PlayStation 4.5 to arrive before Sony's VR platform launches in October

[Puiu]

I really don't understand why people are confused. 4K content is on the rise. The want to have the best 4K blu-ray player on the market (like they did with the PS3) and they are also upgrading the console to allow it to play 4K for all of the content. Being first (or very early) is very important.
As long as they don't fragment the market with games that don't play on both consoles then gamers have no real reason to upgrade unless they own a 4K TV. The PS4 will continue to be sold at a lower price and the PS4.5 will be the best console on the market.

PS: let's not forget that nintendo is also releasing a new console this year. sony is trying really hard to avoid anyone eating into their market share. it will make the NX look weak from day 1 and xbox one will look even weaker.

 

[Zendo911]

I for once don't think it's a bad idea by any mean, let me explain why ..

First off from a technical point of view, a quick and insultingly simple math would suggest that they need 8x the graphics power of the ps4 to move from 1080@30fps to 4k@60fps given that 4k is effectively 4x the pixel count of 1080, required twice as fast. However, PCs shows us in most cases that moving from 1080p to 4K doesn't result in a quarter of the fps .. it actually results in more or less half of the fps recorded on 1080p. I'm not sure why this is happening, but a lot of optimization seems to take place. Assuming they can benefit from rendering @ 2K for instance and up-scaling to 4k, then something around 4x the performance of PS4 GPU would get the job done, in addition to VR too. We know that PS4 GPU is of an equivalent power to HD7850 GPU from AMD, a Modern high-end GPU @ 28Mn (an AMD fury for instance, or maybe even an R390x) is sufficiently 4x the performance of an HD7850. Any enthusiast will tell you that the GPU itself (the chipset) of an R390x doesn't cost 400USD, it would more around 100USD and that's for small GPU manufacturers. I wouldn't imagine an APU similar to the one in PS4 but with a GPU configuration closer to an R390x to increase the manufacturing cost of a PS4 by more than 150USD.

Second, from a commercial point of view, the PS4 was priced at 400USD at launch to avoid a PR fiasco that was started by the 600USD asking price for the PS3. The gaming consoles are under-priced IMHO, for a product to cost exactly the same 12 years after its predecessor is rare and unheard off. Sony was forced to release PS4 at that price, and with an eye to the competition knowing that their main competitor will be 65% to 75% of their performance and that game developers for mutual titles tend to design for the slower platform, and with an eye to profitability, they simply were not motivated to design a more powerful and more costly to make console.
The situation is now different, VR and 4K represents an opportunity to further distance itself from the competitor and maintain the halo product every company needs. More importantly, given the penetration rates of 4K TVs and VR headsets, they won't be targeting the average PS4 customer, it will be at least 200USD more expensive than the current PS4, they will tell you that if someone is paying 1500USD for a VR/4K capable PC, why can't they pay 600USD for a console? VR and 4K are niche products, and so will be the next PS4.5, it will be more expensive to make, but they will even charge more, increase the profitability, and maintain a halo product. I think it is just brilliant !

 

[Puiu]

I for once don't think it's a bad idea by any mean, let me explain why ..

First off from a technical point of view, a quick and insultingly simple math would suggest that they need 8x the graphics power of the ps4 to move from 1080@30fps to 4k@60fps given that 4k is effectively 4x the pixel count of 1080, required twice as fast. However, PCs shows us in most cases that moving from 1080p to 4K doesn't result in a quarter of the fps .. it actually results in more or less half of the fps recorded on 1080p. I'm not sure why this is happening, but a lot of optimization seems to take place. Assuming they can benefit from rendering @ 2K for instance and up-scaling to 4k, then something around 4x the performance of PS4 GPU would get the job done, in addition to VR too. We know that PS4 GPU is of an equivalent power to HD7850 GPU from AMD, a Modern high-end GPU @ 28Mn (an AMD fury for instance, or maybe even an R390x) is sufficiently 4x the performance of an HD7850. Any enthusiast will tell you that the GPU itself (the chipset) of an R390x doesn't cost 400USD, it would more around 100USD and that's for small GPU manufacturers. I wouldn't imagine an APU similar to the one in PS4 but with a GPU configuration closer to an R390x to increase the manufacturing cost of a PS4 by more than 150USD.

Second, from a commercial point of view, the PS4 was priced at 400USD at launch to avoid a PR fiasco that was started by the 600USD asking price for the PS3. The gaming consoles are under-priced IMHO, for a product to cost exactly the same 12 years after its predecessor is rare and unheard off. Sony was forced to release PS4 at that price, and with an eye to the competition knowing that their main competitor will be 65% to 75% of their performance and that game developers for mutual titles tend to design for the slower platform, and with an eye to profitability, they simply were not motivated to design a more powerful and more costly to make console.
The situation is now different, VR and 4K represents an opportunity to further distance itself from the competitor and maintain the halo product every company needs. More importantly, given the penetration rates of 4K TVs and VR headsets, they won't be targeting the average PS4 customer, it will be at least 200USD more expensive than the current PS4, they will tell you that if someone is paying 1500USD for a VR/4K capable PC, why can't they pay 600USD for a console? VR and 4K are niche products, and so will be the next PS4.5, it will be more expensive to make, but they will even charge more, increase the profitability, and maintain a halo product. I think it is just brilliant !

don't worry it won't that expensive ($4-$500 at most) and no, they aren't able to make the consoles play AAA games at native 4K with current hardware technology. at most they will make the PS4.5 2x more powerful.