Details about the so-called PlayStation 4.5/4K are out. For starters, they’re calling it the ‘NEO’.
So remember those rumors about a new, upgraded version of the PlayStation 4 that were circulating around GDC last month? At the time, it was being referred to as the ‘PlayStation 4.5’, and speculation was rampant about exactly what it was, how much it would cost, what would set it apart from the baseline PS4, and of course whether there was even a market willing to shell out a few extra hundred bucks for such a thing. Our own Jesse Jordon articulated his concerns just last week about this very rumored product.
Did I say rumored? Well, technically it still is but it’s a heck of a lot closer to being an actual thing than it was 24 hours ago. Austin Walker over at Giant Bomb posted today some details about this new device. Codenamed ‘NEO’, this console is designed to get the PS4 over the hump as far as processing power, graphical capability, and quality of image output. Here’s a basic rundown of the difference in specs between the PS4 and NEO:
| PS4 | NEO | |
| CPU |
8 Jaguar Cores at 1.6 GHz |
8 Jaguar Cores at 2.1 GHz |
| GPU |
AMD GCN, 18 CUs at 800 MHz |
Improved AMD GCN, 36 CUs at 911 MHz |
| MEMORY |
8 GB GDDR5, 176 GB/s |
8 GB GDDR5, 218 GB/s |
One question that many PS4 owners will have going forward is whether there is going to be a two-tiered system by which games or features will only be available on the NEO. It’s certainly a valid question, particularly for anyone who recently got their system on the tacit promise of getting 5-7 years out of it.
This is also a question Sony has clearly anticipated, since according to the report “Starting in October, every PS4 game is required to ship with both a “Base Mode” which will run on the currently available PS4 and a “NEO Mode”.” In addition to this, and to no doubt placate one of the other big concerns of PS4 owners, Sony claims that that there will be no games at all which are NEO exclusive (at least for the time being, anyway — remember PS3 Backwards Compatibility?).
In any case, it seems that the cat’s out of the bag on what Sony’s been up to lately and all that’s left is for them to officially announce it at E3 or perhaps even sooner. In the meantime, what do you think about this news? Are you excited about the suddenly larger capability of consoles, or are you feeling like this isn’t what you signed up for as a console gamer? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.
[Source: Giant Bomb]
