scooby_dooby
Legend
The first thing you do to play a game is insert that disk into the drive, thus this is where we will start.
At first glance bluray appears to have an obvious advantage, higher native transfer rate, larger capacity, etc, however upon closer inspection...
blu ray has a native transfer speed of 54Mbps (6.75MB) while DVD has a native speed of 11.1Mb (1.3875MB) thus it appears at first glace that the bluray drive in the Ps3 will have a transfer rate of almost 5x that of the x360, but wait, thats not true. the x360 drive runs at 12x effectively bumping that to 133.2Mb or 16.65MB nearly 3x faster than that of first gen bluray at 6.75MB. At this time i have gotten no reports of 2x bluray drives being both available and affordable, even if they are available by the ps3 release (unlikely as 1x is still questionable at this stage) its transfer rate is still underneath that of the 360. Now the question is why is transfer rate important? Two answers, a higher transfer rate will allow media, music, data to directly stream off the disc, freeing more ram to be allocated in other areas, this is particularly a bottleneck to the ps3 as, while the GPU can access both 256 segments the CPU is limited to only 256, thus the less in ram the better unfortunately bluray media itself will not allow this to occur, so whats the next solution?
Hard drive. The Ps3 will ship with a hard drive more out of neccessity then just being nice to the consumer. As has been shown, blurays transfer rate would prove too much of a bottleneck to attempt to continually streamm off disk or load into ram, thus cache to the hard drive is a neccesity. The 360 by contrast has a shared ram system where the full 512 can be allocated to the system anywhere, though admittedly slightly slower than that of the ps3, a higher bandwidth is NOT neccessary as we will explain why later.
so now we have the data loaded into the ram, lets talk a little bit about the data itself and how it will be processed. In the 360 data can be standard type data where full character models, textures sounds etc. are present, or it can be procedural synthesis instruction sets as we will explain later these have the potential to greatly reduce the amount of data both on disk and passing through ram, enabling higher definition graphics, more immersive worlds and better draw distances as a direct result of the amount of data passing through ram. to put it simply more game information is passing through because it is in a condensed state. The ps3 by contrast is limited to taking tradition fully coded data and following simply instruction sets to be executed by the processor and gpu, again while they are faster they are used less effieciently. The downside to this is multiplatform games may appear marginaly better if they are not properly optimized to take advantage of some of the 360's unique abilities.
when data is set to the 360 core to be processed it is met in the main core and can be allocated to either of the 3 cores, their VMX units, or the Gpu, we will first discuss what data is set to the general cores. gameplay data, and data which is used to detail players interactions with the world and other players online are sent the the general processors this allows a wide range of data types to be readily processed an outputed which results n what you see, (and dont see) on screen. more general processing can (if used properly) directly equate to more immersive worlds and bigger online experiences. remember physics calcs must be incorporatred but into gameplay this is done but collision calcs and other methods, general processors are are key to procedural synthesis, which is a none parallel function and benefit from being able to be accomplished quick and effienctly. next we have the VMX units, the vmx units are 128-bit registers essentially the same as the cores in the Ps3 with the difference being the Ps3 has 6 of these useable cores while the 360 has 3, (hence the 2x powerful as 360 number sony claims as they use their strongest numbers and compare them directly to the 360s weakest, by contrast MS can easily say we are 3x more powerful then sony and they wouldnt not be lying either) anyway these accelerate parallel data function, like certain physics calcs, graphics accelerations etc. the truth being since the VMX units are more specialized then the cell cores they technically perform slightly better then a comparable cell unit, however there are still only three vs sony's 6. but this is why a Physics processing unit is unneccesary in either of these next gen consoles as they both have enough floating point performance to run with a PC even with a dedicated PPU for possibly the majority of the life of the console. At first glance Sony's system would appear to be the no brainer for physics performance and technically it is, however remember we must incorporate the physics calcs back into gameplay through things like collsion calcs. for which branch prediction and general processing greatly helps, and 2 things which the Ps3 sorely lacks. this does not mean it cannot be emulated through other methods, however it will be much more generic and scripted. Many will ask well isnt the cell powerful? the question is WHERE does it get its power, the cell gets is power from its SPEs which are vector based floating point number crunchers, which will insanely fast are not meant to do general processing work as they can take an 80% hit in performance, the cell does have a single PPE which is its one general processing unit, the problem is its, primary function is to controll the other satelite cores, so for it to do this task as well as advanced AI, collision, gameplay code, and a host of other tasks is much too taxing on the the single core.
Now on to the gpu, I have to say i am insanely impressed with the 360 gpu, and the way its intergreated into the system, im not going to talk about the specs as it will only bring confusion, instead i will explain what it is and what it does. the R500 in the 360 is a radical new architechture which promotes intelligence over sheer power (which seems to be the entire concept behind the 360) to save some time read this http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzcxLDM= anyway there are a number of excited developments including 1080P and 4xAA with ZERO impact on the GPU!!!! thats mind boggling, i cant even begin to explain the possibilities, the one thing that does trouble me is how sony can make the claims it does, when their system doesnt even have enough total bandwidth (or rather bearly have enough total bandwidth for HD gaming. (HD resolution gaming will require 50+GB on the GPU hence why the total system bandwidth is relevent interms of HD gaming, If the Ps3 does 1080P i dont see anyway it can possibly do AA at all, and they definitly cant obtain an on chip ram as its been patented. anyway the RSX from nvidia is much more traditionally, yes it is a shader and pixel monster, however it renders no geometry all polygons are rendered using cell, further increasing the burden cell must shoulder. I my opinion was a poor choice, but likely their only choice unless they wanted to charge $700 a console.
so im going to review and give a breif overview as well as provide new info, procedural synthesis, a process which generates game content on the fly can be used to both significantly increase a games realism, while simultaneously streamlining the source data to the point where it not only fits easily on a single disk, but to the point where a game can literally go on forever, and create itself as the player plays it. the 360 seems to consentrate on streamlining and does an excellent job of it, the ps3 by contrast seems to be riddled with bottlenecks but worst of all it seems that games on that system will be nothing more than significantly ungraded ps2 games interms of gameplay. yes they will both produce excellent graphics, (though the 360 may likely actually produce cleaner crisper graphics) however the cell will utilize much of its power jusy making games look good, while the 360 will only have just began to sratch the surface. the 360 is a still water that runs very deep.
curtosey of mikeandbandit
At first glance bluray appears to have an obvious advantage, higher native transfer rate, larger capacity, etc, however upon closer inspection...
blu ray has a native transfer speed of 54Mbps (6.75MB) while DVD has a native speed of 11.1Mb (1.3875MB) thus it appears at first glace that the bluray drive in the Ps3 will have a transfer rate of almost 5x that of the x360, but wait, thats not true. the x360 drive runs at 12x effectively bumping that to 133.2Mb or 16.65MB nearly 3x faster than that of first gen bluray at 6.75MB. At this time i have gotten no reports of 2x bluray drives being both available and affordable, even if they are available by the ps3 release (unlikely as 1x is still questionable at this stage) its transfer rate is still underneath that of the 360. Now the question is why is transfer rate important? Two answers, a higher transfer rate will allow media, music, data to directly stream off the disc, freeing more ram to be allocated in other areas, this is particularly a bottleneck to the ps3 as, while the GPU can access both 256 segments the CPU is limited to only 256, thus the less in ram the better unfortunately bluray media itself will not allow this to occur, so whats the next solution?
Hard drive. The Ps3 will ship with a hard drive more out of neccessity then just being nice to the consumer. As has been shown, blurays transfer rate would prove too much of a bottleneck to attempt to continually streamm off disk or load into ram, thus cache to the hard drive is a neccesity. The 360 by contrast has a shared ram system where the full 512 can be allocated to the system anywhere, though admittedly slightly slower than that of the ps3, a higher bandwidth is NOT neccessary as we will explain why later.
so now we have the data loaded into the ram, lets talk a little bit about the data itself and how it will be processed. In the 360 data can be standard type data where full character models, textures sounds etc. are present, or it can be procedural synthesis instruction sets as we will explain later these have the potential to greatly reduce the amount of data both on disk and passing through ram, enabling higher definition graphics, more immersive worlds and better draw distances as a direct result of the amount of data passing through ram. to put it simply more game information is passing through because it is in a condensed state. The ps3 by contrast is limited to taking tradition fully coded data and following simply instruction sets to be executed by the processor and gpu, again while they are faster they are used less effieciently. The downside to this is multiplatform games may appear marginaly better if they are not properly optimized to take advantage of some of the 360's unique abilities.
when data is set to the 360 core to be processed it is met in the main core and can be allocated to either of the 3 cores, their VMX units, or the Gpu, we will first discuss what data is set to the general cores. gameplay data, and data which is used to detail players interactions with the world and other players online are sent the the general processors this allows a wide range of data types to be readily processed an outputed which results n what you see, (and dont see) on screen. more general processing can (if used properly) directly equate to more immersive worlds and bigger online experiences. remember physics calcs must be incorporatred but into gameplay this is done but collision calcs and other methods, general processors are are key to procedural synthesis, which is a none parallel function and benefit from being able to be accomplished quick and effienctly. next we have the VMX units, the vmx units are 128-bit registers essentially the same as the cores in the Ps3 with the difference being the Ps3 has 6 of these useable cores while the 360 has 3, (hence the 2x powerful as 360 number sony claims as they use their strongest numbers and compare them directly to the 360s weakest, by contrast MS can easily say we are 3x more powerful then sony and they wouldnt not be lying either) anyway these accelerate parallel data function, like certain physics calcs, graphics accelerations etc. the truth being since the VMX units are more specialized then the cell cores they technically perform slightly better then a comparable cell unit, however there are still only three vs sony's 6. but this is why a Physics processing unit is unneccesary in either of these next gen consoles as they both have enough floating point performance to run with a PC even with a dedicated PPU for possibly the majority of the life of the console. At first glance Sony's system would appear to be the no brainer for physics performance and technically it is, however remember we must incorporate the physics calcs back into gameplay through things like collsion calcs. for which branch prediction and general processing greatly helps, and 2 things which the Ps3 sorely lacks. this does not mean it cannot be emulated through other methods, however it will be much more generic and scripted. Many will ask well isnt the cell powerful? the question is WHERE does it get its power, the cell gets is power from its SPEs which are vector based floating point number crunchers, which will insanely fast are not meant to do general processing work as they can take an 80% hit in performance, the cell does have a single PPE which is its one general processing unit, the problem is its, primary function is to controll the other satelite cores, so for it to do this task as well as advanced AI, collision, gameplay code, and a host of other tasks is much too taxing on the the single core.
Now on to the gpu, I have to say i am insanely impressed with the 360 gpu, and the way its intergreated into the system, im not going to talk about the specs as it will only bring confusion, instead i will explain what it is and what it does. the R500 in the 360 is a radical new architechture which promotes intelligence over sheer power (which seems to be the entire concept behind the 360) to save some time read this http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzcxLDM= anyway there are a number of excited developments including 1080P and 4xAA with ZERO impact on the GPU!!!! thats mind boggling, i cant even begin to explain the possibilities, the one thing that does trouble me is how sony can make the claims it does, when their system doesnt even have enough total bandwidth (or rather bearly have enough total bandwidth for HD gaming. (HD resolution gaming will require 50+GB on the GPU hence why the total system bandwidth is relevent interms of HD gaming, If the Ps3 does 1080P i dont see anyway it can possibly do AA at all, and they definitly cant obtain an on chip ram as its been patented. anyway the RSX from nvidia is much more traditionally, yes it is a shader and pixel monster, however it renders no geometry all polygons are rendered using cell, further increasing the burden cell must shoulder. I my opinion was a poor choice, but likely their only choice unless they wanted to charge $700 a console.
so im going to review and give a breif overview as well as provide new info, procedural synthesis, a process which generates game content on the fly can be used to both significantly increase a games realism, while simultaneously streamlining the source data to the point where it not only fits easily on a single disk, but to the point where a game can literally go on forever, and create itself as the player plays it. the 360 seems to consentrate on streamlining and does an excellent job of it, the ps3 by contrast seems to be riddled with bottlenecks but worst of all it seems that games on that system will be nothing more than significantly ungraded ps2 games interms of gameplay. yes they will both produce excellent graphics, (though the 360 may likely actually produce cleaner crisper graphics) however the cell will utilize much of its power jusy making games look good, while the 360 will only have just began to sratch the surface. the 360 is a still water that runs very deep.
curtosey of mikeandbandit
