Next-gen PlayStation 4, Xbox 720 hardware specifications leaked

Shawn Knight

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We’re just a few months away from what many believe will be a huge Electronics Entertainment Expo for the console market. While neither camp has made any official statement (unless you count recent comments from Sony’s Hiroshi Sakamoto), pretty much everyone is expecting to see Microsoft unveil the next generation Xbox alongside Sony’s new PlayStation 4.

And now as we inch close to those reveals, we’re starting to hear some serious chatter with regards to system specifications.

According to sources as reported by Eurogamer, both consoles will be powered by an eight-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz built using AMD’s Jaguar architecture. This type of CPU is typically used for low-power notebooks but will have double the number of cores found in portables as well as a few other customizations.

We are further told that Orbis, the codename for Sony’s PlayStation 4, will ship with Radeon HD graphics. Specifically, we can expect to see the Radeon 7970M clocked at 800MHz with 18 Graphics Core Next compute units. This is expected to produce 1.84 teraflops, according to data recently published by VG24/7.

Not much is known about the GPU behind Durango but sources told the publication just after CES that Microsoft’s new console will be able to achieve 1.23 teraflops – significantly less than the PS4. The Xbox, however, is expected to have double the amount of system RAM which will no doubt help it compete in the performance department.

Eurogamer has published a lengthy write-up on the subject if you are interested in delving deeper into the hardware aspect of each console.

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To be honest, I didn't have high expectations for either console.
As long as they can run games at a true 1080p/60, not an upscaled 720p like they do now I will be happy. (I don't care what your TV says or what the game says on the back, very very few Xbox games run at 1080p/30 or 1080p/60, last I knew anyways). People expecting ground breaking specs or enthusiast PC gaming specs need to adjust thier sails, consoles are large cycle cash cows and niether company is going to throw a 3770k and SLi GTX 670 type power in there.
Thats for us PC enthusiasts to enjoy! :p
 
Consoles ?
I mean now CoD kids can play on HD whit a same auto aim
better graphics thats all ? this is the new and awesome generation what are wee waiting for 7 years ? 1.6GHz and a 7970M ? thats all ?
well im happy that I have a good SLI pc rig
 
Well, nice to see that the "new" consoles will be using 3 year old technology from day one instead of the 8 year old technology current consoles use. :p
 
The playstation will be just as disappointing as it is now if they do not allow third party apps. I've got a Ps3 and all I use it for is Bluray
 
The only positive thing that I can say about this news is that maybe, just MAYBE, since the CPUs and GPUs are based on established and similar hardware as are in current PCs, the optimizations that are made for the consoles will also translate into fairly optimized games for PCs. However, since both utilize AMD GPUs, this may end up sucking for those of us who have NVIDIA GPUs.
 
While the specs are nice from a console perspective (still very dated from a PC standpoint), neither of these systems will be made or broken by graphics, special apps & features, or other Sony/Microsoft gimmickry. It's going to come down to which system the devs decide is a worthwhile investment and who Sony/Microsoft are willing to fork out cash to (exclusives and other contract deals). Library size and scope is what made the PS/2 and broke the Dreamcast and Game Cube, it's what held the PS3 back and gave MS the edge with the 360. Things won't be any different with this generation.
 
Might as well run a desktop environment on these machines, they're powerful enough. And a 7970? Could be a cheaper alternative to high quality gaming.
 
How the hell are these things going to be cooled? Mid-range gaming laptops with worse specs have a hard time and are very noise. Slightly different form factor, I know, but still...
 
I agree...The only thing I care about is are they quiet. If they are noisy as the current gen forget about it. My PC is 100X faster and dead quiet. The Xbox and PS3 I think seriously make people deaf from those damn fans!
 
Those specs can play amazing games. The only reason we dont see it in a pc is because they make the games for consoles and just port them to PC. I am a PC gamer but happy they are coming out with consoles, it just means better games for u.
 
PC and console are two different kind of consumer devices. If you want to be uber general, you also have to lump in *shudders* phones, tablets, and phablets.
 
Yay so my soon to be 4 year old 5870 which has 2.7 teraflops is still faster, and I have two of them... My 5 year old laptop has an AMD chip at 1.6GHz and its so sad. On the bright side it will bring the consoles into DX11 allowing for better PC ports. Hope these new consoles dont launch with astronomical prices like the current ones did way back when. Your basically getting a gaming laptop without the laptop part, and amd CPUs are cheap. Shouldn't cost more than $400 at launch, even then I wouldn't buy one. Also anyone know why they need so much Ram in these things, 8GB is way overkill 3GB is reserved for the OS, guess they still don't know how to optimize that. Again maybe that will allow the PC versions to start using the vastly superior platform the PC is and always has been. Oh wait I got it, Microsoft is using the oldest trick in the book, inflate the RAM to make it look faster. Anyone who has sold computers will know what I'm referring to, if not go to a best buy and ask which computer has the most ram and why it makes it faster, put on your boot and get ready for bullshit.
 
Looking forward to another 10 years of consoles holding back PC games.
 
^That is what made me possible to have 1080p/60 fps maxed out in any game with a half decent gpu. Which I love.
 
Those specs aren't too bad. At least they aren't 5 years behind everyone, like they usually are.

Still, PC MASTER RACE!
 
Underwhelming isn't it.

where are the days when PC hardware took two-three years to "catch up" ?
 
Yay so my soon to be 4 year old 5870 which has 2.7 teraflops is still faster, and I have two of them... My 5 year old laptop has an AMD chip at 1.6GHz and its so sad. On the bright side it will bring the consoles into DX11 allowing for better PC ports. Hope these new consoles dont launch with astronomical prices like the current ones did way back when. Your basically getting a gaming laptop without the laptop part, and amd CPUs are cheap. Shouldn't cost more than $400 at launch, even then I wouldn't buy one. Also anyone know why they need so much Ram in these things, 8GB is way overkill 3GB is reserved for the OS, guess they still don't know how to optimize that. Again maybe that will allow the PC versions to start using the vastly superior platform the PC is and always has been. Oh wait I got it, Microsoft is using the oldest trick in the book, inflate the RAM to make it look faster. Anyone who has sold computers will know what I'm referring to, if not go to a best buy and ask which computer has the most ram and why it makes it faster, put on your boot and get ready for bullshit.
It's for smoother multitasking and xbox720 has double than ps4 (8gb) because kinect 2.0 (aka not the beta that they use now on the 360) is expected to consume large amounts of ram.
RAM is very cheap so it's best to make sure that in 5 years it won't become a bottleneck like it is for the current consoles.
 
Underwhelming isn't it.

where are the days when PC hardware took two-three years to "catch up" ?

Agreed!
Very disappointing. :(
It would be nice to have something worthwhile to look forward to.
The WiiU is more exciting. Although, lack of A+ titles is beginning to make it look like it's going to have the same failing as the Wii. (over-saturation of crap titles)
 
It's for smoother multitasking and xbox720 has double than ps4 (8gb) because kinect 2.0 (aka not the beta that they use now on the 360) is expected to consume large amounts of ram.
RAM is very cheap so it's best to make sure that in 5 years it won't become a bottleneck like it is for the current consoles.

Do you really think 8GB of RAM will save this thing in 5 years time? PCs can already double that easily. Perhaps if Kinect matters to you this may be important but It certainly doesn't to me, the whole waiving around looking "special" doesn't appeal to me. Don't worry the RAM won't be a bottleneck on either console, the 1.6GHz CPU will have that roll almost immediately. Also I'm not sure where your getting your information regarding the memory usage for Kinect 2.0, unless your extrapolating based on the current console. I do agree that RAM is cheap and both console could be fitted with 8GB of RAM for next to nothing, but at the same time look at what the current consoles do with such limited amounts of memory, its all about optimization to reduce cost of production. Just going to have to wait and see how these "specs" line up with the actual hardware, could still be rumors to a certain extent.
 
I don't know what many of you guys are talking about when you are happy that the GPU and CPU are up to par with current PC tech. In all actuality, when Xbox and PS3 were first released they had enhanced versions of the most state of the art PC GPU in them. The PC GPU market always will leave the console in there dust becuse they are not fixed hardware.

For this next gen we seem to be getting older hardware. Which is not a bad thing. In all honesty, we will be able to see the true potential of the hardware as it can not be reach on a multipurpose PC. And the extra system memory is ultra exciting. I think it is the key component for large environments and detailed graphics to get to the next level. And yes, it should be enforced that all the next gen games run 1080/60+ and maybe even 1080/120 when running 3D.

I'm excited and ready for the next evolution. It is always going to be about software, but this time it really will be. The boost in hardware will not make everything automatically good. This will be the generation for developers to really show off, surprise and delight.
 
I think you people are missing the point here. ;)

Consoles are built on older technology than a PC because they are based on dedicated hardware and do not need to be as powerful to produce "close to PC" performance. A PC has so many more things running in the background and so many different hardware configurations that it literally requires juicier hardware, amongst a tonne of other thing to consider in which I won't get into here because you're all smart enough to know what I'm referring to and we'd be here for a year going through it all.

Consoles are nothing more than extremely expensive DVD/Blu-Ray playing, cash cow gimmicks, that is all, nothing more, nothing less.

The PC will never die, no matter how many shitpads/tablets/iPhonies or w/e it may be, so you're still better off to stick to a PC!

Go ahead and flame away for my short-to-the-point opinion, but at the end you know I'm still right.
 
Incredible how many people still think that PC and Console hardware to performance ratio is like-for-like. Funny thing, this thing goes back to days of PSX, but the kids commenting somehow don't realise that.

The differences between embedded architecture vs. Windows OS and software layer somehow go out the window.
 
De4ler, "1.6GHz and a 7970M ? thats all?"

The CPU is worrying long-term but keep in mind that Xbox 360 had a 3-core in-order CPU architecture with IPC slower than a Pentium 4/Athlon X2. PS3 had just 1 of those cores and 6 supporting SPE engines (I.e., really a crappy processor that needed very expensive and time consuming optimizations). Metro 2033 developer estimated that the entire Xbox 360 Xenon CPU is only 70-85% as powerful as just one core in the 1st generation i7 Nehalem. Yup, that's right just a single core in the i7 960 is as powerful as the entire 3-core 6 threaded Xbox 360 CPU.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-tech-interview-metro-2033?page=4

Each Jaguar core is an out-of-order CPU architecture and it has much higher IPC than a Pentium 4. The new consoles are rumored to get 8 of those cores. That means the CPU performance will grow substantially in console terms, at least 2.5-3x faster than the CPUs they have now.

On the GPU side, R500 in the Xbox 360 was only roughly equivalent to X1800XT 256MB in speed according to ATI's own estimates. The RSX in the PS3 is just a G71 7950GT 550mhz with 50% less ROPs (8) and 50% less memory controllers (hence the memory bandwidth is reduced to just 22.4 GB/sec compared to the desktop 7950GT 256MB version). Due to reduced memory bandwidth and ROPs, this GPU is probably only as fast as a 7800GT 256MB one.

Look at games like Halo 4, Uncharted 3 and God of War 3 and what the developers/programmers were able to accomplish with such crappy hardware.

The rumor calls for an 800mhz HD7970M part with 2 less compute units. This GPU normally is clocked at 850mhz.

Let's take a look at the GPU performance:

Xbox 360 Xenos ~ X1800XT 256MB = 16.2 VP
RSX in PS3 ~ 7800GT 256MB = 12.3 VP

HD7970M = 150VP
Converting to PS4's power => 150VP * (800/850mhz) * (18/20 CUs) = 127 VP

That means the GPU in the PS4 will be 8-10x more powerful than than the RSX/R500 in PS3/360! That doesn't sound that bad.

Anyone who expected a $350-400 console to pack a GTX680 or Titan and Core i7 3770K/4770K is smoking something. The main reason PS3 sold so poorly was because it sold for $500-600 and Sony ended up losing billions of dollars on hardware sales. Given the current state of the global economy, it's just not feasible to sell next gen consoles for $500-600. Given Sony's current financial state, it's just also not possible for them to sell an $800 BOM PS4 for $400.

The best part about next gen consoles is the move to x86 CPUs which means porting PC games to consoles and vice versa should be much easier/cheaper. Hopefully the console ports to PC will be much better optimized than the crappy unoptimized ports we often get (Assassin's Creed 3, GTA IV, NFS:MW, etc.)
 
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