@MikeB: I'm not ignoring that sentence, nothing that I said contradicts it.

That sentence only talks about CPU load. There are tons of other things potentially limiting performance, such as the GPU.

@ NJ5

The Cell can help with a lot of GPU related tasks (and doing them easier and more efficient), the GPU can do little regarding CPU specific tasks. In any case the RSX is more powerful than the Xenos, for any flexibility advantage the Cell can overly compensate for that.

Its two factors IMO.

1. Theres such a deep pipeline between the Cell and RSX to render graphics that a bottleneck in either will slow the whole system down.

2. Load must be assigned to each SPU individually, and everything is interconnected so if just one function slows the system down everything could fall down like a house of cards and the frame-rate could plummet. I don't believe the PS3 has dynamic balancing of the SPU load because all the DMAs must be assigned by hand.

@MikeB: That has nothing to do with whether KZ2 is GPU-bound or limited by whatever else.

 

@ Squilliam

How do you think attaching several PS3s to achieve better raytracing results works? Of course it can be done, the Cell is better suited at these sort of things than other CPUs, that's why they are so powerful to use in supercomputers, add more SPUs and you get a near linear increase of results.

MikeB said: @ Squilliam I don't believe the PS3 has dynamic balancing of the SPU load because all the DMAs must be assigned by hand. How do you think attaching several PS3s to achieve better raytracing results works? Of course it can be done, the Cell is better suited at these sort of things than other CPUs, that's why they are so powerful to use in supercomputers, add more SPUs and you get a near linear increase of results.

Which has precisely nothing to do with what I actually said....

 

Squilliam said: MikeB said: @ Squilliam I don't believe the PS3 has dynamic balancing of the SPU load because all the DMAs must be assigned by hand. How do you think attaching several PS3s to achieve better raytracing results works? Of course it can be done, the Cell is better suited at these sort of things than other CPUs, that's why they are so powerful to use in supercomputers, add more SPUs and you get a near linear increase of results. Which has precisely nothing to do with what I actually said....

Explain better what you mean then.

I thought you meant a development approach like this (a dev comment regarding Lair at GamePro):

"Not a specific S.P.U. Our S.P.U. code works dynamically, so we are not locking up one S.P.U. and saying "OK, you are the A.I. S.P.U., but we instead say, "OK, here are these 15 things including A.I." We run them on the S.P.U., and the code automatically distributes them. "

 

MikeB said: Squilliam said: MikeB said: @ Squilliam I don't believe the PS3 has dynamic balancing of the SPU load because all the DMAs must be assigned by hand. How do you think attaching several PS3s to achieve better raytracing results works? Of course it can be done, the Cell is better suited at these sort of things than other CPUs, that's why they are so powerful to use in supercomputers, add more SPUs and you get a near linear increase of results. Which has precisely nothing to do with what I actually said....   Explain better what you mean then. I thought you meant a development approach likethis (a dev comment regarding Lair at GamePro): "Not a specific S.P.U. Our S.P.U. code works dynamically, so we are not locking up one S.P.U. and saying "OK, you are the A.I. S.P.U., but we instead say, "OK, here are these 15 things including A.I." We run them on the S.P.U., and the code automatically distributes them. "

I guess I was mistaken.

 

MikeB said: epsilon72 said: Boy, there are quite a few Sony fans on here that don't really know much about computer hardware/software... Personally I prefer comments like these, from a Games developer posting here on VGChartz with a masters degree instead of useless fanboy comments. "If it wasn't obvious from my post, I agree with MikeB on pretty much all counts.   That "email" is downright outrageous.. to the point of being laughable.  I am shocked that another engineer might not think so.  I will dissect it, if you guys *really* believe it it has some truth to it, but I really feel as though I shouldn't have to -- step back and think about the letter's approach a bit, and see if the picture becomes clearer. Its a great example of exactly how this kind of misinformation causes those who know "just enough" to get really confused, and then to propagate their confused concepts with the same confusing propaganda.  MikeB does know what he's talking about." BTW that email is an email Microsoft alledgedly send to some websites, with wrong and misleading data being spread and hyped by 360 fans, also here on VGChartz.

@MikeB - This may be the best response to a useless post all year.

I think you guys have had an excellent discussion on the hardware capabilities of the PS3.  I have thoroughly enjoyed some of the posts on the last pages.  Perhaps it is best to close the thread before people just start to blindly post comparisons and other bs they find on other sites.

 

MikeB said: @ NJ5 The Cell can help with a lot of GPU related tasks (and doing them easier and more efficient), the GPU can do little regarding CPU specific tasks. In any case the RSX is more powerful than the Xenos, for any flexibility advantage the Cell can overly compensate for that.

Developers are still evaluating and learning how to best do things for their games, the RSX being designed more than other GPUs to take take advantage of the CPU (Cell) and being able to take advantage of the XDR Ram no percentage or so can be given.

Only some devs expect they will be able to yield at least 50% additional graphics performance efficiency by taking more advantage of the Cell to pre-process things for the RSX. (for example based on Super Stardust HD dev comments, a 1080p game drawing over 20,000 objects and 100,000 particles on screen at once at 60 frames per second).