arstechnica next gen console cpu article

[Nickrand]

Not sure if you guys ever visit this site, find its contributors credible, etc... Another gamer passed this on to me the other day. Basically states that this author thinks the Xbox 360 will have a cpu advantage (not sure if that is common opinion/old news or what).

arstechnica article

here's a paragraph out of the conclusion:

"At any rate, Playstation 3 fanboys shouldn't get all flush over the idea that the Xenon will struggle on non-graphics code. However bad off Xenon will be in that department, the PS3's Cell will probably be worse. The Cell has only one PPE to the Xenon's three, which means that developers will have to cram all their game control, AI, and physics code into at most two threads that are sharing a very narrow execution core with no instruction window. (Don't bother suggesting that the PS3 can use its SPEs for branch-intensive code, because the SPEs lack branch prediction entirely.) Furthermore, the PS3's L2 is only 512K, which is half the size of the Xenon's L2. So the PS3 doesn't get much help with branches in the cache department. In short, the PS3 may fare a bit worse than the Xenon on non-graphics code, but on the upside it will probably fare a bit better on graphics code because of the seven SPEs."

 

[Genx87]

What outside of gaming will these things really do? Play DVDs?

Calling a winner because of possible 2d performance on a console is silly.

 

[hans030390]

Lol that's hilarious. They're just scared that the PS3 is better. Honestly, if the PS3 has developers that WORK with the 7 SPE's and actually utilize them (because yes, you really CAN do alot with them, more than he says) then the PS3 is undoubtedly more powerful than the Xbox360. BUT, i'm guessing many won't utilize them. So, in a way, I agree with him.

But, I have yet to see a really good looking game. GOW is good, but it's also on PS3 and will probably run better on it anyways. If you've seen Killzone 2 (which yes, it was in game, it was confirmed, and there have been leaks of Killzone PS3 material but have been shut down quickly), that looked amazing. I have yet to see a game that looks that good. Oh, and it's running on PS3, not Xbox360. It looks like he's wrong. PS3 is more powerful for games, but Xbox 360 is more powerful for other crap, which you really only need 1 processor to do.

Oh wait, i just read the end of that paragraph again, and I guess he did admit it will do better on graphics code.

lol....i don't care, either system will be very powerful. It's really just a matter of the games you like, and I like Playstation games.

 

[daveybrat]

I'll make my choice based on quality of games released, not the theoretical power each one holds. :thumbsup:

 

[DarkKnight]

I dont think that the author is saying the Xbox 360 is better. He's only saying that the ps3 may have a harder time with nongraphics code because it only have 1 PPE vs 3 in xbox360.

he really didnt make a judgement on which is gonna be better, he's just talking about the processor design. He also says that the ps3 will have an easier time with graphics code, so there are pros/cons on both sides

 

[bjc112]

Still speculation.. Wait till the damn things are released to decide.

 

[Ronin]

The XBOX PPEs all have a specific job, which means that all 3 are not available for the same purpose.

The PS3 cell has 8 directional threads that can be utilized (which he seems to have forgotten).

 

[Pete]

What does Hannibal have to be "scared" about? 😕

I thought GoW was going to be an Xb360/PC exclusive.

 

[Insomniak]

From what I understand about Cell, it processes very very well but only in one direction.

In the end though, this is a software industry. Whoever has the better games is going to come out on top this gen.