So Nvidia is claiming that, for existing games, we’re looking at about a 50% boost over the 1080. However, if games support Deep Learning Super-Sampling, the gain can be 2X faster.

This is a really fascinating gen of cards; its biggest advantages over last gen are heavily dependent on adoption of new, proprietary architectural designs and techniques. At least getting developer support has never really been too difficult for Nvidia. I think I’ll still wait another gen for the tech to mature, but this is certainly promising.

@DragonfireXZ95: I don’t think anyone knows for sure how fast these cards are on games using traditional rasterization methods, but from the numbers it seems this will be a very modest improvement over last gen cards in this regard. Unusually low for a new generation of cards. The fact that the new gen is priced so high makes me think that Nvidia wants to get as much money as they can out of their last gen cards, especially since rumor has it they have a huge inventory surplus problem.

The 2080 has 2944 CUDA cores, 8GB memory, and 10.1 Teraflops single precision performance. By comparison, the 1080 Ti has 3584 CUDA cores, 11GB of VRAM and 11.3 Teraflop single precision performance. The 1080 Ti may actually be better than all but the 2080 Ti for traditional games. Then again, these are just some (suspiciously buried) numbers that don’t tell the whole story. I think we’re all eagerly awaiting the actual benchmarks.

@Archangel3371: As someone who owns both an Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, I am fine with this and did not expect the X to last beyond a few years. I understood the X was Microsoft’s version of the Pro, and I’m happy to play games like RDR in 4K, one of my favorite games of all time - the main reason I bought it, plus I’m just a collector by nature.

That said, I do find it hilarious in retrospect how Phil Spencer claimed the PS4 Pro was an Xbox One S competitor, and not an X competitor. He claimed the X was in a different league than the Pro. However, as time goes on, Sony’s decision to launch a 4.2 teraflop system for $399 a year earlier has clearly been vindicated. Sony’s console was the right system, released at the right time, at the correct price point. It underwhelmed in terms of 4K, but now side by side with the X the differences have proven to not be game-changing. Both consoles operate mainly in 30FPS still, and a surprising number of X games use Pro-like checkerboarding techniques.

Well, what’s done is done, hopefully MS learns from this gen and does a better job creating well balanced systems at the right price points in 2020. To say nothing of exclusives.

@bgres077: I don’t think Joycons are an inherently important part of the system if the goal is to make a handheld device with no TV output functionality. It probably would be cheaper to just build in buttons, and they would want it to be as cheap as possible (aiming for the $200 or less 3DS market).

It’ll come, for sure. One need only look at Nintendo’s track record when it comes to releasing devices in a variety of sizes and form factors.

Do we really want to go back to a time when we had to buy 8 devices just to play all the major games? I couldn’t be happier to see Nintendo unify under a Switch ecosystem. If they want, they should release a smaller version of the Switch sans dock to expand their reach to the handheld space. But please, no more separate handheld games for a separate handheld market.

In general, we’re trending towards unified ecosystems with Xbox/PC and Nintendo games playable on a single device. And it’s a great thing for the industry. Nintendo also has realized something key: they don’t need top of the line graphics on their home consoles, and handheld games were trending towards becoming full-fledged console-like games with the 3DS. It only made sense to fuse the two together into one device.

I don’t think any of those are confirmed next gen aside from Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield. We also don’t know when next gen consoles are coming, I would be surprised if it’s within the next 24 months personally. No sooner than November 2020. So, this is highly speculative all around.

That said, of the two confirmed, I guess Elder Scrolls 6.

Price is a reaction to product demand and competition just as much as it is manufacturing cost. Sony will lower the Pro price simultaneously with the base price at a time that makes sense to them.

It could be a long time from now. The PS3 went to $299 in 2009 and didn’t officially drop to $199 until 2013 - nearly 7 years after release. With weaker competition this gen, there’s even less pressure to get there.

Maybe we’ll see a more conservative drop to $249/$349 this holiday.

I think we can all admit that 30 fps is "acceptable" but not ideal for most types of action games. In any case, the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps is perceptible and in almost all circumstances, 60 fps is better (With the possible exception of "cinematic" games like Heavy Rain, LA Noire or Detroit Become Human).

The chase for higher resolutions is pointless without a similar chase for better performance and greater responsiveness in gameplay. Phil Spencer acknowledged this as consoles' greatest flaw and seemingly plans to prioritize higher rates with the next Xbox. This type of development should be supported.

“I think framerate is an area where consoles can do more, just in general. When you look at the balance between CPU and GPU in today’s consoles, they’re a little bit out of whack relative to what’s on the PC side so I think there’s work that we can do there.”

Ghost of Tsushima will be great, regardless of its framerate. But hopefully there will come a day when we won't have to compromise anymore by rationalizing that an inferior framerate is "good enough".

@Planeforger: Agreed on the likelihood of a PS5 in 2020 (I’d cast next year as highly doubtful). We do have 2 confirmed next gen titles already in Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6, but neither of those are likely to come out before the end of 2020.

But I don’t think we should be *that* surprised that PS4 Pro games look good, since the system is relatively new even if it’s hobbled with a weak CPU and the need to be BC with the original PS4.