Technology Xbox 360 and new Xbox Live specs leak

bigmack · May 14, 2005

Rukas said:

crickey...............

PaulyPac · May 14, 2005

Rock said:

you just made yourself look stupid with that comment there

:thumb:

2pacnbiggie · May 14, 2005

lol i dont see why everyones gettin so hyped so early on the new xbox...wait till more info is revealed about the 2 other systems first. Cuz if ps3 is backwards compatible with the previous systems, and they get the same support they had in the past its gonna be r.i.p. to xbox and nintendo again

just like ps1 beat n64, and ps2 beat xbox, dreamcast, and gamecube

Duke · May 14, 2005

Nintendo's got the reputation, Sony's got mainstream popularity, MS has technology.

They all want all three. Nintendo is going for a different approach to gaming. Much props.

Sony got huge backing and can draw upon a huge assortment of games to suite anyone's taste.

MS Xbox got the money and the technology to potentially make anything happen.

But to me it seems XBox is going strong with the development of a solid, working online network. That's what lacked in GT4. That's what TheOne meant as well when he pointed out he doesnt play GT4 anymore but Forza.

So until Nintendo and Sony get a decent online network, i can gradually see XBox gaining ground....

Kryogenikz · May 15, 2005

Nintendo will be online capable right out of the box with it's Wi-Fi. AND it'll be a completely free service.

As far as i know , Xbox will still have to be ethernet connected and of course to types of services......Xbox Live silver and gold packages. Gold which you will have to pay for.

PaulyPac · May 15, 2005

sony have more experience in hardware than microsoft

Duke · May 15, 2005

PaulyPac said:

Yes, that's why the MS consoles are the most powerful yet. I highly doubt the PS3 specs will top that of the new XBox. Don't get me wrong, higher specs doesn't mean instant succes, but it's an asset which is currently in posession of MS.

K D · May 15, 2005

ps3 is said to be 3 times more powerful then the 360 and revolution more powerful then the 360 but not the ps3... but i think all consoles will have there own strengths to bring to next gen.. nintendo supposidly will have controllers that are pressure sensitive and even will get hot/cold changing with the environment in the game

ps3 is said to be compatable with the psp and ive also heard rumors that it is possible to play ps3 games through the psp anywhere around your house via wi fi.. that meaning the ps3 will just send information to your psp and your psp will display it .. not exactly 100% sure how it will work

ive also heard for the 360 that 2 versions are coming out one that is just base purely for the gaming and the high end version which focuses on the gaming and entertainment purposes

well we will all find out tomorrow e3 is tomorrow

PaulyPac · May 15, 2005

Duke said:

xbox came out 3 years after ps2, thats why its more powerful
and if the ps3 does have the cell processor, then its alot more powerful than xbox's 3.2ghz core

you're not even looking at the information, you're just guessing

Rukas · May 16, 2005

K D said:

The PS3 will NOT be 3 times more powerful than the 360, that is a joke. Nothing but bullshit Sony hype. The Revolution is almost IDENTICAL to the 360, if not slightly underpowered but it wont be noticable.

The 360 and Rev. are so alike infact, certain people are wondering if Nintento and Microsoft havent struck some sort of partnership.

I really doubt the PS3 will be backwards compatible, the programming langauge is so different than the PS2 as is the hardware config, it would be REALLY hard to do and may not be cost effective enough. I hope they dont do it, I fear if they do it will slow the PS3 down or make it more expensive

.

The two versions rumor is old. There was supposed to be one with a HDD and one without, but now they all come with 20gigs.

Rukas · May 16, 2005

PaulyPac said:

What the fuck? 3 years? PS2 launched October 2000. Xbox launched November 2001.

What the fuck are you talking about?

And the Xbox has THREE 3.2ghz cores.

Stop with the lies already.

Salar · May 16, 2005

i feel your pain Ruk.
Nothing get's through.

Salar · May 16, 2005

And i'm impressed with Microsoft's marketing read the following

Halo 3 parrying PlayStation 3 launch

Time quotes Bill Gates saying Sony's next-gen console will "walk into" the Xbox 360 follow-up to the best-selling sci-fi shooter.

For months, the Web was rife with rumors that Microsoft would ship the sequel to Halo 2 for the Xbox 360 simultaneously with the launch of the PlayStation 3. Now, that has been confirmed--by none other than Bill Gates himself.

n next week's issue of Time Magazine--which features Gates holding the Xbox 360 on the cover--Gates mentioned plans for the release of the much-anticipated follow-up to the best-selling console shooter. In a parenthetical sidebar in the article, Time says the following:

"Note to the hard-core faithful: the next version of Halo will not, repeat not, be ready in time for the launch of Xbox 360. It will be part of the all-important second wave next spring. 'It's perfect,' Gates says, radiant with bloodlust. 'The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3.'"

While Microsoft reps were not available for comment as of press time, Gates' comments appear to confirm the theory that Microsoft will release Halo 3 either simultaneously or near the release of Sony's next-gen console. It also marks further official confirmation that a third Halo is indeed in the works, and will be released for the Xbox 360.

Although such statements might be interpreted as grandstanding, such a maneuver definitely would have an impact. Halo 2 sold over 6.5 million copies to date, and is credited with doubling the subscriber base of Xbox Live from around 750,000 to over 1.5 million. It is also credited by industry-watchers as one of the main reasons for boosting sales of the original Xbox last holiday season.

source: Gamespot

I was just amazed at how smart the marketing for products is. the sequal to the highest selling game of 2004 which boosted xbox sales dramatically is coming out on the same day as playstation. One of the most genius ideas ever

K D · May 16, 2005

Rukas said:

Nintendo's specs havent even been released, where did you find the info saying there so similar? im not saying your lying im just wondering where cuz i havent seen info on that.. and with the whole nintendo and microsoft partnership .. a while back microsoft tried to buy out nintendo but that didnt happen.. there is no deal.. you can tell with articles by ppl close to nintendo there is alot of 360 bashing.

but the way things are going (ive read alot about all the systems in the past weeks from geeks on xbox 360 and ps3 sites) and they all agree that the ps3 will outpower the 360 in a significant amount. They said it could be done with the use of one cell but ps3 is using 4! so its around 3 times more powerful they say.. i might be wrong about this i dont understand half the shit those guys say..

ps3 xbox and even nintendo have all officially said that they will all be backwards compatible and with the whole ps3 and psp thing there are patents out and in them it says something along the lines of wi fi capabilities with ps3 and psp maybe its just for data or it could be something alot greater, someone said something like if your parents were watchin a movie on the tv all you would need to do is turn the ps3 on and through wi fi technology you could take your psp in your room and play ps3 games. rukas with the whole the technology being way to different ppl on sites said that it would just be like ps3 sending information to the psp and the psp displaying it so it wouldnt call for any hardware to be exactly the same.

Rukas · May 16, 2005

K D said:

Certain developers have stated both the Rev and 360 are almost identical hardware specs wise, and Nintendo has announced that the Rev will use the same IBM CPU and similar if not same ATI graphics chip as the 360.

I doubt that, I havent seen any reliable gaming or electronic source make any such claims. I think the NY Times said something like that, but they are full of shit. This is the same Sony hype that they used before the PS2 was announced.

We'll see, it would be good if it was, as Ill buy a PS3 anyway, so yay for me at the end, but I seriously doubt it.

No one has officially said anything in that regard at all.

That would actually be pretty cool, first Ive heard of it though. It would be good for the kids, luckily I dont have any such parent problems stopping my gaming, but that could be cool.

Yep makes sense, could be good, not something Id ever need, but could be a good seller for them. I guess we'll see e3.

Rukas · May 16, 2005

Oh for the record, with everyone saying the CELL is so much faster than the 360 CPU, so what? The Emotion Engine in the PS2 was about 5x faster than the Xbox CPU, but the Xbox as we know STILL out preformed the PS2 in every performance aspect.

I trust MS to pull of a better over all package than Sony and they have the better programming language. In the end, I really dont see the PS3 or Xbox performing that much different at all, they will balance out. Which is good for gamers.

This Sony hype was just rubbish. I cant believe how you're all forgetting the hype in 1999 and 2000 leading upto the PS2. LOL Super computer my ass.

groobz · May 16, 2005

Damn it looks nice, can't touch pc's though.

K D · May 16, 2005

Rukas said:

i cant find the sites for this but im 100% sure all devolopers have announced backwards capability .. im 100% sure about this e3 is tomorrow .. you can even quote me on this .. ps3, xbox 360 and nintendo will all be backwards compatible

by the way im not a fan boy i was just really interested in all of this and have been reading up for the past cople of weeks

Rukas · May 16, 2005

K D said:

Sorry but Im a 100% MS hasnt announced it, maybe Nintendo or Sony did over night, but as of yesturday, no one had said anything.

Rukas · May 16, 2005

groobz said:

You wont see Xbox 360 like power on PC until 2007 at least. Heres a nice article just for you

.

http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/200...husiasts/1.html

Wowsa. So the Xbox 360 finally got announced. To be honest, I'm absolutely blown away. The specs are utterly mouthwatering, and the design and some of the thought that has clearly gone into making this a desirable bit of kit is simply outstanding.

Of course, whilst the console is important for its own sake, it also has profound implications for us PC enthusiasts, and that's what I'd like to talk a little about today.

So let's get the basics down. Xbox 360 uses 3 PowerPC cores on a single chip, each running at 3.2GHz. It sports the R500 graphics processor, which runs at 500MHz core, has a 10MB embedded DRAM architecture and a unified shader system. It sports 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, running at 700MHz, which is split between the main system and the graphics. 4 wireless controllers are supported, whilst the system sports a 20GB hard drive and a built-in Media Center Extender.

The processor, then. Let's get some context. PowerPC chips are made by IBM, and run the Apple PowerMac chips. Whilst we don't know the exact model numbers for these chips yet, they're clearly a variant on the G5 chip that runs the PowerMac, since the Xbox 360 development kits - what programmers use before final hardware is available - were Macs. Presently, the G5 operates at 2.7GHz, so for the 360 to be operating at 3.2GHz is a step up. The present dual-core Intel and AMD chips run at 3.2GHz and 2.4GHz respectively. IBM have squeezed three cores at 3.2GHz into this baby. Not only that, but each of those cores uses a form of HyperThreading (although it's not called HyperThreading) to process 2 threads each, meaning simultaneous execution of 6 threads.

"It's highly likely that we're going to be seeing more and more PC games come with built-in dual- or multi-core support"

Undoubtedly, the OS for this machine will be based, in some way, on Windows. Whilst Apple has long been known to have OSX code that works on x86 architecture, it now seems as if Microsoft has Windows code to work on PowerPCs chips.

What does the processor mean for PCs, then? Well, the first thing is that games for the 360 are going to be multi-threaded from day one, to take advantage of the massive threading performance that a 3-core CPU will have. Because of the unified development architecture that now encompasses the PC and the Xbox 360 - known as the XNA platform - it's highly likely that we're going to be seeing more and more PC games come with built-in dual- or multi-core support, since it will be relatively easy to convert over from the Xbox 360 version.

The architecture that sits beneath the processor is rather radical, and it's something that, quite honestly, we're still trying to get our heads around. Rather than using separate graphics and system memory, it appears that the Xbox 360 uses a unified memory architecture that splits the memory as it needs. The actual memory itself is GDDR3, the same stuff you'll find on the latest graphics boards from ATI. There's no physics processing unit, which is something that was rumoured a while back. Instead, Microsoft are banking on the triple-core to handle those kinds of calculations. We are rather unlikely to see this kind of shared memory architecture in PCs any time soon, because it would require a substantial redesign of the entire platform, which isn't something that either AMD or Intel are keen to do right now.

"48 pipelines is simply bonkers."

The graphics system uses the R500 GPU from ATI. Whilst all sorts of information has been flying round, here's what we know. R500 is an Xbox-only chip. R520, ATI's next PC part, is nothing like it. It won't be until R600 - possibly this time next year, or even early 2007 - that we see the Xbox-esque features on the PC. The GPU itself uses a unified shader architecture. That is, unlike PC graphics boards - which use a pixel shader pipeline and vertex shader pipeline - just one pipeline is used for both, which will, it is said, lead to more efficient programming and better performance. This is the one aspect of the Xbox 360 that has been debated already. Nvidia have gone on record as saying that they think a unified shader architecture is a bad idea, whilst ATI have gone on record as saying they think it's the way forward for PC graphics. Unfortunately for Nvidia, it's really Microsoft, with the DirectX specification (soon to be renamed Windows Graphics Foundation, when Longhorn finally turns up) that writes the rules. Whilst WGF will support separate pixel and vertex pipelines, there can be little doubt that the coding will favour a unified architecture, and consequently, ATI.

Whilst ATI may have had to work incredibly hard, and divert a lot of resources to the Xbox 360 project to get everything to work properly, the payoff may well be a headstart over Nvidia when the next-generation PC graphics wars kick off.

Oh, and here's a number for you: 48 pipelines. The X850 uses 16, the R520 is mooted to have 32. 48 pipelines is simply bonkers.

The obvious query is how far a shared memory architecture will affect the performance. Well, ATI - the graphics providers for Xbox 360 - have integrated embedded DRAM onto the graphics processor, with 10MB of the stuff effectively acting as a cache for the graphics board. By having a large amount of extremely fast memory right next to the chip, it means that operations such as anti-aliasing can be done with almost no performance hit. Obviously, that's a big boon for large displays with comparatively low resolutions, such as TVs. The technology would clearly be of benefit in PCs, but again, the embedded DRAM technology won't be on the desktop until R600. By then, it may well be that Nvidia have adopted it too.

There are a couple of other things to note about the Xbox 360. The first is that it uses a liquid cooling system to keep the components cool. We suspect that it's heatpipe technology, similar to that used in servers, rather than a watercooling setup like we might build today. Hopefully, similar quiet, efficient solutions can be developed for the PC, because the solutions currently are less than optimal.

The gamepad the 360 uses is wireless, and charges its batteries over USB. The controller will also work with PCs, meaning an end to Xbox-to-USB converters, it seems.

The machine packs a 20GB hard drive, which isn't enough for a great deal of media storage. However, it does pack a Media Center Extender. This means that if you have a Media Center PC with all your music and videos on it, your Xbox 360 will be able to stream and play that media wirelessly. That's a fairly nifty feature.

All in all, then, the Xbox 360 is packing some technology that is going to make its way to the PC eventually, and that will influence the way that programmers work on the PC. It may well be a while before we see PC components that can keep pace with the new Xbox, and even when they do, we can bet they'll be a heck of a lot more expensive than the subsidised Xbox 360 will be.

With a European, Japanese and American launch scheduled for before Christmas, frankly, we can't wait to get our hands on one of these things.

Technology Xbox 360 and new Xbox Live specs leak

New Member

New Member

New Member

Well-Known Member

New Member

New Member

Well-Known Member

New Member

New Member

Capo Dei Capi

Capo Dei Capi

The One, The Only

The One, The Only

New Member

Capo Dei Capi

Capo Dei Capi

New Member

New Member

Capo Dei Capi

Capo Dei Capi

Donate