New PS4 Model Will Be Quieter, Faster, Lighter

It hasn’t been very long since the PlayStation 4 was first released by Sony — two years, at least — but the company is already planning to roll out a hardware revision for the PS4 – one that seems to be significantly improved over its predecessor. And cheaper for Sony to manufacture, too.

Pocket News detailed the specifications of the new unit, dubbed the CUH-12000. Apparently, the model is already available in Japan.

As evidenced by the pictures, which you can find below, the motherboard on the new PS4 model is significantly smaller, and the configurations are noticeably different if you’ve taken a look at an older PS4’s motherboard. The most important change, one that potentially puts it on par with the Xbox One’s hardware, is the added GDDR5 configuration.

There’s also a lot of power-saving optimizations made to the motherboard. There’s a new power supply, and optimizations were made to the memory modules. While there used to be 16 memory modules, that number has been reduced to eight thanks to new technology advancements.

Other than that, there aren’t a great deal of changes that most users will notice. There’s said to be a new Blu-ray drive design, changes to the motherboard components, and various chip replacements, presumably for the sake of improvement.

There is, however, one interesting bit: the main processor that powers the PS4 has a new designation, suggesting that some improvements and/or optimizations were made to the original CPU.

Various optimizations were made to improve the power consumption, and it appears that Sony went all out in that department. According to the data gathered by Pocket News, the new model runs at 122W during gameplay, whereas the launch unit drew 148.6W, as pointed out by Eurogamer. That may not mean much to most, but it does potentially give developers to work with.

It’s unclear whether or not Sony plans on releasing this specific model in the west, or perhaps an entirely new one, but given the improvements observed, it’s highly likely we’ll be hearing about a release outside of Japan sooner rather than later.

Would you pick up a new PS4 model if its performance was better than its predecessor?

[Images via Pocket News, Sony]