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Comment by Konnstann | Hacker News Reader

A lot of the things they revealed about the Ps5 don't really "wow" me.

The system better be backwards-compatible, consoles these days are pretty much more custom PCs, there shouldn't be a problem with backwards-compatibility. Switching to SSD is also a no-brainer, getting better load times as a result of using better hardware isn't that big of an accomplishment, and you could get that performance increase even with a Ps3 if you swapped out the drives iirc.

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The article confirms it will be backwards compatible.

The lack of a wow factor is a good thing, IMO. When they try too hard we get weird stuff like the Cell architecture.

What's the appeal of 8K? Is the support just there for some future VR plans? I already have my couch about as close to my 55" 4K TV as is reasonable, and can barely tell the difference between 1080p and 4K video. If I had an absurdly large TV (70"+) and didn't move my couch back yeah, 4K'd be a clear improvement. But 8K? Why?

For a game, with this amount of GPU power, there's not a tremendous benefit to an 8k screen.

It's good to be future-proof, and if you are at a desk you can pretty easily get a screen where the difference is notable. And people are making 8k content, so you want to support playing that on your flashy high-end machine.

But the important part would be the implications for VR. And also that if it can output 8k@60, then it can output 4k@veryhigh.

Meanwhile, HDR makes a massive difference, but laypeople seem to be pretty familiar with the term "4K" while very few know about "HDR". A testament to the power of numbers in marketing.

I would love to see less emphasis on resolution in consumer TVs and more on refresh rates. It would be great if I could play games on PlayStation at 120 Hz on my living room TV.

Probably for VR, Blu-Ray, and to sell more Sony TVs

It says right in the title.

"Sony reveals PlayStation 5 details: 8K graphics, ray tracing, SSDs, and PS4 backwards compatibility"

At this point, the hardware on the PS5 sounds powerful enough to provide backwards compatibility for the PS3 (and all of its predecessors). That would appeal to some people who have old consoles/games collecting dust in their basements/attics.

Don't tease me. Backwards compatibility with with PS3 AND PS4 would be beyond amazing.

It would be nice, but I'd be surprised if they make much of an effort. There's little financial motivation to make available a huge library of practically free games, especially if people are willing to pay for new "nostalgia" consoles with a small selection of greatest hits preloaded.

I mean, Nintendo does it, and then makes you buy them again, and again with zero transfer of accounts to new machines.

Why do that when they can sell you a remastered edition for $60.

Sorry, I knew it was backwards-compatible, my point was that given that AMD powered the Ps4, backwards compatibility shouldn't be something you parade around. Ps3/Ps2 backwards compatibility is impressive, however.

Why would there not be a problem with backwards-compatibility? If they're switching processor architecture or vendor at all, there's going to be a huge problem.

It's going to be backwards compatible with the PS4 according to the article.

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