Official: ATI in XBox Next

[epicstruggle]

Nvidia... soon.... R.I.P....

YES!!!!!

AHH!! Yes, exactly what we need, only one major graphics company. Im sure they wont act anywhere like IBM did in the 80's or like AT&T when they were the only game in town.

later,

 

[Qroach]

Cybermerc,

Gigapixel was never officially announced as a partner. This is a done deal.

Please read what I wrote. I said "the day before annoucing" MS switched companies. I didn't say anything about anyone being offically a partner and then switching. Gigapixel was privately held anyway, so they wouldn't have to disclose any deal that had been signed.

 

[zidane1strife]

PCI Express

Isn't that a temp. standard? I thought there was a next-gen agp tech coming soon.

 

[PC-Engine]

PCI Express

Isn't that a temp. standard? I thought there was a next-gen agp tech coming soon.

No Intel and the rest of the PC industry is moving towards PCI Express. It's going to be the next bus standard on PCs. AGP is going to be phased out when PCI Express takes over. You won't be seeing AGP16X in future PCs.

 

[arhra]

BTW, is MS going to buy chips from ATi or merely license the technology?

I wouldn't be surprised if they work out a licensing agreement that lets Intel do the fab duty. ATi did sign a cross-licensing agreement with Intel not so long ago...

As for backwards compatability, nvidia stated in a conference call that the XB2 would be backwards compatible regardless of whether NV was used or not.

 

[McFly]

Just an idea: The inside of the X-Box2 and GC2 will be exactly the same, only the drivers and the outside will be different. Would be a good money saver for both MS and big N.

Fredi

 

[Dave Baumann]

ATI have confirmed its a licensing deal.

 

[Qroach]

Dave, what does that mean exactly?

 

[PC-Engine]

Just an idea: The inside of the X-Box2 and GC2 will be exactly the same, only the drivers and the outside will be different. Would be a good money saver for both MS and big N.

Fredi

I think that would be a great idea. MS and Nintendo can then chose their own CPUs so that software designed for GCN2 won't be playable on Xbox Next and vice versa.

 

[Geeforcer]

ATI have confirmed its a licensing deal.

Thanks Dave! I suspected as much.

 

[Geeforcer]

Just an idea: The inside of the X-Box2 and GC2 will be exactly the same, only the drivers and the outside will be different. Would be a good money saver for both MS and big N.

Fredi

That's why it will never happen. The graphics power of console is going to be a major selling point, especially now, going against inevitable PS3 hype.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Dave, what does that mean exactly?

Who knows!

In braod terms it means ATI will design the features, functions and capabilities of he chip, license that to MS nd MS will be responcible for the manufacturing it by some means or another.

Now, where that goes is another issue - it could be that MS may subcontract ATI to do the chip layout as well, but then MS actually pay a fab directly for the chips, or it could be that MS will ask a 3rd party to manufacture the chip (NEC, Intel?)

 

[bbot]

Now that we know Microsoft is going with Ati, what will Nvidia do now? Are they going with Sony, as some in this forum have suggested?

 

[Paul]

Maybe the CEO of Nvidia's hinting was right, maybe they WILl help Sony with GS3.

I guess when people thought he said ps3 was a miracle machine so MS would quickly go to nvidia for the xbox2 GPU they were wrong. Hell, now that I think about it, I think Jen was speaking directly to Sony to come to them for the GPU.

 

[keegdsb]

Look MS is smart enough to make sure there is a way out of the contract if NV can come up with a better deal than ATI. I doubt though that NV really cares now for xb2, after dealing directly with MS.

What other company out there could have bid for a contract with MS?
I doubt matrox could even come up with anything that would not be laughable. So is there anyone else out there?

later,

It's been said that at least one influential company has been turned down already due to high risk. Matrox could do something huge if they wanted to (Lorne & Branco have deep pockets), and they've already made integrated chipsets before. ('Fusion' was supposed to be out before the i810, canned)

 

[zidane1strife]

No Intel and the rest of the PC industry is moving towards PCI Express. It's going to be the next bus standard on PCs. AGP is going to be phased out when PCI Express takes over. You won't be seeing AGP16X in future PCs.

Thanks for the correction, I'd read somewhere that gphx cards would adopt the pci express standrd while waiting for the true next gen bus, but I'm not sure where I read that, and have not found any more info about it... so the info must've been bogus

 

[Nexiss]

So ATi is going to desgin fairdly differnt (yet cutting-edge) chips for next Nintendo and MS console, in addition to PC hardware? I wound imagine that MS and Nintedo would want to diffrentiate their consoles, something that would be much hardwer if they have a nearly identical GPU. Further, who is going to provide mainboard logic, again ATi? Xbox clearly had major impact on Nvidia's product schedual, I wonder what kind of concehunced designing TWO concole GPUs in the same time-frame will have on ATi.

I think we might see MS looking to Intel for the MB this time around.
I don't actually expect to see ATI design a different chip for the both of them. I think that other specs (RAM, CPU) will provide enough of a differentiation, and having the same GPU would be appealing from a development point of view (easy ports). Maybe though...

 

[zurich]

This is great and all, but I'm concerned about the chipset features. XB/nForce was really ahead of its time in bandwidth and sound.. to this date, ATI still doesn't have a shipping desktop board.

However, big win for MS since licensing should save them quite a bit of money.

 

[jandar]

Maybe the CEO of Nvidia's hinting was right, maybe they WILl help Sony with GS3.

I guess when people thought he said ps3 was a miracle machine so MS would quickly go to nvidia for the xbox2 GPU they were wrong. Hell, now that I think about it, I think Jen was speaking directly to Sony to come to them for the GPU.

It's possible.


Here's a wild-thrown in the air-am I just pulling chit? guess:

Nintendo & MS both realize the need to tackle Sony. Nintendo likes being a true gaming console. MS wants to integrate into the living room. Neither can do what they truly want unless the can win back share from Sony.

Ati & N - GCN2. True gaming system.
XBox2 - gaming system with additional features.
Both systems are close, but different enough. Kind of a "Lets not worry about each other at the moment" type deal. (they are neighbors in Redmond, wonder how many lunches have been shared????)

nVidia works with Sony on the PS3 (GPU advice)


N does have a limited history with other "home entertainment systems" (Phillip's CD-i) . They didn't design it (or did they looking for a CDROM addon???)

 

[Paul]

If Nvidia even helps with GS3 it's going to be something little like shader support or some development tools, it's not going to be as huge as a full GPU going inside of PS3.

Even little things such as Shader support could help ps3 very much so.