Why is it not possible to build a PC that delivers the same performance as a PS5 at the same cost? What are we missing?
In: Technology
Everyone talks about subsidies and optimization, but there is also that a PS5 is more like a laptop where everything is soldered on a single board. Connectors are kind of expensive on both sides of the connection. So, PS5 has not RAM Connectors, no cpu socket, no pcie connectors. Why can’t we get a laptop with the same specs and price? They still have many of the connectors, so cost more for being smaller, and add in the screen. And, any single gaming laptop doesn’t have the same economies of scale for the gaming laptops as a PS5.
Finally, there is the APU. A typical gaming PC has separate CPU and GPU, and separate CPU and GPU RAM plus the associated PCIE on the motherboard and CPU which add quite a bit to the cost. A PS5 has an APU with 16GB GDDR6 RAM at 14gbps gives 448gb/s, same as a 3070. A PS5 uses that as its shared memory as compared to a PC APU on say DDR5 7000 at 128 bit, which is theoretically 1/4 what the PS5 has and DDR4 is typically about half that again.
The RAM bandwidth puts a limit on how fast a PC APU can be, so that path to lowering price and getting similar performance is cut off on the PC.
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