Update: A developer from Rad Game Tools got in touch with us clarifying that the numbers were incorrectly phrased on their website [which they have corrected now]. The developer also told us that Bink on GPU uses both the CPU and the GPU. The developer shared the following numbers with us:
- PC (2.8Ghz Core i5 with 4 cores and AMD R9 290x): CPU: 1.3 ms. GPU: 1.4 ms.
- PS4: CPU 2.3 ms. GPU: 1.6 ms.
- Xbox: CPU 2.3 ms. GPU: 2.3 ms.
As you can see, the GPU time is less on the PlayStation 4 since it has more compute units but the time is still limited by the CPU and GPU on both the Xbox One and PS4, resulting into an effective speed of 2.3 ms on both consoles.
Original Story: While you may not explicitly know about it, catching a glimpse of its logo before the beginning of each video game, Bink Video is a very well-known video format. It’s been used for nearly decades now to present cutscenes and full motion video in games ranging from the original Xbox to the PlayStation 3. Bink Video has gotten even better with the reveal of Bink 2 but developer RAD Game Tools pointed out something interesting about the same.
First, it proclaims the speed of Bink 2 thanks to “multi-core scaling and SIMD design (up to 70% of the instructions executed on a frame are SIMD). It is really fast – it can play 4K video frames (3840×2160) in 4 ms on PCs and 11 ms on Sony PS4 or Xbox One using the CPU only (or 1.4 ms and 2.3 ms using GPU acceleration)!”
The last part is especially interesting, because it indicates the PlayStation 4 is faster than the Xbox One’s GPU for this particular instance. Sure it’s only slightly faster but it still counts. The similarity in both systems’ CPU speeds is understandable since they both rely on AMD CPUs with 8 cores. But this is perhaps the first solid instance of the PS4’s GPU being superior.
What are your thoughts on the same? Let us know in the comments.