Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) Technical Details – Part One

Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One are the main contenders in the next generation game console battle. With the launch of both machines at the end of 2013, Sony has presented the full technical specifications of its latest console. In this first of a two-part series, we take a comprehensive look at the technical details of the PS4.

Processor (main and graphics)

At the heart of any console is the processor. The PS4 will use a unit made by AMD that is based on an unreleased PC product, codenamed Jaguar. The CPU (short for central processing unit) will feature eight energy-efficient cores and will work in conjunction with the Radeon-based graphics processing unit, or GPU. The GPU features 18 compute units, each running at 800MHz which, combined with the CPU, provides the PS4 with 1.84 TFLOPS of computing power.

RAM (Ramdom access memory)

One of the numbers featured on the PlayStation 4 spec sheet is its 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. This high-end memory is expensive and is rarely used in this amount, even in high-end PC graphics cards which, alone, can cost as much as the PS4 is likely to cost. This makes it even more impressive that it’s included on the PS4. The inclusion of this level of RAM as a standard is likely to serve as a test for the future of the console to some extent.

It remains to be seen how much RAM the PS4 operating system requires. Based on the experience of current generation consoles and high-end gaming PCs, we would expect a maximum of 1GB to be required for this purpose, thus leaving a substantial amount free for PS4 gaming tasks.

Internal storage

Internal storage comes in the form of a conventional 500GB 2.5-inch SATA mechanical hard drive, a huge increase over that of the PlayStation 3, which only had a 20GB hard drive at launch. However, it must be said that the PS3 has gone through several versions since it was first introduced in 2006 and the latest super slim models come with hard drives ranging from 250GB to 500GB.

One point in favor of the PS4 is that the user can remove and upgrade the hard drive, allowing the installation of higher capacity mechanical hard drives. The largest 2.5 “hard drive available today is 2TB or 2000GB (four times the size of the standard drive), so assuming the console operating system allows it, the capacity for System storage can be expanded considerably. There is also the possibility of installing an SSD or a solid state drive in the PS4 Although the capacities are lower than those of standard hard drives, the access and data transfer speeds are very high. Faster.

Optical unit

The Sony PS4 will use a built-in 6x CAV Blu-ray drive with a maximum read speed of 27MB / s. This compares favorably to the PS3’s 2x speed Blu-ray drive which was capped at just 9MB / s. Freed from the performance constraints of the PS3, the PS4 will be noticeably faster at transferring data from disk to hard disk and will make initial game setup much faster, even taking into account the larger expected file sizes. of the next generation games.

The drive will read and play Blu-ray discs, DVDs and CDs, although it is unlikely to be able to read the newer 100GB capacity quad-layer Blu-ray discs that are designed to support 4k resolutions. This is unlikely to be a problem as it is doubtful that the PS4 will support 4k output.

This concludes the first part of our review of the technical specifications of the PS4. In the second part we deal with the video and sound output, connectivity, the new DualShock 4 controller and the accessories available for the next generation console.

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