From my experience watching movies about time travel and Jedi Masters — and I’ve watched a ton — the future is a nebulous blur until it becomes the present.
As it is for Yoda, so it is for games journalists.
We can see the fuzzy outlines of the next PlayStation and Xbox consoles, but we can’t quite make them out yet. We have a few rumors that are starting to put things into focus, but always in motion is the future. So while these things could turn out true, we can’t confirm them. Still, you should know what people are murmuring about.
Here’s what we’re hearing about Sony and Microsoft’s next boxes, thanks to VG 24/7 and Techno Buffalo:
PlayStation 4/Orbis
- Built on AMD’s A10 accelerated processing unit
- 4GB RAM (3GB free for games)
- Capable of 1.84 TFLOPS (1,840,000,000,000 floating-point operations per second)
- Compatible with 100GB Blu-ray discs
- Announcement could come in May
Xbox 720/Durango
- Graphics based on Radeon HD 8770
- 8GB RAM (4GB to 5GB free for games)
- Capable of 1.23 TFLOPS
- Compatible with 100GB Blu-ray discs
- Will use Skype for voice-chat
VG 24/7 claims it got the TFLOPS numbers, which measures general computing power, in talking with developers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
If those numbers are correct, then — in terms of benchmarks — the new PlayStation could easily outrun the Durango. Benchmarks, however, are not a reliable indicator of real-world performance. Especially when this info also suggests the Durango will have twice as much memory as the Orbis.
The PlayStation 3 suffers from a shortage of RAM, which causes problems in games like Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Again, this is all just word-on-the-street stuff. We’ll keep you posted on any more rumors we hear about the next-gen consoles.