Report: Orbis (PS4) to use eight-core AMD CPU, Radeon GPU
Details surrounding the next PlayStation, codenamed Orbis, have reportedly leaked. "PS4" will have an eight-core AMD CPU, running at 1.6GHz, and a custom Radeon GPU, with 18 compute units at 800MHz.
Details surrounding the next PlayStation, codenamed Orbis, have reportedly leaked. The technically minded and reputable Digital Foundry claims that the "PS4" will have an eight-core AMD CPU, running at 1.6GHz, and a custom Radeon GPU, with 18 compute units at 800MHz. This matches with earlier rumors that Sony was partnering with AMD for its next-gen system, thereby losing backwards-compatibility with PS3.
According to the report, the processor architecture is based on new "Jaguar" technology that's primarily designed for low power consumption. Jaguar products for PC are set to ship later this year with 4 cores, but Orbis will double that count at launch.
The GPU is likely to be based on yet another mobile product from AMD, with the Radeon 7970M providing a "strong basis" for what to expect in terms of power consumption. Theoretically, the GPU will offer 1.84 teraflops of power, a figure that Digital Foundry hasn't been able to confirm for itself. And before opening up your PC rig to do a comparison, be mindful that an apples-to-apples comparison isn't entirely effective. "Freed from Windows and incorporated into a fixed console design, this GPU will really have room to show us what it's truly capable of," Digital Foundry notes.
In addition to the CPU and GPU, Orbis supposedly has other hardware that should give it a boost in performance. "Paired up with the eight AMD cores, we find a bespoke GPU-like 'Compute' module, designed to ease the burden on certain operations." This could be similar to dedicated PPUs found in many gaming rigs.
Orbis will only sport 4GB of RAM, however it will be GDDR5, an "ultra-fast" RAM that will undoubtedly best the DDR3 RAM rumored to be used by Durango (the next Xbox). According to Digital Foundry, the next Xbox will have 8GB of RAM, but could have up to 3GB reserved for the OS. Orbis, on the other hand, will have less RAM, but a smaller OS footprint as well--only 512MB.
While these specs are unconfirmed (Sony has not formerly announced its next-gen plans), they are certainly impressive--albeit in not the same way that PS3 was when it was first introduced. "Orbis has a singular focus on delivering high-end performance without breaking the bank--our take on the specs is that this is a machine built to last with a huge amount of potential," Digital Foundry says. The report also adds that the new PlayStation "may power past the new Xbox simply because it focuses its resources on out-and-out games power."
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Report: Orbis (PS4) to use eight-core AMD CPU, Radeon GPU.
Details surrounding the next PlayStation, codenamed Orbis, have reportedly leaked. "PS4" will have an eight-core AMD CPU, running at 1.6GHz, and a custom Radeon GPU, with 18 compute units at 800MHz.-
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Yeah, even Digital Foundry says that the two systems will be similar, minus RAM pretty much.
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I heard they are backwards compatible and MS made the OS for Sony... I kid :) be crazy if they where both in on it and they where using the same machines basically and there was a ploy to allow devs to work on the same hardware and make things easier. Basically a White Label console from AMD for MS and Sony. I am sure this is not true be crazy though.
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The 7970M performs marginally slower than the desktop hd7850, which is almost exactly the same speed as the slightly older hd6950. I'd be pleasantly surprised if a GPU this powerful ends up in either system, due to past rumors of having a much slower GPU and/or possibly integrated graphics, along side comments from from both companies stating the desire to not lose money on hardware sales in the upcoming next generation of consoles.
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A die shrink and some disabled SIMDs could take care of that issue, and given that the CPU will barely be taking up any power I could see a laptop based GPU running at a higher wattage to help alleviate potential manufacturing bottlenecks it might very well workout, or there will be a shortage. Either way I think it's possible.
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These consoles are AMD's meal ticket.
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AMD is fine for graphics but if that processor is just a bulldozer based cpu at 1.6GHz it would be very lame. I would take a even a dual core i3 @ 3.0ghz over that eight core for gaming.
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Sounds like it's closer to Jaguar, which are cores designed for entry level laptop/tablet market. A lot of cores without any oomph.
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Jaguar is a replacement for bobcat, which performs pretty horribly, and official releases says somewhere around 15% IPC increase with more cores and a higher clock speed to compensate, this looks like it takes the more cores approach without increasing clock speed :/.
That being said, we don't have that hardware in hand so maybe it will end up even better, but I'm not too thrilled about these CPUs.-
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oddly enough, the xbox 360 uses an AMD GPU. I guarantee that the 7970m in a console will be sick....it is super fast for laptops.
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GPU is #1, this will own, the slower clocks eh I don't think it will matter to tell you the truth(ways around it 8 cores) plus it has all those core, you are going to see a massive multi core push in games this round I have felt it coming for a while now it has too.
This is going to be very interesting how it pans out E3 will be INSANE.
If that is the CPU's real clock the push for multi core programing this cycle really will push things for the PC hardcore could be insane times(and very cool for the console too). For if you don't have the 3ghz and a low ghz cpu and many core you will be forced to dev differently there is no question.
This is going to be good :) man I hope that really is the GPU-
Calm down valcan_s, I had to parse that 3 times before I understood what you were trying to say.
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In regards to cpu clock wouldn't these chips also come with the turbocore feature amd uses that is similar to Intel's Turbo boost? I dont see why they wouldn't want to implement such a feature.
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Not in a closed system where you know exactly how much processing power you will have available at any given time. The turbocore stuff is really only useful for PCs where you have a lot of possible unknown background applications and processes running that might benefit from a bit of extra processing power to finish whatever they need to do faster.
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Biggest change will be architecture, I wonder if that means classic Xbox games will show up as DL titles? Considering it's practically PC hardware again on the Durango. I wonder how much difference the smaller amount of GDDR5 will make vs. more DDR3 + eDRAM. Of course, this puts the Wii U somewhere around 1/3-1/4 the power of the next Xbox and PS, a little too far behind to get decent ports :/
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hardly a surprise re:Wii U power. They set themselves up perfectly to get screwed again in the same way as the Wii port situation.
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It's actually a better position than where they were at with the Wii (which was more like 1/5-1/6th the power) but nowhere near where they should be to stay competitive.
The thing that bugs me about these specs in particular is the PS4 OS size in RAM, unless it's loading/unloading a lot of stuff constantly it seems too small compared to MS and even Nintendo's OS footprint.-
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Yeah, and the article claims Durango should have a 3GB OS footprint, how the hell does Sony get away with that?
Nintendo's issue is with the OS software (bloated as hell and incohesive) and I'm pretty sure a significant portion of that OS overhead is going towards running the tablet. If the PS4 is also going to have a touchscreen in there (as another rumor going around says http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-18-sony-to-drop-dualshock-for-the-next-playstation-report) it leaves me wondering.-
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Yes? I meant how does Sony get away with a 512MB OS footprint with a screen in the controller and its competitors eating up a ton more RAM (double and six times). It makes me a little suspicious of the rest of the specs.
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DDR3 is significantly slower compared to GDDR5 but if it has more memory it might not make a difference
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i guess if all you're buying it for is specs. i'm waiting to see what launch titles are coming as well as promised exclusives.
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lol neogaf...so it must be true!!!111
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It can be large, I remember Carmack complaining about it: http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/rage/news/carmack_bemoans_pc_driver_overheads.html
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Amd cpu and Amd gpu is better then Amd cpu and and Amd gpu?
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The Xbox is rumored to have an IBM CPU.
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By superior purchase you mean you think it has more power?
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Don't forget that the PS3 is region free and very lax about having multiple accounts for different regions. There's a ton of region-locked games on the 360
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if it is indeed 7970m, this is VERY good news. 7970m is a beast of a mobile chip.
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PS3 slim is whisper-quiet
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An X360 running games from HDD is also very quiet. I've got no gripes about the noise they make, unless they have genuine cause to do so. My PS3 and X360 start really screaming on a hot summer day when I decide to play games on a Saturday afternoon. That's their cooling doing its job.
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first-gen 360 was super noisy both with a disc in and without. but, yeah, the later models and slim are fine.
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My first gen 360 is insanely loud. I took it apart a month ago and there was no dust inside. I guess it is just crazy loud. I mean REALLY loud.
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The first-gen 360s came with one of three different fans: nidec, sunon, and delta. The first one is whisper quiet; the other two are what people complain about. My 360 came with Delta fans, and until I finally replaced them last year with Nidec branded fans, I had no clue that my console could be so quiet!
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Yeah that cooling did a great job for the 360. There is a compromise between cost and operation, and unfortunately most companies seem to throw thermals out the window as the first sacrifice.
So many expensive consumer products in the last few years have had terrible failure rates because no one designed the cooling systems properly, or cheaped out on solder which lead to fractures in soldering over time. I have a macbook pro that runs at 70 degrees at load, even though I just rebuilt it with new paste and fans. The problem is the heatsink isn't that great, only "adequate"
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You can't blame piss-poor design on RoHS.
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Perhaps, but the engineers/designers involved with the project should have known what they were dealing with. Working with limitations is part of their job unless they were provided inaccurate data from NMO about RoHS. Considering they opted with an external power supply, something I wish Sony would do, I think they knew they would have difficulties.
Regardless the history is fact, they were fighting RROD for a several years & several revisions. I imagine upper-management didn't want to put in the necessary money to retool the factory and/or design of the console, especially when consumers were eagerly replacing rrod units with new ones since the 360 game line-up is rather awesome. I actually wouldn't be surprised if they were making a decent profit off of RRoD units sent in for repair. It was $100 + shipping, right?
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You know whats really gonna drive me to buy a new gen systems is the games and the price not the specs. I'm not a computer person or a specs person to say the lest. I know the difference in things but , not all that much. I have both systems over this life cycle and they both worked for my needs. Games and price are where its at now specs,
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It all comes down to the feature set and exclusive titles. Specs mean less for these machines than ever.
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Not being backwards compatible is a huge mistake. So when PS3's are no longer made that means all the digital purchases will be unusable. This idea makes me want to not buy a PS4. If only more people played PC games. Even that is going downhill with Windows 8.
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:( Not relevant.
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Clearly next console won't be high end PCs. The Wii U won't be as far as the Wii was with the 36/PS3. That's a good news.
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Clearly next console won't be high end PCs. The Wii U won't be as far as the Wii was with the 36/PS3. That's a good news.
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I've liked my PS3 a lot (and I'm not much of a console fan, really). I'm looking forward to this new one and especially the fact that console makers wised up and added decent RAM finally. Cool!
Still prefer my high-end PC to these consoles but it's nice to have a variety of systems and game types at my disposal. :) -
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Here's a thought. Because it seems that AMD hardware will be used in all three consoles, that 'should' push game development to be much more favorable to the AMD designs. Performance should gradually become 'better' on AMD gpu systems, and also developers will focus more on the multicore useage of their software. The gap in game performance between AMD and Intel cpus should shrink, and the Radeon GPUs will be the basis that 'all' games will be developed on.
Am I the only one that thinks the use of AMD hardware in all consoles will result in 'better' performance on AMD PC hardware, and possibly better marketshare?
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Eh, I'm not thrilled that its all AMD hardware. From a development standpoint, nvidia/intel are always on the bleeding edge, and have gained my trust to know when I'm getting one of their products, I'm getting the best that can possibly found on a consumer market. AMD on the other hand seem to always be a step behind. Then again, I think its obvious why all the consoles are going with this company... because its way cheaper!!!
Someone mentioned we're at the death of console gaming, mainly because its getting to the point where we're in essence, we're just plugging a computer to a tv now. I see this to be a painful truth, computing is at an exciting age where the technology is making extraordinary leaps, something the consoles just cannot do. In 3-4 years, our beloved PS4 can easily be obsolete that quickly. I'll stick to developing major games for PC, where change and new tech are welcomed. And if you really want to play on your TV, you can spend the 50 bucks for a gamepad and a longer HDMI cable ;)-
i dont know of any 7 year old games that wouldnt be considered obsolete and somehow games come out for a console that old and destroy pc game sales.
change and new tech arent "as" welcomed on consoles because they have to keep everything standard for all users. thats also a benefit of consoles, i know that i can invest in one and im not going to get stuck spending more money upgrading components because developers write sloppy code and deliver broken games.
i would also like to mention that the whole kinect feature/idea seems to be pretty forward thinking and would have never gained traction on PC. so consoles can certainly innovate as well.
I guess what I am trying to say is whats the point of trying to disparage either consoles or PCs? So you like investing hundreds of dollars every year or so in order to get an extra few frames per second. Enjoy your chosen demographic and just simmer down.
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If that were true why didn't it work out that way this gen? With AMD GPU's in both the 360 and the Wii? I think the differences in developing games for closed hardware vs. open is enough to where it doesn't matter so much.
The big difference maker, I think anyways, will be Valve's Steambox (should it gain considerable market share). Whatever the best and standard load outs for it are may very well change the optimization priorities for developers.
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