792p Next-Gen Consoles vs. PC - WTF?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
839 words · ~4 min read
0:00
All right, everyone. Sit down and buckle up because we're about to go on one hell
0:03
of a high definition ride at 792p.
0:15
With its power loss protection, affordability, and performance, the
0:18
SP920 from A Data makes upgrading to an SSD remarkably safe and simple. We're
0:24
going to try and quantify just how not nextG the nextG consoles are. And we're
0:29
going to do this by taking our test bench and figuring out exactly how much
0:32
graphics horsepower is needed to deliver the console grade experience in Watchd
0:37
Dogs versus how much raw power it would need to deliver a PCRA experience.
0:42
Basically, high resolutions and much higher frame rates. We know that our
0:46
test bench is overkill and not really comparable to a console, but we chose
0:50
these parts in our experiment to remove potential bottlenecks and focus on our
0:54
funky thought experiment in terms of GPU clock speeds, an extremely important
0:58
factor for gaming. Bear in mind that by removing these bottlenecks, we're
1:02
keeping the test as fair as possible. And if anything, our lower graphics
1:05
configuration gets an advantage from the OP CPU and RAM. But how do you remove as
1:10
many variables as possible and bring everything down to GPU clock speed?
1:14
well, by strapping a GTX 480 to it. I chose a GTX 480 because of its ability
1:18
to underclock and overclock quite well, giving it a wide range of possible
1:23
performance levels. Things to note are that the Xbox One and PS4, while closer
1:27
to typical PC architecture than any console generation before, are still
1:31
actually quite different. We're also not covering power consumption, and we're
1:35
running everything on high settings all the time. We expect the devs want that
1:39
experience on any given platform as a baseline. So changing it between runs,
1:43
which is add more variables. And again, we're just focusing on GPU clock speed.
1:47
The lowest clock speed I could get on my GTX 480 was 405. And this allowed me to
1:52
run the game at 792p and about 32 to 33
1:56
FPS. Yeah, I actually couldn't underclock my 5-year-old GPU to be as
2:01
slow as a nextG console. PC master race
2:04
problems. If we don't nerf our 5-year-old GPU quite so hard, we can get
2:08
pretty easily to 1080p 30 FPS, but 60
2:11
FPS is a completely different ballgame. 1080p 60 FPS wasn't going to happen on
2:15
our poor old 480. But good old awkward 792p was able to run at 60 FPS if I
2:21
cranked this GPU clock speed up to 875 MHz. So yeah, Ubisoft FPS and resolution
2:27
are numbers and so is clock speed. And those so-called nextG consoles should
2:31
have had a lot more of all three. Again, guys, I can't stress enough, these are
2:34
very different architectures, and we're only interested in seeing how much more
2:37
raw power the GPU of a platform that can run at 792p 30fps would need to run at
2:44
1080p 30 FPS and 792p 60 FPS. And it was
2:48
interesting to see how borderline these nextG consoles actually are, because
2:52
going from 792p to 1080p only required about 40% more raw power, while doubling
2:57
the FPS required more than double that raw power. Uh, this is bad news for
3:02
gamers who think they're going to get 60 FPS beautifully rendered games this gen
3:06
because they're not even close. But this was just a quick and dirty thought
3:10
experiment. And while it does show a representation of the power needed to
3:14
get these consoles up to speed, calling it a perfect representation of the
3:17
competitive landscape may be a bit of a stretch. Also, for the console guys,
3:22
there are things coming down the line like MS Cloud for Xbox One and DirectX12
3:27
for nextG consoles in general that may help them, but after looking at the
3:32
performance needed for them to catch up, I think it's possible they're going to
3:35
need a little bit more than just that. All right, guys. That was just kind of
3:39
some food for thought. I hope you guys liked it. If you want to see more like this, let me know in the comments below.
3:44
Like, dislike, comment, subscribe, jump over to the forum and let me know there.
3:48
If you PM me, there's even more likeliness that I'll get it. While you're on the forum, if you don't like
3:52
the ads, be sure to become a contributor. That gets rid of all the ads at any contribution level. And if
3:56
you want a shirt like the one Lionus is wearing, not the one I'm wearing, be
3:59
sure to check out our shirts link in the description below to get a shirt. Thanks
4:02
a lot for watching and I'll see you guys next time. Take it off. Do it. Do it. Go. We'll get more views. We'll get more
4:07
likes. Go. Like for movies.