The PS4 Pro is a far more powerful console than the base PS4, which is something that often tends to get lost in the messaging kerfuffle Sony are having, trying to push it as a 4K gaming console. Among other things, it’s seen increased clock speeds, increased memory bandwidth, and even more RAM.
That extra 1GB of RAM should compensate for the higher demands that pushing 4K place on the system, according to Rok Erjavec, Technical Director at Crytek. In an exclusive interview with GamingBolt, he discussed the benefits of the additional RAM.
“The system gives us back an additional 0.5GB over thePS4, which is enough to fill in the increased requirements from things like 4K, higher quality rendering features, etc,” he said. “Coming out at about a 10% increase, it can be seen as somewhat substantial relative to the base console, but mainly it’s there to transparently allow for PS4 Pro-specific improvements without developers having to jump through complicated hoops.”
He also discussed some of the other improvements and enhancements that the PS4 Pro brings to the table- many of which, he admits, he has never had the chance to work with before.
“There’s a list of interesting enhancements that Pro brings to the table that we haven’t had the opportunity to work with so closely in hardware before,” he said. “Some things (like color compression) are transparent efficiency improvements, so really more of a balancing tool to allow high utilization of the increased compute resources despite the relatively smaller bandwidth increase. Others – like the ID buffer or hardware-multi res – actually pave the way for new rendering pipeline workflows, and as such still need to be experimented with to determine all the possibilities.”
Hopefully, that additional power and resources can be put to some good use by the developers. The PS4 Pro is available now worldwide for $399.