*spin off* RAM & Cache Streaming implications

[ERP]

Very interesting,because I had heard from a friend who worked with x360, only in June and July 2005 had received the final SDK, less than six months of the console release, but that's another story.

Sure "final" SDK's with hardware aren't available until a few months before launch. And if you don't have a launch title you might not see them in quantity until after launch.

But in xbox 360's case, 18 months before launch developers new what the processor would be, register count, pipeline details etc in a lot of detail, and what the GPU was. The Mac's that shipped for early work were unlike the final hardware, but nothing in the final hardware should have been a surprise. Developers are still guessing performance wise, because you never know how paper specs translate to running code.

 

[TheWretched]

Well... the two years are relative... when is a PC part design done before it goes into mass production? Say, how much earlier was the Cayman design finished before production? Most, if not all consoles will use off the shelf parts, with maybe some changes.

 

[3dcgi]

Well... the two years are relative... when is a PC part design done before it goes into mass production? Say, how much earlier was the Cayman design finished before production? Most, if not all consoles will use off the shelf parts, with maybe some changes.

A PC GPU is frozen roughly a year before it's available to consumers. Though anything other than a minor feature is defined much earlier.

 

[Heinrich4]

Well... the two years are relative... when is a PC part design done before it goes into mass production? Say, how much earlier was the Cayman design finished before production? Most, if not all consoles will use off the shelf parts, with maybe some changes.

Excellent questions that I would like to know too.. because some friends who told me almost to the gates of the production of xbox360 many developers still using 2 core G5 2.5GHz Macs and Radeons 10800/R420 to simulate "final specs" on their sdks.

Cayman came to market in December and if followed the average of previous GPUs schedule were probably taped out in may/June 2010.

Dreaming land here...

In the case of consoles im pray not repeat RSX model G70 with slightly modified to adopt more customize a model more like they did with NV2A (2 vertex shaders instead of just one in NV20) for xbox or if its possible even a new gpu like xenos/R500/C1 in this time (yeah i know with the current situation is perhaps too much ...but who knows...).

 

[Heinrich4]

Minimum requirements for Battlefield 3


OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7
Processor: Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz
RAM: 2GB
Graphic card: DirectX 10 or 11 compatible Nvidia or AMD ATI card.
Graphics card memory: 512 MB
Hard drive: 15 GB for disc version or 10 GB for digital version


Recommended system requirements for Battlefield 3

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
RAM: 4GB
Graphics card: DirectX 11 Nvidia or AMD ATI card, GeForce GTX 460, Radeon Radeon HD 6850
Graphics card memory: 1 GB
Hard drive: 15 GB for disc version or 10 GB for digital version

Curiously Rage and Batlefield3 need the same amount of memory recommended.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Are they actual recommended specs, drawn up by the software guys, or are these used as a marketing gimmick? That is, a game that has higher recommended specs may not necessarily need them, but it looks like a better, more demanding game. I don't place faith in such spec sheets myself. I remember playing games on PC with better than the recommended specs, and you'd still get low framerates or diabolical tearing, hence a preference to stick to PS2.

 

[N_B]

It was said that the recommended specs will get you medium in game.

 

[tabs]

Lets see if BF3 becomes lambasted as a horribly optimized game, like Crysis did, when people can't run it on very high with good frames.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Crysis was lambasted as a horribly unoptimised game because it was, as proven by what is being shown as achievable on much lesser hardware with the console ports. And that's how it should be - every game evaluated on what it achieves, or doesn't, on the hardware that's runnning it. I'm not sure that discussion can be tied to HDD streaming though.

 

[tabs]

Well, lets wait and see how they turn out for a proper comparison. As for the off topic, I apologise. I do seem to have a bee in my bonnet about the opinions of quality of optimization in Crysis, and I should probably learn to live and let live... apologies.