Next Generation Consoles Support of 4K (Or Lack Thereof)

*This entry is adapted from this post on my research blog 4KGamer.com

Like the Xbox 360 and PS3, the new generation do not have the hardware capable of rendering games natively above 1080p. Most of the current generation (are they old now?) Xbox 360 and PS3 games are in native 720p or below and are upscaled to 1080p. Check out this list of games’ rendering resolution for a sobering look at how few games are actually in 1080p.

The custom AMD graphics cards that are featured in the new consoles are not powerful enough to render games in 4K resolution, but at least most of the games will finally be in full HD 1080p right? Nope. Many of the games available at release are not even running at 1080p. There is more to it than just the GPU. The memory of the consoles also plays a factor on the display performance.

Here is a nice layout of the native rendering resolution of some of the major releases available on each console. Courtesy of Kotaku’s:  Why the PS4 vs Xbox One resolution matters.

Most of the big games will run in native 1080p on the PS4, but not on the Xbox One.

PS4

Sony has a huge stake in 4K with multiple 4K TVs on the market, one of the few 4K media players, and many Blu-ray releases coming from Sony Pictures labelled as “mastered in 4K”, and the PS4 will support 4K images and videos, but it will not support 4K gaming.

There are other things that make me interested and excited about the PS4, like the easy live streaming to Twitch or the possibilities of cloud-gaming with Gakai, but in terms of the graphics, they are not significantly better than my PS3. While it is slightly more powerful than the Xbox One, should we be celebrating that some games are played in full HD while the rest of Sony’s entertainment business gears up for 4K?

Xbox One

From the reveal event, I was among the millions of gamers who were worried that the Xbox One is more focused on TV and movies than on games. Maybe it is because they used the word “TV” about 500 times during the hour long event and the focus of all of the new features are about watching and surfing than playing.

Now that it is out, the Xbox One has received much criticism for running Call of Duty Ghosts in 720p and upscaling it to 1080. It seems like many people are first getting introduced to the concept of upscaling as they realize that their new $500 machine does not play CoD in a higher resolution than the (now only $160, new) Xbox 360.

* Correction, from Gaming Bolt, I learned that the current generation consoles do not render CoD Ghosts at 720p.

Ryse: Son of Rome, one of the most popular exclusive titles, hyped as hyper realistic and beautiful, is also not run at 1080p. (It falls just short at 900p.)

One extreme tech article points to the bundled Kinect camera as the reason for the lack of resolution. It claims that the Kinect draws enough power from the Xbox to not allow the Xbox to reach native 1080p.

Our fears have come to fruition.

Native 4K Gaming

It is obvious that the new generation consoles will not harbor in the age of 4K gaming, as they struggle to provide even full HD gaming. For now, the only native 4K gaming will occur on a PC.

For more info on gaming in 4K resolution, check out my research blog at 4kgamer.com