Digital Foundry: In Theory: PlayStation 4K - What Should We Expect?

We know that Sony has PlayStation 4K hardware (or PlayStation 4.5 if you want to call it that) in its labs right now, but the precise spec and feature set of the PS4K remains an unknown. For now. In this video, Rich outlines the options available to Sony in creating a mid-generation PlayStation upgrade.

Polaris includes Memory Compression hardware.

AMD Tonga (R9-285)'s ROPS Delta compression/decompression hardware results.

Polaris advances Tonga's ROPS delta compression/decompression with other workloads.

@ronvalencia:

I had Tonga in form of rebrand as R9 380. Good performance for a 2GB card. If I remember they had workstation version which was essentially "Tonga XT", but never released the desktop version.

I watched the clip, it was quite interesting but I honestly don't think PS4K will have anything at all to do with gaming in 4K resolution. It would be prohibitively expensive for most people, just like a competent 4K gaming PC.

I predict it will be a PS4 with an ultra HD (4K) blu ray player and everyone will think wtf... is that it?

If anything it would play movies in 4k and upscale current games to 4k. Playing them natively at 4k isnt happening if they want to keep the price reasonable. I just dont see the point. Just focus on releasing a new console in 2017-18

I bet it's a PS4 slim with 4K Blu ray playback.

If it launches this november, that would be the 3 year mark for PS4 which is perfect timing for a slim version.

And shame on the internet who can't do proper math. You guys constantly say the PS4/xbone have been out for 3 years when both have only been out for almost 2.5 years. Quit rounding up. You guys were saying this at the 2 year mark too.

I'd be extremely disappointed if there's no power increase that is very noticeable in games. I don't get people saying that devs won't take their time to improve visuals either... games are already developed for pc, how hard is it to put high/ultra (after testing of course) instead of low/medium and some high settings?

It would be nice if the PS4.5 could play PS3 disc games.

I dont really know what I would want or expect from the P4.5 to be honest.

I dont care about 4k gaming or video/movies.

I dont get it to be honest.

PS4K will probably use the upscaling technique similar to that of Xbox 360 w/1080p. It's pointless as most if not all 4K TV already does that automatically with content it displays.

Im thinking it wont make much difference games.

There is quite big difference in the upscaling quality among 4K tv's tho, so having a good upscaler in ps4k wouldn't be bad thing to have

It's not bad to have but they seem to have it just so they could market the PS4 as a 4K console.

Hope they dont actually name it PS4K as that's quite misleading, but who knows they might actually do it

R9-380X is the full 32 CU Tonga XT version.

Yeah, more & more I'm leaning this way.

that's what i think

I'm hoping it does, would be glorious to play Bloodborne 2 on 60fps

I think it's unlikely you will get a "slim" version, the PS4 is already the size of a slim PS3.

I'm not so sure if Sony will go ahead with a total redesign, they might add some new features to the GPU, maybe up the clock speed the the CPU and GPU slightly rather than increase the number of transistors as it will be cooler anyway, and use that to slightly boost VR and upscale games to 4K. Seems like the most logical thing to do.

Why would you want to compete with yourself.

Also I find it funny people saying older PS4's will get a unoptimised version of the games, if that's the case what's gonna happen to Xbox One if we are using the Nintendo 3DS comparison? PS4K 30FPS, PS4 20FPS, Xbox One 10FPS ? LOL.

I know what to expect... a guaranteed flop.

Most people (who don't read gaming forums) don't care about VR and aren't going to buy a new console just for it, and 4k upscaling is a joke. The only thing Sony can do is strong-arm gamers towards it by increasing the graphics and FPS of games at 1080P but that would be a pretty alienating decision on Sony's part by cutting the PS4 gen short.

If they are not dumb there wont be two models of new PS4's, the PS4K will probably end up being the only model you can buy so it can't flop.