PS4 to feature newer graphics card than next Xbox?

Sony's successor to the PlayStation 3 will launch during the 2013 holiday season, be called Orbis and feature an AMD CPU together with an AMD Southern Islands GPU - the 7000 series.

This information comes from a "reliable" Kotaku source who is not authorised to talk publicly about the next PlayStation and has shared accurate details with the gaming blog before.

Kotaku says that the name Orbis links in with PlayStation Vita, stating that Orbis Vita (or Orbis Vitae) means the circle of life. This indicates a possible close relationship between the two platforms.

Kotaku also attempts to validate the Orbis name by using Sony's development portal, revealing that a sub-domain for Orbis exists, but PS4 does not.

While we've heard rumours about the CPU before - with Sony abandoning Cell for AMD - news of the AMD GPU is interesting. The 7000 series part is also a generation ahead of the rumoured 6000 part said to form the heart of the next Xbox. A generation gap doesn't necessarily mean a huge increase in performance, however, with a low end 7000 part likely to pail in comparison to a higher end 6000 part.

Kotaku says that the Orbis will support game resolutions of up to 4096x2160, whilst 3D in full 1080p is also supported.

Selected developers are said to have been receiving dev kits since the start of 2012, with revised versions distributed around GDC time. More final kits will appear late this year.

Sony won't provide backwards compatibility support for PS3 games, which can't be seen a huge surprise given how such functionality was phased out of the PS3.

And most controversial of all is talk of locking games to a PSN account in an attempt to strengthen new game sales. You'll need to be connected to a PSN account in order to play too. Trades will be allowed, but anyone buying that pre-owned copy will be offered a limited version - similar to a trial - which can then be unlocked for a fee.

Happy Killings.....

wow, that is crazy talk....especially about the bit of having to buy the games all over again....

AMD...

Gonna be a noisy cooling system, AMD's tend to overheat like crazy (better performance though)

Have no idea what half of that means, still gonna start my ps4 fund next payday

I was invloved in a big branding job, a few years ago for sony.

We made an identity that represented the 'connectivity' of the sony 'world'. It was called the connected identity. It lived on a server in our studio and incorporated an AL (Artifical Life) Algorithm were the weaker iterations 'died out' and the stronger ones survived.

It has ALWAYS been sony's vision that one day all of their devices would connect and share content.

Sony has abandoned back-wards compatibility due to the problems it had with PS1 and PS2, as a technology company they must be seen to be looking forwards and not backwards.

I never, ever played my PS1 games on my PS2 and I never ever played PS2 games on my PS3.

The_Dumps wrote:

I never, ever played my PS1 games on my PS2 and I never ever played PS2 games on my PS3.

I played Carmageddon (PS1 disc) on my PS3. It was ABISMAL!
ruined some fine memories....

as reliable as the source may be i find this hard to believe! The AMD 7000 series cards are very expensive and tbh are not that much better than the 6000 in terms frame rate. I recently got a computer with GTX 590 Geforce and that will still out match a ps4 a year before its out!!! The ps4 will be well overpriced if it has a 7000 gpu and it would probably be more value for money to buy a PC with a geforce card than this ps4!!

Just my views like so dont get stroppy! I think this Gen of console still has alot more to offer, I mean lets be honest can you be bothered paying £500 PLUS for a console just for better textures, I own a top spec PC and tbh it aint that much better in terms of graphics. Its only the mods that make it worth while.

For me the next Gen should be at least 2 years away!!

Rant Over

IxTwisTeDxI wrote:

For me the next Gen should be at least 2 years away!!

Yep. And even if the PS4 has better graphics than the X-box, this won't matter since most of the games are ported to the PS and evelopers don't take the time / money to get the most out of the PS only when the game is dedicated for PS.

AS for the 3D: I got the 3D equipment but none of the games I play support 3D (except Black ops).