Excitement is starting to grow in the gaming community for the official unveiling of Sony’s highly-anticipated PlayStation 4.5, or the PlayStation 4K as speculations have it. Rumors pertaining to the new Sony gaming hardware began to circulate earlier this year, with very few details known about the console at that time. Sony has yet to officially provide any official details about the hardware, but a set of new reports from multiple source channels are looking to confirm various aspects of the project and provide us with a greater look at just what could be on the table when Sony finally takes the covers off and introduces the new console to the world.
The first interesting thing to note here is that while we are all referring to the console as the PlayStation 4.5 or the PS4K, Sony actually has a very different internal name for the project. Executives and engineers within Sony apparently refer to the new PlayStation console as project NEO, which is unlikely to be an official product name when it goes to market, but does a great job of making you think you’re working on something exceptional. In addition to revealing Sony’s internal name for the build, the new report also looks to reveal a few technical specifications that have been built into the console.
The new NEO console will feature a significantly improved CPU clock speed over the original PlayStation 4 model. The original hardware shipped with a CPU running with 8 Jaguar cores clocked at 1.6GHz. This latest leak suggests that NEO will best that by offering the same 8-core setup, but clocked at an improved 2.1GHz for improved performance. The hardware will also benefit from improved GPU performance (18CUs compared to 36CUs) that should hopefully allow gaming developers to introduce visual immersive experiences that go above and beyond what is currently possible on the original PlayStation 4 hardware; for 4K gaming.
Speaking of game developers and publishers, the report claims that Sony has already told publishers that new games will need to ship with a “Base Mode” and a “NEO Mode” in order to ensure that any new titles are compatible with both hardware versions and do not alienate or split the PlayStation consumer base.
Specs: PlayStation 4 vs. Project NEO (AKA PlayStation 4K)
Any game running in NEO Mode would be able to utilize the hardware improvements found in the new model console in order to offer an improved gaming experience to the end-user. NEO mode will also support 4K image output, but gameplay in native 4K won’t be a necessary requirement, although it will be supported. Sony has also made it clear to developers that games developed or for that matter patched for the new console will have to at least meet the original frame rate requirements or exceed them.
There’s no mention of any concrete release or reveal date for the NEO console as yet, and still no actual official word from Sony about the project. Earlier speculation had suggested that the hardware could debut prior to PS VR headset release in October this year for $399.
(Source: Giant Bomb)
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