Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2020]

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I thought maybe there was a Matt at DigitalFoundry.
 
Based on John's earlier tweet, this is one you'll want watch the non-compromised UHD 4K Patreon version.
FWIW: John made it 6-7GB on HVEC. 12GB is a little too intense lol

edit: not true. It's not up yet. Still waiting for the 12GB upload. The preview was 6-7GB
edit2: sorry I watched the wrong video. It's up and it is 6-7 GB
 
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Poor DF, they have 3 different modes to test for each game.

Closer for XSX, but still behind. On ultra settings this one averages 68fps with 58fps min in 1440p on 5700XT, 48fps in 4K, both ultra settings

I would say PS5 is delivering on promise, XSX less so.
Yup, well, both Series X|S are afflicted with the same issues in terms of what functionalities are available in the GDK. It's unfortunate that MS got blind sided by COVID here (perhaps their deadlines too ambitious and didn't see it the possibility of a massive slowdown) and didn't build their tools out enough to have a good launch. I think a proper fix would have been to eat the cost of just doubling the remaining memory to be symmetric and not deal with the tooling issues around controlling the split pools. There are other issues, but this isn't an ideal launch considering their marketing.
 
On ultra settings this one averages 68fps with 58fps min in 1440p on 5700XT, 48fps in 4K, both ultra settings

I would say PS5 is delivering on promise, XSX less so.

Ye, this seems a good take on it, seeing what a 5700XT does. Its almost certain that the XSX could do better, atleast on par with the PS5. it should have some slight advantage even (that DF has to point out).

Now imagine being the developer of the game and having to implement it all on 9+ platforms where the PC is infinite variations -- PS4, 4Pro, Xbox One, One X, Stadia, PS5, Series X, Series S, and PC.

With mobile in future :p

this isn't an ideal launch considering their marketing.

I wonder if a say 6 month delay for Xbox launch would have been better? Then launch together with Halo in the spring, with more mature software and devkits. Like Infinite, this launch seemed like a bad rush.
PS3 launched over a year later then the 360, and it almost sold as much anyway.
 
Yup, well, both Series X|S are afflicted with the same issues in terms of what functionalities are available in the GDK. It's unfortunate that MS got blind sided by COVID here (perhaps their deadlines too ambitious and didn't see it the possibility of a massive slowdown) and didn't build their tools out enough to have a good launch. I think a proper fix would have been to eat the cost of just doubling the remaining memory to be symmetric and not deal with the tooling issues around controlling the split pools. There are other issues, but this isn't an ideal launch considering their marketing.
Doubling of memory was straight forward way to ease the development and have upper hand in one dept, but by doing that they would have to do the same with XSS and that would I guess result in considerably higher loss.

What they should have done, if they wanted absolute power crown besides spec sheet, is gone with 48CUs (44 active) and 256bit bus with 16Gbps chips. Clock it similarly to PS5, retain rasterization parity and gain shader advantage while not having to deal with virtual memory pools (+have 15mm² bigger chip instead of 50mm²)

I really like PS5 design, its very nice and straightforward.
 
Doubling of memory was straight forward way to ease the development and have upper hand in one dept, but by doing that they would have to do the same with XSS and that would I guess result in considerably higher loss.

What they should have done, if they wanted absolute power crown besides spec sheet, is gone with 48CUs (44 active) and 256bit bus with 16Gbps chips. Clock it similarly to PS5, retain rasterization parity and gain shader advantage while not having to deal with virtual memory pools (+have 15mm² bigger chip instead of 50mm²)

I really like PS5 design, its very nice and straightforward.
Give them time to resolve GDK issues before advising to re-write the whole chip :)

there are tooling problems that should be addressed that even if they didn’t have the split pools; there are still other issues they have in terms of functionality. Basically if you launched with June GDK; it’s really just enough functionality there to get games out the door.
 
What they should have done

Or just stuff a 6800 in there.... Its always easy in hindsight but i agree. I still think they should be atleast on par as it is now.

I really like PS5 design, its very nice and straightforward.

Ye, agree. Was it DF that mentioned it being like a toyota? They build it simple, but still advanced and reliable. A Lexus perhaps.
MS really has to improve things now, the masses see the PS5 as the more powerfull console atm, as every single title runs and looks better on it, aside from faster loading and the controller. The XSX should have been the choice for multiplats.

Series S hits 540p

I really miss the 6th gens but not the resolutions they had :D
 
Give them time to resolve GDK issues before advising to re-write the whole chip :)

there are tooling problems that should be addressed that even if they didn’t have the split pools; there are still other issues they have in terms of functionality. Basically if you launched with June GDK; it’s really just enough functionality there to get games out the door.
I do think XSX will take a lead, but it might not be big enough. Tooling or no tooling, these consoles are relatively close. 20% more TF, but PS5 has 20% higher pixel fillrate. Geometry, cache, it all scales with higher clocks and it doesnt with more CUs and same amount of ROPs : )
 
I wonder if a say 6 month delay for Xbox launch would have been better?
Probably not any better. Even in isolation both consoles needed to launch. It was the right time for both to launch given the economics I suspect.

I don’t know what they could have done better given the situation they were in. It just appears as though they had to build their tools through the COVID times which is less than ideal I suspect for MS.
 
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