Sorry next gen will suck

Excellent read on xbox360 cpu and ps3.

At any rate, Playstation 3 fanboys shouldn\'t get all flush over the idea that the Xenon will struggle on non-graphics code. However bad off Xenon will be in that department, the PS3\'s Cell will probably be worse. The Cell has only one PPE to the Xenon\'s three, which means that developers will have to cram all their game control, AI, and physics code into at most two threads that are sharing a very narrow execution core with no instruction window. (Don\'t bother suggesting that the PS3 can use its SPEs for branch-intensive code, because the SPEs lack branch prediction entirely.) Furthermore, the PS3\'s L2 is only 512K, which is half the size of the Xenon\'s L2. So the PS3 doesn\'t get much help with branches in the cache department. In short, the PS3 may fare a bit worse than the Xenon on non-graphics code, but on the upside it will probably fare a bit better on graphics code because of the seven SPEs.

In sum, the Xenon will certainly make the Xbox 360 a 3D graphics powerhouse. Though history suggests that the Xbox 360\'s games will probably never attain the level of graphical realism promised by Microsoft\'s pre-launch hype and portrayed in the pre-rendered "game demos" that were shown off at E3, gamers can nonetheless expect a significant advance in levels of graphical realism and visual immersiveness.

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/xbox360-2.ars/1

I didn\'t understand one word of that.


I swear somewher in there the Flux Capacitor is mentioned.

[Evi]

Thanks for the crappy article. But yes...hype is ghey, but so is making predictions like that years before it happens.

"In short, the PS3 may fare a bit worse than the Xenon on non-graphics code, but on the upside it will probably fare a bit better on graphics code because of the seven SPEs."

That truelly surprised me.AI, physics etc were supposed to be one of the Cell\'s main distinctive abilities.That was totally unexpected.
Its the first time also that I see such atitude from arstechnica

[BizioEE]

PS3 is still a baby in its development cycle and we know almost nothing about its potential and graphics/non graphics features...while XBox360 is a bit older and something more could be said....

however it\'s too early to make an accurate comparison, let\'s wait and see.....

PS : I don\'t belive all the crap tech I\'ve read since now, we have to wait unbiased developer\'s thoughts who have spent time and time on final hardware!

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

^^ what he said, the ps2 / xbox hardware had all these so called gurus that had it totally wrong..  So when the final  hardware is released and they have it in their hands.. i\'ve start to get more interest in it.

Well one of the Heavenly Sword developers said that he is impressed with what he had so far from the PS3\'s unfinished specs and that the PS3 is the console to go for.

Originally posted by BizioEE
PS3 is still a baby in its development cycle and we know almost nothing about its potential and graphics/non graphics features...while XBox360 is a bit older and something more could be said....

however it\'s too early to make an accurate comparison, let\'s wait and see.....

PS : I don\'t belive all the crap tech I\'ve read since now, we have to wait unbiased developer\'s thoughts who have spent time and time on final hardware!

The cell is done. And what this article was talking about was ps3\'s cell. The ps3 is not early in development. You don\'t think the cell chip is done?

The thing is suppose to launch in march 06. The console is done. Nvidia is suppose to start manufactoring the chips in the fall. It has to launch in march 06 with  games. Umm it\'s June 05 now.

Quddus Nostradamus eh ? :rolleyes:

[BizioEE]

Originally posted by QuDDus
The cell is done. And what this article was talking about was ps3\'s cell. The ps3 is not early in development. You don\'t think the cell chip is done?

The thing is suppose to launch in march 06. The console is done. Nvidia is suppose to start manufactoring the chips in the fall. It has to launch in march 06 with  games. Umm it\'s June 05 now.

No developers have PS3 final hardware in their hands, no developers spent one or two years on PS3 final hardware, no one really knows what PS3 can really do and how it compares with XBox360....

[nO-One]

Originally posted by EviscerationX
Thanks for the crappy article.

Ars\'s articles are on these things are amongst the best. I\'m eagerly waiting for Hannibal\'s in depth article on the cell.

Originally posted by Knotter8
Quddus Nostradamus eh ? :rolleyes:

If your so smart then tell us. You expect the ps3 to be delayed?

Originally posted by BizioEE
No developers have PS3 final hardware in their hands, no developers spent one or two years on PS3 final hardware, no one really knows what PS3 can really do and how it compares with XBox360....

Nobody knows what the graphics will looks like but based on the specs thus far you can pin point the limitation of the technology.

Thats on anything tech wise.

Originally posted by QuDDus
Nobody knows what the graphics will looks like but based on the specs thus far you can pin point the limitation of the technology.

Thats on anything tech wise.

what he said, the ps2 / xbox hardware had all these so called gurus that had it totally wrong.. So when the final hardware is released and they have it in their hands.. i\'ve start to get more interest in it.

True but I agree with this article. No console has ever delivered graphics equal to their tech demos. I don\'t expect to see a huge jump this generation with xbox360 or ps3. While I do think these console have great technologies within them.

It won\'t be til ps4 til we see a huge graphical leap(imo)

It is interesting that they feel graphically these next gen machines will be very good, but they will fail in AI and Physics departments.

From all that we read op to this point both were supposed to be designed to handle AI and Physics very well.

I wonder if arstechnica is using an old mindset in regards to seeing how these new console technologies will go about doing what they do.

Of course we should all be able to expect an uprgade in physics and AI this generation just based upon the muscle these machines have under the hood in comparison to this generation. The question then becomes how much improvement are developers and arstechnica expecting, and how much more of an improvement is needed in this generation ?