DashArrival]

OMG, have you ever heard of PHOTOSHOP. I'm a photoshop master, and doing that kind of thing is as basic as it gets... also the picture was awesome and funny. I loved it, shame they had to change it because of uptight people like yourself.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

Basically I'm netural on this unless we see the actual proof on both sides about this, I'm just neutral!

[guyman]

One more thing: I think you're neutral on ths too...

[pedrof93]

@Sasuke

You mean skeptical.

[CryofSilence]

On a final note, I think he is neutral too.

[OculusRift]

Where's your buddy with the Naruto id that normally stalks you out just like in the anime/manga?

[SuperBlur]

his mum confiscated his iphone

[mezati99]

*facepalm just stop man lol

[aceitman]

I think ND will be the 1st to use this boost being the ICE team is from ND , its been going around on twitter that uncharted 4 will make jaws drop to the floor , someone stated - when ND stated that there next gen uncharted game will use 1 million poloygon per character they where not kidding .
http://www.playstationlifes...
this is what they can look like .
http://media.officialplayst...
http://media.officialplayst...
http://media.officialplayst...
and here is some info about the ice team .
http://www.naughtydog.com/s...

[Codey47]

Damn so that big, Ummm ICE Team Playstation you are like Rikudou Madara with the Shinju absorbed and the Third eye activated!

Was expecting something like the above instead of this neutral bullshit tbh.

[Muzikguy]

Neutral! Basically I have no opinion. @ace thanks for the pics! I'd be amazed to see stuff like that in a game! Not sure it will happen this gen unless it's a fighting game or something. If we do, I'll gladly admit being wrong!

[Copen]

The power gap has already been proven to this point hasn't it? I mean ps4 games in native 1080p and 60 fps where the same game goes what 792p and 60 or 30 fps on the x1. Clearly I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer Playstation to Xbox but I was fortunate enough to buy both this gen and I use both and they both stand on their own merits and likewise they've both got pro's & con's but the power difference is real but to each his or her own maybe that doesn't matter to some but I enjoy both for different reasons mine being my Ps4 is my primary console to buy the better version of multi plats and my Xbox One for the exclusives and for my kids because they love the dance games and for all its faults Kinect does do dancing games well but that's an example of why I bought both and my uses totally anecdotal.

[Eonjay]

Very good read and he does a good job of providing official documentation where applicable. What it seems like is though the PS4 has tons of untapped features rhat will only be avaliable with SDK updates making them avaliable.

Contrasting this against Sucker Punch's documentation, it seems like the biggest increase could come from better control over GPU compute scheduling.

I am also interested to see what kind of real world benifits volatile bit will provide. After all, L2 cache is way faster than even GDDR5 ram.

[Shakengandulf]

Can these updates affect games that were released 1-2 years ago, say frame rate for example?
If these consoles were 4-5 years into there life cycle, and a game that came out in the first year chugged a little, can these updates affect performance in anyway. (Improve)
Can anyone answer this.

Edit, ok cheers Eonjay

[Destrania]

I think any game can receive performance increases with firmware updates.

[Eonjay]

Probably not. The SDK will determine how the machine interprets the code. So, games that are created with an older SDK will still be interpreted by the machine in the older way. The only thing that could make an older game run better is a patch that includes features from a newer SDK. The reason for this is because you don't want to make an update that makes older software incompatible.

[windblowsagain]

Drivers update to Sony's own custom library's will speed earlier games up.

[Guwapo77]

@Eonjay - Mark said all of this months leading up to release of the PS4. I'm excited to see what the PS4 will become at the end of it's lifespan.

[nope111]

Dat pic :D

[disKinected]

Hmmm.. Interesting, so ps4 is getting performance boost. Shocking../s

[Mikelarry]

i know right anyone who did not see thing coming is in denial. over time tech hardware improves this is not surprising, really cant wait to see how this improves gaming on my ps4 as a whole

[dcbronco]

Way to go Sony. Proving the are-chair devs wrong again. It seems the same hardware can boost performance as the generation moves forward. Maybe Microsoft can boost the ability of Xbox One too. Maybe. Maybe even 1080p games.

[snookiegamer]

Both PS4 & Xbox One are in their infancy on the software side. We'll see incremental improvements over the course of this generation.

Much like every generation before us, pretty much expected, hardly a phenomenon ;/

[Nine_Thousaaandd]

“Future SDK improvements on PS4 will focus on GPGPU rendering. This is when delta between PS4 and X1 will magnify,”

Man oh man...let ND get a hold of this, hot damn! DriveClub and The Order along with inFAMOUS, already showing signs that the PS4 GPU is no pushover, and may not have an equal in console wars. PC will always be king, but gotta say...console wise...PS4 will reign as prince...the Xbone and Wii U will be servants.

[disKinected]

Indeed, ps4 owners are in for a lot of greatness this gen. :)

[Mikelarry]

damn if the order looks this amazing before the ps4 gpgpu update imagine what first party games will look like after... my eyes are not worthy

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[XtraTrstrL]

I think what they're doing will help 1st parties, but is mainly to get 3rd parties and lil indies over that performance hump right out the box with the SDK. Most 1st parties will probably be going more to the metal even and using more specific tools, since they don't have to worry about porting to multiplat. The new improvements will be to bring multiplats and indies to another level without much effort from devs.

[mysteryraz11]

pc isnt king because pcs have no standard, most ppl dont have high end pcs, the difference between consoles and pcs is all the ps4s or x1s are at the same levels, pcs arent

[iagainsti120]

That is what makes it King.
King - Can do what ever he wants
Prince - Cant do as much as the king but will have features that will make him unique.
Servant - Always told what to do and receives a lot of back lash

[frezhblunts]

Yes when it comes to power the Ps4 will out beat everyone, even one of the top guys from Nintendo praised about its power. I do see Microsoft trying to do a lot of improvements and updates which seems great. I wouldn't know too much though I don't own an xbox one. I own infamous it's alright, I think The Order will have great graphics!

Owner of Wii U and Ps4

[MysticStrummer]

http://www.redgamingtech.co...

versus

http://www.blog.qarea.com/w...

...Fight!

[GameDev1]

Ridiculous, what an unfair fight

That compute engine has a non existent opponent

I call for a sidebar

[imfwwdcc]

^

[imfwwdcc]

ACE WINS
FATALITY

[aerisbueller]

They made it ice.
http://www.tubechop.com/wat...

[Rainbowcookie]

Moral of the story So in layman's terms Xbox got better clouds , Ps4 got better ICE :)

[RevXM]

Both are water and sources of power (kind of), but in the case of the clouds it doesnt do much when internet speeds are like holding up an umbrella, the splashes that hit your feet are nothing but a bittersweet taste while the ice is firmly grounded ready to be heated so you can have a good shower.

[XtraTrstrL]

Thank you Mark Cerny.

[solidboss07]

We have all known this since shortly after Feb 2013???

[D3ATH_DRIV3R_777]

The PS4 is becoming a monster.

[sic_chops]

I hope Naughty Dog blows the whole industry away. If anybody can do it, it will be them.

[Father__Merrin]

Cerney looks extremely Evil

[mochachino]

No, he's Boss

http://static.gamespot.com/...

[kryteris]

this could have been summed up in a paragraph, waste of time.

[jlo]

Hate the burst the fanboy bubble (joke, I love it) but even with optimisation you can only push weak hardware such as the PS4 and Xbox one so far.

No amount of optimisation will make up for a weak gpu and really weak cpu. It will be 6 more years of hoping for 1080p60fps and getting 900p30fps

[Agent_hitman]

That photo is funny.. Mark cerny should become an action star, that really fits in him.

[xx4xx]

Yeah. Those stupid xbones will blindly believe in secret sauce, clouds, and DX12. It doesn't matter that millions upon millions are invested. They will blindly believe in upcoming performance boosts.

This is completely different though because..... because..... oh that's right because it's Sony.

[DoubleM70]

You hit it right on the head. What's even stranger is why are they talking about performance boost we are just 6 months in?

[Spotie]

It's completely different because this actually makes sense.

Thinking dx12 was ever gonna generate significant gains for a console was always stupid. The reason it can do so much for PC- which is what all the xbots have been erroneously equating to XB1 improvements- is because it's giving PC the low-level ability already present in consoles. Sure, there will be other gains, but that's the biggest factor. It sure as hell won't bridge the gap like fanboys think it will.

As for the cloud, any moron with half an idea how the internet or software programs work could tell you just how unlikely it is that the cloud will do what Microsoft claims. Namely multiplying the power of the XB1, or anything else of significance for at least the next decade.

Of course, this all goes completely over your head. Your dead set on making it seem like there's some hypocrisy going on, rather than one crowd not being as stupid as the other.

[twdll]

Of course it'll get performance boosts.. so will the Xbone. I have both and they are basically graphically identical. Most people 95% could not tell the differences in a blind test. Both are great and will get better. Thanks for the competition.

[Rocky5]

We need some real life testing/footage to determine if its as big as were lead to believe.

This we know is indirect response to MS & DX12, Sony had to do something.

This is all I see currently in this article.
http://forums.whiteselectro...

[purp13m0nk3y]

Asynchronous GPGPU compute is already in use in many PS4 exclusives.

Killzone Shadowfall uses it. As does Infamous Second Son. Other games may also, but I can only confirm these titles personally.

It will be a huge focus for SONY first party devs. And even multi plats as developers start to make greater use of the tech. Both current and next gen PC graphics cards are geared heavily for GPGPU.

[urwifeminder]

It is a secret sauce off between the two now ? lol I will raise you VR and wash it down with sauce you sunk my battleship.

[ipach]

i'll read the article eventually, but 'gpgpu rendering' already sounds a bit off the mark. i always thought gpgpu is all about using silicon/resources that were traditionally used for rendering (the GPU) for compute as well.

[XStation]

OH, fanboys are at the top 10 list of hypocrits. They all say DX12 won't do nothing to do XB1 and that the Cloud isn't real. Yet, when it comes to anything regarding the PS4 getting a boost, it's automatically a working product and will absolutely help the PS4. People must have forgotten that Microsoft is a software company. And if any of you have Windows, Excel, or Word on your PC and or use it, you should know Microsoft knows that they're doing with software.

[suicidalblues]

That's funny. My Windows 7 laptop at work constantly crashes, internet explorer often can't open Adobe files and excel says I can't save the file because it's "locked for editing" by another user even though I'm the only one who has it open. They know what they're doing all right.

[XStation]

Well if it crashes, upgrade to windows 8.1...
And that Excel seems like a very small problem that can be easily fix and i'm pretty sure happens to a minority of users. Naming one little problem don't make it bad. And just because your computer crashes, you ever thought of it crashing because your computer is weak, instead of windows 7? My school computers that run on windows 7 do not even crash and they're 32 bit. Also, i see you excluded Word, so i guess it's completely fine. Also, if you hate Microsoft, don't use SKYPE EITHER.

[Jrmy84]

I don't really think people understand the Xboxone was built to utilize DX11,DX12 but, You can't change hardware and hardware is on Sony's side this gen. No matter any argument Sony has the muscle in their machine period. I still can't wait though to see what Microsoft has planned for E3 after they blew it last year.

[disKinected]

"Microsoft is a software company"

Oh that's why they are behind Sony when it comes to drivers. Lol. Ok MS fanboy.
Both will get performance boosts in the future but hardware difference will always be there. Ps4 will always be one step ahead, get that thing in your head!
Ps4 simply is more powerful console, doesn't mean xbox one is bad, but constant dreaming of xbox community of xbox becoming more powerful than ps4 in future is pure delusion. Don't become mrX cult or you will become the laughing stock of gaming community.

[Skankinruby]

Lol love the name

[Studio-YaMi]

"fanboys are at the top 10 list of hypocrits"
Says you...

You don't deserve that avatar btw.

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

still would like to have an xb1 eventually~ i played ps3 primarily last gen, and ps4 is my preferred plat this gen, but i still enjoyed some games on ms' consoles.

[purp13m0nk3y]

Been saying since before the PS4 was even released that Asynchronous GPGPU compute would be a huge focus with the PS4 and PC GPUs in the coming years.

It's also yet another area where the Xbox1's hardware is lacking. The Xbox1 can do GPGPU (any core next AMD based system can) but it is not geared heavily towards its efficient use like the PS4.

The PS4 was built from the ground up with GPGPU and Asynchronous Compute in mind.

[MasterofMagnetism]

Nice pic.

[Doritos_Pope]

The funny thing is, Sony today, unlike the Sony of old, lets MS run their mouth, the way the Sony of old used to be. in the end, the games do the talking. and when games show the gap widening, the people arent going to have their head in the Clouds, ms.

[SH1ELD]

DAT CERNY

[SH1ELD]

Next Gen on the hands of ICE teams

[FayZ_]

cpu performance is still a big flop on ps4, maybe they can copy dx12 in some way, at least it doesnt need as much as a gpu boost as xbone

[Ol_Boy]

Lol why did they change the picture? Don't tell me it was offensive to anyone. ..

[inf3cted1]

ICE Team Playstation 4 Performance Boost Thanks to GPGPU Rendering

ICE TEAM PLAYSTATION 4 PERFORMANCE BOOST THANKS TO GPGPU RENDERING!!!!!!!

Looks like the damn inflatable man ad. Same thing showed up like this on N4G a month ago. How about we see this working before getting excited?

[isyourhouseonfire]

I hope this news is legit because, so far, us ps4 owners should be getting refunds for this disaster.

[DashArrival]

Absolutely no one thinks the PS4 is a disaster and the fact that, in order to troll, you've said something so blatantly ridiculous says so much more about you as a human being than anything you've probably ever said about the PS4. Sad dude, just so sad.

[isyourhouseonfire]

Do you even own a ps4? I'm guessing not, judging by your ignorant response. Go try it out, join us in our regret.

[turkish41]

another secret sauce? loooooool

[DarXyde]

I'll believe it when I see it. It will definitely improve, but these "massive" performance boosts we keep hearing about from both ICE and DX12 are unrealistic. Hardware is hardware. You can better optimize it to make it perform more so "as expected" than "increase power". Granted, no one is explicitly saying "increased power", but that's how everyone seems to be treating it.

I think we need to be realistic about the performance gains, especially on consoles with integrated components.