The assembly line photo was a leak and while I feel it is real, some people think it is fake (to make the PS5 look larger than it is I guess). Well if it is fake, that means we have even less proof the PS5 even exists in assembled form.
Now I wouldn’t call the PS5’s specs an overclock in the traditional sense. The method they used is legitimate and will have benefits, but it is kinda shady at the same time. The PS5 will act as a 10.28TF machine most of the time except in the most demanding of situations. The thing is that isn’t how people compare TF numbers. People are are wanting to know the performance in the most demanding situations and that is what they use TF for. In that regard the specs are a bit of a fib. In the real world you’ll spend most of your game not needing the full power, but when things become demanding you’ll see more of a gap than the numbers indicate. Just how much we won’t know until DF starts making comparisons. Developers will smooth most of that out anyway.
Their heat solution also seems fine in theory, but if they really are using that dual heatsink solution that they have patented I could see it being very expensive.
Thanks for the reply. I’m really interested in the heat and noise aspect as the PS4 Pro is so obnoxiously loud. That I hope they really have improved this aspect as Cerny promised.
According to @Jez Microsoft are already in the process of working on the next Xbox, obviously it will be at a very early R&D stage.
While I agree that their vision is GamePass, I still see Xbox hardware in the future. In the same way Microsoft are continuing to make Surface hardware.
If you want to sell GamePass, you need hardware to play those games on…
Just for insight, Hardware previews like for consoles tend to be very strict and the hands on is usually with in development software and debug modes. While Digital Foundry have a fantastic name in their field, Sony would most likely only bring then in when they can have Mark Cerny there to answer questions and keep discussion to the talking points they want covered.
The answer to why no breakdown on the PS5 yet could be multiple reasons but that speculation would take one pages to write out.
That is true. I forgot about that Patent. For the Sandwich design of a cooler, It can be that you don’t have enough airflow to dissipate the heat across the aluminium fins so you branch off to increase the heat draw away from the critical components. Price wise, It could be a increase of $5 to $8 per unit (rough estimate based on sourcing parts already available or designed to manufacture from existing products) compared to a standard heatsink with fins.
The big question for me is all about the model SOC (System on Chip) Mark Cerny’s statement on how the system works was that all the SOC’s run under one uniform profile. Each chip may be capable of more but the model determines the power draw for the components. They have different profiles that can be used to change the CPU and GPU’S frequency to work harder when it comes to what the developer needs.
When it comes to products I have consulted on or helped design, heat and power draw are generally uniform across the board and the few times that we have had inconsistant readings, we then have to go all out to change the heat dissipation profile from a +/- 10 degree window to +/- 25 degree window. Even with that, we hear back from tech support about having to replace hardware on a yearly basis instead of a 3 year refresh cycle.
However, Sony is filled with incredible engineers, especially in their R & D and Camera departments So if anyone is gonna solve it, they would be the team.
Also, I think the $450 PS5 DE and $500 PS5 is pretty spot on for pricing.
Sony has gone their own pace thus far in terms of announcements and it’s been going swimmingly thus far. They’ve frustrated some people with no news but then over-deliver and then create a bunch of buzz.
I don’t think they’re scared or anything like that, they’re just going at their own pace. If there was a game of chicken, Sony effectively won that game and can now announce their modified console price. Like MS, they probably had a few price points in mind and would choose one after the other announced theirs. If both could, they’d release these at $599 because of the tech inside. MS chose a competitive price and Sony was likely expecting that price as a possibility.
Sure, the PS5 has its own price hurdles, an expensive cooling solution and a cutting edge SSD, but they did save costs in going with only 36 CUs. If you don’t believe me, look at how cheap the 20 CU XSS is. The XSS could have sat at 4.8TF with 24 CUs but price was critical here. So Sony isn’t sitting too bad in regards to price.
So I expect very competitive pricing. I am guessing a $399 digital edition and $499 base unit.
They can take an extra loss on the digital version, as they’ll make a higher profit from digital game sales for the life of that console. In an age of microtransactions that’s easily justifiable. In 2019 Sony made $12.5 billion in revenue from digital sales (including PS+ subscriptions).
And it’ll really make a dent in the appeal of the XSS. $100 more for a true 4K machine. A revolutionary controller as well, and some great exclusives at launch.
If that were to occur I think MS should drop the price of the XSS then and there to $249 to show they mean business. There’s something to be said about putting up a fight, gamers will know MS does care about consoles.
It’s funny that I’m asking these companies to take billion dollar losses to be super competitive, hehe.
I agree, I dont buy the “It was Cernys masterplan to clock the PS5 at 2230mhz!”
Cerny even said that smartshift was a later addition.
I think the PS5 was originally planned to be around 1800mhz and priced at $399 with minimal loss, But they got word of Microsofts plans and changed there course.
Theres a sweetspot of clocking GPUs beyond a certain point the performance gains start to require vastly more power, it makes no sense to design a console with such high clocks it just adds uncessary work.
Kudos to sony Sony though, it seems they acted fast enough to tackle these extra challenges.
But if the DE really is 399 why keep it under wraps so long? doesn’t make much sense to me (same for the XSS price). So I lean more to 499 and 599 either way though Sony’s responses to spoiler MS marketing are usually very swift so I’d expect to see something in the next couple of days if cheaper or matched.
Another aspect that doesn’t sit well for a lower price is why would Sony do it? If they have market lead and are creating positive focus with their announcements then they know it will sell what ever the price so for them a low price achieves nothing.
Probably because Sony wasn’t planning to price it at that price but now they have little choice. I am honestly surprised Microsoft took so long to announce their prices as both consoles are competitively priced.
But they do have another choice - price high knowing that their fan base will pay anyway because it’s a playstation. I’ve not seen a convincing argument that they would’t do that or even one that shows they are not 50/50 between the two right now.
IMO the DE is not a response to lockheart it’s an answer to a high priced disk PS5
I imagine there will only be a $50 difference between the 2 models, I just don’t see a world where Sony shave $100 and eat the cost for the disc edition.
I’m going $550/$500 or $500/$450.
In my opinion, had they gone for anything lower that, especially if they were going to sell the DE at $399, we’d know about it now.
It’s so damn hard to predict, they now know Series S is $299 so they’re probably crunching the numbers. I would really lean in on the if it was that price they would announce because they just got new info on Xbox’s price and they are probably going to be nimble.
I think they’re gonna do $399 for digital because of the Series S and people are expecting it to be $399 now.
That’s more of an illusion of choice really. They can go down that road but they only need to look at the PS3 when Sony tried to do just that and see how they lost a huge amount of market share. It’s why I believe they will ‘bite the bullet’ and price the DE at $399 - don’t forget this is what the PS4 was priced at and Sony enjoyed enormous success with it.
It’s very difficult, especially this late! Do you think they will pivot on the price since the Series S reveal? I’m not sure that they will be able to this late, but also, I’m not sure Sony would adjust their pricing on Microsoft anyway.
It really feels like people think the digital edition exists for reasons beyond why it actually exists. It wasn’t designed as a counter to Series S, they didn’t design the system specs, losses they are willing to take etc around countering It. It was made to frame the base edition in a better light and an easy up-sell, also likely to soften the blow of the base edition being a certain price above expectations. Even knowing xbox prices, it’s hard to say Sony is willing to lose an additional 50 or 100 or whatever dollars per unit when in most likely cases they still outsell their competitor 1:1.3 or 1:2. Not to mention they seem to have firmly put a lot of their investments into securing exclusive content.
On one hand they will sell out regardless of price as long as the PS5de is under $500.
But on the other hand sony may want extremely high sales out the gate and they know the playstation brand is not as strong as some people think and they need to be competitive on price.
This is what I go back to as to why I think the DE will be $399. It is what Sony even did with the PS4 Pro, a console they could have priced higher due to the fact is more for the enthusiast, but they didn’t. Quite frankly if the DE is not $399 then Sony has fucked up somewhere when engineering the console.
I think it was more Microsoft wanted the most powerful console for marketing purposes but knew that would make them more expensive, so engineered another console to capture the more budget oriented from the start. Let’s consider that usually console manufactures capture this end of the market a couple of years into the generation, as they are able to cut costs. Microsoft has essentially skipped this part and gone after it from the start.