As I finish up the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 piece, I realized I hadn't asked to see if there was anything you all would like me to touch on in the article. So, as always, let your voice be heard :)
I seems that both these next gen consoles will off blinding performance for games.
What I would like to know is what else each one can bring to the table, with a particular interest in incorporating one of these systems into a home theatre installation.
Audio and video output connections and formats would be appreciated.
The cell was not as powerful as it was initially intended to be. The original target for Cell was 1000x more powerful than ps2. This is not a misquote but direct from Ken Kutaragi and his team. The engineers tried to talk him down to a "more realistic" 100x, but as you know the final ps3 design (including the rsx) is 35x.
If the engineers would have met the original target of 1000x we would not be having this discussion and instead would be asking, "So when is MS going to pull out of the gaming biz?"
The cell in many ways is EE2. Kutaragi is very ambitious. To a fault some may say, in that he has a vision for what his products should be even though those visions do not materialize he still has the same vision of what he wants his hardware design to be. This then spills over in interviews and elsewhere I'm sure which may have had something to do with his demotion at Sony HQ.
The reason they did not go with 2 cells is because the cell could not do everything as far as rendering a image. So instead they decided to add in a graphics chip to handle the task that the cell couldnt do.
I dont know if it makes sense but i cant find the article where I read it.
Anand, do you think the xbox360 and playstion3 will be signifantly superior to the other?
Do you think there will be enough of a performance gap that we will be able to see as the 2nd, 3rd and 4rth generation of games roll out?
Or the performance gap may be small so that the advantages will be be elsewhere like...
One system is easier to develop for or some other features of the system.
I would like to know what you think about the systems from a developer’s standpoint. With the estimated cost of developing a new ‘Hi-Def’ game for these systems in the $10’s of millions... how will the different architectures effect how games are developed.
Sony has a history of not making the developers experience a top priority. Microsoft being a software company with it’s own programming suite, I’m sure made a priority of making the developers life easy.
What about game porting between systems? Given the enormous cost of developing a new title, I’m sure many game studios will release the game for multiple systems. How do you see the complexities of optimizing for the Cell effecting performance on other systems (will it just be as easy as a compiler switch /Cell vs /x360, or will it require a bigger rewrite of code)... and if porting for the cell is more difficult, will we see that most cross platform games will never take full advantage of the cell’s capabilities and therefore give an advantage to the xbox?
Sony is touting many features of the ps3 that seem... interesting. How will the Dual HDTV outputs affect the cost of the final product? What about all the memory cards it can read? And 3 gigabit Ethernet ports? It seems like Sony was just throwing ‘buz-word features’ in so they could create more hype, but the final cost of these will surely effect the product pricing. I have heard roomers that the ps3 will no come with a hard drive by default (and when you buy the separate hard drive, it will have linux pre-installed on it... is this true, does this mean we will be getting a keyboard/mouse for the ps3)... how will games performance be effected by not having a hard drive standard... sure ps3 will have 50 gig blu-ray disks, but the access time and no save’s can’t make up for not having a hard drive.
Thanks for listening, I have really been looking forward to your article!
-Robby
From looking at the numbers, the ps3/x360 will have about 30% of the memory bandwidth of the new g70. What does that translate to in realworld performance. Will either system realisticly run at 1080p at a decent framerate?
What are the possibilities of the x360 using the unified architecture for things other than graphics such as physics calcs?
Is latency an issue in either system that might limit theoretical performance?
We all know the marketing numbers, but having the intimate knowledge of both architectures and the connections that you do, I'd like to know what the real numbers are factoring in all bottlenecks.
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Jared - Friday, June 24, 2005 - link
All I want to know is which GPU is "better" for games. And I'd like the Xenos to be the better one ;) so wave a magic wand for me plz.Darkeye123 - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
When will i be able to read this article :DBeastie Boy - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
I seems that both these next gen consoles will off blinding performance for games.What I would like to know is what else each one can bring to the table, with a particular interest in incorporating one of these systems into a home theatre installation.
Audio and video output connections and formats would be appreciated.
Anonymous - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
edit - SPE'sAnonymous - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
Anand, can you touch on the Lack of Branch prediction and explain how this will affect the CPE's ability ti interact with one another.Also, how will this lack of branch prediction affect development time and costs? Will it be a signifigant amount of extra work for Devs??
TheChefO - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
The cell was not as powerful as it was initially intended to be. The original target for Cell was 1000x more powerful than ps2. This is not a misquote but direct from Ken Kutaragi and his team. The engineers tried to talk him down to a "more realistic" 100x, but as you know the final ps3 design (including the rsx) is 35x.If the engineers would have met the original target of 1000x we would not be having this discussion and instead would be asking, "So when is MS going to pull out of the gaming biz?"
The cell in many ways is EE2. Kutaragi is very ambitious. To a fault some may say, in that he has a vision for what his products should be even though those visions do not materialize he still has the same vision of what he wants his hardware design to be. This then spills over in interviews and elsewhere I'm sure which may have had something to do with his demotion at Sony HQ.
A D - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
The reason they did not go with 2 cells is because the cell could not do everything as far as rendering a image. So instead they decided to add in a graphics chip to handle the task that the cell couldnt do.I dont know if it makes sense but i cant find the article where I read it.
Salman - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
Anand, do you think the xbox360 and playstion3 will be signifantly superior to the other?Do you think there will be enough of a performance gap that we will be able to see as the 2nd, 3rd and 4rth generation of games roll out?
Or the performance gap may be small so that the advantages will be be elsewhere like...
One system is easier to develop for or some other features of the system.
Robby - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
I would like to know what you think about the systems from a developer’s standpoint. With the estimated cost of developing a new ‘Hi-Def’ game for these systems in the $10’s of millions... how will the different architectures effect how games are developed.Sony has a history of not making the developers experience a top priority. Microsoft being a software company with it’s own programming suite, I’m sure made a priority of making the developers life easy.
What about game porting between systems? Given the enormous cost of developing a new title, I’m sure many game studios will release the game for multiple systems. How do you see the complexities of optimizing for the Cell effecting performance on other systems (will it just be as easy as a compiler switch /Cell vs /x360, or will it require a bigger rewrite of code)... and if porting for the cell is more difficult, will we see that most cross platform games will never take full advantage of the cell’s capabilities and therefore give an advantage to the xbox?
Sony is touting many features of the ps3 that seem... interesting. How will the Dual HDTV outputs affect the cost of the final product? What about all the memory cards it can read? And 3 gigabit Ethernet ports? It seems like Sony was just throwing ‘buz-word features’ in so they could create more hype, but the final cost of these will surely effect the product pricing. I have heard roomers that the ps3 will no come with a hard drive by default (and when you buy the separate hard drive, it will have linux pre-installed on it... is this true, does this mean we will be getting a keyboard/mouse for the ps3)... how will games performance be effected by not having a hard drive standard... sure ps3 will have 50 gig blu-ray disks, but the access time and no save’s can’t make up for not having a hard drive.
Thanks for listening, I have really been looking forward to your article!
-Robby
TheChefO - Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - link
From looking at the numbers, the ps3/x360 will have about 30% of the memory bandwidth of the new g70. What does that translate to in realworld performance. Will either system realisticly run at 1080p at a decent framerate?What are the possibilities of the x360 using the unified architecture for things other than graphics such as physics calcs?
Is latency an issue in either system that might limit theoretical performance?
We all know the marketing numbers, but having the intimate knowledge of both architectures and the connections that you do, I'd like to know what the real numbers are factoring in all bottlenecks.
Thanks Anand!
Your site is a trusted resource.