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[PcGamer] PlayStation 4: How much does a comparable rig cost right now?

5K views 72 replies 55 participants last post by  Zero4549 
#1 ·
Quote:
Sony announced the PS4′s general system specs today: an 8-core x86 CPU, an "enhanced" PC GPU (read: physics acceleration), and 8 gigs of GDDR 5 RAM. Using a little detective work and some creative thinking, I've put together an idea of what you can build now that will give you comparable or better performance.Sony finally kicking off the great closed-box bun-fight, what will it take to build a PlayStation 4-a-like PC?

1)Processor - AMD FX-6300 - $130 / £105
2)Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 - $80 / £52
3)Memory - 8GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical LP - $53 / £56
4)Graphics - 2GB GeForce GTX 660 - $230 / £178
5)Storage - Seagate 500GB HDD - $53 / £43
6)The rest - $50
Total price: Around $600 / £430

We're speculating a bit, but we've put together a PlayStation 4 rig for around $600. That's more than the $430-$530 the PS4 is rumored to ship at, but by the time the PlayStation 4 is out those parts will be even cheaper and more powerful ones will fill their place.
Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/21/pc-gamer-vs-playstation-4-theres-only-ever-going-to-be-one-winner-right/
 
#2 ·
You really can't compare the two. The way consoles run games is totally different from the PC architecture and the parts are utilized quite differently.

That's why emulating PS2 or even a Wii takes a pretty beefy rig. And those are ancient consoles with paltry hardware by today's standards.
We haven't even come close to emulating a 360 or PS3 because they're so insanely complex.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by frickfrock99 View Post

You really can't compare the two. The way consoles run games is totally different from the PC architecture and the parts are utilized quite differently.

That's why emulating PS2 or even a Wii takes a pretty beefy rig. And those are ancient consoles with paltry hardware by today's standards.
We haven't even come close to emulating a 360 or PS3 because they're so insanely complex.
Well the new PS3 is x86, not Emotion Engine or Cell like before.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by frickfrock99 View Post

You really can't compare the two. The way consoles run games is totally different from the PC architecture and the parts are utilized quite differently.

That's why emulating PS2 or even a Wii takes a pretty beefy rig. And those are ancient consoles with paltry hardware by today's standards.
We haven't even come close to emulating a 360 or PS3 because they're so insanely complex.
this
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by frickfrock99 View Post

You really can't compare the two. The way consoles run games is totally different from the PC architecture and the parts are utilized quite differently.

That's why emulating PS2 or even a Wii takes a pretty beefy rig. And those are ancient consoles with paltry hardware by today's standards.
We haven't even come close to emulating a 360 or PS3 because they're so insanely complex.
Emulation in it self takes quite a bit more power than originally needed. Also PS4 / Xbox 3 will use x86-64 architecture so it won't really take as much as before. Like how we can Emulate Gamecube / Wii really easily.

However you are right about their hardware being utilized differently. With GPU's on PC you have to access an API that is designed to work across all graphics cards. This takes a lot of time and processing and has to work with all the cards. This slows things down considerably. With consoles it takes no time because there is only 1 way to access it because there only needs to be one way. Drivers on PC vs straight to hardware on Consoles.
 
#15 ·
Excuse my ignorance here, but in comparison, how fast is GDDR5 in front of DDR3?
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Twinnuke View Post

Emulation in it self takes quite a bit more power than originally needed. Also PS4 / Xbox 3 will use x86-64 architecture so it won't really take as much as before. Like how we can Emulate Gamecube / Wii really easily.

However you are right about their hardware being utilized differently. With GPU's on PC you have to access an API that is designed to work across all graphics cards. This takes a lot of time and processing and has to work with all the cards. This slows things down considerably. With consoles it takes no time because there is only 1 way to access it because there only needs to be one way. Drivers on PC vs straight to hardware on Consoles.
I wonder what the impact of overhead is nowadays anyway? It would be interesting to be able to benchmark a console title against a PC port on similar hardware, you'd probably need to know all the "tweaks" the devs implemented on the console version though to make it a fair test.

Anyway this article is silly. It intentionally leaves out the blu ray drive, understates the cost of the OS and sounds like the author just wanted to generate hits from the inevitable rage threads generated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frickfrock99 View Post

You really can't compare the two. The way consoles run games is totally different from the PC architecture and the parts are utilized quite differently.

That's why emulating PS2 or even a Wii takes a pretty beefy rig. And those are ancient consoles with paltry hardware by today's standards.
We haven't even come close to emulating a 360 or PS3 because they're so insanely complex.
Emulation always takes more power, it doesn't mean you can't compare them spec-wise just that you can't outright emulate them in hardware.

Performing in software a process designed to be run on a different machines hardware, when you have very limited knowledge of the design to help with reverse engineering, is always going to be problematic. It doesn't mean that the hardware can't be compared*.

*Of course, that's not to state that there aren't performance differences between the two systems. I'm just pointing out that it has nothing to do with the difficulty of emulation.
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by frickfrock99 View Post

You really can't compare the two. The way consoles run games is totally different from the PC architecture and the parts are utilized quite differently.

That's why emulating PS2 or even a Wii takes a pretty beefy rig. And those are ancient consoles with paltry hardware by today's standards.
We haven't even come close to emulating a 360 or PS3 because they're so insanely complex.
Nope, both the 720 and PS4 will run on the x86 architecture.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by vinton13 View Post

Excuse my ignorance here, but in comparison, how fast is GDDR5 in front of DDR3?
GDDR5 is graphics DDR3 in the most rudimentary explanation I can give.
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by frickfrock99 View Post

You really can't compare the two. The way consoles run games is totally different from the PC architecture and the parts are utilized quite differently.

That's why emulating PS2 or even a Wii takes a pretty beefy rig. And those are ancient consoles with paltry hardware by today's standards.
We haven't even come close to emulating a 360 or PS3 because they're so insanely complex.
The only thing is that those needed a virtual machine to run ontop of the base x86 processor. This gave massive inefficiencies because cpu cycles are off timed causing horrendous efficiency. The PS4 has an x86 processor allowing this overhead to be minimized. However this $600 machine will not run games as well as the PS4 imo because the PS4s parts are all the same and that allows developers to squeeze every penny.
 
#22 ·
Another stupid article. Let's totally ignore the fact things are being purchased at wholesale prices and not the markup prices at BestBuy. Their specs and pricing they picked out to "compare" them with is completely ******ed to boot. Did they give up on hiring writers that have at least a high school education?
 
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