• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

8 3+GHz Zen 2 cores, fast SSDs, twice the RAM, and...

LordOfChaos

Member
I'm just wondering, are the next gen consoles UIs as fast as you thought they were going to be?

I can only speak to the PS5 as it's what I have, but, I'd have to say not quite. If I went back to a PS4 especially on a HDD, I'm positive I'd suddenly find it far more annoying than I did in its life, and I always found it pudgy even then.

But as much better as things are now, it's not quite the, snap, bang, boom, everything done I was dreaming up. The UI afaik still relies on webviews, so while just having so much better per-thread performance and the fast SSD to back it up makes it much better than before, there's still places in the UI I'm waiting when it feels like I shouldn't be, it seems like all the hardware is there for it to be even faster, but it's hitting software limits.

Part of it is likely still the networking, when it has to wait on thumbnails and such, but even here there should be ways to load them asynchronously so you can still navigate pages and see text before the images load in, but it most often makes you wait.

Basically, better, but still not as good as I thought it could be. I do hope they make the UI more native, but the PS4's started a webview and ended a webview so not sure that would happen, but there seems to be software opportunities all over the place to make it faster.
 
Not sure what you mean, browsing the games and media apps library is almost instant, there are no hiccups in the animations, etc.

The only thing that I find slow is when I launch a PS4 game... But that's it.
 

StormCell

Member
Pffft, amateurs.
Learn with Nintendo





I give major props to Nintendo for their OS design even if it does lack every imaginable feature. It is still comparatively fast to enter or resume a game.

What Switch and PS5 don't do, however, is allow you leave games in a frozen state and jump back into one of many games you've recently played. I can go straight into a race in Forza, tap the home button and click MLB The Show and go straight into an at bat a second later then tap home again and suddenly be fighting a dragon.

It kicks frickin' ass, man.
 
Do you mean to ask whether Sony and Microsoft are speaking the truth in their paper specs of their new consoles?

Yes, or they'll get sued out of oblivion by millions of people.

In your particular case, the PS5, is equipped with a 8-core Zen 2 processor clocked at 3.5 Ghz (that dynamically drops clock during game sessions using AMD's Smartshift power delivery tech to boost the GPU clock further and achieve the max profile theoretical peak GPU FP32 performance of 10.3 TFLOPS) and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256 bit bus, operating at 448 GB/s.

However, the "true generational leap in performance" will be happening in games only, and not system tasks/applications, because 6 (or 7) cores / 12 (or 14) threads and 13.5 GB of that spec sheet are reserved for games, even during dashboard use.

In reality what you're experiencing now is a generational leap over your PS4's 1 (or 2) Jaguar cores (no threads or hyperthreading / SMT like the PS5) and 2.5 GB of GDDR5 RAM, that were reserved for system/OS side of things, and of course other tech like HDD's to SSD's, the ethernet port now being a gigabit port, Bluetooth 5.0, WiFi 6.0 etc.

It's because most of the available hardware for system OS, would be in background use (or ready for) tasks such as 4K 60 fps game capture, activity cards, shareplay (picture in picture), navigation, application usage etc.

There's only so much perf budget even a Zen 2 CPU and GDDR6 memory could have, when the available hardware is just 1 (or 2) core / 2 ( or 4) threads at 3.5 Ghz, and 2.5 GB GDDR6, reserved for OS.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Do you mean to ask whether Sony and Microsoft are speaking the truth in their paper specs of their new consoles?

Yes, or they'll get sued out of oblivion by millions of people.

Not remotely the thread question.

I get the OS reservation bit, the more you leave for the game is generally preferable as you spend more time gaming. But I wonder if it still has to be so static, this being the furthest into the future we've ever been, like at least when a game isn't running could it release more.

But even with that reservation, a 3.5GHz Zen 2 core seems like it should be able to tear through this UI, but there's still dependencies on networking and webviews that slow it down more than I thought it would be like, is my main point. You need networking, but you also don't need to make the UI dependent on waiting for it, you can do lazy image loading, asynchronous rendering, etc.
 
Last edited:

LordOfChaos

Member
I don't have a Ps5 or Series X.
But my Ps4 pro almost dies when it has to open Netlifx, so I'm sure I'd find the Ps5 pretty fast.

Yeah it's MUCH better, but at the same time I was just expecting more zoom zoom at the same time, ya know.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Do you mean to ask whether Sony and Microsoft are speaking the truth in their paper specs of their new consoles?

Yes, or they'll get sued out of oblivion by millions of people.

In your particular case, the PS5, is equipped with a 8-core Zen 2 processor clocked at 3.5 Ghz (that dynamically drops clock during game sessions using AMD's Smartshift power delivery tech to boost the GPU clock further and achieve the max profile theoretical peak GPU FP32 performance of 10.3 TFLOPS) and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256 bit bus, operating at 448 GB/s.

However, the "true generational leap in performance" will be happening in games only, and not system tasks/applications, because 6 (or 7) cores / 12 (or 14) threads and 13.5 GB of that spec sheet are reserved for games, even during dashboard use.

In reality what you're experiencing now is a generational leap over your PS4's 1 (or 2) Jaguar cores (no threads or hyperthreading / SMT like the PS5) and 2.5 GB of GDDR5 RAM, that were reserved for system/OS side of things, and of course other tech like HDD's to SSD's, the ethernet port now being a gigabit port, Bluetooth 5.0, WiFi 6.0 etc.

It's because most of the available hardware for system OS, would be in background use (or ready for) tasks such as 4K 60 fps game capture, activity cards, shareplay (picture in picture), navigation, application usage etc.

There's only so much perf budget even a Zen 2 CPU and GDDR6 memory could have, when the available hardware is just 1 (or 2) core / 2 ( or 4) threads at 3.5 Ghz, and 2.5 GB GDDR6, reserved for OS.
I heard Sony secretly started using Jaguar netbook CPUs in the newer PS5 model so that they could save money with a smaller cooler. It would explain all these performance issues that started popping up all of a sudden.
 

MrA

Banned
Sony did a poor job with the PS3 UI, particularly the store. God was the PS3 store terrible.
recently reacquired a ps3 and was downloading old past purchases, absolutely a pain to do. best were the ones on multiple playstations but not labeled in anyway, is it for vita? is it for ps3? ps4? only one way to find out
 

LordOfChaos

Member
My PS5 is very responsive and snappy. Going back to my PS3 is like wading through molasses

For sure. It's the best of the last three generations by far. But you can imagine the 9th gen being faster-er right, like an iPad's responsiveness.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
The PS5 UI is incredibly fast and snappy compared to the PS4 (which was itself light-years faster than the PS3). Game tiles and such took ages to load in on PS4, there were delays everywhere. Those are pretty much gone, there's very little lag anywhere. Not to mention the fact that the PS Store is now part of the main UI instead of being a separate app. So much faster. Of course, some stuff will depend on your internet connection, but for me there aren't many annoying delays left.
 
Last edited:

LordOfChaos

Member
It's snappy, but could be even better. It's certainly no iPad Pro.

Pretty much what I'm saying. Yes I get they're way better than last gen and definitely the gen before guys. But with this much power in them I also feel like whenever they do stall, it's a software thing that could have been better. It's not near as responsive to input as an iPad, and that was kind of my hope for this gen, UIs that kept up to you no matter what, even if something is waiting on networking make images and media asynchronous so it never slows the user.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Not remotely the thread question.

I get the OS reservation bit, the more you leave for the game is generally preferable as you spend more time gaming. But I wonder if it still has to be so static, this being the furthest into the future we've ever been, like at least when a game isn't running could it release more.

But even with that reservation, a 3.5GHz Zen 2 core seems like it should be able to tear through this UI, but there's still dependencies on networking and webviews that slow it down more than I thought it would be like, is my main point. You need networking, but you also don't need to make the UI dependent on waiting for it, you can do lazy image loading, asynchronous rendering, etc.
I guess it is the magic of doing your UI with web front end tech and fetching obscene amounts of remote data trying to keep the UI as remote data driven as possible takes its toll…
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Sony did a poor job with the PS3 UI, particularly the store. God was the PS3 store terrible.

Kinda unavoidable really given that CELL demanded well written and organized code, whereas most UX stuff is done with sloppy high-level languages that yield code that isn't particularly optimal.
 

DarkestHour

Banned
I'm really happy with the PS5 and it's only going to get better as life goes on with the console. Addressing the weak CPU and IO of the PS4 is doing wonders for PS5. It's a shame the OS is still slow and poorly done.
 

SpokkX

Member
I give major props to Nintendo for their OS design even if it does lack every imaginable feature. It is still comparatively fast to enter or resume a game.

What Switch and PS5 don't do, however, is allow you leave games in a frozen state and jump back into one of many games you've recently played. I can go straight into a race in Forza, tap the home button and click MLB The Show and go straight into an at bat a second later then tap home again and suddenly be fighting a dragon.

It kicks frickin' ass, man.
This

i overall feel the os speed on ps5 and series x is fine - but could improve a bit

quick resume on series x/s however — that is pure magic and faster gameswitching than i could have imagined possible
 
Top Bottom