News Xbox boss Spencer: 'wrong decisions' were made

IMHO the main problem xbox one is always going to have is that the ps4 has the better GC. No amount of software upgrades are ever going to overcome the performance gap of the hareware, and as programmers get more used to both systems, and learn how to exploit them, the ps4 will always have that extra performance, same as the memory bandwith difference, gddr5 will always outperform ddr3. People who know about hardware will go for the ps4, and people who don't care will go for the cheapest.

 

FTFY

 

Give the Xbox One is running (G?)DDR3, the memory interface must be 256bit, otherwise 68GB/s (which is a known figure) would not be possible given the memory speeds available.

The GPU itself is a weak link but as long as the developers know what they are doing it can still perform well enough. Cross platform games with similar levels of developer attention will always perform better on the PS4 as long as they arn't CPU bottlenecked (the otherwise identical Xbox One CPU runs at 1.73Ghz vs the 1.6Ghz in the PS4).

For me what matters are the games. I want to see new IP's and new takes on already existing ones (Halo for example). I want the processing power of both consoles to put to use to actually make the games "Feel" next gen rather than just look better.

 

I wouldn't be so sure of the "No amount of software upgrades are ever going to overcome the performance gap of the hardware" comment.

New game-changing update will double Xbox One performance.

 

Im ashamed to say I had to google that to know what it ment Your version is better thought

From what I understand ( im no expert) most of the improvements come from better use of the multi-cores ( heat build up may be a future problem tho ) to spread the load out giving the gpu more resources to work its voodoo magic. Only problem I can see is since its not released until 2015, this might give Sony another year to upgrade the openGL software on their machine. Direct X 12 looks greats for the pc though.

Does anybody know when/if the Xbox one is ment to be getting support to run old 360 games ? Its my sons birthday in june, being able to still use his old games would be a major plus when it comes to buying. Cheers folks

 

Unless they announce some kind of streaming service - never. The One (and PS4 for that matter) are not powerful enough to emulate their predecessors (CPU wise at least).

You would be better off keeping the 360 in the interim (I don't think anything has been announced on the Microsoft side).

 

So under a very specific benchmark it's going to 'double' it's score, then it'll overheat and brick itself.

I think this can be filed under Microsoft's promises of 1080p at 60fps, Xbox Cloud improving your game's graphics, Kinect revolutionising the gaming industry and Falcon fixing the RRoD.

At best it's blind optimism, at worst it's cynical airy marketing speak, the reality is somewhere in between.

 

While architecturally there are a lot of similarities, there are three major differences:
PS4 increases shader count by 50%
PS4 increases GPU bandwidth by close to 250%
PS4 increases ROP count by 100%

Those really do count as 'drastically different'. If you've ever done any graphics programming, it quickly becomes clear that you cannot have enough GPU memory bandwidth. The PS4's GDDR5 on a 256bit bus is on par with modern high-end PC graphics cards for bandwidth. Xbone is languishing in the low-mid part of the market, and the eSRAM does not change that (there is simply not enough of it to hold every intermediate buffer needed for a modern deferred-rendering game engine).

ROP count directly affects pixel fill rate, and 16 is generally not seen as enough for 1080p at 60fps. In the PC gfx card market, only low and low-mid cards have 16 ROPs.

 

People who know about hardware, but also want to play those console exclusive games, will go for both a PC and a PS4

 

I mostly agree. It probably is under certain conditions, but i don't agree with the overheating and bricking it's self or that it's airy marketing speak, well not entirely anyway

I can't see Microsoft wanting a repeat of the RRoD debacle, so i fully expect them to implement throttling if that isn't part of the XB1 already. It's also not unknown for Microsoft to wave large amounts of cash around to get people to talk up their latest tech, but in this case the advantage that DX12 brings is being praised by the vast majority (AMD, Intel and NVIDIA)

Even if it is Microsoft talking up the XB1 they still have the biggest advantage in that they control the API that is used by the vast majority of games, even the PS4 uses a modified version of DX11.2 Is Microsoft going to allow Sony to use a modified version of DX12, who knows.

IMHO the sooner we can move away from propitiatory API's the better as all they do is hold back innovation, it has taken Mantle to finally push Microsoft into adopting what dev's have been asking for all this time.

 

I stand corrected, i was going on what was claimed around the time of the launch.

Reading up some more it seems it uses two API's GNM for low level stuff, and GNMX that wraps around GNM to offer a familiar API if you're used to platforms like D3D11.

Although i cant find any info saying GNM or GNMX is based on an extended version of OpenGL, but i guess that would make sense seeing as the PS4 runs a fork of FreeBSD.

Does that mean Sony would have an interest, or benefit from SteamOS succeeding in making gaming a more attractive option on Linux ? Or is GNM/GNMX so far removed from OpenGL now as to not make any difference.