Is the PS4 really more 'graphically' efficient than PC?

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leeb2013

leeb2013

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Aug 5, 2013
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My mates are getting PS4, but I have a PC, which is best of course ;)

The PS4 is said to have something similar to a modified 7870 GPU inside and it's often said that consoles, being built for gaming, are much more efficient at it and hence don't need such powerful hardware, whilst PCs running Windows are inefficient in comparison.

However, I was thinking; I play BF4 on Ultra settings at 1080p with 2xMSAA. I use two 7950 @ 850MHz (to keep the heat an noise down, they will o/c another 40% to 1200MHz). They are utilized 45-50% during game play and the frame rate never drops below 60fps. Using one 7950, it's utilized 90-100%, but still get 60fps.

The GPU similar to a 7870 used in the PS4 is one level below my 7950 and is apparently 'optimised' or 'tuned'. Yet the PS4 can only play BF4 at 1600x900 (1.4MP), that's 30% less pixels! Also the graphics quality will be equivalent to only high settings, no HBAO (I'm not sure about MSAA) and reports have said the frame rate sometimes drops to 30fps!

I wouldn't be surprised if a PC with a 7870 could manage better than that.

So why does the PS4 have such poor performance in BF4? Why can it barely manage the performance of a cheap 2 year old 7870 GPU?
 
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PS4 uses a GPU comparable to the HD 7850, yet is able to get smooth performance in BF4 at 1080p. In that sense, it is efficient. But hardware wise, it is completely inferior to a PC that does the same thing. It is only able to get that performance in games because most developers make games primarily for consoles, optimized for best performance on a standardized platform, before porting them to the PC.

Consoles have several advantages that allow them to make better use of the hardware. First, they don't have much of an operating system that serve as an overhead and contend for system resources. Second, consoles use low-level API that allow them better communication with the GPU, thus getting more performance with the same amount of...
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mauller07

mauller07

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the ps4's gpu is more equivalent to a 7850 in terms of hardware but its also under-clocked in comparison lowering its performance even more.

my own 7870 got far better performance in the beta when i tried it than the ps4 does at high and 1080p and it was limping at 75% usage because of the bugs in the game.
you should get even more when the mantle version of bf4 is released.
 
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huilun02

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PS4 uses a GPU comparable to the HD 7850, yet is able to get smooth performance in BF4 at 1080p. In that sense, it is efficient. But hardware wise, it is completely inferior to a PC that does the same thing. It is only able to get that performance in games because most developers make games primarily for consoles, optimized for best performance on a standardized platform, before porting them to the PC.

Consoles have several advantages that allow them to make better use of the hardware. First, they don't have much of an operating system that serve as an overhead and contend for system resources. Second, consoles use low-level API that allow them better communication with the GPU, thus getting more performance with the same amount of work done. Last but not least, consoles use standardized hardware, and it is easier to optimize a game to use one specific GPU/CPU rather than a vast range that the PC could have.

Mantle is AMD's attempt at a more efficient low-level API for the PC. Hopefully it gives AMD cards a significant boost in performance. However don't expect it to make a 7850 run at 1080p as well as the consoles do.
 
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leeb2013

leeb2013

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thanks for your replies.

Just to confirm, the PS4 renders BF4 at 900p, not 1080p. The XBone renders at 720p for this game (and others).

Taking into account; rendering at the equivalent of 'high' graphics settings, no HBAO, 30% less pixels, it does indeed seem to perform like an under-clocked 7850. Which means all the efficiency of being a console, with little o/s, low level API, shared GDDR5 etc, gives no performance increase over a PC with a 7850.
 
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