Sony Announces PlayStation 4 Pro

[The Hungry Samurai]

I hate to admit it but these half gen consoles kill my one reason for being a console gamer. If developers are going to have to split their resources to cater to these overpriced partial updates, then next tax refund time I'm just learning how to build and upgrade a PC so I can do the same thing at my own pace.

Anyone have any good suggestions on where I can start learning?

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

See, this is why waiting is good. Now I can get this better ps4 and all the games are already out and I have been happy playin the marginally uglier ps3 and vita versions of the same games for these past years. This feels like the turtle beating the hare in the race lol.

 

[Asclepion]

Anyone have any good suggestions on where I can start learning?

Welcome, Brother!

Here is a good starting point, with an overview of the components of a PC and price guide for every level of builds:

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

May your fans be quiet, your draw distance far and the LEDs of GabeN guide you when all other lights are gone.

 

[wulfy42]

I hate to admit it but these half gen consoles kill my one reason for being a console gamer. If developers are going to have to split their resources to cater to these overpriced partial updates, then next tax refund time I'm just learning how to build and upgrade a PC so I can do the same thing at my own pace.

Anyone have any good suggestions on where I can start learning?

I'd suggest not even building your own, but look for someone selling a used system already put together, you can get a HUGE deal this way. I bought a used system about 3 years ago for $400, it was made about a year before that for about $900 in parts (put together by the guy I bought it from). He was selling it because his GF made him lol. It had everything needed for future releases up till now, except I upgraded the GPU from 1gig nvidia to a 2gig nvidia. It's still playing everything fine.

I also have a ps4, although I play most games on my PC (since it can run at higher graphics and I have free internet conection). Got it for the supposed eventual release of Kingdom hearts 3, and I thought Dark souls etc (Those are all on my pc now though). I hardly play anything on my ps4 sadly...and not seeing much that I will be playing anytime soon on it (maybe FFXV). Certainly not going to upgrade to this new Pro version with the small selection of PS4 specific games that have been released so far.

So yeah, check around for used PC's, best bet is to buy directly from someone, but even shops can sometimes have good deals. You can probably get something for around the $400 a new PS4 would cost, that can play games with higher specs then the PS4. You'll also then be able to buy them from all the sites that sell packages (humble bundles etc), and from Steam summer/winter etc sales. Basically means you can get most games if your willing to wait a bit for 50-75% off the normal price.

 

[Battenberg]

Still, they've kept the price point in a range where it's still worth buying if you can't afford a PC.

Except that you can easily get a PC that outperforms the Pro for less money. Not to mention the massive drop off of PC game prices vs PS4 ones.

Really at this point the only reasons I can see for getting a console over a PC is the convenience of just being able to plug and play with zero technical knowledge or the exclusives. One of which isn't price efficient at all and the other, at least for me, seems like a very small barrier to entry for the benefits you get.

 

[Supernova1138]

Question! I don't have to buy this Pro thing in order to use VR, right? Because I really want to play that X-Wing mission, but not enough to add another $300 on top of what I'll have to pay for the VR headset.

You probably will need the Pro to run VR at an acceptable framerate, the original PS4 hardware simply lacks the horsepower to get the framerates needed to run VR without needing to give the user a barf bag with every headset.

In any case, the PS4 Pro isn't all that exciting, the underclocked RX 480 it has for a GPU is only going to be able to run games at 1440p 30FPS at best, forget about native 4K. 60FPS on some games probably still won't be doable due to the anemic CPU, that extra 500MHz isn't going to make enough of a difference when the IPC is so low to start with.

 

[Leg End]

Only 1TB? What is this, the dark ages?

There should be no excuse why we have such pitiful hard drive sizes in these "new" consoles. With how big games are getting, 2TB should be the minimum.

You can thank the fact that they use 2.5 inch drives and that so far, only Seagate makes such a drive in that form factor. This also pretty much means you're using slower drives in general on top of the thing only supporting SATA2.

I was hoping to fuck that they'd come to their senses and support 3.5 inch but it looks like those hopes have been dashed again.

Will the HDD be replaceable like the PS3? will the connection be SATA3?

Yes and no in that order, judging by Sony's moves and the fact that they won't even support 4K blu-rays.

Will this cause disparity amongst the user base?

Probably not.

Will we have to wait until after release to find out?

Nope, thanks to that kind soul up there.

 

[Auron225]

Given that I held off the PS4 until now (planning to get at the end of this year), now I'm torn on dishing out for the newer hardware, or making use of the likely reduced price of the standard version. It's the 3DS vs New 3DS all over again.

Since I don't have a PS4 to begin with, I wonder is the Pro worth the extra cash?

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

What are the full system specs?

Here you go:

http://cdn2-www.playstationlifestyle.net/assets/uploads/2016/09/ps4-pro-specs.png

i thank you. I wonder what the clock speed on the GPU will be. Around 4GB for the price I'm guessing. Will struggle to 4k game

 

[Kahani]

You can thank the fact that they use 2.5 inch drives and that so far, only Seagate makes such a drive in that form factor.

And Samsung and Western Digital. Plus Crucial and Corsair for SSDs. Hell, Samsung explicitly market their 2.5" 2TB offering as "OEM for PS3/4". So no, lack of manufacturers is absolutely not an excuse for only selling consoles with crap storage. Neither is price, it's only about ?30 more for a 2TB drive compared to a 1TB one.

 

[ffronw]

I'd like to think that this will accelerate the movement of console gamers to PCs, considering that PCs are in that price range and offer superior performance. I kinda doubt it, though.

What? Can I at least trade in my inferior version for a...hang on, will I lose my access to the P.T. demo forever if I trade in my inferior version for at least a discount on this Neo-Pro? To be honest, the HHD space is pretty shite for the current model though. I'm forever rearranging and deleting games to make way for others or even patches. It's annoying that the actual limit seems to not have a set number, nor does any download tell you how much you may need to delete to continue to the download.

Honestly, this whole PS4 Neo thing is just another attempt to rid the world of the PT demo. Sony is just really, really good at concealing their motives.

 

[Zulnam]

"Get a console if you want to avoid having to upgrade your rig continuously and just want to Plug & Play."

Oh how ironic.

 

[Leg End]

And Samsung and Western Digital.

Not within the height restrictions and WD doesn't seem to even have those fuckers in the wild yet and I can't find anything on Samsung at the moment. Actually, I need to verify that Seagate's offering fits the height as well.

Plus Crucial and Corsair for SSDs.

Which are a really bad idea for a console on top of being stupidly expensive.

Hell, Samsung explicitly market their 2.5" 2TB offering as "OEM for PS3/4". So no, lack of manufacturers is absolutely not an excuse for only selling consoles with crap storage.

It is at those prices. Unless you're meaning their HDDs now.

Neither is price, it's only about ?30 more for a 2TB drive compared to a 1TB one.

Are we still talking SSDs? I'm going to assume we're not and agree that it should be 2TB but I'd rather eat my face than have a Seagate-related drive in anything, but that's just me.

Though again, this really could be solved by them instead switching to full-size drives and not using laptop offerings, on top of supporting SATA3. Preferably adding external drive support would be nice too but I'd settle for the 3.5 drives.

Honestly, this whole PS4 Neo thing is just another attempt to rid the world of the PT demo. Sony is just really, really good at concealing their motives.

This is the reason you're my favorite editor.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Anyone have any good suggestions on where I can start learning?

Honestly man all you really need to do is maybe check out PC Gamer's articles on building a PC and then have youtube open as a reference if you get stuck during the actual process. Putting a PC together is just glorified legos. The only slightly complicated or stressful part about it is applying thermal paste to your cpu and installing a cooler but other than that, a couple cables, a couple screws, and some time spent installing your preferred programs and you're good to go. If you do decide to build your own make a thread here on the forums. People do it all the time and myself and many others would be happy to help out as best we can.

 

[FoolKiller]

See, this is why waiting is good. Now I can get this better ps4 and all the games are already out and I have been happy playin the marginally uglier ps3 and vita versions of the same games for these past years. This feels like the turtle beating the hare in the race lol.

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

I say this because you bring up the Vita and PS3. Both of those consoles had their best versions early on. Waiting is a gamble. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. 4K is a stupid fad at the moment because most people don't have space for a display large enough to matter. I would rather 1080p at 60 frames than 4k at 30 frames since I only have space for a 40 inch TV.

 

[Damian Porter]

See, this is why waiting is good. Now I can get this better ps4 and all the games are already out and I have been happy playin the marginally uglier ps3 and vita versions of the same games for these past years. This feels like the turtle beating the hare in the race lol.

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

I say this because you bring up the Vita and PS3. Both of those consoles had their best versions early on. Waiting is a gamble. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. 4K is a stupid fad at the moment because most people don't have space for a display large enough to matter. I would rather 1080p at 60 frames than 4k at 30 frames since I only have space for a 40 inch TV.

Oh, you mean how 1080p was a "fad?" LOL, no. 4K is not a fad. What a ridiculous thing to say.

 

[ToastyMozart]

Hey if it means games will finally start running at a tolerable framerate I might actually pick up a PS4 now. (Not that it necessarily will, pubs will probably just keep cranking up the visual effects for shiny advertising reasons because apparently they never got the memo about games needing fluid gameplay.)

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I'm still on the sidelines about console gaming this gen, the PC has held up real well so far.

It all comes down to framerates. If the games that I'm looking at provide the options, that'll be worth it in my book. Apparently, Rise of the Tomb Raider offers these, and I'd be surprised (and ever so slightly miffed) if more pubs didn't. From an article I saw, they offer:
4K at 30fps (not native, but whatever, not interested)
1080p at 30fps (pretty option)
1080p at 60 fps (smooth option)

If more games provide these, then I'll be happy to fork out the extra $100 for it. But as I'm not interested in VR or 4K, it looks like an HDD upgraded Slim would be the way to go. I think Naughty Dog said that apart from a few extra pixels and sharpness, the framerate in their games will remain locked at 30.

 

[Strazdas]

thats really sparese in technical details, but thats par for the course for Sony and we will ahve to wait till someone gets thier hands on a copy and dissects it.

if I have a 1080p TV, am I really going to care that I don't have a PS4 pro? If the general performance is upgraded, then I'm going to feel a little stiffed that I invested early in the PS4, not knowing they were going to have a jump in hardware within the same generation.

I dont know if you will care, but it certainly would be a better option. For one, you will actually have playable performance in videogames. For two, even if game renders in 4k (fat chance, even the modern 600 dollar GPUs cant run 4k properly) and you watch it on 1080p screen that will be like using a pure form of SSAA, the best (though most resource intensive) form of antialiasing. I know a lot of PC players that modify their GPU drivers to do just that because the AA effects look great of your GPU can handle drawing everything in increased resolution.

The common misconception people are having is that they're comparing the Pro and the Scorpio to PCs. This is NOT what console manufacturers are doing. What they're doing is the smartphone thing where you buy a new upgraded system every few years.

If it plays the same games i think its fair to compare them.

Here you go:

http://cdn2-www.playstationlifestyle.net/assets/uploads/2016/09/ps4-pro-specs.png

oh for fucks sake they are keeping the jaguar in? that tech was outdated when they released the last generation, let alone now. We have tablets running jaguar in 2015. They are now using a CPU thats literally worse than a high end tablet.

Its interesting what GPU radeon will cook for them.

I hate to admit it but these half gen consoles kill my one reason for being a console gamer. If developers are going to have to split their resources to cater to these overpriced partial updates, then next tax refund time I'm just learning how to build and upgrade a PC so I can do the same thing at my own pace.

Anyone have any good suggestions on where I can start learning?

they arent half gen consoles though. the previous console gen was unnaturally overly-long and lasted 9 years. if you look at previuos generations none lasted longer than 5 years. when Pro comes out this generation will be 4 years old. Right on time. Its actually working as it should.

But yeah, do come to PC, we have gloriuos framerates and field of view

i thank you. I wonder what the clock speed on the GPU will be. Around 4GB for the price I'm guessing. Will struggle to 4k game

Thats not how any of this works. Clock speed of GPU is measured in MHZ, memory of the GPU is measured in GB. We know it as 8 GB of Graphic memory from those specs and if its like the regular version it will have shared memory so thats it. And yes 4.2 TFLOPS will struggle with 4K gaming. There is no such thing as "4k game". Any game can be run in 4k, though you have to trick some game engines to output render above certain built in limitations. the question is can your hardware run the game in 4k.

I would rather 1080p at 60 frames than 4k at 30 frames since I only have space for a 40 inch TV.

that makes no sense. even on my 27" monitor there is a clear difference between 1080p and above.