Next gen console power (PS5 and Xbox Series X)

[Freak]

What does that mean? Way too technical for me.

It's out of my league too, but the way I understand it, it should allow the memory of the xbox series x (ssd and ram) to effectively run up to about 6x faster (in the example, 3GB of data is compressed to .5GB) by only transferring needed textures instead of entire 8MB blocks, therefore reducing the size of data being transferred.

This enables far better memory utilization for textures, which is important given that every 4K texture consumes 8MB of memory. Because it avoids the wastage of loading into memory the portions of textures that are never needed, it is an effective 2x or 3x (or higher) multiplier on both amount of physical memory and SSD performance.

The ps5 ssd, according to the raw specs I've seen, can transfer 5.5 GB/s (uncompressed) while the Xbox only tansfer 2.4 GB/s. But I'm assuming this SFS isn't accounted for. If that's true, it means to me that the Xbox will actually have faster access to memory than the ps5, which will be interesting because Sony's proprietary SSD seems to be the only real hardware advantage of the playstation.

At 3x compression, the xbox ssd could transfer the equivalent of 7.2 GB/s of data. At 6x compression, it could transfer the equivalent of 14.4 GB/s. That's not accounting for the difference SFS would have on RAM. It's not actually reaching those raw hardware speeds, but reducing the amount of data that is transferred, therefore making it faster.

It's all just numbers at this point, so who knows how that looks in the real world. The numbers above assume all the data being transferred is textures, which it won't be, but it sounds like it should at least negate that raw transfer advantage that the PS5 has. But who knows, really. And how much data transfer do you need? I mean, the article above says Hellblade 2 has instantaneous access to 100GB of data.

Another post I found that maybe explains it better, looks at it from a total I/O standpoint (RAM and SSD).

Basically at 4.8GB/s I/O throughput with SFS and 10GB of game optimal RAM for the XSX, an equivalent system would need to have the equivalent of 2-3x(9.6-14.4GB/s and 20-30GB RAM) these figures without the equivalent of SFS. The PS5 for example, has a throughput of 9GB/s but if it's texture streaming(which will also have a multiplier effect on it's I/O throughput and RAM) doesn't match up to SFS, then it's possible that the XSX would have higher quality textures in games despite having half the I/O throughput. This is important because textures are the largest type game asset on discs and game installs.

 

[Freak]

A "big advantage" over Sony, but how big? That's the question.

 

[Freak]

Here's quotes from an article on Microsoft's Direct Storage, which seems to make sure all this SFS compression doesn't have any impact on CPU.

The new compression block is complemented by DirectStorage, a new API for I/O calls which is drastically more efficient than existing I/O solutions. DirectStorage cuts the CPU overhead for data transfer and compression operations by an order of magnitude.

When handling data transfer operations at the Xbox Series X’s peak I/O rate, DirectStorage ensures that CPU overhead is limited to just 1/10th of a single Zen2 core. If it’s taken out of the picture, CPU overhead would increase by a factor of 50. DirectStorage ensures that the storage and I/O magic here doesn’t come at the expense of CPU performance. The CPU cycles freed up here could conceivably be used in other aspects of games, like AI, pathfinding, and world building.

 

[zhangliao04]

You can have all that power, but if you don't have the games then it's all for not. PS killed Xbone in games basically the whole generation. Microsoft needs to get their ish together with the games. Halo: Infinite alone can only do so much.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

You can have all that power, but if you don't have the games then it's all for not. PS killed Xbone in games basically the whole generation. Microsoft needs to get their ish together with the games. Halo: Infinite alone can only do so much.

That 1.8 teraflop difference between PS5 and XSX is way overblown anyway. It will not translate into any appreciable difference on screen. I guarantee you Assassins Creed, Madden, Fifa, COD, etc will look and run identical on both consoles. The real differentiator will lie in the exclusives, as it always does. The power difference between the PS4 Pro and X1X is larger than the difference between PS5 and XSX and I still haven't seen anything running on XSX that looks better than God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, FF7 Remake, etc. Red Dead Redemption 2 is really the only game I've seen running on X1X where I thought it had a significantly noticeable advantage over the PS4 Pro version and that's largely due to poor HDR implementation on the Pro. Anything else I practically have to squint to see the difference.

 

[zhangliao04]

That 1.8 teraflop difference between PS5 and XSX is way overblown anyway. It will not translate into any appreciable difference on screen. I guarantee you Assassins Creed, Madden, Fifa, COD, etc will look and run identical on both consoles. The real differentiator will lie in the exclusives, as it always does. The power difference between the PS4 Pro and X1X is larger than the difference between PS5 and XSX and I still haven't seen anything running on XSX that looks better than God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, FF7 Remake, etc. Red Dead Redemption 2 is really the only game I've seen running on X1X where I thought it had a significantly noticeable advantage over the PS4 Pro version and that's largely due to poor HDR implementation on the Pro. Anything else I practically have to squint to see the difference.

That list you just gave of PS games beats out the entire Xbone library. And honestly that's sad. I truly hope Microsoft loses money on the XSX if they continue to pump out an overall crappy library. Halo is the last Microsoft game I actually still want to play. The other big franchise they have, Gears, is meh anymore. I guess the Forza games are nice, but I'm not that into racing games.

 

[Freak]

That 1.8 teraflop difference between PS5 and XSX is way overblown anyway. It will not translate into any appreciable difference on screen. I guarantee you Assassins Creed, Madden, Fifa, COD, etc will look and run identical on both consoles. The real differentiator will lie in the exclusives, as it always does. The power difference between the PS4 Pro and X1X is larger than the difference between PS5 and XSX and I still haven't seen anything running on XSX that looks better than God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, FF7 Remake, etc. Red Dead Redemption 2 is really the only game I've seen running on X1X where I thought it had a significantly noticeable advantage over the PS4 Pro version and that's largely due to poor HDR implementation on the Pro. Anything else I practically have to squint to see the difference.

I'm not sure we know that quite yet. We're still unsure about the variable frequency nature of Sony's hardware and whether 3rd party studios outside of Sony's own studios will be optimized for it. Not to mention what effect the SFS and direct storage discussed above will have. The cooling solutions for each console could also have a noticeable impact on performance.

Regardless, like you said, for those who are into Sony exclusives, it isn't really going to make any difference one way or the other for those folks. However, for those interested in raw performance, it should be interesting to watch it all play out.

 

[Freak]

You can have all that power, but if you don't have the games then it's all for not. PS killed Xbone in games basically the whole generation. Microsoft needs to get their ish together with the games. Halo: Infinite alone can only do so much.

Microsoft has put a big emphasis on acquisitions the last couple of years. Should be interesting to see if it pays off for them. They aren't going to likely match Sony in that regard, but they do need more worthwhile first-party games. That said, it's also going to be interesting to see how they balance that with their whole cloud and games as a service initiative.

 

[JCHateSteve]

I'm not sure we know that quite yet. We're still unsure about the variable frequency nature of Sony's hardware and whether 3rd party studios outside of Sony's own studios will be optimized for it. Not to mention what effect the SFS and direct storage discussed above will have. The cooling solutions for each console could also have a noticeable impact on performance.

Regardless, like you said, for those who are into Sony exclusives, it isn't really going to make any difference one way or the other for those folks. However, for those interested in raw performance, it should be interesting to watch it all play out.

Microsoft has put a big emphasis on acquisitions the last couple of years. Should be interesting to see if it pays off for them. They aren't going to likely match Sony in that regard, but they do need more worthwhile first-party games. That said, it's also going to be interesting to see how they balance that with their whole cloud and games as a service initiative.

Incoming rant...

Sony has pretty much lived on its exclusives throughout it's run in the console industry. It's worked like gangbusters too. What good is "raw power" if there isn't anything to play on it? And if specs are your primary concern, why aren't you playing on PC?

Sony's exclusives are amongst the best single player experiences out there this gen. Multiplayer heavy games tend to be cross platform. But the must have single player games have tended to be exclusives to Sony and Nintendo for a while now. Single player exclusives will continue to sell consoles, as they always have.

I hope all those developers Microsoft acquired produce some good software for thier new console. If they don't, it could be the end of Xbox. It actually worries me that they are putting so much into streaming games. There are a significant number of folks who don't have the bandwidth to stream games as a primary way to consume them. That's not Microsoft's fault. But they don't seem to understand it either. The problem only gets worse if your library mostly relies on online multiplayer as that's even more bandwidth you need to play. I think we're a generation away from streaming games becoming a major factor.

I never buy a console within the first year. I usually wait until after year two. But right now, Microsoft is going to have show me some quality software before they're even in the argument. And, they can ill afford another beating like the one they took this gen.

 

[Freak]

Incoming rant...

Sony has pretty much lived on its exclusives throughout it's run in the console industry. It's worked like gangbusters too. What good is "raw power" if there isn't anything to play on it? And if specs are your primary concern, why aren't you playing on PC?

Sony's exclusives are amongst the best single player experiences out there this gen. Multiplayer heavy games tend to be cross platform. But the must have single player games have tended to be exclusives to Sony and Nintendo for a while now. Single player exclusives will continue to sell consoles, as they always have.

I hope all those developers Microsoft acquired produce some good software for thier new console. If they don't, it could be the end of Xbox. It actually worries me that they are putting so much into streaming games. There are a significant number of folks who don't have the bandwidth to stream games as a primary way to consume them. That's not Microsoft's fault. But they don't seem to understand it either. The problem only gets worse if your library mostly relies on online multiplayer as that's even more bandwidth you need to play. I think we're a generation away from streaming games becoming a major factor.

I never buy a console within the first year. I usually wait until after year two. But right now, Microsoft is going to have show me some quality software before they're even in the argument. And, they can ill afford another beating like the one they took this gen.

Not having “anything to play” is a different definition for different people. I’m more of a coop and multiplayer guy. I’ve been a huge Gears fan since it launched back in the day and I love Forza. But in reality I play mostly third party games: destiny, the division, call of duty, battlefield, red dead redemption, madden, nba 2k, etc.

So for someone who plays mostly third party games, why wouldn’t they want to play them on the console with the best graphics and highest frame rates?

Don’t get me wrong, I acknowledge that Sony dominates single player exclusives (although I’d say some would argue that recent titles such as Days Gone and Death Stranding didn’t live up to the hype and a lot of folks don’t seem happy with the direction of Last of Us 2 based on the leaks), it’s just not my thing. I have a ps4 Pro and own all the big titles. The only exclusive I made it to the end of was Horizon Zero Dawn, and I went back and did that last year. They’re great games, but I’m more of a guy who prefers to play with buddies and other online players over single player story games.

I do think the “people buy consoles for single player exclusives” is a bit overplayed. Sony dominates the console market because it dominates Europe and Japan. In the US, for example, the numbers are much closer.

Another reason Xbox lost this gen was the Xbox one was an overpriced and underpowered mess at launch. I couldn’t even use my Astro headset on my Xbox at launch, which was a big reason I spent most of this gen on my PS4. Being too early with the all digital thing hurt Microsoft as well. And third party games performed better on the original ps4 than they did on the launch Xbox.

I have a gaming PC but I still enjoy console and the performance this generation is very appealing to me vs upgrading my rig right away. I’m hoping to limit myself to PC and one console for a while, whichever I decide to get day one.

I also enjoy Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. I get all the Microsoft Studio games on day one (Gears, Forza, and Halo are all games I would purchase) and they’ve really been adding some other solid titles for both console and PC. Some of them are play anywhere, which I can play on both console and PC depending on my mood and who I’m playing with. I get to try out a lot of games I wouldn’t otherwise buy. I’ve piddled around several games that were on game pass on day one such as Sea of Thieves, State of Decay and Outer Worlds, and will probably, at some point, try out Ori, Minecraft Dungeons and a bunch of other non day one games that I probably wouldn’t buy

Another feature I like on Xbox, and maybe PS will implement it, is cloud saves that sync. I like having two consoles. One I play on my pc monitor and one I play on the big screen from the couch. Xbox syncs my saves automatically between the two. On PlayStation I have to make sure to manually upload games to the cloud and download them on the other system. And if I forget to redownload them back to the other system, I’m screwed.

As for Microsoft focusing too much on steaming, Sony has game streaming too. I think Xbox is just positioning itself to compete with players such as google and Amazon should the popularity of steaming take off. For both companies I think it’s just nice to have the option. I won’t use cloud much, but I’ll occasionally play something from my phone or iPad in a pinch.

I haven’t fully decided which route I’m going next gen as of yet, although I’m leaning toward Xbox right now. There are some things I prefer on the PS4. I like the simple interface of the ps4 dashboard and I actually like the controller better. The sticks feel tighter to me and I prefer the smaller lighter DS4 over the Standard Xbox controller. I use the Microsoft Elite controller for the paddles, but I don’t much care for the sticks and I hate how heavy it is. I also have a fondness for Sony’s trophy system, which is superior to Xbox achievements imo. Plus I think there is some benefit to being able to replace the stock hard drive. I put an SSD in my PS4 pro early on.

I’m anxious to see what Sony and Microsoft bring to the table in the next few months as I make my final decision on which to buy. Both will be great consoles.

 

[Freak]

And as for Xbox going away, the best I remember, as bad as Microsoft lost this generation, gaming revenue was only about 15-20% less than Sony in 2019, the profit difference was even less than that if I recall. If game pass continues to grow like it has, that will close the gap even further. Plus, if all the studios Microsoft has acquired can deliver, it could be game on.

I haven’t dug into the numbers but it’s interesting that Xbox live has over 65 million subscribers while ps plus only has 41 million. And game pass has over 10 million subscribers while PS Now just recently crossed over 2 million.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Microsoft has put a big emphasis on acquisitions the last couple of years. Should be interesting to see if it pays off for them. They aren't going to likely match Sony in that regard, but they do need more worthwhile first-party games. That said, it's also going to be interesting to see how they balance that with their whole cloud and games as a service initiative.

I'm very interested as well. Buying studios is one thing. The curating, management, and stewardship of those studios to ensure they are producing quality titles is quite something else and frankly, MS doesnt have the best track record when it comes to that. But I actually do hope the XSX kicks ass. For one, Xbox fans deserve it after putting up with this generation. Also it will provide Sony some very much needed stiff competition, as I dont want them resting on their laurels. And finally, I'd like to have a reason to own an Xbox again. But no way in hell am I buying it day one. I'll check back in 2-3 years and see where they're at with their exclusive library.

Regarding hardware performance goes, I'm just strictly going by all the reading I've done and the feedback from actual developers. Based on all the feedback I've read, the SSD and I/O through put are by far the areas that will provide the largest breakthrough in game development next generation. I just truly believe, a year from now everyone who did all the "chest puffing" over system specs is going feel silly because the games are going to look and run VERY similar.

 

[***RoadVol***]

Microsoft has not only acquired new studios they have also poached some top talent away from Sony and other developers. I own both PS and Xbox. I find myself only turning on the ps4 to play their top exclusives which are coming further apart now. How long has it been since their last "good" exvlusive? The last couple have just been average at best.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Microsoft has not only acquired new studios they have also poached some top talent away from Sony and other developers. I own both PS and Xbox. I find myself only turning on the ps4 to play their top exclusives which are coming further apart now. How long has it been since their last "good" exvlusive? The last couple have just been average at best.

Well let's see, Dreams came out this year and scored extremely high on metacritic (may not be your cup of tea but neither is Minecraft mine). Nioh 2 came out this year and scored extremely high on metacritic. Final Fantasy 7 Remake came out this year and is a GOTY contender. The Last of Us part 2 comes out in June and you know it's going to be great. Ghost of Tsushima is out this year and looks fantastic. Predator came out this year, not to high scores but Im enjoying it online with friends. So...yeah. What has Xbox produced lately? Gears 5 was the last thing that came out that would even be considered AAA. What about before that?

Look if you prefer the Xbox ecosystem and playing 3rd party games there, I get it. But you can't possibly criticize PS4's output of exclusives compared to the absolute ghost town of what X1 produced this generation. Even last year which was considered a weak year for PS4 exclusives, we still got Days Gone (which I loved) and Death Stranding, which I get it, it wasn't for everyone but still garnered a LOT of high scores and a lot of people loved it.

 

[Freak]

I'm very interested as well. Buying studios is one thing. The curating, management, and stewardship of those studios to ensure they are producing quality titles is quite something else and frankly, MS doesnt have the best track record when it comes to that. But I actually do hope the XSX kicks ass. For one, Xbox fans deserve it after putting up with this generation. Also it will provide Sony some very much needed stiff competition, as I dont want them resting on their laurels. And finally, I'd like to have a reason to own an Xbox again. But no way in hell am I buying it day one. I'll check back in 2-3 years and see where they're at with their exclusive library.

Regarding hardware performance goes, I'm just strictly going by all the reading I've done and the feedback from actual developers. Based on all the feedback I've read, the SSD and I/O through put are by far the areas that will provide the largest breakthrough in game development next generation. I just truly believe, a year from now everyone who did all the "chest puffing" over system specs is going feel silly because the games are going to look and run VERY similar.

Well see. I think performance might be more different than you think. Either way, it probably won’t make much difference early on until developers take advantage of it, and like I said earlier, it won’t matter to those who just want to play ps4 exclusives anyway, just like it doesn’t matter to those who like Nintendo games.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Well see. I think performance might be more different than you think. Either way, it probably won’t make much difference early on until developers take advantage of it, and like I said earlier, it won’t matter to those who just want to play ps4 exclusives anyway, just like it doesn’t matter to those who like Nintendo games.

Where do you think the difference might possibly come from though? 4K/60 is 4K/60. If both systems hit that benchmark, what is there left to differentiate them? Its not going to be like this gen with resolution gate, unstable framerates, and muddy textures. The games are going to look freaking beautiful on both. A 1.8 teraflop difference on this architecture is not going to translate to anything where gamers can look and say "omg the difference is massive." This is basically Ike the latest iPhone vs the latest Samsung Galaxy . Look, MS wanted to "win" the spec sheet battle and they did just that. For some gamers, thats enough. But in real world application I don't think the differences will be what fans think it will be.

 

[Freak]

Well let's see, Dreams came out this year and scored extremely high on metacritic (may not be your cup of tea but neither is Minecraft mine). Nioh 2 came out this year and scored extremely high on metacritic. Final Fantasy 7 Remake came out this year and is a GOTY contender. The Last of Us part 2 comes out in June and you know it's going to be great. Ghost of Tsushima is out this year and looks fantastic. Predator came out this year, not to high scores but Im enjoying it online with friends. So...yeah. What has Xbox produced lately? Gears 5 was the last thing that came out that would even be considered AAA. What about before that?

I think everyone concedes that Sony exclusives are more highly acclaimed but it is fair to say that they haven’t killed it recently. Hard to get too hyped over a remake, for me anyway. And Days Gone and Death Stranding were disappointing by most accounts. Nioh is okay but not in the same stratosphere as Sony’s other big name titles. Ghost of Tsushima has potential, if you like Japanese fighting games. We’ll see. There’s been a lot of outage over Last of Us 2 based on the sorry leaks.

It’s all just preference. You love the Sony exclusives, which is great, since that makes next gen an easy decision for you. I spend more hours playing Microsoft games, free game pass releases, and third party titles, but I’m still intrigued by some of the sony stuff.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

I think everyone concedes that Sony exclusives are more highly acclaimed but it is fair to say that they haven’t killed it recently. Hard to get too hyped over a remake, for me anyway. And Days Gone and Death Stranding were disappointing by most accounts. Nioh is okay but not in the same stratosphere as Sony’s other big name titles. Ghost of Tsushima has potential, if you like Japanese fighting games. We’ll see. There’s been a lot of outage over Last of Us 2 based on the sorry leaks.

It’s all just preference. You love the Sony exclusives, which is great, since that makes next gen an easy decision for you. I spend more hours playing Microsoft games, free game pass releases, and third party titles, but I’m still intrigued by some of the sony stuff.

What do you play Freak? (Just curious).

 

[Freak]

Where do you think the difference might possibly come from though? 4K/60 is 4K/60. If both systems hit that benchmark, what is there left to differentiate them? Its not going to be like this gen with resolution gate, unstable framerates, and muddy textures. The games are going to look freaking beautiful on both. A 1.8 teraflop difference on this architecture is not going to translate to anything where gamers can look and say "omg the difference is massive." This is basically Ike the latest iPhone vs the latest Samsung Galaxy . Look, MS wanted to "win" the spec sheet battle and they did just that. For some gamers, thats enough. But in real world application I don't think the differences will be what fans think it will be.

People thought HD 1080p was HD 1080p. Developers will always push the limits, besides, we aren’t limited to 60fps this time around (or 4K for that matter).

And the teraflop difference is more than 1.8. Sony’s figure was variable boost mode, which isn’t sustainable and it’s not able to hit that under high load because of power limitations on the ps5. 2.23 ghz is max clock speed. They went that route, according to the Sony presentation, because they weren’t able to achieve a stable 2ghz clock speed under the current power system, which was their target. A variable clock speed that can’t be reached under load is nothing more than an inflated number used to make the system look faster than it is, which begs the question of why they felt the need to do that unless the console is substantially underpowered compared to the series x. It seems to me that cooling and power efficiency are major concerns for them.

That variable clock speed is also going to make development much harder for game developers. How much effort third party game studios put into optimization remains to be seen. It’s a bit of a ps3 cell microprocessor situation, to a lesser degree.

Again, all this is based on numbers on paper at this point. We’ll know more soon enough, the tech geek in me just enjoys analyzing it.

 

[Freak]

What do you play Freak? (Just curious).

What games? Stuff I mentioned above. Some stuff I’ve put a lot of hours into include:

Gears of War.
Call of duty.
Battlefield
Star Wars Battlefront 2
Destiny 2
the division 2
Various Tom Clancy games.
Forza
Madden
NBA 2k
Borderlands 3
Remnant from the ashes.
Far Cry 5
World War Z
Fortnite (yeah, I know)

I play a lot of stuff, I just don’t tend to play (Finish) that many Sony exclusives. Keep in mind, ps4 was my primary console throughout this generation, even though I played a lot of Xbox too. It wasn’t until I subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate that I’ve migrated back to playing mire Xbox.

And the One X performs substantially better than the ps4 pro on several of the third party games I play. I may be more sensitive to that than most, though. But I think next gen is setting up to tell a similar story.

 

[K-town Vol Fan]

IMO, Ps4 people are going to get the PS5, and Xbox people are going to the X. I'm going to get the X because I've been an Xbox man since the Xbox 1 launched. All my buddies that I've been playing with for 10-15 years are all on Xbox. The PS exclusives arent games that I would buy. We mostly play 2k, CoD, Apex,madden. I'm not big on single player story games. They get boring very quickly to me. I know some people love them and to each their own it's just not my cup of tea. I'm rarely playing if it's not with a buddy unless I'm grinding 2k MyCareer and I can only stand doing that for an hour or 2 max.

 

[Freak]

IMO, Ps4 people are going to get the PS5, and Xbox people are going to the X. I'm going to get the X because I've been an Xbox man since the Xbox 1 launched. All my buddies that I've been playing with for 10-15 years are all on Xbox. The PS exclusives arent games that I would buy. We mostly play 2k, CoD, Apex,madden. I'm not big on single player story games. They get boring very quickly to me. I know some people love them and to each their own it's just not my cup of tea. I'm rarely playing if it's not with a buddy unless I'm grinding 2k MyCareer and I can only stand doing that for an hour or 2 max.

You sound similar to me. Most people should probably get the system their friends get, or if you’re into Sony exclusives then get the PS5.

 

[Freak]

IMO, Ps4 people are going to get the PS5, and Xbox people are going to the X. I'm going to get the X because I've been an Xbox man since the Xbox 1 launched. All my buddies that I've been playing with for 10-15 years are all on Xbox. The PS exclusives arent games that I would buy. We mostly play 2k, CoD, Apex,madden. I'm not big on single player story games. They get boring very quickly to me. I know some people love them and to each their own it's just not my cup of tea. I'm rarely playing if it's not with a buddy unless I'm grinding 2k MyCareer and I can only stand doing that for an hour or 2 max.

Do you have Game Pass by chance?

 

[Brave Volunteer]

People thought HD 1080p was HD 1080p. Developers will always push the limits, besides, we aren’t limited to 60fps this time around (or 4K for that matter).

And the teraflop difference is more than 1.8. Sony’s figure was variable boost mode, which isn’t sustainable and it’s not able to hit that under high load because of power limitations on the ps5. 2.23 ghz is max clock speed. They went that route, according to the Sony presentation, because they weren’t able to achieve a stable 2ghz clock speed under the current power system, which was their target. A variable clock speed that can’t be reached under load is nothing more than an inflated number used to make the system look faster than it is, which begs the question of why they felt the need to do that unless the console is substantially underpowered compared to the series x. It seems to me that cooling and power efficiency are major concerns for them.

That variable clock speed is also going to make development much harder for game developers. How much effort third party game studios put into optimization remains to be seen. It’s a bit of a ps3 cell microprocessor situation, to a lesser degree.

Again, all this is based on numbers on paper at this point. We’ll know more soon enough, the tech geek in me just enjoys analyzing it.

Sorry Freak but that is just not correct regarding the variable clock speed and how it works. Cerny made it very clear as to how it works. However a lot of people are under the assumption that PS5 can only hit its maximum clock speeds during short "boost modes" before it overheats similarly to how boost modes work on PC. However this is very wrong: there is no boost mode and also no thermal throttling. This is what Mark Cerny actually said during his talk:

• Mark Cerny himself explained that there is no such thing as thermal throttling on PS5. Instead clock speeds are dependent on the power budget of the system. PS5 is using AMDs Smart Shift technology: the available power is shifted to where it is needed most in the system. This means that graphically demanding games won't have to throttle after a short boost mode. Instead the system will recognize that the GPU needs extra power and will shift power to the GPU so that it can sustain high clock speeds. Cooling is still possible because the consoles power draw has not increased, it simply uses the available power more effectively.
  [*]Mark Cerny himself stated that during testing the PS5 was able to sustain max clock speeds on both GPU and CPU for extended periods of time. How long max frequencies can be sustained depends on how power hungry the operations are that have to be performed. Not every operation requires the same amount of power. Once the maximum power budget is reached the PS5 will start prioritizing where it has to shift the available power.
  [*]power consumption doesn't scale linearly with clock frequency. Mark Cerny also adressed this: lowering the power consumption by 10% doesn't mean you have to drop clock speeds down by 10%. So even if a game is so demanding that it exceeds the PS5s power budget you won't see a massive drop in clock speeds.
  [*]often people claim that the actual GPU clock frequency of PS5 is only 2Ghz (resulting in 9.2teraflops). However this is solely based on the leaked chipset from early 2019 and there is no indication that this represents the clock speeds achievable on the actual PS5. Quite the opposite actually.

All of this information is readily available but people continue to get it wrong all the time, thereby confusing others as well. I also think not enough people give Sony credit for what looks to be a very smart design choice in getting the console to be as efficient as possible.

Also where did you get that this makes it difficult for developers? Every single piece of feedback from actual developers regarding PS5 development points to the exact opposite. If anything, its the XSX that's more PS3 like with its split memory configuration, which is what PS3 did.

 

[K-town Vol Fan]

Do you have Game Pass by chance?

Yes