Sony gives the PS4 a boost by opening up a seventh core to developers

The extra core will give the PS4 a small power boost

Doug Bolton
Tuesday 01 December 2015 19:58 GMT
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An extra core to work with will be a welcome move for games developers
An extra core to work with will be a welcome move for games developers (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

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The PlayStation 4 has been given a major boost as Sony gives developers access to a seventh core. giving the console even more computing power.

The PS4 has eight cores in total, but developers have so far only been able to use six of them, with the other two being reserved for running the console's OS.

However, as reported by Eurogamer, a 'stealth update' has opened up the seventh core for use and brought the PS4 more in line with the Xbox One in terms of power.

The new development is fairly major, but it wasn't announced with any fanfare - the unlocking was only discovered after a user of the Beyond3D forums managed to spot it in an audio software changelog.


The seventh core won't neccessarily increase the processing power by a sixth - it looks likely that the use of it will be shared by the operating system and the game, rather than the whole of the new core being handed over to the user.

However, it's a welcome boost in power that should provide developers with a little extra breathing room when they're creating games - possibly allowing them to increase framerates and overall speed.

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