After rumors of the PS4.5 began circulating in March, a number of media outlets claimed to have seen official documents on the now confirmed console. While the console has been confirmed, neither Sony nor the outlets that received the documents released too many details, aside from the alleged specs and new "Neo" mode.
Note: While these documents appear legitimate, anything on the internet can be fabricated – proceed with salt.
It appears as though the documents have leaked, giving us a look at the powerpoint (NeoGaf) presentation that contained all of the information on the PS4.5 Neo (as the document name refers to it). The powerpoint doesn't outright say when the console will release, however, it notes that all PS4 games that are released after October 2016 will need to be compatible with the Neo.
The powerpoint itself goes into further detail on developer specs, but below you can see the information that pertains most to gamers.
Without further ado, here's a look at some of the text from the document.
What is Neo?
- NEO is a high-end version of the PlayStation 4 console
-
Neo and "original PlayStation 4" will coexist in the marketplace.
- Same application page
- Same online community
- Same store
- Same system software user experience
- All PlayStation 4 titles released October 2016 or later should support both the original PlayStation 4 system and the NEO system.
New titles play even better on NEO
- 4K display support for UHDTV owners
-
Many games will have additional improvements for HDTV Owners:
- Higher framerate
- More stable framerate
- Improved graphics fidelity
- Additional graphics features
- etc.
Legacy titles play better too
-
"Forward compatibility” done by means of patch
- Developer/Publisher decision to patch legacy titles -no SCE mandate.
- Existing titles will run unmodified on NEO systems.
- Applying the patch enables you to implement native support for NEO features
NEO Hardware Spec
-
CPU: Uses same “Jaguar” cores as the original PlayStation®4, at higher frequency
- Original PS4: 8 cores at 1.6 GHz–
- NEO:8 cores at 2.1 GHz (1.3x faster)
-
GPU: Uses improved version of AMD GCN CUs, more CUs/at higher frequency
- Original PS4:18 CUs at 800 MHz
- NEO: 36 CUs at 911 MHz (2.3x FLOPs)
-
Memory: Uses same 8 GB GDDR5 as the original PlayStation4, at higher bandwidth
- Original PS4:176 GB/s
- NEO:218 GB/s (1.24x)
- HDD: Same as original PlayStation 4
Base Mode
- Mode when title runs on original PlayStation®4 system
- Mode when title without NEO support runs on NEO system (backward-compatibility mode)
- All specs that affect title behavior are same as the original PlayStation®4 system
NEO Mode
- Mode when title with NEO support runs on NEO system
- Extended features (higher clock, more SEs, new GPU instructions) are enabled
