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Mark Cerny, Chief PlayStation Architect, Explains the PS4 Pro (theverge.com)
Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, which launches next month on November 10th, is the company's most powerful console that will be capable of outputting 4K and HDR content, including movies, TV shows and games. In an effort to find out how developers will make use of the console and whether or not the PS4 Pro will in any way undermine the audience of the current PS4, The Verge sat down with Mark Cerny, Sony's chief PlayStation architect, and asked him some questions. The Verge reports: The PS4 Pro is 2.28 times more powerful than its predecessor, but not everything will run in native 4K
Instead of using an entirely new GPU, Cerny said the PS4 Pro is using a "double-sauced one." In effect, the new console has a second, identical GPU configured next to the original, more than doubling the processing power of the Pro. While the standard PS4 produces 1.8 teraflops, the PS4 Pro achieves 4.2 teraflops. This is how the device can achieve native 4K and, in some cases, what Cerny said are results "extremely close to 4K." For select software, including games like adventure title Horizon Zero Dawn and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the PS4 Pro will use a crafty technique called checkerboard rendering to achieve 2160p resolution. Checkboard rendering changes the formation of pixels to achieve higher-fidelity graphics.
Standard PS4 games will play just the same unless devs patch them
For the more than 700 or so existing PS4 games, Cerny said the goal was to ensure those titles played smoothly no matter what. That's why the Pro incorporates an identical GPU. Because the new console has "the old GPU next to a mirror version of itself," Sony can support existing games with a simple trick: "We just turn off the second GPU," he said. Developers can patch these titles to boost graphics and performance in very subtle ways. But unless you have a 4K television, the difference will not be substantial.
Sony says it doesn't want games released solely for the PS4 Pro
When asked whether Sony would ever let a game run exclusively on the PS4 Pro, Cerny was blunt. "We're putting a very high premium on not splitting the user base in that fashion," he said. That doesn't rule out the possibility that, two or even three years down the line, a game comes out that relies so heavily on the hardware improvements of the Pro that it becomes unplayable on the standard PS4. Cerny wouldn't really speak much to that scenario, saying that Sony is asking developers to take advantage of the new console without leaving older hardware behind. You can also watch Mark Cerny chat with PlayStation Blog's Sid Shuman about the creation of the PS4 Pro here on YouTube.
Instead of using an entirely new GPU, Cerny said the PS4 Pro is using a "double-sauced one." In effect, the new console has a second, identical GPU configured next to the original, more than doubling the processing power of the Pro. While the standard PS4 produces 1.8 teraflops, the PS4 Pro achieves 4.2 teraflops. This is how the device can achieve native 4K and, in some cases, what Cerny said are results "extremely close to 4K." For select software, including games like adventure title Horizon Zero Dawn and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the PS4 Pro will use a crafty technique called checkerboard rendering to achieve 2160p resolution. Checkboard rendering changes the formation of pixels to achieve higher-fidelity graphics.
Standard PS4 games will play just the same unless devs patch them
For the more than 700 or so existing PS4 games, Cerny said the goal was to ensure those titles played smoothly no matter what. That's why the Pro incorporates an identical GPU. Because the new console has "the old GPU next to a mirror version of itself," Sony can support existing games with a simple trick: "We just turn off the second GPU," he said. Developers can patch these titles to boost graphics and performance in very subtle ways. But unless you have a 4K television, the difference will not be substantial.
Sony says it doesn't want games released solely for the PS4 Pro
When asked whether Sony would ever let a game run exclusively on the PS4 Pro, Cerny was blunt. "We're putting a very high premium on not splitting the user base in that fashion," he said. That doesn't rule out the possibility that, two or even three years down the line, a game comes out that relies so heavily on the hardware improvements of the Pro that it becomes unplayable on the standard PS4. Cerny wouldn't really speak much to that scenario, saying that Sony is asking developers to take advantage of the new console without leaving older hardware behind. You can also watch Mark Cerny chat with PlayStation Blog's Sid Shuman about the creation of the PS4 Pro here on YouTube.
I heard they have a new technique to detect the start of a vertical blank interrupt. This VBI technology lets them display flicker free bitmaps at high speeds. Truly innovative.
Or are they tied to Steam or some similar "licensing" DRM crap?
But, I'm still not falling for you rootkit shenanigans, Sony.
... does it run Linux?
How bout he explain why there is no Ultra HD blu ray drive in this thing? And how the $300 xbone s has one?
It sounds a lot like the original PS3 that could play PS2 games natively. Just with further enhanced capability to adapt the games through what is probably not a simply tweak, so not all older games will get the update. I like the idea a lot.
Wait, so an identical GPU is added, effectively creating a Crossfire setup, and it offers greater than 2x performance? In other words, adding multiple graphics cards is beyond linear improvement?
Color me unconvinced. This sounds like another one of those lies from Sony that cannot possibly be true, but which is being accepted as fact. It also sounds like something that will be yet another headache for PlayStation game development.
Other articles on this were speculating that the PS4 pro used the same GPU as the AMD RX 480. That's a ~5.8 terraflop GPU, and they were assuming that Sony was clocking it down to save on power supply requirements, fan noise, and cooler size requirements.
That's NOT what they did. The RX 480 uses a new architecture and wouldn't be instruction compatible. Games that use a higher level API would work but I suspect the highest performance PS4 games are bare metal optimized. Doubling the GPU means they get less performance but their older games Just Work.
I don't think this is what Microsoft is doing. Their numbers suggest they just grabbed the RX 480 and crammed it into a SOC. (it's a low transistor GPU for it's performance class, making it possible to fit the x86 CPU cores on the same die) That means their older games that are bare metal optimized will NOT work exactly the same.
So they are offering a bigger hardware spec this time but less games will work without issues with the "new" console.
Honestly, owning neither console myself, I think Sony's solution is going to work better with less problems.
Can some explain to me how doubling a processor can more than double it's performance? Shouldn't it be slightly less than doubling since these processors now have to work with each other which ends up adding a little overhead?
It also makes use of its system memory in a more efficient fashion, using a higher bandwidth on the 8GB of GDDR5 memory to squeeze out an additional 512MB for game developers to make use of. An additional 1GB of convention DRAM was put in the Pro to help it switch applications, so software like Netflix will be stored on the DRAM when open but not in use.
I am confused about that magical "higher bandwidth", and I assume that "convention DRAM" is some DDR4?
Is it just me or does Sony seem to have some sort of obsession with "size'?
Remembering the previous PS incarnations they've always been about the most pixels and power.
You'd have thought they'd learned their lesson back when Nintendo trumped them with a less powerful console, introducing Wii motion, focusing instead on user experience and not just eye candy and processor power.
It's just a shame Nintendo didn't do it again yesterday.
Does this mean we can finally get decent AA filtering on PS4?
I don't care about 4K, I'd be fine with 1080p if the PS4 could do decent AA.
The jagged edges are horrible on PS4. What good is it that it looks pretty if everything has jagged edges? Immediately throws me off.
If the current library is improved with new hardware, I might buy one.
But I suspect it won't make a difference with AA on current titles without a game update.
- Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
Since I don't have a 4K HDR television (planned for next summer though), I'm not likely to pick up a Pro immediately. However, reviews can sway me, based on a very simple criterium: does it significantly improve PSVR. I've been extremely happy with my headset so far, but I do notice that some games look better in it than others, especially when it comes to anti-aliasing. I'm not expecting the Pro to improve upon the best experiences, but if it raises the median and average quality towards the best ones, it's day one after all.
How about use what you go. I haven't seen a platformer actually use everything available for 1080p let alone 4K. What is the purpose of it all if no video games are made to take advantage of it. There there is the whole thing where you actually need a 4K TV to actually use it which most people don't have. I suppose if movies existed (which I don't think they even do) they might be able to take advantage of it, but then you're getting away from the primary purpose of the console anyway. I mean I haven't see game commercials on TV for the new consoles that don't already look 5 years out of date.
I think thath should read as "basically nothing will run in native 4K but at least actual resolutions will reach full HD".
Real life is overrated.
Agreed, I'm in the same boat. Sony doesn't like this because then they're not getting any additional revenue from you on game sales. In fact, it looks like they went to good lengths to neuter the media-center capabilities of the PS4 compared to the PS3 for these reasons.
That of course ignores people like myself who might have multiple consoles for different rooms in the house (because it's more convenient to have buy the a device that plays games and discs than to have a blu-ray player in one room and a PS3 in another). While having two consoles might not get them a lot of extra game sales from me, it *would* get them more accessories such as controllers, DVD remote, etc.
They say they don't want Ps Pro only games but ultimately if the Pro takes off they don't have a choice.
I'm sure a dev could have their game "run" on a PS4 Vanilla. In 480P. With wireframe graphics. At 15fps.
It won't go quite that far simply because there isn't that kind of difference between the two machines but running on a Ps4 and "Running in a way that you'd actually want to play the damn thing" are two very different concepts.
It'll get you some prettier games for a price that'll likely be obscenely expensive for a traditional home console- and by having the requirement of no PS4:Pro exclusive games, they're really limiting what the devs can do/come up with. You can use the extra processing power to make things prettier or maybe add a few more enemies to the screen at a time... but is that really worth an entirely new console to people?
At this point you really are better off getting a PC in most cases. It probably wont' do 4K at that same price, but then the P4Pro is only barely doing 4K to begin with- and that's only if you have a 4K tv!
It's about loose gamers to PC. Sony already said that. Young people don't play anymore on TV. They play on mobile. Hardcores on PC. Microsoft realized this trying to offer the same Xbox experience on Windows. Nintendo realized this and it's releasing a hybrid portable/console. Sony has only the PlayStation platform. If hardcores start to move that much to PC, they're doomed.
They want it to be cheap enough, and are betting on savvy gamers (the target audience here) to be more into streaming services than physical media
Twinstiq, game news