Next Generation Gaming Systems

SS_Firehawk

Consoles are strong enough for 1080P gaming @ 30fps. 60fps, it really depends on resources. PC gaming is a good indicator of what hardware can and can't handle, but at that same note, optimization will be improved on consoles and should see better performance with equal hardware. The big thing I see is optimizing memory usage. As new ways to implement AA, anisotropic filtering, shadow effects, lighting effects, and complexity of the game, it will become a limiting factor. 2gb is considered the recommendation now for 1080P and just a couple years ago 1gb was enough. Both Sony and MS had more powerful hardware available to them but the cost per unit could get astronomical. Most PC users know if you want to play @ 1080p at the highest fidelity settings, $1500 is a solid figure to estimate total cost of a well rounded system. Subtract SSD's, reduce HDD drive size, reduce enclosure costs, embed and integrate cooling, and remove OS costs, the under $500 total is still very far away. Integrating cpu and gpu into a single APU reduces costs, improves efficiency, reduces total material usage, and reduces power usage, but limits complexity of both cpu and gpu due to the packaging. It's still 28nm and putting too much hardware on a single APU will turn it into a smoldering oven too difficult to cool. Not only that, but increased complexity also means lower yields and higher costs due to unusable silicon.

Simply put: Yes both MS and Sony have the ability to bring something out that can have all these standards, but it will limit their market because very few people will want to spend $1,000+ on a console with features that are unusable for the next 4-5 years or for the 1% that can actually afford 4k TV's and GTX Titans for console GPU's. It's just not going to happen. Mommy and Daddy don't think Johnny needs a $$$ device to play video games. And everyone knows the Dads that do understand what I just said have a monster rig in their man cave already.

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