Haven’t watched all of it but basically the beginning of the video is pretty much UE5 needs more work, current UE5 games are using the older version. Developers with less expirience with the engine likely will take a bit before they can use it to their best potential.
John is wondering if the PS5pro would mean that the PS5 would be able to output in 8k like how the PS4 got HDR when the PS4pro released. My initial thought is about the hmdi bandwidth, and if it would be able to support 8k output.
It’s mentioned that Sony’s old approach to compatibility was hardware base, and 60cu is the full count, then it’s likely they’re going with a software solution. Because hardware would mean 80cu with 20 disabled.
I’m struggling with the idea of pro consoles ATM. I was definitely on the side of “they’ll happen every Gen now” and excited for it. But there’s a lot (IMO) working against a pro console right now… Rampant inflation taking peoples disposable income elsewhere, sticky prices on console hardware, relatively stagnant hardware… it’s hard for me to see anything really compelling coming from AMD right now for a new console. And obviously very personal to me - games that push the envelope/justify the purchase.
My guess is that 60CU is for Dev SKU and they gonna disable 4 CUs for yield. PS5 also use one 1 CU for audio engine. Hence they may have (18+18)PS5+(18)additional + (2) audio engine and (4)disabled.
Would be intresting to see how much clocks they could go for. The upcoming 7800XT AMD GPU could tell the story because it has the same 60CU configuration and can go upto 2.6Ghz in boost mode.
The thing is… High PC parts sales and Sony’s recording breaking PS5 sales tells a different story. Sony raised the price and still sold record breaking consoles is a clear indicator that market is willing to spend money.
I also struggle with the selling point for pro consoles. Enabling HDR or 4k in a game in 2016 or 2017 was mostly not very intrusive from a dev stand point and had noticeable impact for the consumer a la ‘i need this for my shiny new 2k OLED TV’.
What will be the hook in 2024? Pathtracing needs a completely different rendering setup, thats not a easy win. In the end its probably just Moar Powaaa! which is a bit boring, meh.
I think the appeal will be from some studios. Expect Rockstar but also CDPR to take advantage of it all the way. And Sony can consider me on board with a Pro if a Witcher 4 and GTA 6 look or perform significantly better than my current platform, XSX. I remember the clear difference in resolution in RDR2 between One X and PS4 Pro and I was glad I was on the right team. Games will become more and more demanding and I think some devs will be happy that more power will be offered.
We’ll have to wait and see how it all really turns out.
Maybe it’s going to be things like better draw distance on Pro, less framerate drops, better LOD? The rumors claim they got something like advanced raytracing, whatever. Sounds more like the super overhyped ultra special SSD nonsense fanboys were parading around to me, but who knows.
Maybe higher resolution too? I mean games get more demanding, might be lower resolution on the current systems and higher on the mid gen refresh? Although I doubt it will be differences like RDR2 because according to DF it was visible more soft on Pro.
But it’s a small minority that care about this and an even smaller one who care enough to stump up a premium price. PlayStation has sold 40 odd million consoles so they probably figure there are enough day ones who will upgrade to make it worthwhile. But Xbox doesn’t have the same goals not the same incentives and nor does it have the same size of user base.
As said above a ‘4K’ console at least had a marketing beat last gen as 4K TVs started to fly. But it’s harder to really see what hook a pro console has this year time. Better raytracing is still limited anyway and just more ‘FPS and res’ doesn’t feel that relevant in the current climate. I mean anyone who would spend a lot for me extra frames is already on PC. I’ve no doubt that it works for Sony but it’s pretty obvious why it does not for MS:
And frankly anyone who feels they want more than the series X offers in power terms shouldn’t be waiting for a console but building a monster PC.
I see what you mean, but all we can do now is guess and speculate what the advantages would be. What you describe indeed sounds minor and if that’s all it is, I might not even bother either. Although I do still need to get a PlayStation, so might as well get that Pro next year and depending on how big these differences are going to be I might make the Pro my multiplatform console.
I’m not falling for secret sauce kind of BS, but I have a feeling Sony still might impress with the Pro and I bet devs will be in favor of it, the better they can make their game, well…the better. And Sony has the benefit that they are market leader, devs will sooner take advantage of the hardware.
As for wanting more than the XSX offers, I can’t deny that I wish Starfield was 60fps, but I also understand why it won’t be, and unless they’d upgrade the cpu big time neither a mid gen refresh would do that for the game. But overall I am a bit disappointed how fast we seem to be going back to lower framerates after having been well…spoilt with 60fps right from the get go.
It’s one of the reasons I keep PC in mind, haven’t written it off yet, about becoming serious regarding PC gaming.
Sony will make the pro seem amazing and in the build up and marketing there will be loads of hype. When it dies down though it will ultimately imo just be a mid gen upgrade that doesn’t really offer a great change.
All they can logically hope for is games should now always hit 4K if they are dynamic, and if they were 4K now at least they’d hit 60fps all the time. Games like Fortnite might now be able to add a higher res nanite enabled mode or go for 120fps in that mode. Maybe the base resolution of the upscaled ray-tracing could be higher now. And as mentioned, better lod, maybe better draw distance, etc.
It’s not as in your face as “4K Pro console” from last gen so It might be a harder sell, but I’m sure all they have to do is charge an extra 200$, put Pro on the box and it’ll sell regardless.
Yeah unfortunately PC gaming is still hit or miss. Most UE titles have shader compilation stutter issues, even custom engines have issues like the traversal stutter found in Dead Space. Unfortunately first party Xbox games aren’t free of issues either. Redfall is horribly threaded on the CPU side and performance is handicapped as a result. It’s more hit or miss based on the studio it seems and not the publisher itself. I plan to play Starfield on PC since Bethesda has a good history with PC but that doesn’t guarantee every PC port from Xbox will be of the same quality. Even studios with a great reputation like Nixxes have had some ports with issues, like the recent R&C port. It’s an ok port but has some issues that we don’t traditionally see from Nixxes.
If the PC port is good and supports cross play in MP, I’ll usually go with that version. If the PC port has issues or the MP doesn’t support crossplay, I’ll go for the console port.
I expect games to hit those 4k targets more often and have either higher quality RT, more RT effects, and/or higher quality settings.
The differences between the PS4 Pro and One X were noticeable IMO and I’m expecting the difference between the PS5/SX and the PS5 Pro to at least be at that level, if not larger. Current gen games like Remnant 2 and A Plague Tale Requiem render at rather low resolutions when targeting 60fps, I expect those types of games to hit closer to 4K resolutions on the Pro.
Another way of looking at it could be current gen consoles 30fps quality modes running at 60fps on the Pro unless it’s CPU bound.
There are games from 2023 which can’t even hit 720p@60fps constantly. So suddenly a console with doubled performance metrics to achieve 4k@60fps seems outlandish. Memory bandwith is also not doubling.
I expect to be underwhelmed.
2024 will be interesting with Switch 2 when everybody will have this machine as their target.
I didn’t say every game would hit 4k, just they would hit those targets more often. If anything, it’ll at least be closer to 4k than the base consoles, which would greatly benefit FSR since that works best at higher resolutions.
I wonder if the shell will change for the XSX digital? Maybe make it shorter? Or would it be like the 1S where the shell was the same size but didn’t include the blu-ray player.