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Next-Gen PS5 & XSX |OT| Console tEch threaD

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Great Hair

Banned
When I heard Cyberpunk is enough to sell XSX, I think the people forget where CD Projekt Red has more sells.


Cyberpunk will work great to sell more new GPUs in PC and more PS4.



Announcement of Total sales
28.3mill. on April 2020, 9th

Game release
PC, PS4, Xbone 19 may 2015 (1888 days)
Switch 15 October 2019 (179 days)

Based on my estimates
2015.5.19 to 2020.4.9

PC 12.8mill.
PS4 10.19mill.
Xbone 3.99mill.
SW 1.30mill.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
Lol I was just repeating what you wrote under your tag :messenger_grinning_smiling:

I know... :)
ExaltedHarmfulGraywolf-small.gif
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
Time to revisit the launch of the Xbox One.


One interesting point in the article was about CU count versus Clock. MS evaluated this and had some interesting findings.

- CU count on the XB1 increased from 12 to 14. That's an increase in TFLOP of 16.6%.
- CU count remains as 12, but the GPU clock was increased from 800 to 853MHz, so a TFLOP increase of 6.6%.

So, logically the higher CU count would perform better? Not so, according to MS.

"but in terms of actual measured games - what actually, ultimately counts - is that it was a better engineering decision to raise the clock."

"Increasing the frequency impacts the whole of the GPU whereas adding CUs beefs up shaders and ALU," interjects Nick Baker.

"Right. By fixing the clock, not only do we increase our ALU performance, we also increase our vertex rate, we increase our pixel rate and ironically increase our ESRAM bandwidth," continues Goossen.

"But we also increase the performance in areas surrounding bottlenecks like the drawcalls flowing through the pipeline, the performance of reading GPRs out of the GPR pool, etc. GPUs are giantly complex. There's gazillions of areas in the pipeline that can be your bottleneck in addition to just ALU and fetch performance."

Yeah I posted this weeks ago. Mark Cerny went the smaller chip/higher clocks way with the PS5 design and condensed it down to the aphorism "A rising tide lifts all boats". It makes you wonder why Microsoft abandoned this thinking. One X might be understandable as a mid-gen upgrade but going the TF/Compute route with Series X I guess was because of the 2-tier SKU approach (as well as that all important power crown).
 

JonnyMP3

Member
Yeah I posted this weeks ago. Mark Cerny went the smaller chip/higher clocks way with the PS5 design and condensed it down to the aphorism "A rising tide lifts all boats". It makes you wonder why Microsoft abandoned this thinking. One X might be understandable as a mid-gen upgrade but going the TF/Compute route with Series X I guess was because of the 2-tier SKU approach (as well as that all important power crown).
Wasn't the APU just smaller because the BOM had to include Kinect as part of the original SKU? Now that they're not restrained by budget, guessing they decided POWER with a bigger GPU was the best way to try and reclaw some of the lost ground.
 
Wasn't the APU just smaller because the BOM had to include Kinect as part of the original SKU? Now that they're not restrained by budget, guessing they decided POWER with a bigger GPU was the best way to try and reclaw some of the lost ground.
yes, mainly it was the STUPID idea of microsoft that they could be a wii-copycat, and that led to a myriad of STUPID decisions
 
Yeah I posted this weeks ago. Mark Cerny went the smaller chip/higher clocks way with the PS5 design and condensed it down to the aphorism "A rising tide lifts all boats". It makes you wonder why Microsoft abandoned this thinking. One X might be understandable as a mid-gen upgrade but going the TF/Compute route with Series X I guess was because of the 2-tier SKU approach (as well as that all important power crown).

Because they chose to invest more in their GPU so they went for a wider GPU. What Cerny and his team achieved wasn't easy, it required AMD Smart Shift technology and more aggressive cooling. Sony decided the budget they could have invested in a bigger GPU would be better suited to pushing storage a generation ahead of everybody else. This calculated 'gamble' seems to have paid off because nobody can quit talking about how amazing it is. Xbox could have decided to do the same, but Mark Cerny is a visionary and decided that 2 more TF wasn't worth not chasing this storage milestone.

We have to wait and see if the gamble was worth it but early signs show that it might have been. To go back to the question, MS decided what they did because it fits their design philosophy. They want more, sustained power. It's all theoretical so we have to see who comes closer to hitting their peak performance. It's just differences in design goals. Sony wanted storage so fast that you can request what you want and get it into RAM ASAP. It isn't even really about filling RAM quickly but instead fetching assets as and when you need them. 5.5GB/s could fill memory in sub-3 seconds. That's great. But what he really wanted was to fetch 1GB of assets in 0.18 seconds.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
Wasn't the APU just smaller because the BOM had to include Kinect as part of the original SKU? Now that they're not restrained by budget, guessing they decided POWER with a bigger GPU was the best way to try and reclaw some of the lost ground.

The amount of CUs was less because the APU had 32MB of ESRAM that took a huge amount of mm^2. The point is after the bad June E3 showing Microsoft's Andrew Goossen (Now architect on XSX APU) and Nick Baker sat down with DF 3 months later and gave a very detailed breakdown of why actual games on Xbox One would be equal/better than PS4 due to increased clocks. A lot of sound logic seemingly abandoned.
 
Personally I love cyberpunk theme (Ghost in the Shell, Philip K Dick novels etc) it's possibly my second fave genre after post apocalyptic. But I'm not sure it as a genre is even close in popularity to fantasy (which helped Witcher sales).

So I'm curious how Cyberpunk will sell. It will no doubt sell well, but mainstream do seem to reject cyberpunk stuff, so I wonder if there is a ceiling to its sales.
 

JonnyMP3

Member
The amount of CUs was less because the APU had 32MB of ESRAM that took a huge amount of mm^2. The point is after the bad June E3 showing Microsoft's Andrew Goossen (Now architect on XSX APU) and Nick Baker sat down with DF 3 months later and gave a very detailed breakdown of why actual games on Xbox One would be equal/better than PS4 due to increased clocks. A lot of sound logic seemingly abandoned.
But didn't they add the ESRAM to use as a 'scratch pad', if IIRC the term they used back then, to try and mitigate the fact that the main RAM pool was slower DDR3 compared to the much faster GDDR5 on the PS4.
 

sircaw

Banned
Personally I love cyberpunk theme (Ghost in the Shell, Philip K Dick novels etc) it's possibly my second fave genre after post apocalyptic. But I'm not sure it as a genre is even close in popularity to fantasy (which helped Witcher sales).

So I'm curious how Cyberpunk will sell. It will no doubt sell well, but mainstream do seem to reject cyberpunk stuff, so I wonder if there is a ceiling to its sales.

Read the Audiobook of Do androids dream of electric sheep a couple of years back, along with dunction wood, slaughterhouse five and Magician was one of my all-time favorites.
 
Looks lovely, although I suspect there will be some frustrations with the small buttons that could get hit on accident. But then again, they probably tested that already.
It's a fair comment. On the DS4 the share/options button aren't on the same level as the D pad / square/triangle. However, the share/options buttons also require more pressure to activate versus the square/triangle ones. So I guess that may be enough to avoid that issue.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
But didn't they add the ESRAM to use as a 'scratch pad', if IIRC the term they used back then, to try and mitigate the fact that the main RAM pool was slower DDR3 compared to the much faster GDDR5 on the PS4.

I think ultimately they went with ESRAM because they wanted 8GB RAM. Unfortunately it didn't work out as expected and Sony got lucky in some ways with GDDR5.

ETA: I think the term 'Scratch pad' was used about the 360's 10MB eDRAM?
 
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TBiddy

Member
It's a fair comment. On the DS4 the share/options button aren't on the same level as the D pad / square/triangle. However, the share/options buttons also require more pressure to activate versus the square/triangle ones. So I guess that may be enough to avoid that issue.

Let's assume that, yeah. Would be a weird oversight to say the least.
 

JonnyMP3

Member
It's a fair comment. On the DS4 the share/options button aren't on the same level as the D pad / square/triangle. However, the share/options buttons also require more pressure to activate versus the square/triangle ones. So I guess that may be enough to avoid that issue.
Tbf the share and options button are far away enough from the face buttons and D-pad to not be an issue. I've never hit either accidentally, as you'd have to stretch your thumb out all the way to hit those buttons, so it'd have to be an intentional press.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
I have some questions about PS5's variable clocks and how it may affect the I/O block elements.

At what clock speed(s) do the various I/O blocks run at? All the same clock as each other or independently different? Do they run at the CPU or GPU clock rate?

Anyone have any insight?
 
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FeiRR

Banned
Controller packaging and warranty leaks suggest a potential November 6 release date for Microsoft's slate of next-gen consoles.

I hope Sony takes the bait and releases the same day, not the 20th as rumoured.

Personally I love cyberpunk theme (Ghost in the Shell, Philip K Dick novels etc) it's possibly my second fave genre after post apocalyptic. But I'm not sure it as a genre is even close in popularity to fantasy (which helped Witcher sales).

So I'm curious how Cyberpunk will sell. It will no doubt sell well, but mainstream do seem to reject cyberpunk stuff, so I wonder if there is a ceiling to its sales.
Cyberpunk is one of the most recognised brands in pen and paper RPGs. That's millions of fans who might also want to play the video game. Analysts predict it'll sell 20 million in the first year (I know, it's very optimistic).

The buttons are flat, praise the lord!
 

JonnyMP3

Member
I have some questions about PS5's variable clocks and how it may affect the I/O block elements.

At what clock speed(s) do the various I/O blocks run at? All the same clock as each other or independently different? Do they run at the CPU or GPU clock rate?

Anyone have any insight?
No one has any clue atm I reckon. Not until Cerny and Sony to a full tear down of the Custom I/O unit. That's probably most likely where the secret sauce is.
 
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FeiRR

Banned
How accurate is Twitter location GPS? One of those images says it is being posted from a Beijing shopping mall?

If products are in the wild like with the PS3 and PS4 slim everything will leak.
They take the photo geotagging info so they're very accurate. But you can fake it if you want to hide things.

Of course it could be a controlled leak while consoles are locked tight. Quite common thing in marketing.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
No one has any clue atm I reckon. Not until Cerny and Sony to a full tear down of the Custom I/O unit. That's probably most likely where the secret sauce is.

I guess most likely will be Richard Leadbetter's inevitable tech breakdown article. I doubt whatever format Sony's teardown takes, it will just be a disassembly like they did with the PS4 and Pro with basic tech spec commentary (hope I'm wrong though).
 

FeiRR

Banned
I have some questions about PS5's variable clocks and how it may affect the I/O block elements.

At what clock speed(s) do the various I/O blocks run at? All the same clock as each other or independently different? Do they run at the CPU or GPU clock rate?

Anyone have any insight?
I/O and CPU/GPU buses aren't dependent on each other in classic system design. However, as the I/O system in PS5 connects directly to the GPU, they might be dependent. We need to wait for details.
 

JonnyMP3

Member
I guess most likely will be Richard Leadbetter's inevitable tech breakdown article. I doubt whatever format Sony's teardown takes, it will just be a disassembly like they did with the PS4 and Pro with basic tech spec commentary (hope I'm wrong though).
Yeah I'm hoping for a more technical analysis of the design balance and the custom tricks to make the PS5, rather than just a spec sheet read off.
How much of revolution vs evolution in the design and just what other tricks they've used to reduce standard memory architecture bottleneck, as well as the custom cooling solution.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
I guess most likely will be Richard Leadbetter's inevitable tech breakdown article. I doubt whatever format Sony's teardown takes, it will just be a disassembly like they did with the PS4 and Pro with basic tech spec commentary (hope I'm wrong though).

Well, Cerny did a massive deep dive into the various engines and things that run the system inside. What remains are hardware reveals. It can be done in a very stylized presentation sort of way, or a dude with a desk and a screwdriver type of format. I'm good either way, though, I prefer stylized every time.
 

By-mission

Member
The amount of CUs was less because the APU had 32MB of ESRAM that took a huge amount of mm^2. The point is after the bad June E3 showing Microsoft's Andrew Goossen (Now architect on XSX APU) and Nick Baker sat down with DF 3 months later and gave a very detailed breakdown of why actual games on Xbox One would be equal/better than PS4 due to increased clocks. A lot of sound logic seemingly abandoned.

The point of this discussion is, could the PS5 have a larger GPU? yes as far as we know, then we will find out the truth when it is disassembled, looking only at the "Road to PS5" we do not know the size of the "Geometry Engines" "Coeherency Engines" and what else does Mark have threaded ... Could he have one Bigger GPU? We just don't know why we haven't seen it yet ...

On the xbox one they increased the clock because it was a unique thing that they were able to do, and today we know that it was the fault of ESram and DDR3 ...
 
Apple already is in the gaming market. iPhone, IPad, Apple TV. App Store and Apple Arcade service. They have big name games like Fortnite, Minecraft, Call of Duty Mobile, plus indies like Sky (sequel to Journey) and various other mobile games.

It’s not real console gaming, like we would want, but it is a legit sector of the gaming market.

Will Apple ever release a dedicated game box? With Apple Silicon, SSD, and dedicated gaming controller? No way. They just want to sell iPhones.

Honestly though, I wish they would. The Apple TV 4K is tiny! It’s silent, passively cooled, solid state, and can run games at up to 4K. Sure it’s mobile games but still, for the size of the device, it’s impressive. And now Apple’s new chips are far ahead of what that Apple TV has inside.

If they made a gaming box, it’d be super impressive, solid state and compact, and best of all, silent. Sadly, it wouldn’t have many ports or be user upgradable at all. And it would cost a lot.
Add that to the fact that a dedicated Apple Silicon box to run games would ease on macOS gaming!! They should at least try! My only fear is them pulling one of the Nintendo book and never dropping games prices.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
Sure but I'm talking the nitty-gritty details like this:

Microsoft-Xbox-One-X-Scorpio-Engine-Hot-Chips-29-03.png

Have they ever done that? Wouldn't it just fly over the audience's head (For the most part? I mean, it would fly over mine)?
I'd tune in because I want to see whatever they have to show and because I think there might be other things revealed speaking as someone with a slight techie background.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
Have they ever done that? Wouldn't it just fly over the audience's head (For the most part? I mean, it would fly over mine)?
I'd tune in because I want to see whatever they have to show and because I think there might be other things revealed speaking as someone with a slight techie background.

No I don't really expect Sony to do the same as Microsoft at Hot Chips but I do expect Rich Leadbetter to ask those detailed questions and condense it down to something like the PS4 Pro tech deep dive article for us plebs....!

Hopefully.
 
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