PS4 converted to PC? Is it possible?

[Benzene]

Hey first time posting, probably already brought up but is it possible to scab parts from a ps4 and convert into a windows gaming pc? If it can play all the current games does it mean its got the hardware to rival with (in my situation) an entry level gaming rig???

[SeanAngelo]

2 minutes ago, Benzene said:

Hey first time posting, probably already brought up but is it possible to scab parts from a ps4 and convert into a windows gaming pc? If it can play all the current games does it mean its got the hardware to rival with (in my situation) an entry level gaming rig???

wait, so you wanna take apart a PS4 and take the components off of that to make a PC? no.

[B16CXHatch]

You can use the hard drive. That's the only standard PC part in a PS4. The rest is all custom hardware.

[mbryant]

no chance at all. The only thing you could take from the PS4 is the hard drive 

[AshleyAshes]

Not a chance.

[Benzene]

6 minutes ago, SeanAngelo said:

wait, so you wanna take apart a PS4 and take the components off of that to make a PC? no.

So no way of installing windows on the Sony PS4 system? Whether stand alone or dual boot?

[ARikozuM]

Why not try loading Linux onto it? Also, why are you trying to make it into a PC?

[m0k]

nope

 

if you have a spare ps4, send it to me though 

[SeanAngelo]

3 minutes ago, Benzene said:

So no way of installing windows on the Sony PS4 system? Whether stand alone or dual boot?

nope.

[Benzene]

Just now, mok said:

nope

 

if you have a spare ps4, send it to me though 

lol I don't but looking to get away from console gaming....PC was and will be the future

[Mira Yurizaki]

4 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Why not try loading Linux onto it? Also, why are you trying to make it into a PC?

It probably has a locked bootloader preventing it from accepting any OS install, much like locked bootloaders of Android phones.

[Dabombinable]

Just now, Benzene said:

So no way of installing windows on the Sony PS4 system? Whether stand alone or dual boot?

If you don't already have a PS4, simply get an APU, 8GB DDR3 1866 (the faster the RAM the better), a 500GB, an ITX case, and then a PSU and motherboard to fit and boom. You have what is effectively a PS4 with Windows 10.

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

It probably has a locked bootloader preventing it from accepting any OS install, much like locked bootloaders of Android phones.

isn't the PS4 the Sony console that came with a Linux option?

[Benzene]

3 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Why not try loading Linux onto it? Also, why are you trying to make it into a PC?

Just thought that if it was designed for modern (recent) games that converting into a PC system would make it upgradable in the future...Sony releasing their PS4 plus really bugged me....every 2 years if I want to stay current gotta get a new console or something like that...

[Mira Yurizaki]

Also using the PS4's hardware itself will net you a rather poor gaming PC anyway. The PS4 uses a netbook class processor with what amounts to something between a Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition and a HD 7950. Even with 8 cores, it's not going to be any more powerful than a Intel Pentium.

 

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

isn't the PS4 the Sony console that came with a Linux option?

That's the PS3, which they removed the option anyway. Also Sony was very restrictive of the Other OS option anyway. For instance, the other OS couldn't use the GPU because the Hypervisor wouldn't allow it.

[Benzene]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Also using the PS4's hardware itself will net you a rather poor gaming PC anyway. The PS4 uses a netbook class processor with what amounts to something between a Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition and a HD 7950. Even with 8 cores, it's not going to be any more powerful than a Intel Pentium.

 

That's the PS3, which they removed the option anyway. Also Sony was very restrictive of the Other OS option anyway. For instance, the other OS couldn't use the GPU because the Hypervisor wouldn't allow it.

Sorry to be ignorant (just an enthusiast pc user) but how does the PS4 get the clarity and smoothness when playing new games?

[ARikozuM]

4 minutes ago, Benzene said:

Sorry to be ignorant (just an enthusiast pc user) but how does the PS4 get the clarity and smoothness when playing new games?

Programming specifically coded for the hardware on the console. #InANutshell

[Benzene]

Basically I would in theory like to take the gpu/cpu/ram from the PS4 and put into a current socket....Not sure if Sony uses proprietary sockets/ram/voltages.....

[Mira Yurizaki]

7 minutes ago, Benzene said:

Sorry to be ignorant (just an enthusiast pc user) but how does the PS4 get the clarity and smoothness when playing new games?

Consoles have OSes that allow games to run more directly on the hardware. That is, the game itself does not have to ask the OS for hardware access or the access routines are much more streamlined. Games are more or less trusted applications, so they can get away with this.

 

PC games on the other hand have to talk to the OS constantly to access hardware. In a general purpose computer these days, pretty much all user applications (i.e., not OS components or drivers) are applications that cannot be trusted with easy access to hardware or system resources.

 

As an aside, despite what people call DX12 and Vulkan as "close to metal" API, they are not. All they did was shift the burden of some things to the application itself rather than on the API. As well as redoing some concepts to make processing instructions to the GPU more efficient.

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, Benzene said:

Basically I would in theory like to take the gpu/cpu/ram from the PS4 and put into a current socket....Not sure if Sony uses proprietary sockets/ram/voltages.....

You can build it yourself. Just get a Kabini APU and a Radeon HD 7870 or equivalent.

[Benzene]

Thanks for the info! Was looking at building a mid entry gaming PC anyways.  Looking for cost saving measures haha. Guess I'll keep the PS4 (regular, lol) and look to the future in PC builds.

[ionbasa]

1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Also using the PS4's hardware itself will net you a rather poor gaming PC anyway. The PS4 uses a netbook class processor with what amounts to something between a Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition and a HD 7950. Even with 8 cores, it's not going to be any more powerful than a Intel Pentium.

 

That's the PS3, which they removed the option anyway. Also Sony was very restrictive of the Other OS option anyway. For instance, the other OS couldn't use the GPU because the Hypervisor wouldn't allow it.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and challenge you.  First, with the PS3 and OtherOS. Custom firmware has gotten around to being able to use the GPU when booting up linux. I've experimented with it on my own 1st gen  slim PS3 and it's not too shabby. Lookup OtherOS++ , it boots natively from the hypervisor, allowing hardware access to the GPU.

 

As for the PS4 CPU. Its capable of ~102 GFlops in single precision mode. That's roughly the same as an i7-4770k with 103 GFlops running all 8 threads. That's a decent CPU, so while it is true the Jaguar cores are more oriented to be low power, it doesn't mean that they can't  keep up. As for the GPU, that's enough to play most games at 1080p with medium-highish settings. I personally had a HD 7950 and It runs the vast majority of games just fine, although now I have 1080 FTW and use the HD 7950 mainly for F@H.

 

Side, note: The PS4 Pro that just came out got a bump in the GPU department: It has double the amount of shaders and TMUs, resulting in ~4100 Gflops on the GPU. That's roughly equivalent somewhere between a R9-280x and a GTX 780. For a console that's not bad at a price point of $399. The CPU also got a clock boost to 2.1 Ghz on the pro version.

 

So, the PS4 is a fairly decent PC in my opinion. Given its running *nix (BSD) and using open APIs with lower overhead, the gaming experience isn't bad at all. I'd even argue it gets good bang for the buck. The latest PS4 slim costs $299 and includes a game. You can't beat that price to performance ratio to be honest.  

 

So, as much as we like to think as consoles as not being 'good' PCs, they actually hold their own in being decent.

[Mira Yurizaki]

48 minutes ago, ionbasa said:

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and challenge you.  First, with the PS3 and OtherOS. Custom firmware has gotten around to being able to use the GPU when booting up linux. I've experimented with it on my own 1st gen  slim PS3 and it's not too shabby. Lookup OtherOS++ , it boots natively from the hypervisor, allowing hardware access to the GPU.

Well sure, if you can use a completely custom firmware, then you may as well say "Sure you can install Linux on the PS4." But usually when talking about these kinds of things, it's through the official method.

Quote

As for the PS4 CPU. Its capable of ~102 GFlops in single precision mode. That's roughly the same as an i7-4770k with 103 GFlops running all 8 threads. That's a decent CPU, so while it is true the Jaguar cores are more oriented to be low power, it doesn't mean that they can't  keep up. As for the GPU, that's enough to play most games at 1080p with medium-highish settings. I personally had a HD 7950 and It runs the vast majority of games just fine, although now I have 1080 FTW and use the HD 7950 mainly for F@H.

According to https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/hpc/Haswell-Floating-Point-Performance-493/ , the i7-4770K gets 177GFLOPS using AVX2 instructions. That's with an actual benchmark as well. The 102 GFLOPS reported for the PS4's CPU is theoretical. However, floating point performance on a CPU means relatively little for gaming purposes where the bulk of what the CPU is going to do is integer based and logic work. More floating point jobs are going to be handled by the GPU simply because the GPU can do it much faster.

Quote

Side, note: The PS4 Pro that just came out got a bump in the GPU department: It has double the amount of shaders and TMUs, resulting in ~4100 Gflops on the GPU. That's roughly equivalent somewhere between a R9-280x and a GTX 780. For a console that's not bad at a price point of $399. The CPU also got a clock boost to 2.1 Ghz on the pro version.

Or, it's basically a downclocked RX 480.

Quote

So, the PS4 is a fairly decent PC in my opinion. Given its running *nix (BSD) and using open APIs with lower overhead, the gaming experience isn't bad at all. I'd even argue it gets good bang for the buck. The latest PS4 slim costs $299 and includes a game. You can't beat that price to performance ratio to be honest.  

 

So, as much as we like to think as consoles as not being 'good' PCs, they actually hold their own in being decent.

I won't argue this point though, considering I tried to build a PS4 Pro using PC parts and ended up going $130 over before peripherals and OS. Not to mention the console comes with a $60 controller.

[ionbasa]

1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Well sure, if you can use a completely custom firmware, then you may as well say "Sure you can install Linux on the PS4." But usually when talking about these kinds of things, it's through the official method.

According to https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/hpc/Haswell-Floating-Point-Performance-493/ , the i7-4770K gets 177GFLOPS using AVX2 instructions. That's with an actual benchmark as well. The 102 GFLOPS reported for the PS4's CPU is theoretical. However, floating point performance on a CPU means relatively little for gaming purposes where the bulk of what the CPU is going to do is integer based and logic work. More floating point jobs are going to be handled by the GPU simply because the GPU can do it much faster.

Or, it's basically a downclocked RX 480.

I won't argue this point though, considering I tried to build a PS4 Pro using PC parts and ended up going $130 over before peripherals and OS. Not to mention the console comes with a $60 controller.

I agree with all your points, I believe I should clarify the 4770k static I used earlier, I believe it was only for a AVX1 benchmark that didn't support AVX2 at the time. I used the AVX1 numeric since the jaguar architecture does not support AVX2. My intention was for an 'apples to apples' comparison using the same instructions set available to both CPUs.

[Mr.Meerkat]

6 hours ago, ionbasa said:

You can't beat that price to performance ratio to be honest

Am I allowed to factor in how I'd probably be able to find the game cheaper on G2A or something dodgy (like steam)? Plus can I also factor in how you need a gold PSN subscription to play online? And how they may need a new PC for web browsing and what ever? (unlikely scenario but possible)

 

I mean, from a gaming only perspective:

Can you run emulators on a PS4? Nope...

Can you run games from October 2013 and older? Nope (unless it's been ported, 99% valid for PS4, only like 50% valid for xbone)

Can you get 10 paid games for like $1 of something like bundle stars? (even if they're really really shitty games) Nope

 

It highly depends on the scenario as from a machine vs machine perspective, the PS4 and the PS4 pro offers a better price to performance ratio but once you add up cost of games on console, the possibility of requiring a new PC for non-gaming related activities, backward compatibility, how you have to pay for online ect. the benefits of the machine only perspective quickly diminishes and getting a gaming PC may offer better value overall.

 

The argument for how you need to spend $1k per year upgrading isn't valid either, you can easily spend $550 now, play at 1080p high-ultra settings for a considerable amount of time and have it last you for the next 10 years (assuming you're willing to turn dem graphics down over time where consoles have to as well anyway).

 

On a side note, don't worry, I'm not a PCMR elitist, I personally own a (or 2) PS3s, a wii U, 3DS XL, OG GB, GBA SP, GB micro...I just wanted to put a counter argument up  (okay, fair enough, I don't own a PS4 or xbone but ah well). Plis no hate...