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How fast and what tech do you think will be in the next consoles?

AndroidVageta

AndroidVageta

Banned
What kind of technology do you think will be in the next wave of gaming consoles? Do you think theyll put current day PCs to shame?

My guess would be something like:

Hex-core CPU or better (depending on when the consoles come out)

DX11 or maybe even DX12 (depending on release date) video card? Equivalent to perhaps a 480GTX or better? 1GB...2GB RAM?

4-6-8GB DDR3? Maybe DDR4?

Blu-ray

High capacity hard drive or maybe SSD?


Do you think they'll stick with current class controls...gamepads...or do you see them becoming more "interactive" like things of the Sony Move/Xbox Kinect type?

Im kinda hoping theyll stick with controllers...I mean, I can see liking the motion controllers and what not...but from owning a Wii, I dont want to have to move around and shit every time I play a game...especially something like a racing game with the Kinect style motion sensing...Id hate to have to stick my arms out for hours to play a racing game...

In either case, what are all of your opinions?
 
Theres no point in talking about next gen consoles at the moment. They're so far away that we have no idea what the hell they might put in them.
 
They are almost definitely in development right now. I wouldnt be surprised if the specs are finalized but game development according to those specs is still continuing.

The big unanswered questions are:

1. What is going to the model for these consoles as far as development and production costs, and sale price? Nintendo sold the Wii for more than it cost to make, because the components included were not cutting edge. Sony and MS, on the other hand, included new, bespoke components that were very expensive to develop and manufacture. These pushed the price of the consoles up and forced them to be sold at a loss.

2. As the OP mentioned, what are the control options included in these new controllers? This question is more difficult to answer, because Kinect hasnt even launched yet. Difficult to decide whether to go after such a control scheme if you dont even know how popular it will be. The Wii has been very popular, but I'm not sure if Sony and MS would hedge their bets based on that. Remember, the specification would need to be finalized probably at least 2 years prior to the launch of the console, so that games can be developed. This means none of the manufacturers have the luxury of deciding at the last minute. Could be a very expensive gamble if these new peripherals tank.

My bets:

Nintendo will do what they do best. I'd expect the Wii2 to be backwards compatible with Wii and GC titles, and to support evolutionary but not revolutionary hardware. A dual core CPU almost definitely, if they want to stay Wii compatible it would still be an IBM chip. Likewise with the GPU, unless they go after emulation which they usually dont. I wouldnt expect an ordinary ATI or NVidia GPU, but ATI might tune up their GPU like they did with the Wii. No SSD and probably no hard drive, either. Small amount of flash memory only.

Sony: Needs to beat the PS3, obviously, which means they need to make something that at least sounds better than the Cell, which is the hard part. Even if it includes a reduced number of cores, but more powerful ones, Sony PR might find it hard to market. We might end up seeing a second generation Cell because of that fact alone. My guess would be another Nvidia GPU, probably the generation after Fermi. They might even go for a 128 bit memory bus and GDDR5 to save costs (instead of a 256 bit bus). Blu Ray and hard drive most likely as standard.

MS: They have a lot more freedom than Sony. They can pursue a low cost option a la Nintendo, or they can go for the hardware crown. Personally I think it will be something in between. They will want something cheap enough to be mass market, while more powerful than the current 360 and Nintendo's next console. They might be willing to surrender the hardware crown to Sony in hopes that lower costs will lead to greater sales (which, historically, they have). We might even see an Intel or an AMD quad core CPU in here - the only reason they tend to avoid them (IMHO) is to make direct comparisons with computers more difficult. Another IBM core is certainly a possibility, as is another ATI GPU.

In case it isnt obvious, this is all speculation, and no one outside of select employees of the above three companies knows the truth.
 
The PS360 successors will certainly contain a GPU beyond the GTX 400 and Radeon 5000 generation. Probably 128-bit GDDR5. The 360 has 700MHz 128-bit GDDR3, so 1200MHz GDDR5 gives them nearly 3.5 times the bandwidth. I'd expect 2-4GB.
 
Blu-ray or a proprietary derivative will become standard, replacing DVD. That's pretty much a given. Nintendo will also probably ship an HD console, most likely 3D capable given the 3DS. PS3 already uses a hex-core CPU, technically. Hopefully they'll finally abandon Rambus. That's a company that needs to die. Microsoft is going to have to put big emphasis on hardware reliability next time round.

Aside from that, it's too early to tell. No doubt the next generation is already being designed, but it will be at least 2012 before we see anything new.
 
Expect 2gb of ram... These aren't pcs and don't need as much ram, the original xbox had 64 meg IIRC, and the 360 and ps3 both have 512.
 
im sure companies start thinking about new systems the day after they release one...but theres no way to know what will be different..games, graphics?, features..
 
All games will (try) to run at full 1080p res, or possibly higher depending on how long it'll be before a next gen is announced. I would bet that most game devs still won't try to push past 30fps as most console players don't mind or care, so it's not worth their effort.

There might be more emphasis on physics and/or AI improvements, as graphics are starting to plateau a bit and aren't making the massive leaps I remember a number of years back, and I'm still impressed by current visuals.
 
DivideBYZero said:
Whatever you guess will be wrong.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but speculation can be interesting.

My guess:

Wii2 will be similar in specs to current PS3/Xbox 360 performance, nothing fancy. New type of controller that hardcore gamers will find gimmicky and casual gamers will love.

PS4/Xbox3:
  • At least 8GB GDDR5/6 (if it's 2-3 years away why not?)
  • Quad or Octo-core processor w/other new tech for multiple processes in each core
  • Some sort of built in physics processor
  • Possibly SSD hard drive
  • Most titles available upon release in digital download format.
  • BluRay for PS4, either BluRay or no optical drive at all for Xbox3 (digital download only? Probably not...)
  • Not much emphasis in motion controls early on, if at all.
  • Most titles available in 3D.
  • $70 game price point, $60 if you download digitally 🙁
  • PS4 will move back towards hardcore gaming and less towards doing everything, Xbox will do the opposite

Just my guesses.
 
Sony/MS:

Baseline native 1080p rendering (Please, no more of the upscaling HD bullshit for next-gen)
Non-x86 tons-of-cores exotic CPU that sounds good on paper but meh in actual performance
2GB GDDR5 RAM at least
*Insert ATI / Nvidia latest GPU architecture*
Largest Blu-ray standard
~1TB HDDs

Expected in 2012.
Pricing $399-$599
 
I'll bet Sony and MS will probably still have similar controllers in the next gen, they'll have added or more advanced motion controls built in as well. Nothing major, but something like how the PS3 used sixaxis I expect MS to do something similarly simple. Probably a gyroscope in one or both of them.
 
Seeing as they are at least five years away, if the next generation of consoles had any hardware that's available now, they would be extremely disappointing. They are so far away that even speculating about what they will contain is completely pointless.
 
Ok first off IBM will most likely do the next gen because of contracts, second there has been no talk between hardware and what will be in them (beyond what ifs) so your looking atleast 2 year development and another 1-2 years of refining and revisions. Third its always been about price for a company so if your thinking 8gigs of ddrx your dreaming. Assume a download/sd card for non ps consoles unless Sony licenses out blu-ray for cheap. Processing power will be equivalent to high end systems in the 3-4 year range.

Remember they want to make money selling consoles eventually and not dig a huge ass hole when selling a console, look at the ps3.

Edit: you may wonder how I know, and lets just say I do.
 
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Bman123 said:
No ssd drive, way too expensive to put in there. Next consoles
will be $500+
Click to expand...

You do realize that prices on tech drop like a stone every couple years right? We're 3-5 years away from a new console so SSDs are going to be more likely than not. If you think SSDs will stay the same price for 3 years you're a damned fool.
 
I think you guys are grossly over-estimating. Considering the specs of the current-gen, I highly doubt the next generation will have more anything more than 2GB RAM, probably closer to 1GB. I'd love to see 1GB system, 1GB video, but that is probably over-kill and not cost effective. I'd imagine a 500GB internal HD. GPU will probably be a streamlined variation of something that'll hit in the next year or two; console GPUs are never really all that spectacular. The CPU will probably be 6-8 core x86-based on the Xbox side (as the ease of programming for the 360 has been one of its biggest strengths, so they'll probably want to stick to a similar architecture), and Sony will no doubt follow the Emotion Engine and Cell with some hideously expensive asymmetric thingy that does amazing rain and snow effects but isn't really suited for anything else. Fanboys will proclaim it to be better than sex, and defend Sony's "vision" from haters and "lazy" developers. I am certain both with be Blu-Ray based, though I doubt either will have a dedicated physics processor (most PCs don't even have this, so I doubt they'd throw it into a console).
 
OptimumSlinky said:
I think you guys are grossly over-estimating. Considering the specs of the current-gen, I highly doubt the next generation will have more anything more than 2GB RAM, probably closer to 1GB. I'd love to see 1GB system, 1GB video, but that is probably over-kill and not cost effective. I'd imagine a 500GB internal HD. GPU will probably be a streamlined variation of something that'll hit in the next year or two; console GPUs are never really all that spectacular. The CPU will probably be 6-8 core x86-based on the Xbox side (as the ease of programming for the 360 has been one of its biggest strengths, so they'll probably want to stick to a similar architecture), and Sony will no doubt follow the Emotion Engine and Cell with some hideously expensive asymmetric thingy that does amazing rain and snow effects but isn't really suited for anything else. Fanboys will proclaim it to be better than sex, and defend Sony's "vision" from haters and "lazy" developers. I am certain both with be Blu-Ray based, though I doubt either will have a dedicated physics processor (most PCs don't even have this, so I doubt they'd throw it into a console).
Click to expand...

Sounds pretty accurate to me, although I think MS will avoid x86. They will either use a GPU with enough extra power for physics processing, or the CPU will have some sort of on die GPU (a small one) for physics processing. I'd think a cost benefit analysis would support that its worth your while using even small GPU-like processor for certain embarrassingly parallel problems.
 
The 360 isn't x86 based right now since IBM doesn't even have a x86 architecture.

Anyways my guess for the PS3/360

A quad core IBM CPU 3.6 to 4.0 GHz range
2 MB L2 cache
4-6 MB L3 cache

Note: I think Sony will smarten up on there stupid CPU's once and for all, but they may go with something crazy again that nets them little to no advantage.

1GB or possibly but unlikely 2GB of 128 bit DDR5

And for MS only a specialized GPU based on there less then current ATi GPU with all the fat that can possibly be cut, cut.

For Sony a nVidia GPU completely un-modified.

I expect the units to launch as a SoC rather then separate cpu and gpu sockets.

500 GB 7200 RPM 2.5" drive.

BR drive.

Lower market entry price then last gen for both Sony and MS, probably 399.99 for both. The high launch price IMO really hurt Sony.
 
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I think that 2GB of memory is likely, however I don't think it will go beyond that. The focus of the next generation is going to be on 1080p gaming and they're going to want more than 1024MB of memory for those textures.
 
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