Right about the time we were getting ready for our TWISR Live show yesterday, Sony had a little live event of their own, announcing the PS4 Slim and Pro. While the Slim is just a smaller PS4 – nothing to see here – the Pro is worth speculating about in regards to racing titles.
With an upgraded CPU and significantly upgraded GPU – clock speed of 4.2 teraflops compared to 1.84 on the original – the Pro looks to be a much more significant upgrade compared to the recently released Xbox One S (which is essentially Microsoft’s PS4 Slim). Although it must be noted that Microsoft has Project Scorpio – Microsoft’s version of the PS4 Pro – coming next year with a GPU clock of 6 teraflops. For reference, the new Nvidia GTX 1070 cards have 6.5 and run my triple screen ultrawide setup with no problems.
So what does this upgrade translate to in-game? Well for starters, yesterdays boring – according to Billy Strange 😉 – announcement focused A LOT on 4K gaming and HDR. And while that’s lovely, we have to think that it could open some other possibilities, like more PC like graphics at 1080P and 60 FPS locked, with the latter probably being the most impactful upgrade for racing titles.
Also, would have to imagine that the extra power will be very beneficial for PlayStation VR performance. While my quick demo of PlayStation VR with EVE: Valkryie at a local Best Buy was pretty impressive on the current PS4, modern racing titles have a lot more going on then an optimized for VR space flier.
Maybe the forthcoming – PlayStation VR compatible – GT Sport delay isn’t such a bad idea. Having problem racing GT Sport on the regular PS4? Get a Pro!
Just sayin’…
The PlayStation 4 Slim will replace the current PS4 for $299 beginning on September 15th, while the Pro will arrive on November 10th for $400.
