PS4 / Next Gen bringing in better multicore CPU gaming support?

zoenphlux

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I was trying to think of a way to ask this. I did do some reading, but people end up going on and on about how much better their PC is....yeah ok. I know PCs are better, they also cost more. Consoles are built to use lower power, low heat, but still perform well. You get great visuals (especially on next generation releases). Consoles are specific hardware that programmers can take full advantage of so you can "theoretically" use all the systems available performance. Unlike Windows machines that leave performance on the table do to the way the pipelines work along side windows. Ok..this is not my question, and I don't want to hear people talk about how much better their PC is vs the PS4. :p

On to the discussion. PC's are most often limited by the quality of the port. Historically, the ports are just tweaked versions of the original console game. So, the core of the game is designed to run on the hardware of the consoles. Assuming my methodology is right this is why most games do not use more then 3-4 cores. My understanding is that games have to be programmed for multi-core parallel processing. The current consoles are limiting this. The PS3 of course is completely custom and a mess for porting. The 360 is better, but only 3 cores.

So here is my question...

Assuming the PS4 processor is a true 8 core processor, being based on x86, will this bring in a new era of games made to use more cores? I have an i5 -3570k. I know this is fine for now, but I've been debating getting the new E series Ivy bridge when it comes out. Not the extreme, but the level under it. I am thinking the new consoles will bring in much better PC Ports, and this should also bring in a real use for more then 4 cores for gaming.

Is this thought processor correct? This may only be answered after we see the new ports. I'm really wanting an excuse to get a new 6 core processor! lol.

Thanks,
 

zoenphlux

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I kinda remember reading that also. I was thinking it was partially due to the limitations of the consoles since they didn't have more then that to start with. Either way, do you think they will begin to look more into how to do this with the next systems? Otherwise it is pointless to have more then 4 cores in the system. They would have been better off using less cores at higher speeds...like last generation.
 

leandrodafontoura

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Yes, you are right. Once the new consoles are released, we gonna see better PC games, either as port or as to compete with the console's titles.

Nevertheless, you should not upgrade yet. Wait till both xbox and playstaion are out, then you get the next release of Intel/AMD.
 

8350rocks

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Yes, with 8 x86 cores in the new PS4, the next gen of consoles are going to make PC ports so simple and drastically more multicore aware that it's going to be crazy! I really envision these newer games as less a port and more something designed simultaneously since the difference in hardware will be far less.

I also agree that waiting to upgrade would be good, with steamroller and other great things on the horizon, you can stand to wait a bit until the consoles hit and get into the market.
 

whyso

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I expect porting will be easier but I highly doubt it. Xbox 360 had three cores and all ports were basically for dual cores (skyrim for example--even though it gets cpu bottlenecked its still only coded for two cores). The other thing is that jaguar, even 8 core, really sucks. AMD claims about 15 % increase over bobcat which is spectacularly bad when compared to ivy bridge. I'm betting that jaguar will be about 90% the ipc of piledriver. Now to put this into perspective the a10-4600m gets about 0.7 points in cinebench r11.5 single. It runs about 2.7 ghz during the test. Ivy bridge at 3.5 ghz gets around 1.5-1.6. Considering that the xbox/ps4 has 8 jaguar cores at 1.6 ghz the ipc of those 8 cores will probably be around 1/3 (probably less) compared to an ivy bridge core. With that in mind, considering the ease at which game ports from the xbox 720/ps4 can be made (same x86 architecture) i expect that any straight port will not require more than three cores (when properly coded). Especially when you consider that the next consoles will probably only have six cores available to the game, one reserved for the os (isn't sony saying that you can pause a game and go surf the internet on the ps4?) and one for kinect/move. I expect that a haswell i3 will be able to keep up with any port from the consoles.

So yeah, while multithreading games will increase this will likely not matter so much for the pc as a few cores in a pc will be more powerful than anything in a console.

I don't think this is going to sudddenly make the 8350 a top notch gaming processor. Only if they substantially increase the amount of coding for the pc releases exclusively will there be a difference.