Next Generation Gaming Systems

SS_Firehawk

There are some distinct differences even though the architecture is very very very similar. The PS4 chip looks more like what AMD is selling now, but no specs have been discussed with regards to speeds, gpu cores, etc. Having GDDR5 may not make it any faster, but it does help with bandwidth. With DDR5 having a quad multiplier instead a dual multiplier like DDR3, it's bus sizes can be half the size as DDR3 and match bandwidth, or can have the same size memory bus and have twice the bandwidth (given same base clock speeds). If the game is memory intensive, GDDR5 will definitely be an advantage. Xbox does have ESRAM though. This is basically a $hit ton of shared L4 cache for use between the CPU and GPU. It allows 50gbps+ speeds between the cpu and gpu to share. This lets both the CPU and GPU to look at what needs processed and share the load. For instance, if the GPU is being taxed and AI or physics needs processed, the CPU can pull that and execute it for the GPU. Not only that but it works just as memory would on a normal graphics card. What I don't know is how much ESRAM they have. (Read this review of Intels new processor for a very good idea of what ES ram does as it has something similar too Anandtech Haswell 5200 review) Keep in mind both are using AMD architecture for both the CPU and GPU. This will definitely help optimize games for both consoles as well as PC games very easily and quickly as they are all X86 based.

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