Electro General said: ssj12 said: Tyrannical said: ssj12 said: DDR3 @ 2000MHz with three channels is plenty.     No, it's not. 22.4GBS memory bandwidth sounds like a lot, but it's not enough to do complex graphical operations like HDR, alpha-blending, and anti-aliasing at 30/60 fps. The 360 does most of that in the 10MB frame buffer, and it has a 256GBS of memory bandwidth between the frame buffer and GPU.   let me ask, are we talking dedicated integrated memory or system memory? DDR3 is the highest we can have for system memory. DDR5 is the highest for intergrated memory. You really dont know what your talking about. MikeB said: Tyrannical said: ssj12 said: DDR3 @ 2000MHz with three channels is plenty. No, it's not. 22.4GBS memory bandwidth sounds like a lot, but it's not enough to do complex graphical operations like HDR, alpha-blending, and anti-aliasing at 30/60 fps. The 360 does most of that in the 10MB frame buffer, and it has a 256GBS of memory bandwidth between the frame buffer and GPU. It's not like the Xenos can handle all of that, this due to tiling issues. 10 MB is not enough to fit 720p graphics with Anti-aliasing, that's why demanding 720p games run at 30 FPS instead of 60 FPS. However 640p can fit into EDRAM with anti-aliasing, so a game like Call of Duty 4 can run at 60 FPS. HDR together with Anti-aliasing is not really an option on the 360 due to tiling issues at HD resolutions. That's why Halo 3 is only 640p and lacking Anti-aliasing, running at an unsteady 30 FPS. Bungie did not lack funds or expertise. But for example Killzone 2's lighting is far more advanced, with more effects, this at 720p with anti-aliasing and a rock solid 30 FPS (they still have a lot of technical headroom though, for a Killzone 3). LOL WUT? You do realize that most modern games use some form of HDR rendering.

You mean LDR and the Xenos' FP10 MDR mode (Halo 3 is an exception).

 

@ selnor

I think that's going to one of the technically more impressive multi-platform games, the devs said they are maxed out on the 360 in terms of what they can do. But technically Killzone 2 goes much further from many different standpoints.

@ Tyrannical

Again read the linked article from 2004:

"Microsoft is expected to announce Xbox 2 (codenamed Xenon) in January and the latest speculation suggests that it will be on store shelves by the end of 2005, while Sony's PlayStation successor isn't expected any time before mid-2006. "

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/nvidia-partners-with-sony-on-playstation-3-graphics-hardware

So the PS3 was expected for relaese at after mid-2006 at the earliest, so that can be late 2006 or for 2007. So the PS3 arrived pretty much on shedule compared to original expectations.

In any case there was far more time between the announcement of the PS3's final specifications and release than there was with regard to the 360. And the 360's design has clear signs of being rushed. So please drop it.

The thread started with a simple question, but predictably fell into pointless dick measuring.

Yes, exactly, I don't want PS3 vs. 360 discussions, I want to know what upcoming mem tech that could boost performance and architectural designs that also boost performance.

LordTheNightKnight said: The thread started with a simple question, but predictably fell into pointless dick measuring.

In any case considering posting history I don't think you're in the position of being pedantic on this.

bodhi14 said: Yes, exactly, I don't want PS3 vs. 360 discussions, I want to know what upcoming mem tech that could boost performance and architectural designs that also boost performance.

The Cell was demonstrated to be able to reach near full efficiency from its SPEs (much better than any multi-core x86 PC CPU), this in large part is due to the highspeed RAM each SPE has dedicated to it and the fast high bandwidth EIB Ring. They can work on things near isolated from the rest of the system at amazing speed (SRAM is significantly faster than eDRAM).

We are going to see similar approaches in new modern CPUs, of course including new versions of the Cell.

Ahem... you guys are breaking your heads too much. The original question could be answered like this:

"Sony, MS and Nintendo could've used a 256 bit memory interface instead of a 128 bit (64 bit in the case of the Wii) one. They could also use GDDR4 or GDDR5."

See? Simple. The original question has nothing to do with the Cell, the Xenos, or whatever.

Well I was enjoying it, MikeB was on a fire!