Rumor: "Very Affordable" PS4 Based on AMD's A10 APU
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Of course, if US prices go to 80, what do you think will happen to AU prices?Evil Smurf said:
Australian retailers like their markups.
Yeah but it's a mid-range GPU, and even then it's the lower powered D series version more akin to the M series versions made for laptops than the 'standard' versions made for discrete GPU cards.newwiseman said:
I dunno... you might be underestimating the effects things such as switching CPU architecture and the inherent problems of APUs (they're bastards for heat management) will have on the traditional resource efficiency of consoles, not to mention fundamental shift in design theory from 'gaming machine' to 'home entertainment and social media centre (oh yeah, they still play games, I guess, if that's your thing)' that we've seen happening.
Yet the average American wage is about 15-20% higher than the Aussie average wage, and that's calculated in 'international dollars' which are based on the purchasing power of the US dollar.Owyn_Merrilin said:
Have you got a source on that? Because I've always understood Australians made more in general. They have to, because the cost of living over there is through the roof compared to what it is in the US. Video games are hardly the only thing that you guys get charged more for.RhombusHatesYou said:
I imagine given how things go with consoles the first batch will reveal all kinds of problems due to lax QA and corner cutting of that sort. Also there's no Ken Kutaragi crazying up the place.Fappy said:
The PS4 will be affordable...
I can imagine them doing a Steve Jobs style reveal/launch...
"And the best part is, you get to CHOOSE whether you pay for it with your arm or with your leg"
I can imagine them doing a Steve Jobs style reveal/launch...
"And the best part is, you get to CHOOSE whether you pay for it with your arm or with your leg"
When I first heard about AMD's APU design, that was the first thought through my head: "How the hell are they going to deal with the heat?" While a console actually does strike me as the more optimal place for an APU, it's got its own specific set of drawbacks that might be problematic to address.RhombusHatesYou said:
Overcompensation more like. I talked with a few people who developed ghames for PS3. Their main complain was "we cant make this or that becuase the machine dont have enough active memory (read: ram). so i guess sony overcompensated with that after hearing same complaints from developers. Also, we are already buying PCs with 8 gb, if this console wants to be competetive for more than itsl aunch day it has to look at the future, so nothing wrong with that. Ram isnt expensive anyway. Now what i really dont like is that its AMD processors, as AMD still havent managed to get the new efficien technology that iseries has, but this deal was probably signed before that came out of the bag anyway.Rayken15 said:
Really? The APU's seem like an ideal solution for most of the things developers would want for a console. The A10 is basically the beefiest integrated most people would need on a PC. If you actually optimized things to make use of all the good points it has, on-die means lower latencies and that you won't have it desolder itself from the system board.
The launch PS3 used a GPU on a 90nm process, A10 is 32nm. Since 2006 we have went through 4 cycles of Moore's law, mostly keeping up. So at the same price point as then we have hardware 16x as powerful. Native resolution on both PS3 and 360 was 720p then internally upscaled to 1080p. Native 1080p will be doable in the coming generation.
PS3 and 360 had total ram figures of about 512MB. The A10 is based of a DDR3 memory controller, so assuming they will be using dual channel ram.
Best A10 goes for $132 retail, 8GB of DDR3 costs $40 retail, 250GB 2.5" hard drive $52, proprietary motherboard. Throw in controller and usual cables.
So I can see them easily hitting a sub $350 price point without taking a lose on the.
As for heat, these things are many times cooler then the 360 gpu. Putting the GPU and CPU on a single die means they can use a single better cooler to deal with heat. A regular A10-5800k has a TDP of 100W and does most of the heavy lifting processor wise. The 360 power brick is 203W. As long as they are intelligent about airflow and fan curves they will have no issues being quiet and cool.
People saying 8GB of ram is too much, think for a bit. The system will use dual channel DDR3 ram. That means 4 slots/ their equivalent will be used by the system. They don't make 1GB DDR3 dimms, in fact 2GB dimms are cheaper and faster then 1GB dimms of similar price.
TLDR; 8GB is the standard for dual-channel DDR3 based systems.
The launch PS3 used a GPU on a 90nm process, A10 is 32nm. Since 2006 we have went through 4 cycles of Moore's law, mostly keeping up. So at the same price point as then we have hardware 16x as powerful. Native resolution on both PS3 and 360 was 720p then internally upscaled to 1080p. Native 1080p will be doable in the coming generation.
PS3 and 360 had total ram figures of about 512MB. The A10 is based of a DDR3 memory controller, so assuming they will be using dual channel ram.
Best A10 goes for $132 retail, 8GB of DDR3 costs $40 retail, 250GB 2.5" hard drive $52, proprietary motherboard. Throw in controller and usual cables.
So I can see them easily hitting a sub $350 price point without taking a lose on the.
As for heat, these things are many times cooler then the 360 gpu. Putting the GPU and CPU on a single die means they can use a single better cooler to deal with heat. A regular A10-5800k has a TDP of 100W and does most of the heavy lifting processor wise. The 360 power brick is 203W. As long as they are intelligent about airflow and fan curves they will have no issues being quiet and cool.
People saying 8GB of ram is too much, think for a bit. The system will use dual channel DDR3 ram. That means 4 slots/ their equivalent will be used by the system. They don't make 1GB DDR3 dimms, in fact 2GB dimms are cheaper and faster then 1GB dimms of similar price.
TLDR; 8GB is the standard for dual-channel DDR3 based systems.
Well I can see the theory of it being affordable. Even 400 bucks at launch wouldn't be too unreasonable. Even the Delux Wii U with only 32 GB of Memory is going for 350 bucks.If they decide on like 450 or 500... maybe not quite as appealing... but 400 bucks, not too far out of the realm of possibility.
As for backwards compatability, I'd suspect they might still use Bluray technology, since hell they've hardly ever had a game that tapped the 50 GB on it, so maybe it's still possible to get?
If not, I propose to Sony, since they would read this post... that those who buy a brand new PS4, get a voucher for either a specific amount of money, or a specific amount of games, that they can perchase on the PSN (limited time offer). They would be loosing money technically, but maybe it would encourage some people on the fence about getting the new system, since it would allow them to pick out a few choice games on the network while new games are in development.
As for backwards compatability, I'd suspect they might still use Bluray technology, since hell they've hardly ever had a game that tapped the 50 GB on it, so maybe it's still possible to get?
If not, I propose to Sony, since they would read this post... that those who buy a brand new PS4, get a voucher for either a specific amount of money, or a specific amount of games, that they can perchase on the PSN (limited time offer). They would be loosing money technically, but maybe it would encourage some people on the fence about getting the new system, since it would allow them to pick out a few choice games on the network while new games are in development.
Still not buying it, but it looks decent for people that want to game and can't/won't cobble together a PC.
Not really, I've got 8GB on my comp and I'm gonna be adding another 8GB just to get rid of my SWAP file so things run faster.Rayken15 said:
Devkits usually have double the RAM of console (PS3 devkit has 1 GB).
So, 8 and 16 mean that they try to decide between 4 and 8 GB in a console. And since they will make in DDR5, current top RAM for videocards, they will want to organize 512 mb chip production to get 8 GB model out.
Also, people are forgetting that PC and consoles operate differently. Drivers take RAM space, for example. Remember PS3? RAM-wise it's 256+256 are equivalent to 4GB on PC when used properly or 2GB if not. 8GB of console RAM will allow for graphics comparable to 32 GB on PC.
So, 8 and 16 mean that they try to decide between 4 and 8 GB in a console. And since they will make in DDR5, current top RAM for videocards, they will want to organize 512 mb chip production to get 8 GB model out.
Also, people are forgetting that PC and consoles operate differently. Drivers take RAM space, for example. Remember PS3? RAM-wise it's 256+256 are equivalent to 4GB on PC when used properly or 2GB if not. 8GB of console RAM will allow for graphics comparable to 32 GB on PC.
In Japan/Asia number 4 signifies horrible misfortune and death. Worse than 13 in the West.RicoADF said:
So naming it Playstation 4 is Japan is like naming it Playstation 13 You Will Die Horrible.
So, Playstation Orbis. Or Playstation 5 maybe?
Word is it's Playstation Orbis to compliment Playstation Vita. The two will be heavily integrated into each other, one of the reasons Sony is calm about the Vita's mediocre sales.