Home Gaming “The PS4 will out-power most PCs for years to come.”

“The PS4 will out-power most PCs for years to come.”

1 min read
134

Newgrill

Those are the words of Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios’ chief technical officer Linus Blomberg, who’s putting a lot of faith in Sony’s next console.

Speaking to GamingBolt, Blomberg said that PC’s have overtaken consoles – and that this new cycle is one that way overdue.

“The consoles desperately need a boost since having been overtaken in terms of performance by PCs several years ago, and also losing market share to mobile platforms,” he said. “I’m glad Sony decided to go with 8GB RAM because it means that the PS4 will out-power most PCs for years to come.”

Now before you elitist members of the master race are up in arms, it’s probably worth noting that he’s probably quite correct. Most PCs are used for things like word processing and keeping secretaries busy with challenging tasks like Minesweeper, Freecell and Spider Solitaire.Though taking a look at the average gaming PC, Steam’s latest hardware survey shows that the most prevalent GPU is the Intel HD Graphics 3000; hardly bleeding edge stuff.

It’s not just about the specs though; the extra social layer is apparently good for something.

“The PS4 will not only be a very powerful gaming machine from a hardware perspective, but it will also be a social tool and integrated marketplace more akin to the successful mobile devices,” he said.

“It’s the best of all worlds in a way; great performance for demanding high-end gaming, good social ecosystem and connectivity, and integrated business marketplace.

“For Avalanche Studios as an open-world games developer this is super exciting and opens up many new opportunities. It’s a perfect fit for the types of games we do, and we are confident that we’ll bring open-world gaming to a whole new level because of it.”

Last Updated: March 11, 2013

134 Comments

  1. AndriyP

    March 11, 2013 at 10:34

    They can put 64 Gigs of DDR3 in and in a few months DDR4 will be out and PC will be faster with 2 Gigs of that than 8 gigs of DDR3

    They will never be able to out perform PC “for years to come”

    Lulz noobz

    Trololo

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      March 11, 2013 at 10:39

      This

      Reply

  2. Edwin le Roux

    March 11, 2013 at 10:37

    Yes the PS4 will out perform 5 year old gaming rigs, years to come…

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      March 11, 2013 at 10:40

      XD

      Reply

    • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

      March 11, 2013 at 11:33

      I think the guy meant your average out of shop PC with integrated graphics etc. Not dedicated gaming rigs. This was his mistake. By not explaining or using a more reflective statement.

      He went for the blanket statement and that made him sound ignorant because common logic states that a state of the art gaming rig would outperform the new PS4 without breaking a sweat. Your average Joe PC however will not.

      People should write down what they are going to say and then think carefully how they themselves would react as an internet pleb before putting it out there.

      Reply

      • Edwin le Roux

        March 11, 2013 at 11:51

        I agree with you.
        But not talking about dedicated gaming rigs, but average Joe gaming PC.

        The average Joe Gaming PC is around 5 years old, and saying the new PS4 will beat that, is not that big of an accomplishment.

        Also the PS4 is not that much better than buying a new PC now for 6 grand.
        So a few years from now, I don’t think the PS4 will be that great compared to the average joe gaming rig.

        Note: I see a difference between the Average Joe PC and Average Joe Gaming PC. You can’t compare the PS4 to the Average Joe PC. That’s like saying the new Ferrari will be faster that any City Golf for years to come.

        Reply

        • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

          March 11, 2013 at 11:58

          Not just that but the PS4 will do a better job of handling games because it will be more streamlined. It doesn’t have as a demanding OS as windows running on it. It doesn’t have all the overheads to worry about to perform at it’s best. A PC has a lot of things happening in the background.

          So in these terms a dev would much more prefer coding on a PS4 and would really be able to optimise a game well. Especially since it’s got 8GB of GDDR5 memory. That’s graphics card memory. So yeah, no PC has that amount of GDDR memory.

          So it’s all relative on how you look at it I guess

          Reply

          • Edwin le Roux

            March 11, 2013 at 12:12

            Look as a PC gamer, I’m very happy for the new gen consoles.

            Also I agree that the PS4 is very powerful, and reading through the comments, I suspect better than most high end rigs.

            And that is good. It means when they make a new game for PC/Console. The consoles will not hold the game back graphics wise.

            But for how long, before we back at square 1 again. For when the PC gaming has to compromise for the Console again.

          • Gerard Matthews

            March 11, 2013 at 21:17

            Better than most high-end? I think not. It does not even feature the same power as a single GTX 670. In fact it’s almost a full gigaflop down on a stock gtx 670. That’s significant considering that high end gaming pcs would most likely have two. PC’s also don’t have to fit into a tiny not very well ventilated casing which determines the thermal envelope you can operate in. That means clock speeds on everything in a pc can be higher and PC’s can pump more power into their hardware because of this.

            OS overhead makes no difference to modern PC’s so you’re not gaining anything there either.

            The era of consoles ever and I mean ever outclassing PC’s is over. PC’s have gone too far for consoles to ever catch up. It just does not make financial sense for a console to even come close. You can’t charge the prices PC gamers are willing to pay for powerfull gaming machines.

            Let’s also look at the processor. AMD who I love by the way can not even touch intel in terms of gaming performance. But the thing is a weaker processor and a much less powerfull graphics card are good enough for a console. You don’t need more because with a console you’re usually so far away you can’t see any detail any way. Do you ever hear a console gamer talking about anti-aliasing, no cause he’s so far way from the screen he can’t even see it.

            Hell a large majority of console gamers don’t even know that there games are in fact not even running at full hd. They’re getting upscaled to full hd because the graphics cards are not powerful enough to run the current stuff at full hd.

            One final point. Consoles are PC’s (oh my word he didn’t) just less powerful.

          • Edwin le Roux

            March 12, 2013 at 08:31

            Lol @ “o my word he didn’t” 🙂

    • ALKi1234

      March 11, 2013 at 14:01

      How many pc “gamers” out there Really has the rigs to play games on MAX settings?not more than 20-40%.Coz the reality is,a “lekker” GPU cost more than hole ps4.so in my opinion pc and console gaming not even in the same league.

      Reply

      • Edwin le Roux

        March 11, 2013 at 14:11

        I’m not talking about now. But talking about a few years from now. And no, a decent graphics card don’t cost more than a PS4. If you want the mother of all craphics cards, then yes it will cost more than the PS4. But if you looking for a decent card that can play games max settings then your looking at 2 grand.

        Reply

      • Skyblue

        March 11, 2013 at 14:13

        Super Rugby and Vodacom Cup, the comparison has been made previously and there is a reason why Bryan Habana earns more than (insert any Vodacom Cup player name here)

        Reply

      • Johan du Preez

        March 11, 2013 at 14:14

        Most of the gamers can run on high or maxes out graphics due to the dumping down of gfx for consoles. No console port game these days even scratches a jon doe pc.

        Reply

        • Edwin le Roux

          March 11, 2013 at 14:19

          Thats true.

          Reply

        • ALKi1234

          March 11, 2013 at 14:46

          My point is…..I haven’t got a gaming rig.so if i was to get myself Screen+keyboard and mouse+speakers+case.How much it’s gonna cost me to play crysis3 on Max,and be honest now.No cheap brands???

          Reply

          • ElimiNathan

            March 11, 2013 at 15:21

            Then remember to take your HD TV Price into consideration too. And you pay more for a PC cos get MORE, A TON MORE

          • ALKi1234

            March 11, 2013 at 16:05

            That’s not what i wanted to know.Answer my question.

          • ElimiNathan

            March 11, 2013 at 16:06

            Your question is irrelevant

          • ALKi1234

            March 11, 2013 at 16:20

            Pc gamers…..Tiepies.

    • Darth_Clericus_The_Ultimate

      March 13, 2013 at 15:12

      All hail the mighty PC! You foolish console peasants cannot compare! MWAAAHAHAAA!!!!! Your champion the PS4 will kneel before us after 6 months. 6 MONTHS I TELL YOU! MMWWWAAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!

      Reply

  3. Jonah Cash

    March 11, 2013 at 10:38

    Master Race assemble!!! To me… Oh wait got carried away there for a second, I only have a Series 9 Samsung laptop and an iPad Mini!!! Guess the master race won’t let me join the gang with such modest credentials?!? (Not to mention the fact that I have a PS3 and Xbox 360)

    Reply

  4. Tarisma

    March 11, 2013 at 10:40

    Its what is said every time a new console generation is released. Doom and gloom for the PC its no longer relevant, its redundant, etc etc, then slowly the PC begins to claw its way back to the top of the pile as the consoles age and stat to show the flaws. Then it becomes the PC master race looking down on the poor console plebs and scoffing at their grimy controller holding paws, and then the next console generation is announced and the PC is redundant gain and the console gamers are kings and this happens for the next 60 or so years then I die and don’t really care.

    Also I have both a PC and a console so I am always on top of the pile looking down at someone. Que doctor evil laugh!!!

    Reply

    • AndriyP

      March 11, 2013 at 10:48

      I.T industry is growing at an alarming rate, i believe that PC will catch up much much faster than when it did with the PS3

      Look at the tech past 2-3 years, you get new tech today tomorrow theres a better model

      Reply

      • Tarisma

        March 11, 2013 at 10:52

        Very true, but its still the inevitable cycle, and people will need to have access to that technology, Sure there are already cards like he 690 which have enough power to hurl a rocket at the moon but they aren’t accessible to the majority of gamers.

        But I agree 2 years max before the average gamer PC catches up.

        Reply

        • AndriyP

          March 11, 2013 at 10:54

          Agreed i am also looking at about 2 years max for a decent gaming rig, a top gaming rig already will abuse the new consoles left right and center so in 2 years that power should be accesable to mid range PC rigs

          Reply

    • Robert Infy Hart

      March 11, 2013 at 10:56

      The consoles are PC’s on the inside. The hardware running them will be cheaply available to put in your PC. So there’s no clawing back to be had because PC will get that hardware before the consoles are even released.

      Reply

      • Tarisma

        March 11, 2013 at 11:40

        ya but the PC hardware has to run an OS, anti-virus, steam, my mouses current profile etc etc. consoles don’t

        Reply

        • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

          March 11, 2013 at 11:49

          But a PC also can have more RAM and upgraded CPU’s whenever needed to make up for lost overheads.

          It comes to down to choice. Remember, your PlayStation also has an OS of sorts and things that are constantly running in background because it’s becoming just as interconnected (if not more so) than PC’s.

          It’s becoming just as cluttered as any PC environment and I for one feel that they have forgotten what it is a console is supposed to be. I mean as the rumours have it the nextbox will have TV-Tuner and Skype built in. Why in the world do you want a TV-Tuner for a gaming console? And skype? Why? You don’t actually need it on the system.

          Bottom line: PC’s are bogged down with huge OS’s and the likes. Consoles are becoming more media-orientated and less gaming orientated.

          Reply

          • doe

            March 11, 2013 at 16:44

            The thing you have to ask yourself is, does a great PC game impress you more on average, or contrary to that, a great console game? Unfortunately for all the PC-wankers in here, I’d have to say consoles (even though I’m an avid PC gamer). Console developers do WAY more with current aged-hardware than people like Crytek do with current high-end ‘evolving’ hardware. Why? Because PC upgrades are so incremental and often that they never really get the chance to max out the hardware! EVER!!! You actually waste a lot of money by never buying hardware that will have it’s full potential reached at launch. By the time they eventually reach the full potential of said hardware, there’s already a new card/cpu out there and the one you originally bought is WAY cheaper. So it’like a race that never finishes…

            Besides having seen a lot of multiplats my brother and I own on PC also running on their console counterparts, the ‘increase’ in visual fidelity isn’t always worth the money IMO. Rarely EVER! Only if you REALLY have the extra dough to spend is it a luxury! It’s for people that can spend conveniently without any worries when it comes to money. Usually the fat ‘rich daddy’ gamer type! 😛

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 12, 2013 at 07:02

            The only wankers in here are the ones who can’t comment without insulting others…. Just saying

        • Robert Infy Hart

          March 11, 2013 at 12:24

          I dont know… my PS3 has a media server, social things like PSN/XBL and so on. Sure it will have less overhead than a PC, but most of that can be toned down by turning off services and programs that your game does not need. In fact there are free apps that do it for you with the click of a button.

          Reply

  5. Admiral Chief Erwin

    March 11, 2013 at 10:40

    I agree on the fact that most of the PCs out there are just glorified word processors.

    Reply

    • GTO

      March 11, 2013 at 10:45

      Well that is most most PC’s are used for.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        March 11, 2013 at 10:55

        Especially in government, solitaire pappie

        Reply

    • Uberutang

      March 11, 2013 at 11:38

      Word and Facebook processors.

      Reply

  6. RitterBruder

    March 11, 2013 at 10:46

    Ons Gaan nou braai !!!

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      March 11, 2013 at 10:52

      Jis eks lus vir daardie sosaties dude!

      Reply

      • RitterBruder

        March 11, 2013 at 11:29

        jinne ja ! lunch is nog moer ver

        Reply

      • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

        March 11, 2013 at 12:20

        That’s what she said

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Erwin

          March 11, 2013 at 12:23

          o_O comment does not make sense O_o

          Reply

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 11, 2013 at 12:24

            Clearly no one has wanted your sosaties bad enough then 😛 #trolol

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            March 11, 2013 at 12:31

            Dude if your love muscle looks like that sosatie then NO CHICK will want it.
            Also, why does braaivleis make you think of tottie?
            Nee man LC, nee

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 11, 2013 at 12:34

            Ok. I am officially #pwnd

            Well played

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            March 11, 2013 at 12:36

            Hollow victory, you are sleep deprived.
            Rematch tmrw?

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 11, 2013 at 12:38

            You are on!

    • Uberutang

      March 11, 2013 at 11:40

      Donkie of Kangaroo?

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        March 11, 2013 at 12:36

        WATERBUFFEL!!!

        Reply

  7. Johan du Preez

    March 11, 2013 at 10:54

    LOL Sure …

    Reply

    • AndriyP

      March 11, 2013 at 10:55

      Suuuuure……

      Reply

  8. Weanerdog

    March 11, 2013 at 10:59

    Well thats a bit like comparing apples to cars. The bottom line is that the PS4 will get you better performances than PC when compared to the same price point, kinda like now. In theroy they could align most of the 8 gigs of memory to the GPU and therefore pull out some amazing graphics but I am a little worried that the CPU is a little buget number that may get in the way of things down the road. Hey I am not a very technical type so maybe the CPU is only used for booting up and facebooking your friends, if that is so then everything is spanky, but if not it seems a little underpowered.

    Reply

  9. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    March 11, 2013 at 10:59

    Yes, most PC’s are using integrated graphics etc.

    But using a blanket term like that is a little wrong. Perhaps he should have said the “average PC”. Most would then understand that it doesn’t include the “enthusiast” people who build their own rigs etc.

    But saying the unit will outperform a PC simply because it has 8GB of RAM sounds very ignorant.

    The statement may be true when you break it down logically, but the wording used, as I said, sounds like he doesn’t understand tech

    Reply

  10. Gustav Minnie

    March 11, 2013 at 11:03

    I’ve seen this movie before…

    Reply

  11. Ben Louw

    March 11, 2013 at 11:05

    Hahaha! What a moronic statement. That’s like saying my newly build house will be newer than most houses in the world for a few years. LOL!!!

    Reply

  12. Kows

    March 11, 2013 at 11:11

    “the most popular GPU is the Intel HD Graphics 3000”
    Not most popular, it’s the lowest common denominator. You’re are either a massive troll or an idiot.

    Reply

    • AndriyP

      March 11, 2013 at 11:11

      I think both troll and idiot

      Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      March 11, 2013 at 11:14

      Sorry, poor wording on my part. Have updated to read “prevalent” instead of popular.

      Reply

      • AndriyP

        March 11, 2013 at 11:22

        Hey Geoff, what will be estimatated price of the Ps4 at launch? i want to see what kind of a gaming rig i can built for the same amount of money (bored at work today)

        Reply

        • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

          March 11, 2013 at 11:24

          Probably about $450-$500. Sony will try to avoid the $600 launch price that scared people off the PS3.

          Reply

        • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

          March 11, 2013 at 11:35

          Let us know your findings 🙂

          Reply

          • AndriyP

            March 11, 2013 at 12:51

            Well…heres a decent mid-range gaming pc i couldnt go cheaper than that, see the specs and tell me what you think. i went quite a bit overboard the PS4 budget

            Intel Core i5 3330? LGA 1155 3.00GHz Quad Core Processor
            R2,037

            Asus P8H61-M LX? LGA 1155 2X DDR3-1333 4x SATA Micro ATX Motherboard
            R578

            Corsair XMS 3 8GB(2x4GB) DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Kit
            R651

            Asus Geforce GTX650Ti DirectCU ii Dual Fan Design 1024mb DDR5? 128bit Memory Graphics Card
            R2,150

            GIGABYTE POWEROCK AX Series 500W Power Supply
            R505

            Coolermaster Elite 240 black with mirror finish and Blue LED Case
            R273

            GIGABYTE KM6150 Wired USB Desktop Set REGK-KM6150
            R118

            Seagate ST500DM002 Barracuda 7200 RPM 500GB Desktop Hard Drive
            R667
            = R6,979

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 11, 2013 at 13:04

            Not too shabby

          • AndriyP

            March 11, 2013 at 13:06

            the nice thing is that you can in 2 years spend another 3k and get a new mobo and another 650ti overclocked and be able to game all the new stuffs nice a boss with sli

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 11, 2013 at 13:08

            Won’t need a new mobo or CPU. Those are the things that last the longest. It takes a while in the industry to push a CPU past it’s limits. Not as fast as what happens with GFX cards. All you need to do is spend 3k one time on that generations current gfx card and you will be sweet.
            My last mobo lasted something like 8 or so years before it and the CPU stopped being able to perform. Just needed a new GFX card every 2-3 years

          • AndriyP

            March 11, 2013 at 13:11

            Yes thats true, im still using a quaed core 775 q8400 chip and it eats everything still i picked it up for a sweet 500 bucks why spend 2k on an i5 lulz
            You are right about the gcards though ive had quite a few over the years and realised that theres no point in getting something under 2k ever! for a gaming pc anything 2.5k and up and you should be good for about 2 years

            im running a overclocked 460 its over a year old now and with my cpu and gpu i ran far cry on max with almost no issues

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 11, 2013 at 13:18

            I was running a AMD Athlon 3200+ single core 64-bit up until I bought my current i7 haha. The CPU eventually just couldn’t keep up anymore. It was bottlenecking on it.

            I changed my gfx card 4 times in a 8 year (something like that anyway) cycle.

            GeForce 4800Ti, GeForce FX 5200 (which almost instantly got replaced by an ATI 9600), and then an ASUS GeForce9600GT Top (OC).

            And it ran everything on high most of the time up until about 2 years ago when the strain on the CPU just became waaaaaay to much

          • AndriyP

            March 11, 2013 at 13:20

            Hahahaha FX 5200 i bought that baby when i t came out and was lagging so much everything i played untill i got my GT9600 and then my current 460

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 11, 2013 at 13:22

            That FX5200 was pure poop. Worst GFX ever. I remember my FarCry1 lagging on it something terrible. Changed to the ATI equivalent of the day and BAM. Triple the speed. *Sigh* Back when ATI was actually good bang for buck

          • AndriyP

            March 11, 2013 at 13:26

            Was an amd and ATI fan when was younger but if you want performance theres just no where else to go but My avatar logo and Intel

          • Tarisma

            March 11, 2013 at 14:21

            The 650ti cant do sli. unfortunately

          • Tarisma

            March 11, 2013 at 14:20

            That 650ti seems a it expensive I picked up one for R1800 a couple months back.

          • AndriyP

            March 11, 2013 at 14:24

            Yeah i also noticed something funny with the price was looking for a 660ti that my friend picked up for 2400 a few months ago but cant find one, good card

      • Donovan Jordaan

        March 11, 2013 at 11:36

        It’s also a misleading statistic. Of course the Intel graphics chips are going to have more respresentation than NVidia or ATI, there are fewer Intel graphics chips to choose from, so the chances are greater that a single Intel chip will have more takers than one of the many NVidia or ATI chips. According to the Steam Survey, only 4.13% of users have the Intel HD Graphics 3000. That’s not a particularly large percentage for it to be considered popular or even prevalent. A better stat to look at would be VRAM (sitting at 1024MB for 34.54% of users), but even that could be misleading. The statistics present the item/stat that occurs the most, aka the mode, not the one that represents the average or even median user’s build.

        Reply

    • Mooos

      March 11, 2013 at 12:32

      I think you are the massive troll or idiot. Popular means “Accepted by or prevalent among the people in general” – which is true. Stop being so sensitive and offensive.

      Reply

  13. Mathias

    March 11, 2013 at 11:17

    Hahahahahha, well, yeah, better than most crappy PCs that they sell you on some stores, sure.

    Better than gaming rigs? Hahahahahahahah, what a troll.

    Reply

  14. Aram Avagyan

    March 11, 2013 at 11:29

    PS4 hardware will already be 1.5 years old by the time its released at teh end of the year, ’nuff said

    Reply

  15. Eetcarr

    March 11, 2013 at 11:45

    Lol, the PC ouens taking this way too seriously.

    Reply

    • Banana Jim

      March 11, 2013 at 11:49

      lol, PC gamers have always been the worst kind of fanboy. They’re just reminding everyone of it. 😛

      Reply

      • Tateboetie Malaaitie

        March 11, 2013 at 12:48

        Worst kind of fanboy being the kind that’s always right , high five !!!!

        Reply

      • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

        March 12, 2013 at 07:15

        Wrong. Justin Bieber fanboys are the worst kind.

        Reply

        • Banana Jim

          March 12, 2013 at 09:02

          There is no such thing as a Justin Bieber fanboy… but there are BELIEBERS!! DO YOU BELIEB? DO YOU? DO YOU BELLLIEEEBBBBBBB!!!

          Reply

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            March 12, 2013 at 09:03

            BELIEB IT!

      • mornelithe

        March 12, 2013 at 20:21

        Disagree. Generally speaking, I don’t see PC gamer’s starting these debates. It’s generally an ignorant statement from a journalist who hasn’t done their homework, or a group of non-PC Gamer’s running face about things they know nothing about. The PC Gamer wades in to clarify a thing or two, and gets jumped by the rest of the community. Happens all the time.

        I think people mistake fanboyism for simply being correct 99% of the time. Generally speaking, it’s an unarguable topic. PC’s have the resources, the flexibility, the openness, that consoles have never enjoyed. And it frustrates people soooooooo much to know they don’t have the best show in town. Sorry, I’m not trying to poke fun at people here. It’s the simple truth.

        Reply

    • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

      March 11, 2013 at 11:52

      Some yeah, but the guy did make a rather ignorant blanket statement. I’m not going to cry and shout that he must leave my poor PC alone.

      I just don’t like it when prevalent figures in the industry say things that scew the truth.

      Yes, the PS4 will be better than your average Joe PC bought straight off the shelf. No it won’t outperform any serious gamer’s dedicated PC rig.

      Yes that PC rig will be more expensive, but he should clarify what he means.

      It’s just silly statements that make me shake my head and go “Did you not read or think about what and how you were saying before trying to pass it off as fact to the rest of the world?”

      Reply

      • Eetcarr

        March 11, 2013 at 11:57

        I understand the issue about that statement, I know PC’s will always run away with the tech, but so does everybody else who reads/comments on this site. So I didnt think people would take that blanket comment like an arrow to the knee

        Reply

        • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

          March 11, 2013 at 11:59

          Yeah, most of us (including myself) are very opinionated about things. We are passionate about our own little gaming world lol.

          Reply

      • mornelithe

        March 11, 2013 at 17:54

        Indeed, in the very least he should’ve clarified the numbers of PC’s we’re talking about here. How many PC’s out there, right now, are capable of playing at _least_ solitaire? It’s in the hundreds of millions, very easily.

        Reply

        • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

          March 12, 2013 at 07:10

          Hahaha lol

          Reply

  16. Melasco

    March 11, 2013 at 11:50

    No PC I know about runs 8Gb of unified GDDR5… People don’t seem to understand what that means… The PS4 GPU is a GPGPU(Google it if you don’t know what that means) , that combined with the high bandwidth unified RAM, a low overhead OS, and the ability to mostly develop to metal, means the PS4 will be more efficient than any PC for many years to come.

    Powerful is the wrong word to use there because today’s mid – high end PC’s are already way more powerful. It’s about how the available power can used, and this is where the PS4 will shine.

    I also think it will take a year or 2 before we really start seeing the true potential of the new hardware. The launch titles will look like anything on PC now, but if anyone thinks that’s already the limit for the PS4, you’ll be proven very wrong soon enough. The benefit of purpose built fixed hardware will become VERY clear this time because for the first time we can at least make a closer hardware comparison.

    Master Race should be happy, means way better quality ports for longer! 🙂

    Reply

    • Eetcarr

      March 11, 2013 at 11:53

      Thanks for clearing things up. I never understood why all them developers loves it so much.

      Reply

      • CypherGate

        March 11, 2013 at 13:15

        Yippeeeeeeeeee!

        Reply

    • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

      March 11, 2013 at 11:54

      You see, this is how the guy should have approached his statement. By clarifying the statement. Bravo

      Reply

    • Denny Cray

      March 11, 2013 at 12:37

      Yep, what Sir Rants said. I guess he was trying for a simplified statement for the “common man” or some such but left himself up for some trollin’ in the process.

      Reply

    • PsiCoRe

      March 11, 2013 at 13:39

      We all know that a top of the range CPU makes little difference to your gaming performance so the DDR3 it uses doesn’t make much difference. High end GPU’s use up to 4GB dedicated DDR5 however. It does make more sense to unify the memory to save costs instead of having both 8-16GB DDR3 and 4+GB of DDR5 in your system. The PS4 has half the power of high end single core GPU’s but I’m sure the optimized design and low overhead OS will more than compensate. The PS4 should have the lowest launch price of any Playstation before it. I think these things considered may make it a logical purchase for your average gamer.

      Reply

    • PsiCoRe

      March 11, 2013 at 13:57

      Also take into account that a top of the range i7 CPU can only access half the memory bandwidth of high end DDR3 making DDR5 a waste. High end gaming GPU’s on the other hand are another story. DDR5 is capable of over 200GB/s which should be enough for both the CPU and GPU making unified memory even more logical.

      Reply

      • Melasco

        March 11, 2013 at 15:43

        Yup, that is very true, and exactly my point. Those bottlenecks affecting modular PC’s won’t be present in the PS4. Another example is that in any gaming PC the GPU still needs to call on system RAM often, I mean that’s pretty obvious because it still needs to load stuff into VRAM as required. Developers can’t assume everyone’s got 2Gb VRAM, or 8Gb of system RAM or quadcore CPU’s… They also can’t load everything into all RAM available, because they can’t assume what the speed is for RAM or storage… Imagine your gaming laptop had to load 2Gb textures into RAM from a 5400rpm disc every time you load a new area… All of this needs to be managed and balanced through a resource hungry OS.. There’s a long list of challenges making good optimization for PC games a huge challenge, but, in my opinion they do damn well if you really think about it… This is why PC hardware keeps improving rapidly all the time to help make games better, while on consoles the games improve as developers find ways to get more out of the same hardware.

        Have you seen Crysis 3 on PS3? I can’t believe the detail they managed to squeeze into it without negatively affecting performance… If you showed me Crysis 3 in 2007 on PS3 I would have laughed at your CGI attempt to fool me… Yet, there it is, same hardware….

        Anyways, those prefetch transactions from GPU to system RAM on PC waste lots GPU time, which could otherwise have been used to add performance and/or detail. This will be another great benefit of the PS4. Developers will know exactly what they have to work with, and the GPU / CPU will use the same RAM pool, meaning no CPU or GPU time wasted to pass stuff back and forth, all this while still on PC like hardware. 🙂

        Reply

    • Gerard Matthews

      March 11, 2013 at 22:12

      Lol, it’s not how big it is it’s how you use it. Sorry I could not resist.

      Reply

    • Gerard Matthews

      March 12, 2013 at 00:14

      Unified memory makes the system more flexible and cheaper to produce, it will not give it a lead in performance because PC’s aren’t suffering from lack of Bandwith (quad channel DDR3 anyone). OS overhead is a thing of the past, PC’s are so powerful now it does not matter and Direct X performance has been optimised pretty well by now. PS4 lacks horsepower where it counts. In number crunching, it’s as simple as that. Sure it will be efficient but the few benifits it has will not help it outstrip a powerful gaming PC. It’s simply a cleverly designed system which is designed to operate within a specific power envelope meeting the data processing needs of an hd tv.

      Here’s a simple analogy. Imagine your PS4’s as a complete processing package, it’s a 2 litre coke bottle held upside down and it’s trying to process all the data through the little hole (the limitations of the processor and GPU), PC’s are a coke bottle cut in half. Sure the PS4 has a unified memory bus but it has a serious bottleneck, how much data it’s processor and GPU can handle at one time, you will hit that threshold way before you hit any bandwidth limitations.

      Also the PS4 is designed to operate within the confines of a tiny casing with nowhere near the kind of airflow modern PC cases can generate. What does this mean, higher clock speeds and lower temps for PC’s and because of huge power supplies PC’s can push that power envelope as far as their owners are willing to dare.

      All modern GPU’s are GPGPUS. The AMD card in the PS4 is just like them, no more special and significantly less powerful.

      The PS4 is plainly just smart design, it means that game developers have the flexibility to program their games as they please. However if you research the XBox 360 system you will find that microsoft where already doing much of what the PS4 design incorporates now. Sony have learnt their lesson about expensive R & D because the Xbox showed them that with smart design you can achieve the same results. It’s all about balance and flexibility when it comes to consoles.

      The PS4 does not need an uber powerful GPU anyway because the number of pixels you need to process is pretty much fixed at full hd (at least until your average console gamer can afford one of those super high res tv’s). Are you hooking up more than one monitor to your console? No because 1 it won’t have the power and 2 you don’t need or want to, hence the PS4’s power matches its use case.

      Any argument that a console will ever match a high end gaming PC holds absolutely no water. It’s like comparing a cellphone with a console. Two completely different form factors and power envelopes. Power = number crunching = graphical performance. Is a cellphone ever efficient enough to match a console? Sure when the years go by and you’re eventually comparing a modern cellphone with seriously outdated consoles.

      What will happen is the consoles will start getting games with the same kind of fidelity PC games have been enjoying for the past couple of years. Anyone who owns both a high powered pc and a console will know the difference I am talking about. However since the PS4 is entering the market at such a low performance threshold you will see PC’s outstrip it far faster this time. In fact I seriously doubt that the PS4 will be able to match current multi GPU systems in terms of the detail that can be rendered on screen.

      Reply

  17. Kromas

    March 11, 2013 at 12:01

    The steam survey is fairly buggered just by the way. I have a onboard Intel GFX card and it is showing up on my steam profile instead of my Radeon.

    Reply

    • Tateboetie Malaaitie

      March 11, 2013 at 12:28

      probably cause the on board Intels better than the Radeon 😛

      Reply

      • Kromas

        March 11, 2013 at 13:48

        And yet my Tomb Raider ran perfectly with everything at full and tressFX without crashing once 😛 (Trolling nVidia is fun )

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Erwin

          March 11, 2013 at 13:48

          XD well played

          Reply

  18. MieLLiePaP

    March 11, 2013 at 12:23

    ok…So if the PS4 is more powerful than the PC…then what PC’s does the developers use when they make games for the PS4?…

    Reply

  19. Denny Cray

    March 11, 2013 at 12:27

    “I’m glad Sony decided to go with 8GB RAM because it means that the PS4 will out-power most PCs for years to come.”

    Yeah, I’m glad I decided to go with a large petrol tank because it means that my car will out-power other cars for years to come. :p

    (Alright not quite right but somewhat close)

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      March 11, 2013 at 12:28

      XDXDXDXDXDXDXD

      Reply

  20. Gideon Carstens

    March 11, 2013 at 12:35

    Link bait title, no?

    Reply

  21. Just Saying

    March 11, 2013 at 12:51

    I guess all those pro games that compete internationally will have to sell their “outdated” rigs to buy the new PS

    Reply

  22. Herms

    March 11, 2013 at 13:03

    Hi Geoffrey Tim

    I run a

    2x Xeon E5-2630 processor

    18g ram

    2x GeForce GTX 560 Ti

    Is that okay?

    I’ve also got a Playstation?

    Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      March 11, 2013 at 13:07

      Heh. sounds pretty ok to me. 😉

      Reply

    • CypherGate

      March 11, 2013 at 13:13

      Quick question: What software/games uses the full 18gigs of ram?

      Reply

      • MieLLiePaP

        March 11, 2013 at 13:18

        Good Question…but i also got one…What PC game requires 8gigs ram?

        Reply

        • Skyblue

          March 11, 2013 at 14:04

          Ummm, just about all of them if you want a smooth experience. I have 4GB dedicated to my operating system which runs our planet’s orbit in the background while the other 12 are just for in case we fall off our axis.

          Reply

          • MieLLiePaP

            March 11, 2013 at 15:32

            good point 🙂

        • Verrayne

          March 11, 2013 at 15:04

          Try and play cities XL…

          Reply

          • Banana Jim

            March 11, 2013 at 23:31

            Even with 18gigs of RAM… SimCIty is still unplayable!

      • Guest

        March 11, 2013 at 13:30

        Also i think his got enough ram for the next 10 years 😛

        Reply

  23. Ryan

    March 11, 2013 at 13:06

    He’s talking out of his ass. 8GB of RAM is nothing nowdays. My 5 year old laptop which cost R6000 at the time, has 4gb of ram and it would cost me around R1000 to upgrade to 8. Seriously in a year 8gb will be standard for any pc. And a mid range one will come with 16.

    Reply

    • Weanerdog

      March 11, 2013 at 19:47

      Hey Ryan you are aware that the 8gb of memory is shared and will mostly be used for the GPU, not system memory. The most you can get on a graphics card for your laptop would be 2 GB DDR5. And those graphics cards can cost the same as a PS4 is going to cost.

      Reply

  24. Tbone187

    March 11, 2013 at 13:37

    The only thing that renders his argument as plausible, is that he makes reference to ”most” pc’s…

    Reply

  25. Skyblue

    March 11, 2013 at 14:31

    Lets look at this logically for a moment, neither the PS4 or X720 will feature hardware that is comparable with a top-end PC gaming rig today. One of these PC gaming rigs will set you back in excess of 12k before factoring in your monster monitor, ear-splitting surround sound, (elite brand) keyboard, mouse, controller, etc. I agree with the argument that the stripped down operating systems will let the games have access to more operating RAM, etc allowing them to perform better than current similar specced PC’s but the simple fact is that neither $ony nor Micr$oft will ever sell a console worth 12k for 5k which means that compromises/concessions have to be made. After the cost of the PS3’s CELL processor and X360’s shocking failure rate (I’m on my 3rd console) they cannot sell you tech which is untested, unproven, unreliable and overly costly which means they will go with what has a track record, not experimental hardware. Who do you think paid for their informed information on reliable hardware?
    *whisper* pc gamers

    As for performance, they will in all likelihood stick with games running at the 30fps mark which PC gamers don’t accept as the lower refresh rate is… well… shit.

    Reply

  26. Uberutang

    March 11, 2013 at 14:50

    A single Nvidia Titan has 6 gigs GDDR5 memory. You can SLI 3 of them…18GIGS GDDR5! At the same cost as half a small Chinese car.

    Reply

  27. Matthew Figueira

    March 11, 2013 at 15:55

    100+ comments?!?!?! Ain’t nobody got time for that!

    Reply

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