| twesterm said: It may be out of context but it's still relevant-- anyone can use 100% of the PS3. That's easy. The hard part is actually doing it well. That's what that quote means and that absolutely still applies. Anyone that just comes out and says Oh yeah, we're using the PS3 to it's MAX potential is just blowing smoke up your ass and trying to create buzz for their game (and I doubt even Naughty Dog is using 100% all the time). Luckily, Naughty Dog is pretty awesome and hopefully Uncharted 2 will be as every bit as awesome as Uncharted. |
The first part I bolded is actually not true, and its the fundamental reason anyone ever even states that the "PS3 require some skill to utilize" or whatnot. You don't get to use the SPUs unless you do so explicitly, and they represent the majority of the Cell's processing power. The 360 (or any "standard" multicore architecture), conversely, allows you to use all 3 cores very easily -- but due to some architecture issues (shared cache, bus, etc.), they are much harder (than the Cell) to optimize the usage of, after you've got that first hurdle (of actually getting them working for you) beat.
The second bolded statement I agree wth completely. Actually utilizing the SPUs "100%" of the time would basically require a simple parallel app, like Folding @ Home, and I doubt it can actually be accomplished in a "real" game... ever. However, I wouldn't be surprised if ND wasn't using the SPUs darn near 100% of the time during a frame. I'd call somewhere between 80% and 90% (of "not idle time") close enough to qualify as "maxed out", personally.
