Over the past month there have been whispers of a more powerful and better equipped upgrade to the PlayStation 4, commonly referred to as the PlayStation 4.5 or PlayStation 4K. Keeping up the momentum of the first two reports, yet another story has emerged, and the refreshed console may offer a little more promise than originally assumed.
Internally referred to as NEO, the updated platform will feature a higher-clocked CPU, improved GPU, and higher bandwidth memory, according to Giant Bomb’s sources. Documents received by Giant Bomb also appear to confirm that internal storage will remain identical to the PS4 counterpart, though it isn’t clear whether that’s in relation to storage capacity or connection speed.
Beginning this October, every PS4 game will be required to ship with a “Base Mode” that will run on the currently available PS4, and a “NEO Mode” for use on the upgraded machinery. Games supporting the latter will be able to utilize the additional horsepower of the improved platform, offering higher and more stable frame rates and higher visual fidelity.
Now for the good news which, if proven true, will be a deciding factor for many: NEO will not supersede the current model. It will exist alongside it, even using the same PSN store, connecting to the same online communities, and will offer the same user experience.
There will be no NEO-exclusive titles, and by the accounts given, Sony will disallow exclusive gameplay options and unique unlockables for NEO owners, and developers cannot separate NEO users from original PS4 users while playing on PSN.
This introduces a rather interesting problem with the console as there’s currently no incentive for existing PS4 owners to effectively discard the original machine in exchange for the newer, more powerful version, other than the spectacle of improved visual fidelity and an improved version of the same game.
To say things are heating up would be an understatement, so what are your thoughts on the recent revelations? Let us know in the comments below!
See more articles on 4K Resolution, PlayStation 4.5, and PlayStation 4K.
I do not see how Sony are shooting themselves in the foot over this. Look the PS4 was released about 3 – 4 years ago? Back then 4K resolution was emerging as a new future standard. Sony knew this (hence making/made their own 4K televisions) and knew back at the release of PS4 the technology was not yet available to make the PS4 4K compatible (aka GPU power and HDMI2.0 / display-port blah blah).
Now back then the Xbox One was being released. What would’ve been better – Sony release a system at the same time or wait until now to release the PS4 while (I assume) all their customers/followers buy a Xbox and move away from the Playstation franchise?
Now Sony has the ability to produce a system powerful enough to support 4K resolutions – hence the slight upgrades. I do not see any issue with this, except the possibility of the rumored backwards compatibility back to the original Playstation 1. If so this would annoy me and all other PS3 owners who had games which were re-released for PS4 rendering them useless except on PS3’s. Now they could be potentially releasing a PS4 able to play PS3 disc games?
My only concern about this (bar the PS3 compatibility and many titles being reproduced on PS4) is that of it’s 4K capabilities. As currently a 4K movie (correct if wrong) does not fit on a blu-ray disk and there’s no mention of an upgraded optical drive. Another is most of the early generation TV’s can only play streamed picture in 4K not via a display/plugin port due to [then] current display ports not being able to handle a 4K signal (especially in 3D). Which if the new PS4 does have a 4K optical drive depending on your display this may not be fully utilised.
Me personally I couldn’t care less bar I’d feel we’d be slapped in the face if it is backwards compatible, especially for those who own dual copies of games for both PS3 & PS4 systems. The VR – I see just as another marketing fad, remember 3D television? 4K resolution, while higher resolutions always look nice I don’t have a 4K screen nor plan to get one, heck in Australia we’re lucky to get live/free to air TV streaming in 1080p and I do not wish to fork out 1.3k plus on a graphic card/s plus another grand on a monitor nor 2 to 3 grand on a new 4K TV which (in AUstralia) would only be usable by a PS4.5
Sony appears to be shooting themselves in the foot and alienating gamers in the process.
Sony will disallow exclusive gameplay options and unique unlockables for NEO owners
What does that mean?
Sounds like Sony and AMD are looking into some sort of PC type deal here. A fully upgradable console might be in the cards. According to the report on the Neo that GPU is probably Polaris architecture and what better vehicle for AMD to ship and show off their new tech but in the sales leading console?
Lots of upset folks who don’t like to think or read, there is likely no way Sony would want to splinter the PS4 base by having two incompatible machines, that would cannibalize it’s own sales. So if this thing is real they will play all the same games barring Neo will be able to run everything at a higher visual fidelity and framerate. Sony will more than likely swap out the BLuRay for a UHD one, I mean the last OS update for PS4 allows 4TB and larger drives to be recognized….one wonders why?
I feel the days of consoles are going to change into a hybrid console/pc not unlike steam machine but with way more backing behind it. AMD sourced APU and discrete GPU built for Sony at a base(entry) level spec mass market design, but with upgradeable/swappable RAM, HDD and CPU/APU. AMD did announce they had some new things on the way in the custom markets, and I think PS4 Neo might be the beginning of a new type of console.
The thing is, an apu with this Polaris based gpu in a pc would be so nice. It is after all more powerful than many pcs out there. It will probably eat machines with gtx 970 graphic cards for breakfast.
So no exclusive content for the new console. Just better graphics and loading times? If confirmed, it can be a pretty low and dirty move from Sony against the tens of millions of people who bought the “base” PS4 already.
“Look! Now, with the PS4 “NEO”, all your games will look even better. No exclusive content at all though!”
All of you that bought the “OLD” PS4 a few months ago…well, deal with it. Now for the same money you get a better machine… with no exclusive content. O.o
I’d really like to have some more info on this from SONY asap. I was planning to buy a PS4 this month to play DS3, Uncharted4 and then No Man’s Sky. But I can’t do it. At least my brain tells me not to do it right now. But I want to play these games.
Oh, life’s hard. First world problems. :)
How on earth can this be low and dirty if existing console owners see no difference at all and buying either console isn’t mandatory?
Who said it would cost the same. This version will cost more than the PS4.
Because for the past 20+ years everytime you would buy a PS console you could be confident that the money you were spending would be enough for ~7 years worth of games. Now, people who bought and are still buying the PS4 will be able to play the games, yes (if that’s confirmed officially) but not on their max potencial. If Sony doesn’t provide a “return your old PS4” kinda thing, people who bough the PS4 a few months or even in day 1 (3 years before is like half the time that usually a generation lasts for) the great majority of people won’t probably be too happy. Of course is not mandatory, mas for the majority of the people who own a PS4, I’d bet they are not willing to spend another 400 or more in something that basically has better performance and nothing new.
We could wait until 2018 and have a badass PS5. This is not even a PS4 slim, cheaper but similar in performance.
On the price thingy, some rumors point to 399 others to 499. Either way, people are spending 350/400 euros (at lesat here in germany) to buy the current PS4 that will be “outdated” in a few months.
Again, this is my oppinion based on rumors. Because we don’t know yet anything official. :) And I addmitt I’m influenced by the fact that I don’t own a PS4 and I want to buy one asap (I’ve waited for GT7/GTS, then for DS3 and No Man’s Sky and not this news came to light).
I think you’re forgetting the rate at which technology is changing. Consoles as they are are too expensive to support for 5+ years and remain viable. If I am correct in my thinking, Sony are more than likely thinking of an upgradeable console like a PC, the main parts like CPU/APU, GPU, RAM and HDD. This would reduce the burden on the manufacturer and the consumer as well and allow them to keep current with the tech leaps as they have started to plateau but by no means is it stopping.
Also people swap $700 plus cell phones like wall paper every 3 years or less, I think a fully upgradeable console that at least adheres to a set minimum spec for all games built for it is better than the mad mosh pit PC user have to deal with when new games arrive, unless you have a well specced rig you might not be able to run the newest game(dev dependent).
There is no rush to get a PS4, just sit and wait it out, see what happens. I have all the devices right now and will get the Neo if it is true, why not it should play all my games and my PSN will work on it just that games going forward will have Neo mode for boosted visuals and other extras.
If an upgradeable console comes out of this, this means all games built on it will still run on years later as only the underlying tech changes but the environment in which the games run will be more or less just like on a PC. This is probably the best way to add some sort of segue between high powered gaming rigs and consoles. I’m all for this.
The version of the game you play will be identical whether the Neo is released or not. The fact that someone else has a slightly better looking version of the game will not affect your gameplay at all. It’s worrying over nothing really.
NEO means NEW in Greek…
Expected higher specs and at least double the RAM…
John , you are new in Greek?
I’d like 2 exchange my original machine for the newer with moderate surcharge. I WANT 1080@60!
….This puts me in an awkward situation. I had this grand plan to snap up a PS4 with a copy of No Man’s Sky in June, but now, with a new “improved” console just around the corner, I’m hesitant to buy it now. Unless there’s some kind of a trade-in program being announced, I’ll just simply wait a while and see how it goes.
Hell, even with such a programme in place, I still might not buy a PS4 in June….
Really looking forward to these NEO exclusives! ;D
*waits for the overreaction from the popcorn gallery…*
Anyhow, I’m in sort of the same boat. I’d rather have NMS on PC, unless it supports Move controllers, because it’s been so long since I’ve used hand controllers for anything but adventure titles like Ratchet n Clank that it’s painful to play with them on shooters. The game I doubt I’d be able to hold out for would be GT Sport, but that’s sounding like a holidays release or even 2017, right in the NEO window. Guess I’ll be with everyone else, waiting for E3 news.
Cool. Great to see console developers updating hardware.
Seems to me that yes there will be better graphics, but not 4k. Surely with those specs you cant play 4k games, I think it will be 4k video only. Either way, iam annoyed and feel cheated by sony.Iam not buying this
Surely that spec will do actual 4K at only about 10fps?
the games wont actually run in 4K. the will most likely still run 1080P60FPS max and up-scaled to 4K.
Do you people even read? Or do you just come here to b**** and moan about everything that might have little relevance to the gt series. Jesus.
********””There will be no NEO-exclusive titles””********
Aaand GT7 will be exclusive for this console, wonderful!
“There will be no NEO-exclusive titles”
So we can probably guarantee that the neo will be needed for GT right?
“There will be no NEO-exclusive titles”
Well, there could be plenty of bottle necks in overall performance. The memory is the same as PS4 which is fine for CPU tasks but what about the GPU (larger resolution, larger textures), memory bandwidth is also a bit on the low side (not commensurate with the increase in the processing power of the GPU).
Its not as large a jump in performance as it seems, moving from a Radeon ~7870 to a 7970. These specs are not good enough for 2160p30 (if the same title is optimized to run at 1080p30 on a standard ps4).
As for GT, this certainly opens up the possibility of physically based global illumination in GT. I’m expecting this to be positioned as more of a VR thing rather than a better spec’d alternative to standard PS4.
I concur, it will be hard to get 4k/60hz even though this card is said to be based on Polaris architecture which means 2.5x perf/watt compared to 280x/290/390(28nm) series of cards if I remember correctly. It will simply be more efficient than 7970, in this case it probably be just cooler than the hot and power hungry 7970 and maybe maybe the gpu in the ps4 will perform like a amd hd 290/390. I do not know how high the power draw of a ps4 is but I do not think they would make a ps4 that draws over 400w of power. then it probably would equals about 2times of performance of the 7970. With better texture compression, the lesser memory bandwidth compared to 264GB/sec should not be that big of issue.
2304 cores(basically the lesser die of polaris10) against 2048 “steam core” in (hd7970) and about the same clock speed of 911mhz compared to 925mhz that the 7970 operates at is a good indication as you already pointed out. the 7870 is stronger is way stronger 1280 compared to 1152 in ps4 but I guess the bandwidth is higher in ps4. So if they do not upscale I do not think this will work out if a 390x with 2 816 steam cores and also a hot gpu that draws a lot of power can get 60/fps all the time.
I’m probably sticking with the PS B4. At least they’re not planning to do exclusives for the new one, like with the New 3DS and the Old 3DS.
I like the little engravings all over the front.
I believe that is the 20th Anniversary PS4…
The real reason for this is to push new customers (those who do not have PS4 yet, and still stick to PS3/whatever) to pull the trigger and jump to the PS4 world.
I’m one of the folks you speak of, but I’m afraid it actually puts me a difficult position. With Dirt Rally and Asetto Corsa here, waiting for PS4K gets more difficult. And if PD somehow pulls themselves together and gets GT Sport out before the 4K… that will be a hard gap to wait through. I doubt that will happen but I would be shocked if they don’t get the GTS beta out before the 4K. That would be almost as hard to wait through. And I shudder at the thought of trying to procure the new hotness PS4K or NEO or whatever during the holiday season. So much for getting a deal on Amazon Prime.
As far as these rumors, I strongly suspected this would be the exact strategy with PS4K. Making titles or even gameplay features exclusive to it would have been, among many horrible things, a bad business decision. If anyone actually believes that PD will be an exception to that and require this console for future GT games or even certain content, they are a fool.
I suspect that GT Sport or 7 won’t arrive before the NEO but will release with it and there’ll be a GT/NEO bundle.
I’ll stick with my “poor man’s” PS4
The ‘PS Poor me’
Sounds like a ship. A ship in trouble. If Sony make this gen double, they will truly pop their ‘good guys’ bubble.
From a bad joke to rubble.
Apologies.
If everything is as it appears to be in this news article it appears as if Sony is bending over backwards to ensure that current console users are unaffected by this new console. I fail to see the issue here.
it’s a difficult balance though, eh? If I’m truly unaffected, why would I upgrade?
They need to make it sexy, but not too sexy.
I don’t know why they just didn’t wait a year and whack out the PS5 proper. Seems like they think Apple is a good model to copy…
There is no reason to upgrade so long as you don’t want/need/desire the additional performance from the newer hardware. It’s no different than upgrading your pc when the latest, greatest videocard is released. If you are happy with the way your current system performs then no need to upgrade. If you want to run the latest games at their full potential, an upgrade might be necessary.
Perfect!
Now i will sell my old ps4 and buy new one.
I think when version 3 comes version 1 will be
obsolete. And sooner or later the games
will differ so much in graphics/sound and vr perhaps that people will not want old ps4 anyway even if games run on it.
Apple does the same.
The difference between ps4 and ps4k will not be so huge… Otherwise it would kill Sony profits from a well established platform still quote young ;-)
The adoption of X86-64 architecture cleared the way for strategies like this. Imho it is meant to push VR for ps4-early-adopters and those who do not own a ps4 yet. Anyway, I am curious to see how Sony will market/promote ps4k: as a higher spec version, alongside the plain vanilla ps4, or as the sole natural heir of an early-disbabded “old-ps4”
I don’t mind this at all.
It looks like Sony are going down the MAC path where they offer latest hardware that is compatible for many years down the line whilst still offering older models for less money which will still work, just with lower settings.
A hardware revision every 3 or so is fine with me if everything from now on remains backwards compatible into the future, much like you can pick up a lot of 20 year old PC games and still play it on the latest PC.
Not like the tragedy of limited PS2 compatibility on PS3, and limited PS2 and PS3 compatibility on PS4 because of the massive hardware architecture difference.
This is all good as long as it doesn’t turn intro a PC style free for all of continuously changing hardware.
Im pretty sure sony realises that there wont be a huge market for this thing, but there are some people who will buy it because they can afford it. Just like with high end PCs.
I don’t think this is aimed at people who can afford high-end PC’s seeing as this is still equivalent to a mid-range PC, going by the leaked specs.
I was just using it as a comparison. I never expect the ps4 to out perform high end PCs.
Fair enough.
I suspect the main reason for the “Neo” version of the PS platform is to facilitate VR tech and the added benefit is higher visual fidelity if you pick up the new version and choose not to go the VR route.
I suspect the main reason is money.
^That’s always the main reason of bussiness…
It’s always money.
They could’ve put 16 GB of ram. 8 for GPU and 8 for running the OS and a bit more speed. Even 12 would be better.
8 GB is just not that much these days.
Of course “money” is the long-term drive for a company, but in the short term ps4k is probably going to have a complementary role for PSVR and high-end VR competition.
I love it when people throw out “money” as a reason for a business doing something as if that’s a “gotcha”…lol.
8 gb of ram is perfectly fine for gaming. I have a good gaming pc with only 8gb of RAM and have no trouble running all games at Ultra on most or all settings and achieving frame rates many times higher than consoles. As of yet I haven’t seen the need to upgrade my RAM for gaming.
I really don’t see the issue here. So long as existing owners can play all games at a visual fidelity they would have played at anyway, literally nothing changes for them. The PS4 Neo version is simply another step up available as an option, not a requirement. Sony should be lauded for this so long as they do it the right way of course.