Phoenix|Down x4: Next Generation PC

[Neon Ignition]

We're going hardware for the first time in light of the specs reveal for the PS5.

The specs seem like Sony is aiming as high as they can to give the console a competitive and lasting lifespan just as they accomplished with the fourth generation of the console. However, the PS4 was comparatively dated compared to PC hardware when it launched and that distance grew as time went on. Mid-gen refreshes closed that gap a fair bit but PC hardware is an ever moving river of progression. Currently PC hardware is once again in a bit of a transition period, steps forward are being made but the full strides into full next generation hardware has yet to take place.




Next Generation PC's

We know what consoles are targeting and AMD, Nvidia, Intel etc have long been touting their plans. If you were to attempt to spec up a bleeding edge high end gaming PC in the year 2021 once the new generation is underway what would you imagine it would weigh in as being specced?

[Dogg Thang]

The exact specs I anticipate:

Game power X: Can maybe run Crysis. Almost
OS power: can serve up Windows ads and annyone pop up nofications at lightning speed
Programme awesomeness: all non-game programme needs just bloat to match specs leading to probably no real increase at all

In all honesty, PC movement has been such a creep so do many really notice a generational leap? It's always leaping, just in little tiny leaps. At least, that's the way it seems to me. I don't notice it at all.

[Neon Ignition]

One thing I wonder with PC's is that they've come into line with consoles so much, seeing more and more releases come out on all formats, but by the same measure it means that at a base level nearly all new games released on PC are designed to run on 2013 era console tech so PC's are rarely actually pushed hard making it harder for new GPU's to justify themselves.

With the baseline moved by XB4 and PS5 there should theoretically be a step forward at last as consoles come into line with what current new GPU's are already delivering and they start to look at what's next, like how the RTX series feels like a redundant time killer rather than a worthwhile jump from Nvidia.

[Asura]

but by the same measure it means that at a base level nearly all new games released on PC are designed to run on 2013 era console tech so PC's are rarely actually pushed hard making it harder for new GPU's to justify themselves.

To be fair, it was similar in the Xbox 360 era. The 360 might not have been "a PC in a box" but it was close enough that by the time it was nearing the end of its life, any contemporary PC could spank most console games. However, this wasn't too big an issue because few console games at that point were aiming for 1080p, and even with those that did, very few of them maintained acceptable framerates (and that isn't the "60fps snob" talking there; Mass Effect 3 on PS3's performance is diabolically poor in the later sections of the game). That meant PC games still had "somewhere to go" with all that extra grunt.

[Neon Ignition]

Taking this from a component by component approach the first one would probably be the CPU.

CPU's are funny, PC owners talk a lot about processor advancement and having high specced ones but for gaming the majority are largely redundant. From what we know of PS5 and XB4 they will have much better CPU's than their predecessors but will they make use of all the abilities of new CPU's or will PC CPU's for gaming still be heavily bottlenecked by console designs?

[Neon Ignition]

Also, CPU multi-threading, likely next gen?

[Asura]

Also, CPU multi-threading, likely next gen?

We have it now; the problem is how it's addressed. A lot of games don't make good use of it.

[Neon Ignition]

If that's the case then presumably, whilst consoles are about to get a CPU boost, most PC's won't need one because they're not that well utilised on that front as it is.

If that's the case you'd be looking at a decent clock speed i7 equivalent if building a PC in 2022?

I'm also assuming that, using NVidia benchmarks, they will release a new generation of cards next year to coincide with the next gen of consoles. Assuming we call them RTX21XX cards then a 2020 release would mean that by 2022 we'd be looking at successor RTX22XX cards that make running PS5 generation games at 4K60fps much more common place.

I keep seeing 24GB Ram mentioned for consoles or thereabouts but I don't know if a replacement for DDR4 Ram is on the cards so if there is a DDR5 RAM on the cards you'd go for that but either way presumably 32GB is the new amount you'd need to cover all eventualities.

I've always had a Crive that was solely dedicated to that specific purpose rather than storing files and games etc on it so a larger drive shouldn't be a major concern, though storage of next gen games will presumably require large SSD's and HDD's (hence the 1TB drive mentioned for PS5 seeming so oddly small.

Taking this all together you end up with:

Year: 2022
CPU: i7
GPU: RTX22XX (two GPU generations beyond current cards)
RAM: Min. DDR4 32GB
C Drive: Min 500GB SSD
D Drive: Min 4TB SSD

If next gen is likely to aim for consistent visual pushing 4K60fps as the common target then PC's will target 4K60fps (with further GPU advancements aiming to shunt 8K support) so the question is whether the above specs are accurate and whether they suggest anyone building a gaming PC in the next 3 years is wasting money.