Hardware juice..

[aamir0801]

Just have a quick question is console(any) able to extract more juice out of the hardware than PC, or is console build in way which is better than PC.

 

Sorry not trying to start a war but trying to understand difference between hardware and OS difference of console vs PC.

[MrMcMuffinJr]

Consoles usually have less horsepower but the games run so good because the devs know exactly what hardware will be used and optimize for it. PC devs don’t have that luxury

[aamir0801]

On 4/18/2022 at 6:28 PM, MrMcMuffinJr said:

Consoles usually have less horsepower but the games run so good because the devs know exactly what hardware will be used and optimize for it. PC devs don’t have that luxury

Thanks but is there no difference in hardware configuration.

[FliP0x]

There is a difference. 

 

A certain console always comes with the same hardware. A PC can have thousands of different configurations.

 

For instance, an i7 7700K is different from a i7 12700K, which is different from a Ryzen 5 5600X. There isn't just difference in processing power, but architectural differences too. Each CPU works slightly different. When game developers program their games, they add basic support for as much different hardware as possible.

They may lean one way if a certain company pays them to optimise their game better for certain hardware (when you see AMD or NVIDIA splash screens when launching a game).

 

In terms of consoles, developers know exactly what configuration they are working with and can better plan out and optimise their games and push the hardware to its limits.

 

There is a nice video about Naughty Dog, the developers of Crash Bandicoot (among other great titles) achieved the (at the time) impossible to get Crash Bandicoot running (because such a big and graphically advanced game shouldn't have been possible) by heavily optimising their code for the PlayStations hardware. If they were to port it to the Dreamcast, which is a newer console that compares with the PlayStation 2, it most likely wouldn't run as good as on the PlayStation.

 

Another example I can give, as I am typing this on an M1 MacBook Pro, is "Apple Silicon Native" software that has been ported/optimised for Apples M1 ARM architecture. Because of this optimisation, M1 Native Apps run just as good as on beafy multicore desktop processors, while still staying cool and quiet and barely using any power.

 

That's the magic of optimisation.

[LogicalDrm]

On 4/19/2022 at 9:17 PM, aamir0801 said:

Thanks but is there no difference in hardware configuration.

If PC and console would use same hardware (which current gen technically does), console devs could extract more out of the configuration because of optimisation. And they could continue like that for longer because they would have only one (or 4) configurations to optomize for. Not 400 as with PCs.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

Console game developers, specifically those who work on one platform (i.e a Sony exclusive etc...), have the advantage of knowing exactly what parameters the hardware will set, and usually have experience finding ways to optimise that hardware. 

 

Working across multiple platforms, especially pc, means effectively creating 3 or 4 versions of the same game and as such their work can never be as laser focused as if it were on the one piece of hardware. 

By contrast, a game that is purely built from the ground up to run on pc exclusively will usually see that hardware pushed harder than something built for console AND pc.

 

In essence, experience and optimisation are key.

 

Give a developer time to get to know a system, one they work on exclusively, and they can do remarkable things.

Look at Naughty Dog and the graphical beauty of their games - which is a by product of their ability to concentrate solely on playstation, learn its strengths and weakness, find the optimal solution for problems, and the results are obvious. 

 

This is why, as much as some people claim exclusivity is detrimental to gamers, I disagree. 

I disagree, because the best games are nearly all platform exclusives, or were and then had pc ports later on.

Think PS exclusives like God of War, Days Gone, Horizon Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, Gran Turismo, or MS exclusives like Halo, or the Forza Horizon series, to see the benefits of developers focusing on one platform. 

 

P.S as a caveat, I might contradict myself and argue that pc ports don't really count as "multi platform" as the games are made on pc anyway.