Rumor: Sony improving Neo specs last minute to compete with Scorpio

If this is true, no way it isnt delayed till next year.

Ugh, these goons.

Question is, did Microsoft anticipate this and have plans to increase power of Scorpio? Also, what will this do to price of PS4 Neo?

Knew it Sony was afraid to announce the NEO because they know the NEO would be out shined by the Scorpio

these two are incredibly hard to listen to. they're on par with Major Nelson cringiness

Maybe Sony is simply planning on upclocking the CPU and unlocking a little more GPU power of the existing Neo hardware set. If that's the case, I hope their cooling solution is efficient.

Ashley Jenkins is pleasing to my eyes....

It's too late for them to change the internal hardware, they would have to redesign the entire system, also its aesthetics, that's set in stone and still would have been long before Scorpio was announced if they still intend to hit their 2016 release window.

All they can do now is increase the clocks on the GPU and CPU slightly assuming they're not already at the thermal limitations.

Agreed. They'll want to pair it with the VR headsets as well for the holidays so the time frame isn't really possible.

ewwwww. The four main girls in FF15 look better than her.

How....predictable.

Even if they improve specs the last minute, aren't they still launching earlier than the most powerful console Scorpio which could mean MS could also improve specs to stay the most powerful console.

If they rush things we might end up with something almost as bad as the RRoD

I don't see why Sony would do this. Anything more than a minor change would have the potential to cause more harm than good. Microsoft will end up with the more powerful console regardless, but Sony doesn't need power to win. Sony should go back to doing what kept them in front from the start and just make the best damn games possible.

Awe man get ready, 10 million people are gonna jump from Playstation to Xbox

No if Neo launches at 7 tflops microsoft has to stay true to their word of 6 flops, according to lemmings around here once a company says something that's final and no changes can be made.

Will be waiting for 6 flop scorpio for 1 year with our 7 flops or whatever. It'd be disgusting and microsoft would just have to leave the business.

You have literacy issues, people are not saying things cannot change, they are saying it's too far along for things to change for Neo, which is completely true given the release window.

Neo is at the point where it should begin hardware manufacturing for retail sales, Scorpio is 16 months off, they have enough time to make it 10 Teraflops and completely redesign it if they felt so inclined, they are not close to their deadline.

You actually thinking Neo will get anything other than frequency boosts possibly bringing it up to 4.4 Teraflops is hilarious.

"if Neo launches at 7 tflops"

@dynamitecop: Yep, exactly.

@ronvalencia: Major Nelson is pleasing to Lems and Fakeboys eyes.

My bet ^

The power of the Cloud I bet. lol

Exactly. I wouldn't doubt if this is bait. MS may adjust the specs to counter Sony. It would make sense.

Even if Sony delayed the Neo until Spring 2017 it can't be more than 5tflops unless they are going to charge $800 for it.

Lol.....I like how MS stirred up some shit, completely caught Sony off guard.

I'm sure Sony shit their pants at the Scorpio reveal. I wouldn't expect them to do much before their reveal... These kinda plans are finalized pretty early.

Yeah, any delay for the Neo makes little sense. The Neo should be aiming to destroy the Xbox One Slim. If they are worried about Scorpio outdoing them, they should just get to work on the next iteration of the PS4... or the PS5 of whatever we want to call it at that point.

Knocked them the **** out!

@chikenfriedrice: "completely caught Sony off guard."

That was my thinking too. And I think it was the reason the NEO wasn't revealed at E3.

Well I highly doubt that, but if Sony wants to improve the system to compete with MS then be it. However, if Sony does do it without affecting the performance of the system I don't think the Neo will be as powerful as the Scorpio. the only way for Sony to compete with MS on this is to release the system either in October alongside PSVR or at the end of this year to have a head start.

I always post and say I have no intention to upgrade, but depending on what they will provide at this meeting remain to be seen.

Meg Turney is hotter.

Jeeze you Lemits intelligence is at a all time low. The only company stupid enough to announce a 400 dollar peripheral AND a more expensive console at the same event would be Microsoft. Sony had brains and waited. Bu bu bu sonys scared of a concept of a console, idiots all of you Lemits.

@Syn_Valence: I'm grabbing some food real quick, want me to head to the store across the street and grab you some salt? Or maybe some tampons?

Sony will let people use the original PS4 as an SCD for the PS4 Neo.

PS4 Neo: 4.2 TFLOP + OG PS4: 1.8 TFLOP = 6 TFLOP.

LOL j/k.

Sony could scrap the neo and just focus on more exclusives (which MS isn't doing) and completely bury the Xbone.

@kingtito:

Emmmm. Nope! Why Sony should afraid of Scorpio. LOL! Lems logic! Sony with Neo doesn't compete with Scorpio. Scorpio is basically a new gen in terms of power.

Scorpio will be released for more than a year and MS also can upgrade Scorpio specs till release.

And i'll bet you won't buy Scorpio when MS announce price for that. Hahahaha!

Video is nonsense because what would be the point? Even if they upgrade the NEO through whatever desperate measures they can this close to release, MS has an entire year to make further changes to the Scorpio to maintain their lead.

@chikenfriedrice:

Caught off guard? Lol! PS4K was leaked way before Xbone 1.5 leak ( later Project Scorpio ).

Sony is not going to do much as far as revision to the Neo and they don't need to either.

It's clear some fanboys are really delusional but let me break it down, PS4 Neo will basically be releasing with a functional 1 year lead on Scorpio and that alone (with the steadily increasing amount of HQ games PS4 has not on xbox) is far more effective than any power increase MS can throw at their upcoming system.

People seem to forget the PS4 model already has a 20-25 mil lead over xbox and PS4 and xbone released at the same time, once PS4 Neo releases no one is going to buy a xbone S over a more powerful PS4. Time is the thing people seem to be over looking here along with one more thing...PRICE! SMH Hermings in here simply saying, well MS can just increase the Scorpio power! lol do you guys just think doing things is free?

PS4 Neo will launch between $450 and 500$ NOW and kill all xbone S sales momentum! However, when Scorpio release A YEAR FROM NOW it's going to have to release at no less than $500, if they increased the power i'd be even more! At that point Sony can functionally adjust PS4 Neo's price between $350 and $400 range.

With more games, cheaper price and the functional ability to play games 1080p at 60fps maxed out! PS4 Neo will have the sweet spot in the gaming market. Lems expecting people to just go out and buy Scorpio because it's more powerful are delusional. Sony holds all the cards in their hand right now.

Scorpio's SOC (System On Chip) size is similar to the original Xbox One i.e. 363 mm^2.

Scorpio's 6 TFLOPS AMD GPU is a refinement on RX-480 (already at 5.83 TFLOPS)'s worst case fabrication i.e. RX-470 with working 32 CU at 1200Mhz which yields 4.9 TFLOPS.

If Scorpio is released this year with RX-480 with 1310 Mhz speed, high number of Polaris 10s will not meet the spec, hence lowering the yield. Also, AMD ZEN is not completed since AMD Jaguar is not VR Oculus ready.

RX-480 at stock 1266Mhz is memory bandwidth bound, hence Scorpio's "more than 320 GB/s memory bandwidth".

NEO has the same Polaris 10 IP, but Sony elected to launch with the current silicon refinement.

After paying for Polaris 10 IP, it's up to MS and Sony to set GPU clock speed and memory controller setup.

AMD is not allowed to sub-licence X86 Intel IP to another customer hence the sales setup is AMD sells the SoC to Sony or MS i.e. AMD contracts TSMC (or Global Foundry) to fabricate SoCs and sells them to MS or Sony.

You could also look at AMD's Q2 financials. For the EESC segment (which is almost exclusively consoles), AMD recorded revenues of $592m and income of $84m. Basically AMD buys the chips from TSMC, marks them up 15% or so, then sells them to MS/Sony. This setup is required due to the Intel/AMD Cross License agreement.

Technically, Microsoft could license just the AMD IP. But they would have to design an x86 chip that didn't violate any of the 10,000+ Intel patents. That's basically impossible.

OR

People know Scorpio is going to be king of the block, wait out that measly year with what they have now, because **** it, they've made it this far, and end up with a much stronger console in the end.

@casharmy:

Quote : PS4 Neo will launch between $450 and 500$

.....

I'll bet that price will be 399$

I don't think so, people are really grasping on straws hoping for that price, even the high end 2tb xbone S is $450 with a virtually insignificant increase in performance.

I am thinking Sony may go with 2 levels a 2TB Neo at $500 and a 1TB Neo at $450...there is a chance however that Sony will also release a base model Neo with 500GB at $399 but a system like that with the kind of space requirement these high def units require is virtually obsolete now.

With Scorpio, anyone expecting anything south of $500 are really living in fantasy land. Even xbone S are $400 and $450 with virtually no performance enhancement. High end model of Scorpio could be as much as $600.

Sony should just keep the price advantage. They will have more exclusives (they already do) and third party support since it shares PS4's user base. No one will buy a Scorpio after what happened this gen. I'm betting Scorpio gets a price drop in less than 6 months after launch. I learned my lesson buying an Xbox at launch.

What was that lesson? I haven't learned it yet

XBO S with 500 GB HDD cost is $299 USD.

Retail price example from http://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#S=480000,10000000&sort=a10&page=1

500 GB = $35.25

1 TB = $42.40

2 TB = $49.50

XBO S without 500 GB HDD is $263.75

XBO S with 1 TB HDD = $306.15. $349 - $306.15 = $42.85 margin, About 14 percent mark up.

XBO S with 2 TB HDD = $313.25. $399 - $313.25 = $85 margin, About 27 percent mark up.

For Scorpio's 12 GB GDDR5, extra 4 GB of GDDR5-8000's cost is about $30 retail. 320 GB/s memory bandwidth leads to cheaper GDDR5-6700 speed i.e. GDDR5-7000 rating being the closest.

Both Sony and MS are addicted to selling game console hardware and they are not going to let some PC OEM profit from it. Both MS and Sony are learning from Apple...

Scorpio is like PS4 with extra 4 GB of GDDR5, 384 bit PCB, similar size SoC and updated AMD IP blocks.

NEO is like PS4 with faster GDDR5 modules and updated AMD IP blocks.

Sony already pays for GDDR5-6000 rated modules (down clocked to GDDR5-5500) for thier PS4. It's unknown if Sony elected to have 384 bit PCB or 256 bit PCB for their final NEO config.

Based from Scorpio's E3 CAD based presentation, 384 bit PCB design seems to be ready i.e. 384 bit PCB has existed for Radeon HD 7950.

References

https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Xbox-One-S-2TB-Console/productID.3366999700

https://news.xbox.com/2016/07/26/xbox-one-s-options-this-august/

Yes and you are more delusional than he is.. 10 TF. lol

The only way they can achieve 10TF is using Vega and discrete separate GPU and CPU,TDP would be an issue so would be heat,and the Scorpio would end considerable bigger than the xbox one in size and like $800.

lol sure they did..

MS didn't catch sony off guard at all,MS siple announce some very empty specs and showing nothing at all,it was all intended to rain on Sony parade and i would not be surprise to see it using RX 480 with lower than 6 TF or a refresh 480.

I say this again sony doesn't need to upclock, i am sure a 1 year head start will cause more damage than what Scorpio power gap will cause.

He doesn't mean literally 10TF... It's just an example to explain you that Microsoft can still make changes if they want to. Which Sony can't on Neo currently.

Vega's 4X perf/watt is only 1.5X better than Polaris' 2.5X perf/watt which enables RX-480 size chip to easily reach 1310 Mhz as it's worst case fabrication quality.

Scorpio's SoC size is about 362 mm^2 with Polaris 10 consumes 232 mm^2 hence 130 mm^2 for CPU+NB+SB block which is enough for a full 8 core ZEN with NB+SB SKU.

Socket AM4 ZEN near-SoC (missing IGP) includes 8 core ZEN, NB and SB.

Alternatively, 4 core ZEN with 8 threads enabled could yield a larger GPU e.g. 44 CU to 64 CU version.

Vega 10 is 14 nm/16 nm FinFET of Fury X with high clock speed and 1 TB/s memory bandwidth HBMv2 and estimated~ 300 mm^2 GPU size. The remaining 62 mm^2 is just enough for quad core ZEN with 8 threads and NB and SB. I don't think AMD would be offering "Vega 10" size IP at mainstream prices.

Vega 11 could be larger than Vega 10.

Vega 10 = RX-490

Vega 11 = RX-Fury

Technically, a range of PS4 SKUs could be built from Vega 10(or slight lesser customized version)+ZEN to Polaris 10+Jaguar FinFET SKUs and they all run "PS4" software. It's up to Sony to elect this path.

PS4 with Vega 10 + 4 quad core ZEN combo and 363 mm^2 chip budget is the real gen jump from PS4. It's more or less a high end gaming PC with PS4's software run-time ecosystem i.e. Sony's Steam box.

NEO's SoC seems to be smaller than PS4's 348 mm^2 chip budget.

@ronvalencia:

Quote :

XBO S with 2 TB HDD = $313.25. $399 - $313.25 = $85 margin, About 27 percent mark up.

.....

Your calculations are wrong in some way. Even though it is same SOC, but they added some components for HDR, they upclocked GPU, you forgot taxes as well. All of this increases cost of production.

And you also can forget about Vega and Zen in new PS4. That's hilarious. PS4 would be expensive as shit then.