PS4 Pro Gets "Boost Mode" To Improve All PS4 Titles

Well it looks like I may finish Bloodborne afterall! This mode is rumored to boost the framerate of older PS4 games that do not have a "Pro patch." From the looks of it, there may still be compatibility issues with certain games, but something is better than nothing!

This is not going to melt and fry my ps4 pro is it? It already runs hot at default.

If I buy two PS4's and connect them with a USB cable I can run games twice as fast right?

That's a very cool new feature. :)

Indeed. You may want to hook up a couple of PS3s too so you can cure cancer thanks to the power of the Cell.

Yeah great idea! I see a special kind of unused expansion port on my fat 60gb PS3, I can rig an ethernet from it - so that has the backwards compatability hardware in it meaning I get a PS2 x a PS3 x 2PS4 = 2 x 3 x 8 = 48x gamespeed and FPS rates whilst curing cancer. 120 FPS, 1080p in 4D ain't a dream anymore baby.

Thanks Sony.

hmmmm, didn't see that coming.

Hmm. If true and if it works correctly this could change my mind later down the line about upgrading to a Pro. Right now I'm firmly in the "NOPE!" camp.

But wait... i thought it wasn't fair to offer 60fps to Pro owners. What happened to that, Sony?

Darn, darn, darn, darn... I was hoping this update offered the duel 4K at 240 fps in 4D mode for the older games. Oh well, maybe the next update. lol :P

"Please turn it off when an unexpected action occurs during gameplay"

My guess is its not going to work universally or perfectly. Might be worth pulling the reins back on any excitement for a bit.

lmao

Be patient Lemming.

Yes, this is good

hmmmmm. This might change my mind about not getting one. I'm fine turning it off if it causes problems for a couple of my titles. With modern game engines, most games do not have game speed tied to render speed, and thus shouldn't do anything wacky if framerate improves.

@blue_hazy_basic: that warning reminds me of the fast load /upscale options the PSP and PS3 had for playing ps1 games. Fortunately that worked great for most games i tried, so hopefully this is just Sony being cautious?

Well this certainly sounds like good news. But it could mess with some games based on that warning. I have a pro so I would love to get a boost in some games I own.

Unlike you diseased mad cows....

Lems are always marching along happy and never get sick therefore are never a patient but patience on the other hand we don't need since MS is constantly one upping Phony Bore and Poo constantly delivering the best of the best sir being for the gamers, by the gamers, jazz. lolol :P

@goldenelementxl: How in the world can you consider yourself a repectable gamer if a simply thing like fps can stop you from playing a game like bloodbourne

Your the type that cant read a paragraph if a letter was wrong in each word.Name your fav game ever and tell me you wuddnt play it if it had the minor framerate issues bloodbourne had

Very good........PS4 Pro looks better and better every day.

Just to temper people's expectations, this mode will help older games which suffer from frame drops to get better performance, if a game is struggling to hit 30 fps then this will help it to do it, same thing for 60 fps.

Anyways, this is a great feature, can't wait for DF to test it.

Yes.

I made it through your post just fine.

I enjoy Bloodborne. I go back to it every so often. But I have to admit the fps issues bother me. ESPECIALLY in a game that demands precision. But my backlog and the amount of good games that keep coming out are as much to blame for me not finishing Bloodborne.

you've got boost power

before you get worked up: A) It will not fix frame pacing in bloodborne B) it will not make it 60fps either

Overall it's great to hear and it might be a nice boost for games that have trouble hitting their destined framerate and havent gotten pro patch

Not gonna bother with it if it's not guaranteed to function properly. And I'd prefer proper 60FPS.

It is probably going to be one of those features that help games that run dynamic resolutions/games with frame drops more then anything. Kind of like the S does for Xbox, but should be able to do it better because of the extra horsepower.

I'll keep an eye out on this. Because right now, the pro does nothing for me.

Will games actually be 60 fps now?

@phantomfire335: no. That would require a patch for games. But it would help unpatched games hold to their framerate target

here's an example, courtesy of Desmonic

Hell yeah, can't friggin wait for it!

Edit: Should be called beast mode hur hur hur hur hur.

Are you serious.......??lol

Will it be out of the box or will devs have to patch it?

Thats the important question.

From the post it seems like based on dev support.

And why turn it off? What kind of problems does it cause?

Why cant it just work like Xbox One S?

If it works for all games with no patching needed then im sold. Thats the only thing i wanted.

It has to be a $200 Monster USB cable though.

Maybe they should also add a boost mode to the pro mode. LOL

Huh? This is explicitly about a feature providing performance boosts to games WITHOUT a patch / dev support (hence the risk of unexpected performance issues). The reason you would want to turn it off is some games actually have physics and other things tied to their framerate, and so if a big change occurs they could start to act funky. This is - near as I can tell - exactly like what you have with the X1S, except it comes with a toggle to turn it off. This is likely only worthwhile for the Pro and not the X1S because a) the pro is more likely to push performance out of the intended bounds (the S is, really, only a teensy bit more powerful than the base system) and b) Sony is presumably wanting to hedge against that by enabling the user to revert to PS4 performance in the random odd instance where it is an issue. If they don't provide the toggle, and some game is "broken" on the Pro, it would cause a ruckus. This way they can prevent any game from being broken by enabling us to operate like the coders originally intended if there is some issue

What you just said doesnt make any sense.

This mode isnt increasing frame rates or resolution, its just giving more power to stabilize games.

Moreover, games are hard coded with a framerate unless the dev elects to leave it unlocked.

Regardless, the physics are always hardcoded.

This mode SHOULD merely allow games to run at the intended framerate without being limited by hardware.

@navyguy21:

Yes, that's what it is for. And that IS what I am referring to. But...

No - framerates are hardcoded with either a CAP or unlocked. They can dip below the cap (and do frequently). That's the benefit of this feature, and the benefit of the X1S.

And yes, in the cases where they leave it unlocked... that's exactly the situation Sony is probably worried about. Take Dishonored - when I got that game on PC I had an ancient 9800GT. My framerate was - 50s or something. When upgrading to an R7 260X and leaving it unlocked it could wander up to 200+ FPS! Now... imagine if physics or other aspects of the game were tied to framerate, and had been designed assuming a maximum 60 - that could be gamebreaking. Fortunately, it isn't. But some games... some games are designed around the performance of the target console

That statement doesn't mean anything. Physics and other game clocks can be tied to framerate and hardware clocks - or not. Go back and emulate a DOS game and crank up the clockspeed and they can run wildly out of control. But some games are coded smartly and this doesn't happen. Most modern game engines avoid this, but some devs to tie aspects of the game pacing to framerate still.

I agree - but again, there are cases where, especially with an unlocked framerate, *some* games could behave oddly and this is what Sony is worried about.

TLDR - this is the X1S feature, but with a toggle in case something weird happens with a small subset of titles that were coded with assumptions about clockspeed or framerate that are now violated

I agree with everything you said......but console games are fixed.

Even if the framerate is unlocked, the physics wouldnt change.

IF the physics were tied to framerate.........like Tales of Zestiria for example, then sure, it could screw up...........on PC.

Consoles are usually locked at 30, especially if the physics depend on it.

I challenge you to name 1 example where it isnt.

@navyguy21: I don't know if I can - I'm just offering an explanation for why Sony is being cautious. Presumably they know of some games that they think will behave oddly. My bet is - since I agree with you - 99% of people could leave the toggle on and never play a game with a problem. But, IDK - Sony is worried about something...

This should have been an option right from the get go. Not using the extra power is fuckin retarded.

@SecretPolice said:

@flyincloud1116 said:

@SecretPolice said:

Darn, darn, darn, darn... I was hoping this update offered the duel 4K at 240 fps in 4D mode for the older games. Oh well, maybe the next update. lol :P

Be patient Lemming.

Unlike you diseased mad cows....

Lems are always marching along happy

To THEIR DEATHS !! lol

I know why its an issue for them but this place is full of fanboys and i dont feel like arguing lol.

@navyguy21: i'm genuinely curious - feel free to pm me if you have some wacky examples or something and you don't want people jumping down your throat for saying something bad about a PS game!

Dark Souls 2 SOTFS.

The game ran at 60 fps, but many of the ingame calculations depended on frame rate -- specifically 30 fps. This had to be patched.

But thats what a Scorpio will do and that just stupid though!

To simplify, the Pro has 2 GPUs

(before the fanboys jump on me, words from Mark Cerny)

"STANDARD PS4 GAMES WILL PLAY JUST THE SAME UNLESS DEVS PATCH THEM

For the more than 700 or so existing PS4 games, Cerny said the goal was to ensure those titles played smoothly no matter what. That’s why the Pro incorporates an identical GPU. Because the new console has "the old GPU next to a mirror version of itself," Sony can support existing games with a simple trick: "We just turn off the second GPU," he said. Developers can patch these titles to boost graphics and performance in very subtle ways. But unless you have a 4K television, the difference will not be substantial."

So essentially SLI..........on a chip, if you will. (minor difference, but again, im simplifying)

So Sony would need to enable the second GPU, then write code to get both to run in tandem...........and for the games themselves not to notice.

SLI will never work universally, neither will this method.

There will be games that the games are perfect, but it depends on the engine, the physics, open world vs linear, dev coding effeciency, etc.

It will be as patchy as SLI is.

Microsoft just overclocked the XB1S, so the hardware is exactly the same.

Pro has different hardware (GPU setup)

This is a nice feature. Gives even more reason to buy a Pro. At least games like Bloodborne will get improved fps just like people have been begging for.

When is this coming?