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Sony unlocks PS4’s 7th core, paves way for better performance

Game developers now have access to more of the Sony PS4’s raw power, according to data emerging over the weekend.

The gaming giant has unlocked the 7th Core of the PS4’s 8-Core CPU, after previously reserving it for the console’s operating system.

The move was spotted by members of the Beyond3D forum. Notes for the audio middleware tool FMOD read: “PS4 – Added FMOD_THREAD_CORE6 to allow access to the newly unlocked 7th core.”

The move was confirmed by other members of the developer community who spoke to Eurogamer.

The site did say it was unlikely existing games would gain access to the core, thus boosting performance of titles already available. However, it might come in handy for devs working on new titles for the console.

See also: Sony PS4 vs Xbox One

Eurogamer also speculated the entire core may not have been handed over to developers, with Sony keeping some back for the operating system.

The report points out a similar made by Microsoft with the Xbox One console. In that instance only a limited amount of CPU resources were made available to game makers.

Sony is yet to officially comment on the reports, but more power available to makers of power-hungry games can only be good news for everyone concerned.

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