So the insider was your ass?
Your punishment must be more severe.
I stand by what I said. I understand there are people here that are a much better known quantity than I am, and I don't expect to suddenly convince people to go against their gut instincts simply because I feel confidently that this information (about a downclock) isn't true.
But I said it, I had good reason for saying it, and I will accept whatever punishment deemed necessary if I'm wrong. Mocking, banning, whatever is deemed necessary. I know how the site works. Nobody is above the basic rules of the road. I fully embrace and enjoy that aspect of this site. But as I said in a little jest before, give me a fair trial. We need real confirmation of a downclock to the GPU outside of forum rumor and hearsay. The one constant that nobody can deny is that ESRAM had serious manufacturing issues at a time, and that they are essentially still a real challenge even now, although not impossible to overcome, largely because the ESRAM can be made in quite a few more places than is commonly the case in these circumstances. The rest is simply not confirmed, but I won't challenge the ESRAM issues, because it simply can't be challenged in any credible fashion. If you're in a position to hear anything at all from somebody that possibly knows anything at all about what's going on, the ESRAM issues and concerns are things you've been hearing about since 2012, but clearly people at MS believe ESRAM is a design win, but it isn't coming without its headaches, headaches that were expected and planned to be countered by having it made in multiple places, and separating the good from the bad. A process shrink for the ESRAM will likely be possible in the first year the system is on the market.
Have you heard any further details about the Xbone, in fact, NOT downclocking the GPU? I was wondering with this whole story gaining so much ground so far, and somewhat starting to spiral for Microsoft, if you had any more contact with your sources.
If the yield issues are true, I just do not see how they can fix it WITHOUT downclocking the GPU, at least this late in the game.
All I can say definitively is that these challenges weren't unexpected by Microsoft. It didn't blindside them, even if Sony's move to 8GB of GDDR5 may have, but all is inline with what they expected, even the problems and challenges manufacturing the ESRAM. But at no point have I ever heard anything remotely close to anything implying that in order to deal with ESRAM's manufacturing challenges, that downclocking the GPU might be necessary. In fact, it's been said that downclocking the GPU wouldn't even help, because that isn't where the problem is. The problem is with the size and overall complexity of the part, which downclocking would hardly make up for in any way that could be considered significant and helpful. And digging a little deeper, and I wasn't entirely clear on this before, the problem is less so with making the ESRAM itself, but more incorporating that ESRAM once made into the larger set of components that it has to work in concert with.
And that's pretty much the gist of what I have right now. Anything further would get me in serious trouble, because I can't back it up with anything real that wouldn't also get someone else in trouble.
