What's new

Sony announces PS3 GPU (1 Viewer)

Ken Chui

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 20, 2003
Messages
976
NVIDIA and SCEI confirm next-gen graphics chip

I have to say that I'm somewhat surprised, after the falling out between nVidia and Microsoft. With ATI collaborating with MS, and presumably with Nintendo in their next console, I wondered if nVidia would have any stake in the next generation of consoles. I have always been an ATI user (home & work), so I was taken aback by this announcement; maybe I should give the GeForce line another look with my next PC upgrade....nah. ;)
 

Yohan Pamudji

Supporting Actor
Joined
Apr 3, 2001
Messages
500
I've been following PC hardware long enough to remember the bad old days when ATI were truly horrible--mediocre 3D hardware with awful driver support. They've come a long way, but unless nVidia really start to fall behind or fail to fill the appropriate market segment, nVidia will continue to receive my support. Then again, with consoles you don't really get to choose who's GPU to use, now do you? :)

Kinda early to make predictions, but I'll probably get a PS3 before I get an Xbox2, although having both would be the end goal :emoji_thumbsup:
 

Ken Chui

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 20, 2003
Messages
976
Having re-entered the PC upgrade scene fairly recently and being a lifelong ATI user, my opinion of nVidia is a less-than-stellar one. While the GeForce 6xxx lineup of cards have been remarkable, I haven't forgotten the missteps along the way, most notably the 5800 in 2003 and the allegations of benchmark cheating in specific 3DMark03 tests. Thankfully, consoles and PCs are dissimilar in many respects; there are no ethical constraints (AFAIK) on what programmers can do on a console to elicit the best results.

I'll be paying closer attention to nVidia's proposed GPU specs moreso than the Cell's. With MS aggressively pushing for a 2005 release for the Xbox successor, I can't help but think that ATI's GPU design may be compromised to meet a production deadline, providing nVidia with a window of opportunity to build upon ATI's successes and shortcomings in their GPU's architecture.

Things should be really interesting in the first half of 2005, with MS expected to unveil a prototype of their next console in January and Sony promising to reveal the PS3's architecture in some form at E3.
 

Rob Silver

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 23, 2004
Messages
78
I'm still having nightmares from the Radeon 8500 days where the driver is so horrible I vow never to buy another ATI card, ever. nVidia drivers are just so much easier to install and work with, IMO.

Here's to hoping PS3's backward compatible w/ PS2 games. Hmmm... that means they'll have to put in 2 lasers, unless blu-ray can read current DVDs.
 

Yohan Pamudji

Supporting Actor
Joined
Apr 3, 2001
Messages
500
Ken,
The 5xxx series was truly a blunder by nVidia. They're back on top of their game, but things weren't so rosy for them during that GPU cycle.

When is E3? I've also heard the speculation that MS will unveil a prototype earlier than Sony, and further speculation that MS is shooting for a Christmas 2005 release while Sony is gunning for early 2006.


Rob,
Blu-ray players will have dual laser systems, so I assume the PS3 will also. Backwards compatibility is the way of the future, whether it be in games or in movie formats. Of course PS7 might not run your PS2 games perfectly, but games within a somewhat more reasonable timeframe, like 2 generations back, should run just fine on the newest console.
 

Ken Chui

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 20, 2003
Messages
976
Rob:
The Catalyst drivers for the Radeon lineup have been fairly solid in the past couple of years (speaking as a current Radeon 8500 user). Until I make the transition to a PCI Express card (probably an X800 or X850), I will continue using one of the older Catalyst drivers (3.7 or lower), as I'm unable to take advantage of the newer features intended for the more recent cards. While the GeForce 4xxx lineup was considerably faster than the 8500, the image quality in general didn't impress me, and when the 5xxx series emerged....well, I'm not going to beat a dead horse. ;) This is not to say that I'll never consider a GeForce-based card in the future, but given ATI's current track record and my personal history with their products, I'll need a really persuasive argument for me to make a switch.

Sony has confirmed that the PS3 will be both PS2 and PSOne backward compatible.


Yohan:
The E3 2005 Expo will be held in Los Angeles from May 18-20, the Conference from May 17-19. Rumour has it that some form of the Xbox 2's architecture may be unveiled as soon as next month during the 2005 International CES (January 6-9) in Las Vegas. Microsoft is gunning for a system launch in 2005, if everything goes as intended.

Sony COO Ken Kutaragi has hinted that the PS3's architecture will make an appearance (no indication as to whether it will be a working model or not) at E3 2005.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top