The days of expansion slots and RAM upgrades for consoles are long gone, but quite a number of sources have told Kotaku that Sony are preparing an updated and significantly more powerful version of the PlayStation 4.
This upgrade would entail a major overhaul of the APU at the heart of the console, and while nothing was mentioned of an upgrade to the eight core CPU side of this chip, a GPU upgrade is mooted to allow the console to run games at 4K, which pushes resolutions to four times the size of 1080p. That added GPU power would also be a major boon for the PlayStation VR and developers who have to be able to maintain an absolute minimum of 60 frames per second, or be rejected.
However, 4K gaming also requires a serious jump in power and you have to ask if it’s even feasible for the PS4’s price point. Elsewhere at GDC, AMD have been showing off and talking about a huge leap in performance for their next GPU architecture. Codenamed Polaris 10 and 11, the lower powered Polaris 11 was demoed while running VR content at 4K resolutions – whether this was a game isn’t clear – and did so without a fan cooling it.
I did get to see AMD's Polaris 11 GPU running PASSIVELY while playing back 4K VR content last night. Pretty impressive. #AMDCapsaicin
— Ryan Shrout (@ryanshrout) March 15, 2016
Of course, whether or not this is really on the cards is another matter entirely. The many millions of PlayStation 4 owners out there are not accustomed to hardware improvements beyond superficial redesigns that shrink a console in size, so Sony would potentially face a major backlash if they were to go ahead with a new console within this particular generation, especially if games could then start to be developed exclusively for the newer hardware, as with Nintendo’s “New” 3DS.
Similarly, Phil Spencer was quick to step away from the notion that Microsoft were considering moving to an iterative model for the Xbox, aping PCs and phones. He said, “Am I going to break open my console and start upgrading individual pieces of my console? That’s not our plan.”
Naturally, when Kotaku asked Sony about this, they replied, “We can’t comment on rumors or speculation.”
Source: Kotaku
MrKipling89
I think it’s extremely likely that Sony will create another console, and as long as they are not alienating gamers then that is fine.
They should probably create a PS4.5 that’s slimmer, PSVR externals baked in, 4K gaming support etc, but it would be sad if that console had it’s own exclusives which the millions of current PS4 owners would miss out on, unless they upgraded.
It also seems a bad idea for PS VR. Surely if developers were told a better console was coming, would they not hold back their VR games until it came out? If they could not get 60 FPS as required, that would seem the easier option.
beeje13
Don’t think so, but this could be a planned leak to gauge reaction (and root out those who break NDA’s). The PS4 can in it’s current form run 4k games, not natively so unless its something like Tetris, but rendering at 2560×1440 then upscaling to 4k would give a good result. In fact, that’s what Digital Foundry talked about a few years ago.
blast71
If this happens Sony had better do a trade-in deal for all the old ps4 owners. By that I mean owners who own an original ps4, not ps4 geriatrics ;)
Voolar
I don’t think this would be welcomed by gamers… Any trade in deal would have to be sweet or there would be widespread outrage and condemnation.
double-o-dave
I’m all up for it as long as it’s illegal to play 8bit indie games etc on the console. As an example, would this mean we would be able to play GTA V at 1080p but 60fps if they bought out an update???
Jag
I have a feeling if it is real then the PS4.5 would be a PS4K.
The requirements to get games running at 4K without dropping quality settings on PC is really difficult so I think PS4K games would be the same as PS4 games but running at 4K instead of the usual 1080P. If there’s some power left over they might up some details but otherwise I think it could work if the only real difference is resolution.
4K is about 4 times the resolution of 1080P so it stands that the GPU will need to be roughly 4 times more powerful hence the new 4K only SKU.
Now if games are targeted solely for PS4K but can run at any resolution then this won’t work as there will be much more power to work with on the newer console and this will lead to a divided user base.
MrYd
Even though 4K is 4 times as many pixels as 1080p, you don’t really need 4 times the processing power to do it.
Have a quick hunt for some tests people have done. At worst, going from 1080p to 4K might halve the frame rate, so you need twice the processing power to keep it up to where it was before.
It’s all complicated and involves other things than just the GPU (the CPU and memory and how quickly you can shove things on to the GPU). And tests suggesting you need to double the GPU power tend to be run on pretty meaty CPUs anyway, which the PS4 might not cope with. (Not saying the PS4 is underpowered, it’s just a different beast to a PC)
So a PS4 doing games at 4K would probably need twice the GPU power, a big bump in CPU speed and probably more memory. It’s already got that nice 8GB, but that’s shared between everything. Not going to leave much left after you’ve got the GPU doing 4K stuff.
On the plus side, what Sony decided on 3 years ago is probably half the price now. So they could probably do it for the same price as a current PS4.
But that doesn’t alter the fact that it’s a stupid idea. How many people actually have a 4K TV anyway? I know they’re getting cheaper now, but who has one?
lambchop
I will probably wait for PS5 before I got a 4K TV myself
Jag
Agreed MrYd my point was that if all the power increase (whatever it ends up being) goes into running the same PS4 games at 4K it’s not so bad.
The same games will run at 1080P (or whatever) on our existing PS4 and there’s no real difference for the rest of us.
But for those lucky few with 4K tellies or PSVR there’s a bump in quality from the resolution increase but the games are actually the same.
It might increase adoption rates of 4K TVs too given there’ll be a cost effective source of 4K content.
I’m hoping it will sort of be like buying a movie in SD on DVD or in HD on Blu Ray, e.g. you can play Uncharted 4 at 1080P/30HZ on PS4 or 4K/30HZ on PS4K. As long as the original game is out on PS4 it’s fine by me.
The problem for me is if Sony says it’s ok for devs to make games just for PS4K, then that will be a New 3DS situation.
Sony need to be clear in their guideline for developers and especially careful how they market it.