Welcome to the next generation of games

There has never been a better time to buy a new game console or PC. While consoles have generally been held back by weaker CPUs, spinning hard drives, and average GPU performance, the next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series S / X promise huge performance strides that will place them even beyond the top. Average gaming PC. Meanwhile, Nvidia claims it will deliver the “biggest breakthrough in PC gaming since 1999” with its new RTX 3000 series of graphics cards.

The stage is set for a next generation of games that can take advantage of powerful CPUs, GPUs, and SSD storage on consoles and PCs.

Now we are starting to get a good idea of ​​what this next generation will cost and when it will arrive. Microsoft will release its Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles on November 10, priced at $ 499 for the X and $ 299 for the S. Sony has yet to provide a release date or price for the PS5, but it is. it will almost certainly come. November. And if you’re already interested in a PS5 or original Sony games, you’re probably willing to pay whatever the final price is.

Image: Sony

While Microsoft, Sony, and Nvidia promise great things for the next generation of games, they all offer a plethora of options.

Microsoft and Sony offer two options each. Microsoft is releasing a $ 299 Xbox Series S console that is less powerful than the larger Xbox Series X, as it is designed for people with 1080p televisions or 1440p monitors. The X Series promises 4K gaming at up to 120fps. Sony is also launching two next-gen consoles: the PS5 with its traditional disc drive and a discless digital edition. This will give PS5 buyers a cheaper option, with the same performance and specs for both consoles. Although they seem similar, Sony and Microsoft’s approaches to the next generation are very different, especially when it comes to hardware options.

Sony has gone for an incredibly fast SSD, promising to radically change the future of gaming design and reduce or even eliminate loading screens. The potential of this SSD technology has been demonstrated with Unreal Engine 5 and even in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney believes that the PS5’s SSD technology will power PC gaming as well, but this is likely to happen in many years and how developers fully utilize it remains a big question.

Sony also promises 10.28 teraflops of performance, which is almost 15 percent less than the Xbox Series X. There are also some fundamental differences in cooling and architecture, allowing Sony to offer variable GPU and CPU speeds, while that Microsoft sticks to more traditional fixed systems. speeds. It remains to be seen which design will deliver the best gaming experience, but it is reasonable to assume that the two will be very close in 4K performance. Either way, all the gaming fans are winning here as a result of this huge hardware push.

Both consoles will significantly reduce load times, provide higher frame rates in games, and deliver better visuals. CPU and SSD upgrades alone are important for game development, and if fully utilized, they could even push PC games to start requiring SSDs. It’s also encouraging to see both Sony and Microsoft prioritize up to 120fps, rather than trying to market these 8K-capable consoles.

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

We’re also on the cusp of an era of games that includes real-time ray tracing effects. Nvidia pushed this through two years ago with its RTX 2000 line of graphics cards, but the game developers weren’t ready, the consoles were definitely not ready, and the price was a big deal. All three next-gen consoles promise to support ray tracing, and we’ve started to see more and more games support it. Call of Duty: War Zone, Fortniteand Minecraft are some of the big additions, and there will surely be many more throughout 2021.

While console gaming is getting the desperately needed hardware boost, PC gaming certainly isn’t far behind. Nvidia’s RTX 3080 promises twice the performance of the RTX 2080 for $ 699, all while offering 29.7 teraflops of GPU performance. If Nvidia’s numbers provide a huge performance leap, which has been shown in Doom Eternal Until now, 4K gaming could become more affordable in the PC world.

Nvidia is even trying to go beyond 4K, with its monstrous RTX 3090 graphics card promising 8K PC gaming. AMD is also preparing to launch its next line of Radeon cards, which will be based on the RDNA 2 architecture that includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing and variable speed shadowing. This is the same architecture that powers Xbox Series X / S and PS5. AMD could help lower the price of 4K PC games, but we won’t know until October.

All of this next-gen hardware is an exciting ending to a challenging year for the gaming industry and the world at large. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we all work and socialize. Games have provided an important way to stay connected with friends, family, and coworkers and are a useful escape from the stress of an unusual year.

We’re just days away from the next generation of PC graphics cards and exactly two months until the launch of Xbox Series X / S. Now it’s up to Sony to price and date the PS5 and Nintendo to bring the Switch to 4K. Welcome to the next generation of games.