News

Avalanche: PlayStation 4 will "out-power most PCs for years to come"
Posted: 11.03.2013 13:15 by Simon Priest Comments: 9
Just Cause and Renegade Ops developer Avalanche Studios is very pleased with Sony's decision to include a beefy 8GB of RAM in their latest PlayStation designs. The PS4 will "out-power most" PC rigs.

Specifically it's the 8GB GDDR5 RAM that's packed into the AMD APU, which combines CPU and GPU into a single chipset. This tech will likely stay ahead of the majority of PCs "for years to come."

A lot of studios developing for the PlayStation platform are excited by the huge increase in RAM because it lets them sacrifice less when it comes to optimisation.

"It’s a perfect fit for the types of games we do, and we are confident that we’ll bring open-world gaming to a whole new level because of it," Avalanche founder Linus Blomberg told Gaming Bolt. "I’m glad Sony decided to go with 8GB RAM because it means that the PS4 will out-power most PC’s for years to come."

"The off-the-shelf philosophy behind the architecture makes sense from a pricing and heating point of view, but it also means that Sony more easily can make incremental improvements of their system. If that’s actually their plan I don’t know, but it could help preventing the inevitable loss of market shares that the long console cycles entails.”

Avalanche is believed to be working on Just Cause 3 for next-gen platforms as well as a game based off Mad Max. Their last release was the shooter Renegade Ops in 2011 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Source: NowGamer

Comments

By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Mar 11, 2013
JonahFalcon
Which is an idiotic thing to say since there's no final PS4 specs.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Mar 11, 2013
nocutius
Does he mean the console is going to be close to the PC for a year or two before it gets left behind and starts holding the PC back for the next 5-6-7 years?
By Maffia01 (SI Veteran Newbie) on Mar 11, 2013
Maffia01
Of course the PS4 is going to outpace the average pc, the average pc is in an office and used for answering emails and surfing the internet.

Considering the Steam Hardware and Software survey puts the average amount of RAM at 8gb (albeit ddr3) I think gamers are ahead of the curve when it comes to pc specs.
By HenoKutus (SI Core) on Mar 11, 2013
HenoKutus
Only time will tell!
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Mar 11, 2013
Chosen_One
Trolling spotted :D
By JustCommunication (SI Core) on Mar 12, 2013
JustCommunication
That is an odd thing for a developer to say, since I imagine the hardware they use is far ahead of what even the most hardcore of PC guys use, considering what they have to do.

I can't remember what the conference said now, was it 6Gb or 8gb they were thinking of? 8Gb I think would be better than the average user's PC, I mean even I only have 8GB, but 6GB wouldn't be anything special.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Mar 12, 2013
FoolWolf
Not a big thing to do - there are smartphones outpowering "average" PC's today. How about they actually made it a challenge and said that the PS4 could even compare to the real gaming rigs? Dedicated graphic card and i5+ processors...
By Hammerjinx (SI Veteran Member) on Mar 12, 2013
Hammerjinx
In terms of raw power a gaming rig will outpace a console. No problem. However, it's not a direct comparison.

A console game is developed and optimised for that specific device. They can develop a game and fine tune it for the exact capabilities of the console without worrying if it will work ok on a lesser machine, or one that someone built themselves out of a mismatched hodge-podge of parts. They don't have to low-ball on requirements and let ppl with better machines run a bit smoother.

So, for the kinds of games that work alright on consoles, the PS4 is likely to outpace all but the top tier of gaming rigs. The kind of game is a big distinction, however. Consoles are built and optimised to play the kinds of games that people want on a console. It works really well with a small number of things. Shooters, Actions games - no problem. The other factor is that even the newest HD TVs have screen resolutions way lower than a PC monitor. Consoles don't have to work as hard.

Let's say that you bought a mouse and wanted to play Rome Total War 2. That same console is going to chug. It is not built for that kind of thing. The PC however is built for every kind of thing. It has to be. It's a tool, not a game. You want ten thousand little dudes running around on screen? No probs.

By optimising consoles for console-type games, they effectively optimise it *away from* games you don't see on consoles. This in turn means that people don't try to release those kinds of games on consoles.

Also, nocutius is quite right. After a few years the average PC will have evolved to the point where developers are limiting their designs for PC games based on what the next gen consoles are capable of.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Mar 13, 2013
FoolWolf
Good post Hammerjinx! :)