Middle Generation Console Upgrade Discussion [Scorpio, 4Pro]

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And that number is shrinking, which is why we are getting these mid gen consoles in the first place.

The number of console owners or at least sold consoles might be shrinking, but is there any proof that they are going to PC vs using the cash on their mobile phones instead?
 
that sounds like a good plan on paper, to save budget on the CPU side, but what about CPU limited games?
If the GPU can do more of the rendering work, that frees up more CPU for other stuff.
Plus I think AI along with VR/AR and raytracing, is the future, and AI still works better on CPUs
Whatever the future holds, PS4Pro and Scorpio have to run the same games the same way. They won't be asked to provide a better AI experience so the CPU won't need to be much better. The next Elder Scrolls game will target XB1 CPU power for simulating the world and Scorpio will run the same simulation, just a bit faster with a better framerate as a result probably.
 
Might be the same bin (7Gbps)?

218GB/s on 256-bit bus -> 6.8GT/s
320GB/s on 384-bitches bus -> 6.67GT/s

edit:

Hynix has 3 parts at the moment,

R4C (4GHz) - 8Gbps - 1.55V
R0C (3GHz) - 7/6Gbps - 1.5V/1.35V
T2C (2.5GHz) - 6/5Gbps - 1.5/1.35V

Presumably, the 1.5V there are overvolted/clocked. For whatever reason, they don't list the R2C in the catalogue, but either way, the above bandwidths are in the R0C bin.
Interesting neither exactly reach 7gbps. The sony dev docs are saying "at least" 218GB/s and MS also said "at least" 320GB/s. So the exact clock is a late decision in the design, which is something that doesn't happen with other memory interfaces where the clock is exactly the parts specs.

I was thinking since the SoC is not binned at all, any of the clocks can cause the yield to drop. Maybe it's based on the yield of the memory controller, which would drop as more channels are added (that would explain why 384bits here have a slightly lower clock than the 256bit), or maybe it's the motherboard design which is difficult at these frequencies. Not sure this difference could be for clamshell, it doesn't look like it's enough.

The 470 is clocked at 6.6, while the 480 gets the max clock. This really looks like it's related to the chip yield, not the memory parts. Otherwise the 470 would at least reach 7 since it's using 7gbps memory parts.
 
MS Studios throws down the gauntlet:

Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro (launching in November) and Microsoft's Xbox One Scorpio (launching late next year) are giving the pixel-counters out there a new, 4K-sized battlefield to fight over. Now, Microsoft is drawing a line in the sand in that developing battle, with Microsoft Studios Publishing General Manager Shannon Loftis telling USA Today that "any games we're making that we're launching in the Scorpio time frame, we're making sure they can natively render at 4K."

The word "natively" is important there, because there has been a lot of wiggle room when it comes to talking about what constitutes a truly "4K" game these days. For instance, according to developers Ars has talked to, many if not most games designed for the PS4 Pro will be rendered with an internal framebuffer that's larger than that for a 1080p game, but significantly smaller than the full 3840×2160 pixels on a 4K screen (the exact resolution for any PS4 Pro game will depend largely on how the developer prioritizes the frame rate and the level of detail in the scene). While the PS4 Pro can and does output a full 4K signal, it seems that only games with exceedingly simple graphics will be able to render at that resolution natively.

Sony says the PS4 Pro's internal rendering pipeline and some proprietary upscaling techniques will improve lower resolution base signals to take fuller advantage of a 4K display. But no amount of upscaling can fill in those missing 4K pixels as well as hardware (and a game engine) that natively generates images at full 4K resolution—or so the argument goes.

With Scorpio, however, Microsoft seems to be arguing that every first-party game at launch will be able to generate and render nearly 8.3 million pixels (four times as many as a 1080p game) at an acceptable frame rate (i.e., at least 30 times a second). That would be quite an achievement. As we noted back at E3, it currently takes pricey, high-end PC graphics cards like the Nvidia GTX 1080 or the AMD R9 Fury X—cards that run $300 or much higher—to "barely scrape by" with a native 4K, 30fps game. And those PC cards seem to have significantly more raw power than what is being claimed by Microsoft—9 and 8.4 teraflops, respectively, vs. a claimed 6 teraflops for Scorpio (and 4.2 teraflops for the PS4 Pro).

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/09/microsoft-and-sonys-emerging-4k-pixel-pissing-contest/
 
MS are shooting themselves in the foot then, at least regards what devs can do. As Sebbbi says, why render native 4K when reconstruction gives you prettier visuals? As a marketing gimmick it might work, but it could also mean Scorpio throwing away much of its advantage in pretties.
 
Might be the same bin (7Gbps)?

218GB/s on 256-bit bus -> 6.8GT/s
320GB/s on 384-bitches bus -> 6.67GT/s

edit:

Hynix has 3 parts at the moment,

R4C (4GHz) - 8Gbps - 1.55V
R0C (3GHz) - 7/6Gbps - 1.5V/1.35V
T2C (2.5GHz) - 6/5Gbps - 1.5/1.35V

Presumably, the 1.5V there are overvolted/clocked. For whatever reason, they don't list the R2C in the catalogue, but either way, the above bandwidths are in the R0C bin.

Interesting neither exactly reach 7gbps. The sony dev docs are saying "at least" 218GB/s and MS also said "at least" 320GB/s. So the exact clock is a late decision in the design, which is something that doesn't happen with other memory interfaces where the clock is exactly the parts specs.

I was thinking since the SoC is not binned at all, any of the clocks can cause the yield to drop. Maybe it's based on the yield of the memory controller, which would drop as more channels are added (that would explain why 384bits here have a slightly lower clock than the 256bit), or maybe it's the motherboard design which is difficult at these frequencies. Not sure this difference could be for clamshell, it doesn't look like it's enough.

The 470 is clocked at 6.6, while the 480 gets the max clock. This really looks like it's related to the chip yield, not the memory parts. Otherwise the 470 would at least reach 7 since it's using 7gbps memory parts.

It might not always be related to the memory controller - 8.0 down to 6.6 is a much bigger drop than core frequency drops of the salvage parts, and there are vendor specific 470s shipping with memory up to the full 8 gHz that the controller is rated for - though 7 gHz is more common. And this is on cards with extremely modest core overclocks (memory OCing seems to be tied far more to memory chips used than anything else). Perhaps chasing a lower power target?

Regardless of what happens in the PC GPU space though, I think consoles can behave differently with regards to bins. I've thought in the past that for vendors buying large quantities of chips on contract, "custom bins" - for want of a better name - would make an awful lot of sense. Want memory that's almost as fast as 7 gHz, but almost as cheap as 6 gHz? Then agree to buy tens or hundreds of millions of memory chips and you save money compared to 7 gHz while the memory fabricator makes a little more than they would if they sold it for 6 gHz.

If I were MS or Sony, and I could save a chunk on memory costs (a big part of the BOM) by taking 7 gHz rejects and clocking them a few percent lower, I would.
 
MS are shooting themselves in the foot then, at least regards what devs can do. As Sebbbi says, why render native 4K when reconstruction gives you prettier visuals? As a marketing gimmick it might work, but it could also mean Scorpio throwing away much of its advantage in pretties.

As they won't be appearing on PS4P, I don't suppose they'll have to worry about direct comparisons. And the games are 'native 4K' and as Scoprio is more fasterer and flopsterer, I'm sure people will *think* they're the best possible looking games ....

...

I bet they sacrifice aniso and trilinear to hit 4K. :(
 
If I were MS or Sony, and I could save a chunk on memory costs (a big part of the BOM) by taking 7 gHz rejects and clocking them a few percent lower, I would.

More or less just what chips make the target clocks without blowing the voltage/power spec.
 
MS are shooting themselves in the foot then, at least regards what devs can do. As Sebbbi says, why render native 4K when reconstruction gives you prettier visuals? As a marketing gimmick it might work, but it could also mean Scorpio throwing away much of its advantage in pretties.
I was thinking about the marketing aspect, and in the end probably could say, we are going to render/output the best graphics at 1080p and 4k. And just leave out the word native. Clear message, and in no way limiting what first parties can do.
native is what may make it better, but that's not what's important, what's important is that it's the best.
in the end, it's not like you would need to worry about the competition doing native and your not in multiplat comparisons

people are now fixated on how can it do native, instead of talking about "how much better" it will look etc
 
As they won't be appearing on PS4P, I don't suppose they'll have to worry about direct comparisons.
They'll be compared against Sony 1st party offerings, tragically, but also 3rd party games on Scorpio. And if these look better than MS's first party because they eschew native rendering for reconstruction, MS will just look a bit stupid - either by first party not being as pretty as third party, or back-tracking on this statement.
 
With dynamic resolution, any game is native 4K when looking at the ground.

Checkerboard is native 4K when you don't move.
 
MS are shooting themselves in the foot then, at least regards what devs can do. As Sebbbi says, why render native 4K when reconstruction gives you prettier visuals? As a marketing gimmick it might work, but it could also mean Scorpio throwing away much of its advantage in pretties.
More or less reinforces the original message from MS post e3. I recall earlier discussions about messaging and MS wanted very clearly to define it as Xbox gaming at 4K or Xbox gaming.

Really not sure what can be done here. Luckily they are only holding themselves to
this standard.

It may not be a terrible thing if they are willing to do whatever it takes to look both better and have 4K. It's good PR for them if they accomplish it. Because it'll be available on both PC and XBox.


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And that number is shrinking, which is why we are getting these mid gen consoles in the first place.

Is it? PS4 and XBO are combined selling well better than PS3/360 (PS4 particularly). Of course, that's taking Wii out of the equation (which I dont have so much of a problem dong because I dont believe it addressed the same market by and large) but yeah.

NPD often notes it. PS4=XBO combined are usually about 40% ahead of PS3/360 at the same point in their cycles. Story should be similar worldwide.

It will be pretty fascinating how all this turns out though with the iterative consoles. I cant claim to know.
 
MS are shooting themselves in the foot then, at least regards what devs can do. As Sebbbi says, why render native 4K when reconstruction gives you prettier visuals? As a marketing gimmick it might work, but it could also mean Scorpio throwing away much of its advantage in pretties.


Very true and I could have posted the same point.

However it's flexible, the power is there and whatever they end up doing can easily change. Some titles going for the native 4k wow/PR factor probably makes sense, others not. In other words I dont see the harm in various experiments as nothing's locked in.

Really to do native 4k, plus say only 2X flops per pixel as current gen (which arguably still isn't a huge difference, see Xbox ~2x as powerful as PS2), you'd be looking at over 10TF. Quite the challenge indeed and not feasible within Pro/Scorpio release window.

Man, we need so many flops. I mean just to get "next gen" graphics (something like an order of magnitude of flops/pixel over PS4) at 4k at 60 FPS? How much is that? As much as (2X10X4X2=)160 Teraflops? VR needs this kind of beastly power as well, multiplied by another order of magnitude (s).
 
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