Rumors on the upcoming PlayStation 4 Hardware upgrade, codenamed ‘Neo’ are coming thick and fast over the past few days. According to the latest reports, developers will need to take into account the PS4K’s ‘Neo mode’ and aim at a resolution no lower than 1080P.
During their latest podcast, Giant Bomb discussed the documentation and leaks they had been sent “it seems like [Sony] won’t allow a display buffer lower than 1080 in Neo Mode, so these cases of games under 1080 getting scaled up, seems like that will only be a Base Mode thing”.
Previously, it had been revealed Sony wouldn’t allow games to run ‘worse’ on the Neo / PS4K compared to the base system, so developers couldn’t opt for higher resolutions for the PS4K but at the sacrifice of lower frame rates (for example, release a 1080P 60FPS for the ‘base’ PS4, but a 4K 30FPS Neo PS4 experience). It’s important to remember that the base PS4 will still be capable of playing all of the released games (so the rumors go), but obviously there will be losses in visual quality compared to the Neo.
The console will supposedly offer enhancements for the consoles Remote Play, and a “better resolution” if streaming to other devices, but other specifics weren’t touched upon. For those who routinely share their gameplay, the internal DVR will also be receiving a nice boost, supporting the coveted 1080P 60FPS, a rather impressive boost from the 720P 30FPS that the base PS4 supported.
As we’ve discussed during our in-depth analysis, the PS4K / Neo will offer a substantially beefed up GPU and CPU over the original machine, with the GPU providing an increase of 2.27X the original thanks to an increase in both clock speed and an increase in the number of Stream Processors. From the rumors, the PS4K is using the 14nm FinFet process and upcoming architecture from AMD known as Polaris. For more information on Polaris and 14nm, checkout our exclusive interview with AMD’s Robert Hallock here.
There have been a lot of controversial opinions regarding the PS4K / Neo, with some developers reportedly worried that the two console specs will cause them extra work and production costs. Hopefully we’ll know more by this years E3, 2016.
