PS4 Avalanche Founder: 'PS4 Will Out-Power Most PCs for Years to Come'

[David Sanchez]

Avalanche Studios, which is most notably known for working on Renegade Ops and the Just Cause series, appears to be one of the developers behind the PlayStation 4. Speaking to Gaming Bolt, Avalanche CTO and Co-Founder Linus Blomberg stated that he's looking forward to seeing what Sony's upcoming platform can do, and that a new console cycle was long overdue after "having been overtaken in terms of performance by PCs several years ago, and also losing market share to mobile platforms."

For Blomberg, the PlayStation 4 is a means to excel at creating open world games.

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[PR0fessor Burnt]

 

[x3sphere]

Well "most" he is probably right, most people don't even spend a grand on their PC, more like <= $500. Gaming PCs are a minority.

 

[Trigun]

I don't agree with this.
Outpower most PCs for years to come? Maybe when it comes to optimization. Many modern PCs already out RAW-power the PS4. But since the PS4 is a console they can code closer to the ground with just one set of hardware in mind.

It's not about power. It's about optimization. Most Mid-range/high-end GPU's are way more powerful than the PS4 GPU when it comes to raw power.

Hell, most mid-range Intel CPU's probably and most likely far out-power the Jaguar APU CPU wise.
(Since the Jaguar is a low TDP CPU it won't ever reach the raw performance of an Overclocked PC CPU. But Optimization! And having everything one Die with unified Memory cutting down on access times between components help a lot. )

PC GPUs alone already can have up to 6GB of GDDR5 for just the GPU (Nvidia Titan). Given a year or two, the number is likely to increase and more and more will be available.


And I somehow doubt the PS4 can play Crysis 3 completely maxed out with 4xSMAA at 1080p 60FPS without compromise. Not even high end single PC GPUs can do that AFIK.. And this is just without optimization.

And the PS4 certainly wont' be able to play a game like Crysis 3 at 4k Resolution with 4xSMAA with playable framerates. Something PC can do(If you invest enough money).


because the PS4 just doesn't have the RAW power to push the graphics envelope and perform Super Sampling AA at the same time. The Unreal Engine 4 Demo ran at a pitiful 30FPS with only FXAA (Which is shit AA by itself. And can cause the same problems in 1080p as it did in 720p on current consoles. It really only works well when you combine it with SSAA) on a GTX 680 without optimization. (And if you looked, the UE4 PS4 demo was glaringly downgraded over the original demo in many ways. But that's probably because it was put together hastily and before they knew of 8GB system memory)

8GB GDDR5 unified system memory is a wonderful thing. But that Memory won't make up for the GPU and magically make it capable of things it is not capable of.

Even Capcom's new engine Demo didn't have great AA. Square Enix's Luminous demo ran at 60FPS on PC with 8xMSAA+FXAA(for hair). But that demo still had glaring temporal,specular and shader aliasing. And that was running on PC with a GTX 680. I doubt they will get 8xMSAA out of the PS4, they will most likely lower that down to keep the level of quality elsewhere the same as in the original demo.

Not to mention to clean up that kind of Aliasing takes a lot of Memory too. So if they only have 8GB for everything. That means they will have to compromise.(And 8GB won't even be usable. The OS/UI will take up a chunk of that) if any developer wants to get that kind of IQ short of redesigning how their Rendering/Shading works so it doesn't produce awful glaring Temporal/shader/specular aliasing.
1080p helps. But once you've gamed on 1080p for a few years you learn that 2 million pixels still produces the same kind of glaring Aliasing problems that 720p(921,600 pixels) produces.



If anything, this is good for current gen games though. They can most likely port those games, run them at 60FPS, upgrade the effects and textures and still afford very good AA.




I'm not trying to rain on the PS4 parade, because i'm very excited to see what my favorite developers can do with it. But i'm disappointed they couldn't have pushed the TDW envelope a little bit further for more GPU and CPU power so they can afford better AA while still pushing the graphical envelope.
(Clearly evidenced by Killzone 4. I somehow doubt their AA solution will be any better in the final game than what's been shown already. Which is highly disappointing)


AA was the one thing on my wishlist that I had hoped the PS4 would be far and beyond superior to what we've been dealt this generation.(Shitty post-process AA that doesn't work worth a damn without Super Sampling added in. Even SMAA T2X in Crysis 3 on consoles leaves glaring aliasing all over the place.).

 

[FrozenIpaq]

Well "most" he is probably right, most people don't even spend a grand on their PC, more like <= $500. Gaming PCs are a minority.

Was about to say that same thing.

I built my PC a few years after the Xbox 360 and it clearly out-powered the Xbox 360. I'm pretty sure, with what we know already, that your PC or my friends dual 680, or my other friend's 690 PC will out-power it...

 

[LocutusEstBorg]

Anti Aliasing and 60fps at 1080p or GTFO.

 

[Lbrun7288]

They'll say anything to sell their product. My friend already has a PC that's 20x better then the 360 PS3 and PS4 combined