14 DAY TRIAL // With Sony unwilling to offer any official information about the future hardware upgrades that might be delivered for the PlayStation 4, more rumors about the device are starting to appear. A number of sources are now mentioning that the associated codename is NEO and that it will have improvements when it comes to both the central processing unit and the amount of featured RAM.
Giantbomb quotes multiple anonymous sources and documents that they have provided, which show that the new device will probably be launched in October, alongside the PlayStation VR virtual reality headset, and will introduce some big tweaks to the Sony gaming ecosystem.
Starting that moment, all video games for the PlayStation 4 will be launched with a base mode for the currently available version of the platform and a new NEO mode that allows the new version to offer better frame rates and improved visual fidelity at 1080p resolution.
Apparently, developers can also choose to offer 4K support and other interesting new features, but Sony will not focus on them because it wants to give teams the room they need to deliver unique experiences.
NEO mode cannot include exclusive game features that are not part of the base version of the video game so that gamers will never feel like they are missing out on content if they only have the launch version of the PS4.
The new device will have improved CPU
The NEO is designed to use 8 Jaguar cores that will run at 2.1 GHz, and gamers will also get an improved AMD graphics processing unit that will run at 911 MHz, with the complement of RAM standing at 8 GB with a transfer speed of 2018 GB/s.
Sony seems to be determined to keep the user bases for both the new console and the classic PlayStation 4 connected as they will use the same store and the same social features.
The new sources are not talking about a clear launch date or the price, but previous rumors said that the NEO version of the PlayStation 4 would come with an attached price of 499 dollars or Euro.
The new Sony device might have to deal with competition from a new Slim version of the Xbox One, which has been hinted at by documents from both the FCC and the Brazilian government, and from the new NX device that Nintendo is working on and plans to launch before year's end.