PS4 "unified hardware" and "API optimization" a real thing?

My friend who is clearly a console fanboy is pointing out to me that even though the PS4 has an underclocked 8core cpu and a 7790 it can still run Planetside 2 on ultra with the GPU physics. And that Battlefield 4 will look the same as the PC version...

He says that it's all because of how the PS4 has one set of hardware and unified memory. I find this hard to belive but i wanted someone else's take on the matter.

 

help/opinions appreciated!

    ~pipnina

BF4 is going to be 720p upscaled to 1080p which will look like garbage. I can't honestly see P.S.2 running on ultra even if it's being displayed at 720p. Maybe Medium or High at 720p.

The only thing the extra cores are going to be used for is OpenCL physics computation which is honestly just typically used for explosions and particle effects which is not a big deal. The only upside to having GDDR5 as shared system RAM is that the GPU part of the APU will be considerably faster at processing frame requests than what a standard APU would do in a Desktop. So honestly, we may see the PS4 displaying games at 60 FPS but at lower graphical settings than a Desktop.

You do realize that OpenCL is a GPU feature?

The advantage of the HSA architecture is that you don't have to upload the vertex and texture data from the disk over to the ram to the GPU. Instead you just put the data in the RAM and it's available for the GPU. The good thing is that you can also use the GPU for calculations which you would do on a CPU normally because you don't have to copy the data to the GPU and copy the result back. So the HSA system can simply optimize calculations to work on the GPU instead of the CPU.

HSA can boost CPU heavy stuff very very much while eleminating the copy latencies for the GPU and improving overall memory speed. HSA is the next big thing.

OpenCL is not just a function of graphics processors. x86 processors can do OpenCL calculations as well, particularly AMD CPUs, just not as fast. I.e. Physics processing and particle effects do not require extensively fast computations.

they have hardwell level control for programming so it will be a bit faster than a PC 7790 because its designed for just that, while PC has to be generically designed for ALL graphics hardware, think of it like a race care but with standard tred tires racing on a race track against other race cars, but they actually have tires designed for that single type of surface

the PS3 had a 79xx GT (that's the last DX9 series card Nvidia made) series GPU yet the games look great considering the crap GPU it has

So what's happening here is the exact same thing that was happening with the PS3 and PS2 release? 

Great graphics at the start of the generation and crappy graphics by the end of it?

Of cause you can do OpenCL from the CPU but this is totally stupid because you could also program the CPU directly which would result in the same performance.

It's pretty good performance for a really low price which might be not so fast if you compare it to a PC in a few years because you obviously can't upgreade the hardware.

its graphics stays the same, everyone elses just gets better, and typically they get better with time because people learn how to more effeciently use the consoles hardware, remember when the 360 could BARLEY play oblivion, and now it can BARLEY play skyrim

naturally, its always the case with consoles because they are not upgradeable as far as hardware.

 

that's why i was looking forward to the 'SteamBox' an upgrade able console...it would be the next best thing as far as console gaming goes but it would ultimately be a coffee table gaming rig lol