Sony Confirms September 7th Event In New York City, Public Unveiling Of PlayStation Neo
The rumoured September 7th shindig by Sony in New York City has been confirmed by the video games giant, as they plan to publicly unveil the PlayStation Neo.
They're calling the event 'PlayStation Meeting' which is the same name they gave to the event when producing the PlayStation 4 for our eyes to feast on. The PlayStation Neo is a beefed up PlayStation 4 and not a full jump into the next cycle. It's partly in response to Microsoft's own Xbox Scorpio, which is an improved Xbox One.
The Neo will go from PS4's 8-core Jaguar CPU @ 1.6GHz to another 8-core but @ 2.1GHz. As for the raw GPU power it goes from 18 compute units @ 800MHz to an impressive 36 compute units @ 911MHz. It keeps the 8GB GDDR5 RAM but improves speeds from 176GB/s to 218GB/s.
The PlayStation Neo is definitely an improved beast but it won't suddenly mean games already out will see huge boosts in performance. Many would need updates to make any efficient use of that extra power and studios are unlikely to bother for marginal gains.
Why is Sony refreshing the PlayStation 4 now? The answer to that is 4K and virtual reality as Sony backs their latest venture - PlayStation VR. However the new Neo iteration doesn't have the hardware muscle to provide the best quality 4K for triple-A titles, but does upscale non-native titles.
There's another handicap as Sony as issued the decree that any title released for PlayStation 4 and Neo must match in framerate, or enjoy a little more on Neo, so that extra juice can't be capitalised on as it otherwise could be. Still, it's not as bad as say the PS4 being held back to PS3's tech limitations, but there will be wastage.
Allegedly Sony has been tweaking some of the finer points of the Neo now that they're aware of Microsoft's hardware plans for Xbox Scorpio. The PlayStation Meeting event will take place September 7th in New York City, with a live stream available worldwide.
