The PS4 GPU and it's performance in Unigine Heaven

I try my best not to be a fanboy but I had to post this. I know how console gamer's like to say how much better console's are compared to gaming PC's and how the extra horsepower that gaming rig's have is completely unnecessary but I believe this video proves that way wrong. This is equivalent of the GPU that is in the PS4 (The more powerful of the console GPU's btw) struggling to keep above 20fps on the Unigine Heaven benchmark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POfLECkvcNg

I have a pretty modest/mid end rig and I average 78.4 fps in the same benchmark and top out near 152 fps.

This is not to take anything away from the benefits of owning a console nor am I saying consoles suck ( I actually love all the consoles) I just thought I would post this for the sake of argument because as I said before a lot of console fanboys truly believe the difference between a console and a gaming PC is minimal...

we get it pc is overhyped with no jaw dropping gfx

I think the poster above you proves that point wrong = P

@vtoshkatur: i also game on pc!

The why say something so fanboyish? You know it's not true. I'm not sitting here trashing console gaming or saying it looks "bad"

@getyeryayasout:

LOL it happens. It is system wars after all. This isn't exactly a bastion of rationale or logic.

To be fair, though, even if the graphics chip has similar specifications to the PS4, it still doesn't use hUMA which makes a big difference in bandwidth utilization over a PC. So, in reality, it's an apples to oranges comparison.

Not that I'm saying PS4 has alien technology from the fourth dimension and PC am doomed. Just that we're not really comparing parts that work the same.

PC's dont get the exclusives that consoles get which makes them automatically worth owning.

@Heil68:

As I said in my OP I have nothing against consoles and they are worth owning. They have great games! And great exclusives but so does PC. As a previous poster said it really does come down to apples and oranges in all fronts of PC gaming vs Console gaming.

Pretty much this.

He's messing with you bud.

First, who are you listening to that says that? We have some pretty dumb guys around here, and even they know better. So it kind of sounds like you're inventing a strawman.

Second, you do know that the same GPU will perform much better in a console than on a PC. Right?

If so, then it seems like you tried awfully hard to stir the pot with nonsense. Especially since you aren't a fanboy...

Now if only they got exclusives worth owning the system for. Sigh.

It delivers the compute performance of a 5 year old HD 6870, that's really all there is to it. I have two of those collecting dust in my closet.

Actually that GPU is going to perform even worse on a PS4 due to the gimped tablet CPU that both XB1 and PS4 sport. So regardless of how little resources each of the console OS's use it's still going to be a massive bottleneck.

A four year old game says otherwise

Now add DX12 to that GPU and run the Unigine Heaven benchmark again. Let us know the results. lol!!

What? No.

The performance of the GPU isn't necessarily CPU dependant, and not that many games are CPU bottlenecked anyhow. Is your example? I highly doubt it. Even if it was, why would you try and compare a similar (Not the same) GPU as the PS4 and ignore the CPU in your example? It doesn't work either way you slice it.

And the Very Real and long demonstrated performance boost of console hardware has much less to do with the system resources wasted on Windows than the fact that the developers can program more directly to the actual hardware, i.e. "coding to the metal". Also, developers can go much farther when coding for just one hardware specification than literally millions of variations.

You're completely off base here...

How am I off base? Bottlenecks are becoming more and more of an issue these days. At stock speeds my FX-8320 was definitely creating a bottleneck with my R9 290. The better GPU's are becoming and they are becoming very, very powerful they are creating bottlenecks for CPU's especially when core clock speeds are approaching CPU clock speeds. Two years from now GPU's are going to have close to a 2ghz core clock speed. Bottlenecks are very real my friend.

I made a pretty epic leap from an HD 4870 to an R9 290 xD

The PS4 and the X1 gpu's are limited by their processors when only one core is handling the frame data to the gpu.Current methods that the vast majority of devs still are using the old methods and current dx11 method of feeding data to gpu.

One jaguar core at 1.6 or 1.7 ghz is not enough to handle either gpu correctly. Some games like Alien Isolation uses the oldest and worst method which lead to the 30fps cap with fps dips on the PS4 and X1 is it the result from the cpu core not keeping up with the gpu. A Pc using an modern cpu with a 6870 which hell of a lot slower than whats in the PS4 and X1 gpu wise provided an equal experience. The other method many use that is in DX11 is them using a main core doing most of the work but using other cores on non priority or 2nd pass workloads aka "deferred workloads" to process that data then ship it to the main core to send to the gpu. That method helps some but you still run into the main limitation of the low clocked low performing main core.

On the PS4, with its API when devs take the time and effort they use methods that were incorporated into Mantle and upcoming DX12. This allows multiple cpu cores to feed gpu data directly, removing the cpu bottleneck that is the result from using inefficient and older cpu to gpu communication methods. This is why on the X1 DX12 is a big leap from its current API, opens up the console's resources, and forces devs to make full use of all the console's resources on both consoles. If one console only allows one core the other console will most likely will follow suit ie parity. So this is a win win on both consoles when it comes to multiplatform games being made to use DX12 and PS4 equivalent API.

So the "Coding to Metal" adjective used in the past does not exactly exist as black or white on these current consoles.

Modded SKYRIM the way it looks now, not 4 years ago.

@vtoshkatur said:

@2mrw said:

@lglz1337 said:

we get it pc is overhyped with no jaw dropping gfx

Pretty much this.

A four year old game says otherwise

I'm just saying, that's an old benchmark and not on actual PS4 hardware. Once DX12 is utilized fully, we can better directly compare PC results to console.

And for that matter, DX12 and what's replacing Open GL will have big benefits on console as well.

DX12 or not both the consoles are going to be held back by their slow tablet CPU's. It's really unfortunate to because the PS4 has a pretty beefy GPU that will never see it's full potential being used.

You should read my post above, in short using Async , ie making use of more then one core feeding data to gpu will allow PS4 gpu to be fully used. It is dependent on the effort of the dev's. With the introduction of DX12 on X1 more or less forces multiplat devs to make use of modern cpu to gpu communication methods. It takes only 4 cores on the PS4 to equal a single core from an intel 3.2 ghz icore feeding data. Alien Isolation is a prime example why intel cpu's perform better then AMD even though the game makes use of six threads. Intel Cpu's can supply 2x the gpu data. Once Dx12 releases AMD 6-8 core cpu's in non cpu bound games will perform on par with any intel quad core with a single gpu.

@vtoshkatur said:

@2mrw said:

@lglz1337 said:

we get it pc is overhyped with no jaw dropping gfx

Pretty much this.

A four year old game says otherwise

You should be real, there is a shit ton of Mods involved to get that game to look this way. Not something most people will take the time to do properly. You can break your game pretty easily.

@spitfire-six: Honestly that's 4 mods. Climates of Tamriel, Project ENB, Realistic Water 2 and No Blocky faces.

Valley>Heaven.

@vtoshkatur: Good deal, Enb seems to have progressed a bit more, there used to be a huge page on nexus of all the mods you need to get to that point. The point still remains though, if you have talented people adding to the quality of the original game its not really an old game, its running on old framework but the art is very much new and created with new tools. Look at game models before Zbrush and look at game models now.

I don't think anyone believes the performance difference between a top end gaming PC and a PS4 is minimal. Clearly anyone can build a PC that is far more powerful than a PS4. The argument goes that the performance difference between similarly-priced devices (PC/PS4) is minimal. Inevitably, this then leads to people posting junk builds to try and prove the point that you can get PCs for $400 that are more powerful than a PS4, etc.

Regardless, two GTX Titan Xs in SLI are not in the same ballpark as a PS4. Not even remotely close. And, honestly, once SLI ready boards started to become commonplace after 2004 there was no real opportunity for consoles to ever be close. 2005 will likely be the last time in PC/console history that they were ever similar in power. Unfortunately, launch 360s were terrible systems for reasons other than power.

That said, developers will probably always target PS4s for their mainstream games this gen. They will find some way to make performance acceptable on the console leader, even if it lacks all of the PC's bells and whistles.

@spitfire-six: *Thumbs up*

Raising my kids here.

@SakusEnvoy:

I actually hate when "hermits" come in here with their $400 trash builds. Yeah if you have a budget of $400-500 please get a console and don't even bother trying to build a PC for $400 for games. That's just silly, I say $650 (Not including the OS) is a good starting point for a gaming rig budget. Anything less then you are going to be sorely disappointed. But you get what you pay for.

So you just took an equivalent GPU and didn't take OS strain, different CPU and optimization into consideration? Yeah this is pretty goddamn pointless.

The 7870 shown in that video is a fair bit more powerful than the PS4.

The PS4's GPU is basically a slightly overclocked 7850.

Even a 7850 with a good overclock will perform better than the PS4's gpu.

If you are good at knowing what to look for then you can find some great deals on ebay and build a decent gaming PC for around 350-450USD.

You can get an i5 750 CPU for about 45-50USD and overclock it to around 3.6ghz rather easily for decent performance.

And you can find used 7950 video cards for around 120USD.

What a shitty looking road.

Everyone knows the potato that is hidden inside the PS4.

Every time I see a thread about praising the graphics and performance of PS4 I LOL hard, because in my eyes the word "PS4" translates into "HD7850".

@vtoshkatur: got to admit like.. never heard anyone say all PC graphics advantages are pointless... from lems or cows.... i think you might be fanning the tiny tiny fire in order to boost your own topic. well done

That's a personal opinion, much like you like Nintendo's and I dont. Point is consoles are worth owning.