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superchunk on 25 January 2012
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Rainbird said:
superchunk said:
Rainbird said:

I really hope Microsoft end up going with a 7xxx card. Since the hardware has built-in support for texture tiling like what RAGE uses, games that really utilize that could see noticable performance boosts compared to a 6670, even if the 7xxx model is roughly as powerful.

Problem with that in a bigger scale ideology is, is what is the increase in cost, heat, size, etc worth to MS and in the long run the end user?

All signs are point to MS wanting to be more efficient in all manner this time around and probably focus more on broad appeal than hard core gluttony.

A higher end 6x card is definitely more of a sweet spot from this point of view than any 7x card.

I'd say that depends completely on how quickly AMD can expand their 7xxx lineup. If they can get a 7xxx GPU out that roughly matches the 6670 in horsepower in time, that GPU would also be more power efficient than the 6670. Pricing would be harder to guess, but I don't think it's unlikely that Microsoft have expressed a wish for such a GPU to AMD, and AMD could be focusing on getting that part of their lineup ready fast enough to be used in the NextBox.

For all we know, the 6670 could just be a placeholder until they're ready.

That's definitely true. Any company will have a GPU tailored to their exact preferences. I'd bet that even if it is based on 6x technology, it will be more aligned with higher end versions than the 6670. However, the early dev kits might have put that in there as a minimum to get some dev work moving while they finalize the full kit. (which according to rumors is now complete and starting production)