Sony's as yet unannounced next-generation console will use a graphics chip provided by AMD.
"It's Read's job to make sure AMD doesn't screw up its slate of new products-which includes a hush-hush effort to put its graphics chips in Sony's still-unannounced new game console-and shake off the once scrappy company's years-long funk."
If true, it would mean that Sony will be ditching current provider Nvidia for its biggest rival. AMD also provides some of the hardware powering Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Another report on the PlayStation 4's early technical specifications suggested the hardware is shaping up to be "more powerful" than Microsoft's next-generation Xbox targets.
Jack Tretton, CEO and president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said this month he's not thinking about launching new technology any time soon.
Comments
22 comments so far...
unacomn on 23 Feb '12 said:
"have suggested the hardware is shaping up to be "more powerful""
Which doesn't mean much, since console exclusive titles are becoming rarer, due to their high development cost, which will skyrocked in order to show off those nifty new graphics. Fewer third party studios will be able to recoup those investments, so they'll be focusing on multiplatforms, in which case, the lowest powered one is the one they're building it for, and then maybe upscalling the detail a bit for the others.
No matter which console turns out to be the slowest, that'll be the main focus for multiplatform games.
cmr333 on 23 Feb '12 said:
What a load of bullsh*t
kirankara on 23 Feb '12 said:
Whilst I don't think there's much here that can be taken as cast iron truth, this is a well respected source, and hardly makes outrageous claims.
To poster above. whilst you're right that they would develop with multiplatform in mind, this doesnt necessarily mean developing for least powerful first. They develop for the easiest to develop platform and then port across in most cases, but of course they have to bear in mind the limits of consoles theyre porting over to, so that they dont hugely sell it short. Most multiplatform titles this gen been ported over from 360 to ps3, not because its less powerful, but because it's cheaper to develop primarily on that system and then port across, rather than other way. They then just optimise as best as can to get it running as good as possible on ps3, but usually selling it short in many cases.
I doubt like you said, there will be many exclusives, and even if ps4 more powerful, it wont be hugely so, and any graphical differences will be slight improvements, but there's no reason why a multiplatform game couldnt utilise any extra power to give it slight performance improvements and improved textures, aa etc etc
svd_grasshopper on 23 Feb '12 said:
exclusives matter. can't wait to see what naughty dog can do with the ps4, if that's what they can do with the hard to develop for ps3 - they have the best looking games, on a system most devs can't even get to grips with properly.
sony will make a point of making development less of a headache for developers. that lesson is learned.
ted1138 on 23 Feb '12 said:
All these 'this console will be soooo much better than that console' stories remind me of school, when me and my friends would get two kids to fight by telling them the other one said something about them.
...I miss being a teacher.
nologo on 23 Feb '12 said:
hmm i just switched from AMD to nVidia on my pc.. i prefer the quality you get from nvidia personally.
although AMD is a cheaper graphics set..
kirankara on 23 Feb '12 said:
I dont, hated ever minute of teaching lol
laughing-gravy on 23 Feb '12 said:
Of course this could be Sony trying to start a price war between AMD and Nvidia to get them to lower their prices a bit. But we do know that developers are already working on next gen games, so surely Sony wouldn't change the architecture half-way through development would they?
fatherofthenoo on 23 Feb '12 said:
Kaz said there is no PS4, Jack said there is no PS4. They gave very valid reasons for why this is the case. Why won't the rumourmongers accept that there is no PS4.
RustySpoon80 on 23 Feb '12 said:
They didn't say there isn't a PS4, just that they aren't going to talk about it.
They would have started the R&D as soon as PS3 was finished.
tmten on 23 Feb '12 said:
Highly likely. It's common knowledge in the industry that Sony weren't happy getting screwed by Nvidia on the pricing for the RSX, as well as the amount of control they wanted over it - not letting IBM integrate it into a SoC to lower manufacturing costs as happened with the 360 GPU for instance. All of which is very similar to what happened with the original Xbox, prompting Microsoft to switch to ATI for the 360, so there is precedent. ATI on the other hand pretty much licensed the IP for the 360 to Microsoft, just taking a development fee and basically royalties.
It probably has little to do with Read by the way, as development maps for new consoles and thus these sorts of deals are done years in advance of the actual hardware release and while he may be shoring things up, if Sony are going with AMD then that sort of thing would have been decided a year or two before Read was CEO. Of course no new Sony console has been announced, but given that the CPU/GPU/APU, Soc, whatever you want to call it, for the new Microsoft console taped out at the end of 2011, which would mean that the hardware design would've had to have been finalised at least a year before that, it's quite logical to assume that as Sony don't want to give Microsoft much, if any, of a lead in time to market this time 'round, Sony will probably be working on a similar roadmap.
Dimlo on 23 Feb '12 said:
If they do go AMD this could have problems with backward compatability, just like the original Xbox and 360.
Ali_ on 23 Feb '12 said:
Not a very hush hush effort then. And, by effort, I take it they mean "please, please, please use our chips Sony".
Sleepaphobic on 23 Feb '12 said:
Can we rule out physics then or is that still just software based?
AMD will probably be cheaper but from experience with PC products the higher nvidia price is usually justified.
fatherofthenoo on 23 Feb '12 said:
If you look at it that way then that would mean that R&D has already started on the Vita's successor. To me that seems unlikely. Anyway, we all interpret what people say differently.
Personally, I don't believe there is a PS4. I believe that they are probably developing [i]something[i] games related but with Kaz at the helm now there is no telling what might happen. He said that he is fed up of every new release being a struggle so perhaps he will just abandon home consoles altogether and chase a new market; finally get Sony back on the horse. After all, the PSP and PS3 don't have the finest of legacies: piracy, hacking and financial losses. Not good.
This AMD graphics chip could be for anything, it doesn't point to a games console. They can be used in any electronic device that requires graphics.
martinawatson on 23 Feb '12 said:
This would be a huge shame as Nvidea are coming up with some amazing tech , and I was really hoping for it to get into the ps4 in some shape or form, I think they will be experimenting with a number of different form factors at the moment, so we will have to wait and see, cmon Sony make it an absolute smasher.
laughing-gravy on 23 Feb '12 said:
There was a patent filed by Sony for some sort of plug-in backwards compatability add-on. So that could be one solution to the problem. The link to the article is below.
http://myona.com/2012/02/20/ps4-3d-kine ... s-suggest/
alan666 on 23 Feb '12 said:
yes of course they are, the PS4 is five years away according to Sony.
agentxnofx on 23 Feb '12 said:
More Powerful? Technically, PS3 is more powerful than the xbox 360, doesn't mean so much, 'eh?
MD1500 on 23 Feb '12 said:
But what if the console is called something different? Then they'd be technically correct.
"There is no PS4.... This is the PS-Force!"
krel on 24 Feb '12 said:
u know how sony execs have denied ps4 is in development who knows it may be a new console with a new name?
Imaduck on 27 Feb '12 said:
What krel like ,
New console: Playstation 4
New name : Playstation 4
?