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Forums - Gaming - Specs of Microsofts next XBox

NightAntilli on 13 June 2009
Squilliam said:
Procrastinato said:

These specs are completely reasonable, actually.

The claim about a 6-core Xenon having as many flops as the Cell is silly, but I think the architecture is respectable. The Xenon cores all share a L2 cache, and unless you make the cache downright titanic, the thrashing from 6 cores/12 threads doing any serious parallel tasks would never compare to the independant cache-miss-free architecture of the Cell SPU system.

For that matter, trying to keep 6 cores equally busy is also something of a problem, except during embarrassingly parallel operations, where thrashing becomes an issue with a shared cache resource, as I mentioned above.  The Cell is not actually a poor gaming architecture at all, despite the relative difficulty in using it well.  Having 8, 12, etc cores really won't do anything but hike the cost of the next XBox.

On the other hand, a 600 MHz GPU may be downright phenominal -- the number of pipelines isn't mentioned at all... it could be like 128 for all we know.

You could argue that the amount of memory that a console has is directly related to its resource-induced development expense, and that having more than 1GB of memory may actually be a waste of money for MS, as well as a resource that devs just plain won't want to use...


Take a step back, and realize what very little has been said here, before you jump up and call it a fake (even though it may very well be).

I would say a better solution would be to improve the single thread performance of the CPU and specialise it for tasks that a compute shader equiped GPU couldn't do just as well or better. I don't see the need for any more than 3 Cores personally and considering we're talking about Microsoft here and giving them an excuse to spend money on Directx compute it makes perfect sense from their perspective as well. It also parellals many of the developments in the PC world. I would say that in the end better cores > more cores. Since it would be a specialised processor it probably wouldn't need more than 100mm^2 die area anyway.

Maybe they don't want to change the architecture too much to simplify compatibility with the X360 and that's why they just decided to add more cores? Just speculating here.



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shams on 13 June 2009
Squilliam said:
NightAntilli said:
...


Hard Disk:
One thing.. SSD costs more, but is also faster than a traditional Hard Disk. On reading that is.. Writing is slower.. So installing games might take longer, but I doubt they will remove the option to plug your current HD in it if all this is true. I would actually think it would be better if this was internal hard drive space but oh well..

The only weakness really for an SSD is cost. No optical drive could saturate the write speed of anything but one of the slowest SSD's available today. The real benefit is threefold. 1st. All consoles would have storage for online updates. 2nd. It would augment the memory available because the transfer speeds can exceed 400MB/S with low latency. 3rd. People could resume playing a game almost instantly and put the console in suspend mode.

...

No offense, but I decided to add my thoughts to yours rather than write anything out.

The only weakness of a SSD IMO is size. 360 games are ~9Gig - this could support extra layered DVDs as well, giving even more capacity.

A 32gig SSD would not last long - price-wise it would compare to a 300gig(?) hard disk.

But then, it gives MS an easy 'Apple' upgrade option - crank up the internal storage, release a new model, ...

...

Anyway, lets wait and see. Going to be real interesting. If nothing else, it would definitely force Sony's hand on price. This is much more like the aggressive MS I was expecting to see in the industry.



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Alby_da_Wolf on 13 June 2009

Only 1GB RAM? Big shortsightedness. Maybe MS wants to prevent XB720 from cannibalizing the PC, but it won't be able to prevent Sony and Nintendo (and heaven knows who else) from doing it.



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MonstaMack on 13 June 2009

Why is everyone getting upset over the XBox coming out next year? I mean it would be five years on the market. Kim said 10 years but the thing is the console is not losing money, and they could have it go alongside the 720 with cheaper games and what not like the PS2.

 

If the 720 is sub $300 thats going to be pretty damn awesome to. That means I could buy two again! One for the wife and one for me.



It's just that simple.

Slavedemonxi on 13 June 2009

I'm quite content with the PS3 and the 360 atm. Who really wants to go out and spend $400 on another system already? Hell, I'm even happy with the Wii. It just needs better software from third parties, and that looks like it's starting to happen.



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Squilliam on 13 June 2009
shams said:

The only weakness of a SSD IMO is size. 360 games are ~9Gig - this could support extra layered DVDs as well, giving even more capacity.

A 32gig SSD would not last long - price-wise it would compare to a 300gig(?) hard disk.

But then, it gives MS an easy 'Apple' upgrade option - crank up the internal storage, release a new model, ...

...

Anyway, lets wait and see. Going to be real interesting. If nothing else, it would definitely force Sony's hand on price. This is much more like the aggressive MS I was expecting to see in the industry.

Size = cost!

But in any case the great thing about flash based storage is the bottom is really the limit as far as cost cutting goes! Oh and I agree they can easily go with the Apple model and increase the storage every 1-2-3 years depending on whatever floats their boat. Also it would give them a near term but not immediate option of offering flash storage upgrades rather than selling mechanical HDD's to everyone. I hope this rumour is true, simply to give us something new to talk about!



Tease.

dib8rman on 13 June 2009

I must be missing somthing 5 years already? 6,7,8,9,10... wow, software wise this cycle seems largely incomplete.



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theprof00 on 13 June 2009

I believed this until I wrote that it was written by Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell



mike_intellivision on 13 June 2009

Would not 32G of SSD memory be too small for too much DLC? (Like movies and full games?)

This sounds like a replacement for the Arcade model -- which I might buy for the few games I want but won't come to the Wii.

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Mvp4eVa on 13 June 2009

Microsoft said something a while back about the nextbox that it will be Forward Compatible. Meaning you will be able to play a new game from the nextbox and still play it on the 360 but, it will be scaled down to the 360's specs .

That way Microsoft can still keep the current usebase happy by playing a Gears 3 on the 360 thats design for the 720's capabilities.

also it gives the Xbox userbase a choise to those that will like to upgrade and those that not and still play the same game on either consoles on Xbox Live or SP mode.



If you play a nextbox game you will get the full experience, better graphics and so on.

 

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