does the PS4 APU unified memory= advantages over PC

[blackened23]

Yeah, clearly 780ti tri sli runs battlefield 4 at 900p like the PS4 does.

 

[sandorski]

Using the same APU, the Unified Memory APU probably has an advantage over the non-Unified memory equivalent. That does not mean that PS4s have an advantage over PCs though.

 

[Schmide]

yes because some people said the unified architecture gives ps4 a boost.. and makes harder to port to pcc

plus the 8 gddr 5

plus coding to the metal..allowing it to possibly compete with 780ti sli 2x, 3x etc.

No one said that? Sans you. Here I'll put it in perspective for you. Single chip the order is.

PS4
xBone.
Intel HD 5200 (note this is actually a 2 chip solution but put here for perspective)
AMD a10
Intel HD 4000

 

[Childs]

The 360 did not have unified memory. And no current PC's have unified memory. AMD will be releasing APU's for PC's soon with unified memory (Kaveri based APU's).

Shared memory is NOT the same as unified memory. I think you need to read up some before spreading incorrect information.

What are you talking about? The 360 did have unified memory:

http://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/4/3

And Intel has been using a unified memory architecture since they got in the graphics business. What exactly am I missing here, since this is fairly common knowledge?

 

[Artic_King500]

What are you talking about? The 360 did have unified memory:

http://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/4/3

And Intel has been using a unified memory architecture since they got in the graphics business. What exactly am I missing here, since this is fairly common knowledge?

someone told me though that the unified architecture might be hard to port for pc, and allows special gaming features for ps4 not possible on pc

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Maybe you should stop listening to "someone" because "someone" seems to be feeding you bad information.

 

[bystander36]

if thats true Bystander...then why did Chris Roberts, who is making Star Citizen a PC game, viewed the next gen consoles as lesser platforms, graphics and performance wise

Because they are in almost all aspects, but there is something they do 10 times better than PC's, and that is transfer data from the CPU to the GPU. How much that matters is something I do not know. It is allowing some things that have not been possible on PC's in the past.

Overall, a PC should still crush the console, but that is not to say that porting will not be difficult, should they rely on certain strengths of the console.

 

[Artic_King500]

Because they are in almost all aspects, but there is something they do 10 times better than PC's, and that is transfer data from the CPU to the GPU. How much that matters is something I do not know. It is allowing some things that have not been possible on PC's in the past.

Overall, a PC should still crush the console, but that is not to say that porting will not be difficult, should they rely on certain strengths of the console.

ok makes sense....

 

[Blitzvogel]

The point of going UMA is having a single large pool of memory that uses a single memory bus which is cheaper to manufacture and allows developers to allocate as necessary versus a split pool system like the PS3. Devs have to cram in use video assets into 256 MB of VRAM. When you slather on the AA and texture res, it starts to get small very quick.

However such large pools of memory that happen to be of very high bandwidth is very expensive too, so often enough, UMA systems get the eDRAM treatment to make up for the lack of bandwidth. However eDRAM does have it's advantages and in the 360 for example, it allowed the 360 to have a very efficient render back end. In concert with a UMA main memory system, devs generally had an easy time targeting 720p with 2x MSAA without running into VRAM and rendering time issues as quickly as with the PS3. I believe it's a big part of how the 360 has managed to cope so well going on 8 years since it's release.

With dedicated PC graphics, you can have massive bandwidth advantages compared to even the PS4, which allow for 2560 x 1440 rendering with different types of AA that go beyond what you would normally see on the PS4. Brute force baby. It's like when the 8800GTX came out the same time the PS3 did in late 2006. It had over double the bandwidth of any of the PS3's memory buses, and three times the video memory (which not to mention was 50% more memory than the PS3 had TOTAL). It made 1080p gaming an easy possibility but it was expensive, as pricey as the 60 GB original model PS3s.