Next Gen GPU architecture GCN, RDNA, Navi 10/20 (PS5 Navi Hybrid, Xbox Navi Pure) *spawn*

When Devs Are So Lazy They Can't Even Be Bothered to Leak Info.

 

Companies are getting much better at the containment of leaks. It's come a long way.

 

I am considering having tshirts made......

 

It is very interesting to read all the different perspectives and opinions people have on this subject, biased or not.
The thing is, people often stack their opinions on top of rumors and feelings which can alter your perception of how things really are.
The best thing one can do is to go back to the starting point, see what information is fundamentally true and only go up from there.
Mark Cerny has been tasked to design the next generation of PlayStation. A platform which is going to be the main revenue driver for the next decade for Sony.
Cerny looks to me as a guy, who is going to make sure, that every penny spent is for the better of this new system.
No one has thought of a broadband SSD or a dedicated 3d audio chip.
Then we read rumors of Navi being developed for Sony... Which is not true because AMD started on Navi before Sonys input, as stated by AMD themselves. At computex Su specifically named Cerny and said something about visions for the next decade of console gaming. So we can assume that Sony did indeed had a hand on designing Navi.
If sony originally planed a launch for 2019, then these plans have probably changed a long time ago. It is not like they have suddenly discovered that ps4 is a huge hit and there is no immediate need for a new generation. I guess there were multiple reasons for going with 2020, the main ones being price and availability of components as well as refinement of services and software.
I believe that whatever form the PS5 takes, it will be the vision cerny had for it and it is going to be purposely built to extract the most power it has for every penny spent on it.

 

Spoiler

19/09/19

 

Uhm, doesn't XBox One already have dedicated 3D Audio DSPs in SHAPE? Not sure if some of it was ever repurposed from Kinect, maybe to handle the Dolby Atmos for Headphones and the Windows Sonic for Headphones?

 

Like the Vega product in the new Apple Mac Pros, that was announced today?

 

It remains to be seen what exactly this will mean for games. Not much information at hand other than Sonys recently announced in-house 3d audio solution.

And more... Like Su said, weeks and months...

 

And it could still refer to just Radeon Pro Vega II & Duo, weeks > mac pro announcement, months > mac pro actually available

 

Sssseven days.

 

We'll see... Stadia will not be the last cloud gaming competitor

 

Aww, the memories of the heated SHAPE threads (not necessarily here) of this specialized DSP offloading/helping XB1 GPU with graphics. The heated battles that SHAPE would equalize the TF differences between XB1 and PS4. The amount of shilling / goalpost moving was hilarious when reading those threads. Fun times...

 

I remember those discussions fondly, along with the 14+4 (I swear she was 18) CU discussions.

 

lol yea, i'm not proud of who I was back then.

Not sure if many game developers did a lot of work with 3D audio sadly. Very few supported Dolby etc. today.

The last time I remember '3d audio' was Aureal 3D. I haven't heard immensely amazing audio in a long time. Hopefully a renewed focus on audio engines will take us there.

 

well, actually the hardware could be used to "offload" some tasks, but only tasks you would never give a cpu, just to enhance the sound further. But not everyone would hear "better" sound at all, really hard in this department to sell hardware-acceleration if you don't "hear" any benefits. "Sound" is really really hard to sell to people. And xbox one has all those nice standards, but how many games are using them and how many people have the necessary hardware to actually use them?
Shapes hardware was more or less meant to work better with Kinect. Better filtering voice commands, get coordinates where you stand via sound detection, etc. Just to use as many sensors as possible for Kinect II. In the end, well only so much is used as PS4 has for sound calculations (so just AMDs gpu related sound calculations). But after all, the consoles have 6-7 cpu cores available, which are not at all completely utilized, most times just the "Main"-thread is limiting cpu performance. So sound is the least problem for the CPU. So extra sound hardware did not really help (just for the extra most people don't have the necessary external hardware for).

 

I was specifically talking about the nonsense of SHAPE dealing with vector or raster graphics assistance, not sound. The nonsense that SHAPE could effectively handle graphic rendering task (as simply as flipping a switch) on replacing those magical flop numbers towards matching PS4 GPU TF performance. Even if it was that simple or true, I can't think of any developer that has documented such a process or has spoken upon any XB1 game using SHAPE "now" for such purposes as graphic rendering. Because as of today, XB1/S are still lagging behind in the current generation of consoles with that mighty flexible DSP.

 

Shape audio? Shape?... Now there's a name I've not heard in a long, long time...

 

Where did these discussions happen? I remember bkillian pretty directly laying out what the SHAPE engine was and how it was going to be used and that more or less being the final word here.

 

I do recall the last bit.
Definitely a lot of discussion of CPU offload. GPU offload don't recall so much, perhaps more discussion around move engines than SHAPE doing rendering loads.

 

Mostly threads between Gaf and IGN during this time. Even a few members (not naming no names) here spreading misinformation. Point being, SHAPE original intent was for audio and kinect purposes, not a last minute ditch effort on improving XB1 overall TF performance.