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NVIDIA Helping Sony with PS3 GPU
- Thread starter Lazy8s
- Start date
The analyst who said nVidia were in talks with Sony 15 months ago now estimates nVidia will receive $5 per chip/PS3.
jett said:
Not me. It's more like the another way around in this case. It's like NVIDIA wants to reivent the wheel thanks to the Cell technology (which does reinvent the wheel indeed).
Why are people assuming this agreement means an "Xbox 1 approach" at console hardware develompment from Sony is beyond me. It just an agreement to "reinvent the wheel" together.
DonasaurusRex
Online Ho Champ
You guys sure about that diagram i mean look at the clock they say it will run at AHAHAHA ibm chips at 3.5 GHZ by next year riiiiight ill believe it when i see it, they cant get over 2.5ghz now. How they gonna have those chips in mass prod before launch? Yeah right, and I thought the chips they were using had integrated memory controlers why would it need a northbridge chip on the system board if its on the chip.
$5/unit is quite a bit of money, not initially but in the long run it will be. I don't think this liscensing deal is actually true since it goes against Sony's tried-tested and true policy of constant scale. MS got screwed with nVidia's liscensing deal, so I don't think Sony would make the same mistake.
There had been rumors about this ever since the nVidia CEO made an "off the cuff" reference to PS3 at a conference last year. I guess Sony is pretty serious about there being less of a learning curve in dealing with the hardware than there was with PS2. Good news.
That's just meens the PS3 will never be sold below $5. :lol
Let's do some math:
100million PS3 x $5 = $500million
Not bad for Nvidia. If Sony will get an amazing GPU then those $500million are worth the money for Sony if they can hold the 70% market share with it and get the knowledge as well for future generations.
Fredi
Let's do some math:
100million PS3 x $5 = $500million
Not bad for Nvidia. If Sony will get an amazing GPU then those $500million are worth the money for Sony if they can hold the 70% market share with it and get the knowledge as well for future generations.
Fredi
OG_Original Gamer
Member
Now will finally see some Japanese titles with bump mapping, and normal mapping, but what will be even more interesting, is how it will be used with the art style in most of the games.
sonycowboy
Member
rastex said:
It's literally nothing. The $5/unit is most likely not a fixed amount for the life of the console, but a figure that will decrease with certain time / production milestones. You should have seen the bill of costs for the Xbox.
Duckhuntdog
Member
m0dus said:
Sure they can adjust, but Xenon SDK has been out for a loooooooong time now, heck I can't even remember when we got them, it's been so long.. Everything is timed for fall 2005. If MS wants to delay, that's fine.
Problem is, ATI has already pretty much ramped down the Xbox 2 GPU team. Does ATI want to delay another PC part and is MS willing to SPEND more to have the extras added.
OK, I chanced my arm again with NVidia's PR, and was told this:
"Although we cannot comment on technical details, I can tell you that the
GPU is a custom version of NVIDIA's next generation GPU, which is not
Cell based."
edit:
I asked him to clarify if he meant both Nvidia's next-gen GPU and the PS3 GPU would not be cell-based and he replied:
"I can just comment on NVIDIA's next generation GPU which is not cell
based."
Which presumably still leaves the door open to cell tech making its way into the GPU. Although NVidia's PC cards won't be cell-based, at least not for the immediate future.
I also asked about whether any nvidia chip was included in the cell workstations which had been delivered to developers, but he said he couldn't answer that.
"Although we cannot comment on technical details, I can tell you that the
GPU is a custom version of NVIDIA's next generation GPU, which is not
Cell based."
edit:
I asked him to clarify if he meant both Nvidia's next-gen GPU and the PS3 GPU would not be cell-based and he replied:
"I can just comment on NVIDIA's next generation GPU which is not cell
based."
Which presumably still leaves the door open to cell tech making its way into the GPU. Although NVidia's PC cards won't be cell-based, at least not for the immediate future.
I also asked about whether any nvidia chip was included in the cell workstations which had been delivered to developers, but he said he couldn't answer that.
Dr. Zoidberg
Member
I for one am thrilled about this news. I wasn't that excited for PS3 before but now I am eagerly looking forward to some screens, an unveiling, etc.
Let me explain myself, I've always felt that the PS1 and PS2 had high geometry but the Image Quality was just terrible. I know some people prefer the non-filtered, "clean" look but I was never one of them. I was one of the folks that preferred the DCs graphics to those of the PS2 during its first two years.
I was afraid that the same folks at Sony would be responsible for the PS3 graphics, not that they would not be powerful, but that they would share the PS "look" and design philosophy.
Hello Nvidia, So long jaggies!!
PS - I too will be interested to see how they handle backwards compatibility.
Let me explain myself, I've always felt that the PS1 and PS2 had high geometry but the Image Quality was just terrible. I know some people prefer the non-filtered, "clean" look but I was never one of them. I was one of the folks that preferred the DCs graphics to those of the PS2 during its first two years.
I was afraid that the same folks at Sony would be responsible for the PS3 graphics, not that they would not be powerful, but that they would share the PS "look" and design philosophy.
Hello Nvidia, So long jaggies!!
PS - I too will be interested to see how they handle backwards compatibility.
Duckhuntdog
Member
teiresias said:
Xbot- Nvidia sucks, ATI rocks!
*ATI is in Nintendo's system*
Xbot- ... ... I am confused as who to hate now.
soundwave05
Member
Well I never thought of it that way.
If Nvidia brings higher image quality to the table via their GPU in addition to Sony's "brute processing power" approach, that might be quite a nice marriage. This may also make the PS3 easier for developers to come to grips with.
If Nvidia brings higher image quality to the table via their GPU in addition to Sony's "brute processing power" approach, that might be quite a nice marriage. This may also make the PS3 easier for developers to come to grips with.
Duckhuntdog
Member
Midas said:
OMG. That has to be a joke.
Since no one is coding on final hardware, more ram / more processor speed just means less loading and faster executing code. it's fairly independant of what you're doing except in cases were you say 'gee, we've only got X amount of ram' so you design your textures and what not around that. If they turn around and you've got 2x the ram you though you did you probably wouldn't have time to take full advantage of it, but what you have would just run better.
TTP said:
Please do
If anyone has a Sony PR contact, ask them about the tech in the GPU, broadly (i.e. is it cell or not), in light of this announcement. Feign ignorance or something (like "oh, I thought you were using cell?") - they might reveal something pertinent in their explanation to you..soundwave05
Member
It wouldn't shock me if Xenon is "upgradable" (there's apparently even talk of PC-iteration too, so that would be natural).
Duckhuntdog
Member
m0dus said:
Sure, it's just software. There have been a few revisions to the SDK so far. As far as power goes, SDK isn't going to really tell you. But don't hold me to that, I'm not a coder.
tahrikmili
Member
Duckhuntdog said:
This is not true, the chip in GC was done and finished before ATI bought the company making it. It's not a chip of ATI's making, it's a chip ATI owns the intellectual property rights to. Not the same thing.
As a side note, here is what I think..
It seems hardly a coincidence that the rumors about NV50/48's scrapping surfaced a few days ago. I believe the two years mentioned in the press release is the time it took to iron out a contract with Sony and seeing that R500 (and R520/R600) would kick their asses nVidia agreed to terms with Sony to supply them a GPU in return for eventually using Cell technology in the discrete graphics card market.
And I still think PS3 will get its ass kicked by NextBox, seeing as, apparently, the GPUs for both will be PC based (and if CELL was "THE SHIT" Sony wouldn't have needed nVidia's help, so I'm betting that it's not "THE SHIT" but just "SHIT") and MS is well ahead of Sony in terms of release date, by the time PS3 is out in the market they may have already lost the battle.
And before anyone argues that PS3 will be an automatic success because PS2 sold well, I remind them what happened to SEGA and Nintendo *rolls eyes*
Duckhuntdog
Member
Vark said:
Correct, there isn't any final hardware out there. A lot of devs are just going off what MS says will be in the Xbox 2 and hoping MS doesn't do any drastic changes.
I can't understand why people are surprised that the Xbox 2 might be the either the weakest of middle of the road console next gen, given timeframes. Sony and Nintendo simply have more time.
Heck, I don't think ArtX has much done GPU wise for the Rev. Although this announcement might be the kick in the ass ArtX needs. Now they have to upstage Nvidia atleast powerwise and at this point the Rev is the only GPU they still have time to do that with.
Duckhuntdog
Member
tahrikmili said:
No, duh. But guess who owns ArtX now. ATI. So one might as well say it's an ATI chip.
soundwave05
Member
I think people expecting Sony to "fizzle" just because Nintendo and Sega did will be in for a rude awakening.
As crazy as the PSP price announcement was, I think Sony is gonna bring it even higher with PS3.
I think not only will PS3 have better chipset than Xenon, but it'll also have Blu-Ray movie playback and maybe even full blown rewritability. Also I think a broader Sony Online service will launch alongside PS3.
I think its silly to say the ArtX (ATI West Coast) team needs "a kick in the ass". They're working directly to Nintendo's specifications, which is probably a cost efficent, capable, chipset, but I get the feeling Nintendo is going to spend a significant chunk of their hardware budget on new kinds of game input/interfaces rather than on the chipset entirely.
As crazy as the PSP price announcement was, I think Sony is gonna bring it even higher with PS3.
I think not only will PS3 have better chipset than Xenon, but it'll also have Blu-Ray movie playback and maybe even full blown rewritability. Also I think a broader Sony Online service will launch alongside PS3.
I think its silly to say the ArtX (ATI West Coast) team needs "a kick in the ass". They're working directly to Nintendo's specifications, which is probably a cost efficent, capable, chipset, but I get the feeling Nintendo is going to spend a significant chunk of their hardware budget on new kinds of game input/interfaces rather than on the chipset entirely.
Duckhuntdog
Member
gofreak said:
Exactly, nor does it say about the GPU perfomance. To say one part makes up for the other at this point, is stupid, until specs are finally given out.