Digital Foundry: if XSX hardware is better, then why do some PS5 games run better?

[the-pi-guy]

Digital foundry

We've heard some interesting theories over the years - such as how Xbox Series X's split-memory set-up (560GB/s of bandwidth on 'fast' memory, 336GB/s on 'slow' memory) may be impacting performance, but the number one reason we've heard from developers concerns the nature of Sony's development environment. More than one key triple-A developer tells us that the PlayStation GPU compiler is significantly more efficient than the Microsoft alternative, meaning that there's better utilisation of the graphics hardware. In general, we understand that the lower level API access afforded to PlayStation development means game makers get more from the hardware.

The second most common explanation we've received from developers concerns the nature of the GPU itself. Mark Cerny himself discussed this way back in March 2020 when he revealed the technical specifications of the PlayStation 5. While the console may have fewer compute units than Xbox Series X - 36 vs 52 - the entire GPU runs faster, meaning that certain tasks will complete faster, better suiting certain game engine designs. The extent of this advantage was always an unknown as PS5 operates with a boost clock on both CPU and GPU - maximum clock speeds will be limited by a power limit on the processor.

[BananaKing]

Tldr: because cerny said so

[Legend]

I thought it was always known that PS5's clockspeeds made it silly to definitively say XSX's hardware was better.

Tldr: because cerny said so

He has done great with PS4 and PS5, but I hope with PS6 he manages to really push things in an unexpected way.

[kitler53]

I thought it was always known that PS5's clockspeeds made it silly to definitively say XSX's hardware was better.

He has done great with PS4 and PS5, but I hope with PS6 he manages to really push things in an unexpected way.

like what though?

even though i couldn't have told you that SSDs where a solution the long load times was something i would complain about.   i feel like i have nothing to complain about with ps5 that hardware can solve.    sony just needs to put more effort into their OS.    ...a bit of hardware could help with that i suppose but mostly it's just putting enough developers on the OS team to build out more features faster.

[Legend]

like what though?

even though i couldn't have told you that SSDs where a solution the long load times was something i would complain about.   i feel like i have nothing to complain about with ps5 that hardware can solve.    sony just needs to put more effort into their OS.    ...a bit of hardware could help with that i suppose but mostly it's just putting enough developers on the OS team to build out more features faster.

No clue, something more than just increased specs. The SSD maybe tried to be that but in most cases it just speeds up loading.

Like obviously impossible for this decade but throw in a quantum processor, stuff like that.

[kitler53]

No clue, something more than just increased specs. The SSD maybe tried to be that but in most cases it just speeds up loading.

Like obviously impossible for this decade but throw in a quantum processor, stuff like that.

but that's what i mean by software not hardware solutions.    the SSD most definitely fixed a problem (long load times) and required a hardware solution.

these days my problems are things like:
1. i wish amazon/youtube music was an option instead of spodify
2. i wish i could access my good photo albums 
3. i wish i could access the nike fitness app
4. i wish my screenshots captured could be posted to a "social media like" experience accessible on both ps and PC that is gaming centric (aka not facebook).
5. i wish the "game help" thing they put into ps5 was something regular people could contribute to.  kind of like wikipedia i guess but my target audiance are those that write game walkthroughts are make youtube videos.


so like,.. where can cerny innovate?   he perfected hardware and what else can he do but increase the specs?

[BananaKing]

Next step in console hardware and gaming is AI. I want hardware that really enables AI I'm gaming.

[Legend]

Next step in console hardware and gaming is AI. I want hardware that really enables AI I'm gaming.

Local AI for graphics, cloud AI for gameplay.

Will be cool to get real time AI "filters" like dlss that can remake/remaster older games.

[kitler53]

Next step in console hardware and gaming is AI. I want hardware that really enables AI I'm gaming.

today was the first time i every had an objective for which i thought to myself,.. "you know what,.. AI might actually be the right tool for this".

I just spent the last hour trying to get a half-way decent image for my purpose and absolutely everything is horrific garbage.   it's not really taking the prompts.   it's trying to do what i ask but you can also see it really only wants to put out a very specific kind of image that isn't what i'm asking for.   the more detail i give to the prompt the worse things get.   soo many absolute glaring issues with the pictures.   soo many of the issues are just horrifying to look at.


this crud is not ready for video games....   ps7 at the earliest.

[BananaKing]

today was the first time i every had an objective for which i thought to myself,.. "you know what,.. AI might actually be the right tool for this".

I just spent the last hour trying to get a half-way decent image for my purpose and absolutely everything is horrific garbage.   it's not really taking the prompts.   it's trying to do what i ask but you can also see it really only wants to put out a very specific kind of image that isn't what i'm asking for.   the more detail i give to the prompt the worse things get.   soo many absolute glaring issues with the pictures.   soo many of the issues are just horrifying to look at.


this crud is not ready for video games....   ps7 at the earliest.

PS5 is still 3-4 years away.
Also, I think better AI in games is very much needed at this point. It's about time we start to get an evolution in NPC behavior. Console hardware needs to think about what comes in the following 5-7 years. AI might not be ready now, but in 6 years time it will be very different, and that would still be start to mid generation for the PS6.

[kitler53]

PS5 is still 3-4 years away.
Also, I think better AI in games is very much needed at this point. It's about time we start to get an evolution in NPC behavior. Console hardware needs to think about what comes in the following 5-7 years. AI might not be ready now, but in 6 years time it will be very different, and that would still be start to mid generation for the PS6.

AI is such a meaningless buzz word though.   how are the current advances in AI going to do anything to evolve NPC behavior?  

AI could help developers make games faster but that won't change how the game is played after release.  AI could help with Text to Speech making file sizes a bit smaller.    AI could help better localization support especially for small developers that don't have a big budget for which to get translations done.

The only "gameplay" thing i can see is AI could help with generative text generation.  like if the NPC made stuff up on the spot instead of having a script.  ....but that would result in a very weird and inconsistent story most likely.   AI can't even get a single paragraph written consistently and with sounding repetitive and boring.   i doubt an entire story arc spanning 10-20 hours would be coherent enough to want to play.  would be neat for an RPG if it worked but i just don't see it coming together even within 6 years.