Next Generation Consoles

[Scutch]

lol not at all m8...its good to have someone commenting who actually know what they are talking about tbh

Him and AK.

 

[SharkyUK]

lol not at all m8...its good to have someone commenting who actually know what they are talking about tbh

I love Sharky he is dweemy! Also seems to know WTF he is talking about. A rarity for CS I enjoy reading his posts.

LOL! Let's not get carried away now... anyone can cut 'n' paste from Google searches... Thanks all the same. There are definitely some knowledgeable folks on here.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Not necessarily as the GPU is still limited in what it can do, even though it is becoming increasingly more general-purpose. The improved and wider-reaching functionality afforded by these new GPU's is not really the reason for the lower CPU clock speeds. There are many reasons why the clocks are lower, for example:

- Power / heat issues and management thereof. As the clock rate increases we don't see a linear scaling of power and heat output, hence cooling and power consumption can soon (relatively speaking) go through the roof. Not so good on a console where longevity, efficiency and low-cost are key.

- Modern CPU's are capable of doing more work per 'tick' than previous generations. What might have taken 10-20 clock cycles previously can now be done in 4-6 cycles. As a result, a seemingly slower chip may significantly outperform what's seen as a faster chip.

- We are now in a multi-core/-processor/-threaded world and it is far more efficient to distribute work over multiple processing units (at lower clock speeds) than it is to try and increase the throughput of a single processing unit solution with increasingly higher clock rates. Intelligent architectures with modern hardware / software designs are just a couple of the things that make this happen.

That's not necessarily true though. Especially when it comes to games. In reality threads don't scale well enough to do things must more complex than handle networking or small elements. Wouldn't you prefer an architecture that wiped the floor with what we have now with lesser cores? I think most developers find multithreading a pain in the arse?

 

[dk]

Pretty sure that be doing all this multitasking and viewing p**n while at the same time driving a car through a fence at 200mph, having multiple cores will help, the lower clock speed also keeps the heat and power requirements down.

 

[Scutch]

Oopsy:

http://www.geek.com/games/bricked-p...no-replacements-available-for-months-1577464/

 

[dk]

Definitely going to be more than the b****cks 0.4% quoted! but as said in the article we'll probably never know the true figure as Sony will be too embarrassed to release it. The February date for a replacement is a joke, but what do your spect sony to do, let people have consoles they can still sell and make money from, I don't think so.

 

[Gavin.]

Definitely going to be more than the b****cks 0.4% quoted! but as said in the article we'll probably never know the true figure as Sony will be too embarrassed to release it. The February date for a replacement is a joke, but what do your spect sony to do, let people have consoles they can still sell and make money from, I don't think so.

If that's the case does that mean Microsoft's quoted 16% failure rate of the Xbox360 is not to be believed either? Let's be honest, what company would ever be truthful about a failure rate.

 

[dk]

Of course it isnt right, sites have put that figure at around the 40-50% plus mark.

although we can't really compare a doa figure to a lifetime figure.

does anyone know of someone who hasn't had a broken xbox? (I don't because I had one myself, but I know of lots of people too)

i still ill have my launch ps3 and don't know anyone personally (other than maybe people on here) who have had a failure.

I have a feeling the shoe is on the other foot this time around.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Must say I think this was great of Microsoft to post on Twitter, goes to show some rivalries can be sporting...

 

[dk]

Still undecided?

 

[dk]

Must say I think this was great of Microsoft to post on Twitter, goes to show some rivalries can be sporting...

It's free advertising for Microsoft with all the sites talking about it

wasnt exactly a launch worth worth congratulating either really was it, let's be honest. And the uk is likely to have the same issues unless it was a batch issue.

 

[AdDaMan]

Must say I think this was great of Microsoft to post on Twitter, goes to show some rivalries can be sporting...

Awesome!!

 

[gex23]

Oopsy:

http://www.geek.com/games/bricked-p...no-replacements-available-for-months-1577464/

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...efective-playstation-4-units-immediately.aspx

We inquired about repair and replacement times for those consumers that choose to approach Sony directly rather than attempt a fix through a retailer. The representative gave us some good news. “SCEA is exchanging units with new replacements for those who call our support line,” he says. “The exchanges are immediate with expedited shipping.

 

[Al_G]

When can we expect XBO reviews? Isn't the embargo until midnight tonight?

 

[C.J]

5am GMT tomorrow.

 

[SharkyUK]

That's not necessarily true though. Especially when it comes to games. In reality threads don't scale well enough to do things must more complex than handle networking or small elements. Wouldn't you prefer an architecture that wiped the floor with what we have now with lesser cores? I think most developers find multithreading a pain in the arse?

Don't underestimate the power of threads and how comfortable seasoned developers are with them nowadays fella. Especially as games become more complex it is better to offload and distribute tasks wherever possible (although this does, admittedly, increase the importance of a good software design). The single-core/-threaded days are numbered and if developers aren't comfortable with multithreading and multicore/processor setups then they're screwed! Well, more so if they are heavily involved with a game's core tech. Add to the fact that the latest iterations of DirectX and other graphics libs now have proper support for multithreaded scheduling, etc. more and more elements are becoming parallelised and distributed. Even a ridiculously powerful single-core/-threaded setup (ignoring the issues of heat and power draw) would soon choke with today's games.

Newer setups with multiple hardware threads are much more efficient compared to systems from yesteryear. The hit taken to manage and synchronise thread overhead is nowhere near as bad as it used to be. This, and with intelligent software design and clever compiler tools, also can reduce stalls, etc. e.g. where two or more threads were/are trying to access a particular resource, hence blocking/stalling the other thread(s). The move towards parallelism is definitely here to stay and it definitely a good thing.

But yes, some of the early multithreaded games exhibited poor performance. This, I believe, was largely due to developers not yet necessarily being up to speed on the architecture and the fact that they may well have been trying to re-factor old code to run on multiple threads (which can be an extremely difficult thing to do, even with the most concise and clean code base as a starting point). I can only talk from experience but moving to the new multithreading setups required massive time and resource investment as large swathes of code and engine tech I worked on had to be practically rewritten from scratch. Which was good fun and an immense way to learn. Jeez, I made some humdinger mistakes along the way though... LOL!

 

[Pulsator]

Im sure i read somewhere that the PS4 also now has dedicated servers for their games :/

was i seeing things lol

 

[Ranter22]

Only for some games if the developer offers them.

 

[C.J]

Im sure i read somewhere that the PS4 also now has dedicated servers for their games :/

was i seeing things lol

I thought PS4 was 30k, while the One has 300k?

 

[gex23]

So it seems overall the XBOne edges the PS4 in initial reviews though it's a pretty insignificant difference.

Also seems the new controllers tweaks over the 360 version aren't resoundingly welcome.

 

[AK]

Personal preference. I thought the new controllers were a superb improvement over the old.

 

[Chris n nic]

Some people have mentioned the pads feeling a little odd but I remember replacing my old 360 pad with a new one and it felt completely different especially the sticks as they had obviously loosened on my old one. I imagine that after a few days you will have climatised to the new pad

 

[Scutch]

Doesn't bother me that much, but thought I'd post up:

 

[C.J]

Today I've decided to stick with both pre-orders. Both consoles appear similar, but each have their own advantages.

I have both current gen and although my 'RL' friends have consoles, they are split across different platforms (none have both). I've always stuck to my unbiased opinion that the 360 was better. Hands down.

This time the One (imo without being hands on) is the better console experience (controller/dash/live/kinect/snap), but the PS4 is the better console for gaming/graphics (already proven with the few games at higher res).

If I decide one isn't worth keeping, I could probably sell at cost in a months time.

 

[gex23]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...xed-and-whats-not-in-the-cod-ghosts-ps4-patch

Well, a close look at our captures reveals that Call of Duty: Ghosts actually runs at higher frame-rates than 60fps on a fairly frequent basis, despite the video output being limited to 60Hz. In scenes where we experienced judder and perceived frame-rate loss, what we are actually seeing is the appearance of skipped and incomplete frames

So basically running TOO many FPS. Lol.

 

[SharkyUK]

Games do generally run above and below target framerates though (depending on computational load, etc)... so I would have expected the game to exhibit such behaviour. More worryingly is the fact that the patch hasn't really fixed anything Hopefully it will be fixed properly soon and the judder and inconsistencies smoothed out.

 

[gex23]

No 5.1 over optical for the XBOne. Ouch.

http://kotaku.com/the-xbox-one-the-kotaku-review-1467960010

However, the Xbox One is currently only able to output stereo and DTS Digital through its optical output. My headphone receiver can't read DTS Digital, so I have to output in stereo, and my surround headphones turn into regular old headphones. I've been asking Microsoft for the last week if they intend to add Dolby output to the optical audio port in the near future (it's an option for HDMI output), but haven't gotten a solid answer on whether a fix is coming

Also

 

[Daz.]

Doesn't bother me that much, but thought I'd post up:

How does that compare with the current 360?

 

[Scutch]

How does that compare with the current 360?

No idea, but the XBO is apparently very quiet indeed, almost silent.

 

[AK]

Not sure what distance these are at;

PlayStation 3:
28,7dB — Blu-Ray-movie
35,8dB — DVD-movie
35,8dB — Playing games
23,5dB — Doing nothing


Xbox 360:
38,1dB — HD-DVD -movie
35,7dB — DVD-movie
44dB — Playing games
36,0dB — Doing nothing






Read more: http://www.videogamesblogger.com/20...se-the-consoles-really-make.htm#ixzz2lDLJz9V2
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[AK]

Or

http://www.psu.com/forums/showthread.php/62108-PS3-Xbox360-noise-level-measurements


Xbox 360
========
Startup (from cold) - 56dB,
Startup Idle (30 sec sampling) - min < 50dB, peak 51dB
Drive Loading - peak 60dB
Extended Idle (1 hour running) - peak 61dB! (no drive! Just fans)




PS3
==========
Startup (from cold) - 50dB
Startup Idle - min < 50db, peak < 50db
Drive Loading - peak 50dB
Extended Idle (1 hour running) - peak 53dB (no drive, just fans)

 

[Scutch]

Yeah 360 is quite noisy.

 

[AK]

If my latter post is to be believed then the XBOne is very quiet.

 

[Gavin.]

Are they launch consoles or the later versions? My original PS3 sounds like it's ready to take off after a while.

 

[Munson]

360 is 'quite' noisy?

LOL it's one of the main reasons I chucked mine in the wheelie bin ages ago. Hateful machine.

 

[Scutch]

http://kotaku.com/plugging-an-xbox-one-into-itself-looks-like-art-1468278336

 

[N0ddie]

PS3 noise levels above must be for the original "Phat" PS3. My super slim PS3 is louder than my washing machine lol.

 

[Gavin.]

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/articles/20877/20131122/xbox-one-launch-issues-disc-drive-failure.htm

Oh dear.

 

[N0ddie]

Theres always gonna be "issues" with launch tech. Its no surprise really.

Lets just hope those that have faulty consoles manage to get replacements quickly.

 

[dk]

No issues here