Most games physx has been pointless or unplayable. Very few games actually need the gpu to do physx. The API is dead and is all nvidia marketing. DirectCompute in DX11 will replace all the features in physx since it will run on all the next xbox and also all PC dx11 cards.
Physx doesn't run on the whole card. It can't effectively use the processing power. Realistically 400GFLOP doing pure physics calculations will be much more powerful than the 650. The 650 is 800GFLOP but its unlikely physx would be running on anywhere near that since an i7 with about 100GFLOP has no problem running it.
I forgot about this.
That is quite a positive note to the whole dedicated CU's for GPGPU thing, finall physx can roll over and die , this physics stuff won't be nvidia exclusive anymore and properly supported on AMD and it will actually make sense for devs to implement it into gameplay rather than 'look at these wavey flags nobody gives a fuck about and look at how many rocks appear from shooting the ground. (you can't implement it into gameplay now because half your users wouldn't be able to play the game atm)
As someone mentioned you can't really compare PC design to Console design same with Flops number. Lower spec console should be vastly faster than similar PC. It was always the case and this won't change now or in future.
Yes you can.
You can't compare nvidia flops to amd ones, or GCN flops to Barts flops.
But since both consoles or at least orbis (if the rumors are correct) are using the same architecture that is used in pitcairn (7850) on PC you can compare them....
The gpgpu bit might change things for orbis for physics/ai side but the rendering parts like pixel pushing should be the same.
You can also still look at die sizes of the pc equivalent cpus and gpus and their power consumption and draw your conclusions based on how ambitious they were (or the lack of ambition in this case).
Again, underclocking and cutting a 65W part with a small die to put in a future console is really... ugh.
All I can think is 'really?' this is all they went for?
Looking at this from a gamer perspective and someone who enjoys technology advancements, not from a shareholder perspective, from their perspective anything can be justified and I know how big of a marketing/business boner gaf has. Everyone cheers on epic for convincing MS to pay that 'billion dollars' to double the xbox 360 ram, but those same people will also defend any compromise.
Maybe they'd like cotton seat covers in the next AUDI saloon car and plastics all over the dashboard, surely it would be better for audi stockholders as long as people are willing to put up with it.
I'm going to leave it at that, I hope I've articulated my point properly, make of it what you will.