Who's heard about the PS3 and XBOX 2 specs?

[pyrate83]

I was just reading an article from Microsoft saying they intend to design every aspect of the next XBOX. Then I read another article not by Microsoft/XBOX that says they are planning on using a 7-8 GHZ P4 with a graphics processor clocked at 1GHZ. I can't imagine they will use a 7-8 GHZ processor for just playing games...doesn't seem logical or possible at this point in time. What do you think?

The expected specs of the PS3 sounds really good though also. I'm looking forward to the 2005 release of it and will have to just keep following XBOX until 2006 when it's expected to release.

[pixel]

What's up with M/S? How can they use a 7/8GHz P4 when there is no such thing yet?

I have not heard about the PS3, but that will be the one i'll be buying anyway. I don't want to waste money on more M$ products.

The PSX and PSP look good though as a go between for the PS2 and PS3 especially with all the recording functions on the PSX, but M$ have already started designing a similar one too.

[Solarjetman]

What's up with M/S? How can they use a 7/8GHz P4 when there is no such thing yet?

Well, there will be by 2006 when pyrate said it was going to be released.

[flaninacupboard]

yeah, i remember when the xbox specs wee first announced, thinking "**** me! that's amazing!" as i was using a P75.......

[pixel]

Oh man. They're thinking big. I though I was making a big leap by going from a 2.4GHz to a 2.88GHz which I should have in a few weeks. Talk about small potatoes.

I wonder what the projected price for that will be. I still won't buy it. What do M$ know about hardware, I thought that they were solely a software company before the XBOX?

[jeex]

just remember, $ony & M$ love to inflate the capabilities of their machine.. the DC was the only machine to give us "real" stats..

on the bright side, the PS3 will be backwards compatible with PS2 & PS1 games... through emulation.

a PS3 emulating a PS2 should be pretty interesting..

[pyrate83]

I believe they're also planning on making the XBOX 2 backwards compatible too so you won't have to toss you're orginal XBOX games if you do plan to buy the XBOX 2. I still think a 7-8 GHZ processor is just mind boggling though. I can't see that speed being needed...at least not currently.

[mysticgohan17]

I was just reading an article from Microsoft saying they intend to design every aspect of the next XBOX.

The green screen of death, exclusive to the Xbox 2 :P

[thayne]

I believe they're also planning on making the XBOX 2 backwards compatible too so you won't have to toss you're orginal XBOX games if you do plan to buy the XBOX 2. I still think a 7-8 GHZ processor is just mind boggling though. I can't see that speed being needed...at least not currently.

I remember when I got my first 512MB hard drive thinking "Good God, I'll never need to buy another hard drive, I could never fill this thing up..." That was less than 10 years ago...

I remember my Computer Science teacher telling me "You will never see a CPU faster than 500MHz in a home PC, it's not possible due to the heat issue..." That was 6 years ago....

[flaninacupboard]

Yeah, it's just one of those things. in five years time we'll be saying "wow guys, check out my new 166 machine!" and that'll be 166Ghz.

I also remember reading "processors will never reach above 600mhz, as at this frequency they will start to emit microwave radiation!" Ahhh, so -that's- why the original Athlons got so warm.......

Microsoft have in fact been making hardware for donkeys years. you never seen a MS mouse? sidewinder pad? steering wheel? ok, they're perhaps manufactured by someone else, with their name on, but they're probably going to give the work for Xbox 2 out to someone else anyway. Do you really think they'll produce their own pentium 4 chips for the console......?

I can't see that speed being needed...at least not currently.

Oh really? I think playing a game with 8X compressed textures, with 8X anisotropic filtering outputting to HDTV at 1280X1024 would quite easily suck up that much power. certainly would in doom 4 anyway. either way, it probably still won't be meaty enough to play daikatana (not that you'd want to.)

[pixel]

As a matter of fact, I used to have a MS mouse and a MS Sidewinder

I know that microsoft would not even contemplate their own processor.
I agree with pyrate83 that speed such as 7 or 8GHz probably wont be needed due to the amount of data they can fit on one DVD, unless they end up splitting games across multiple DVDs to give the highest possible quality.

[pyrate83]

And I agree with Pixel.

[ipgpe13]

I recently did an on-line survey on the design of the next X-Box. They gave different option configurations (on-line capability, controlers, pc connectivity, etc.), various prices and asked which ones I would buy.

The survey explicitly said that none of the configurations would be backward compatable with X-Box 1 games.

This makes me pretty sure that they do not intend to make the new X-Box backward compatable.

This by-itself made all the proposed configurations unattractive to me (eventhough I do not own an X-Box), plus none of the prices were below $399.00 and went up to $799.00.

[pixel]

I recently did an on-line survey on the design of the next X-Box. They gave different option configurations (on-line capability, controlers, pc connectivity, etc.), various prices and asked which ones I would buy.

The survey explicitly said that the none of the configurations would be backward compatable with X-Box 1 games.

This makes me pretty sure that they do not intend to make the new X-Box backward compatable.

May be true. With the PS2 as stated above they use an emulator for PS1 games.

The XBOX may have too advanced features (my @®s€) to be able to play original XBOX games without having to add in older features for this, but I don't see why they can't use an emulator (with that 8GHz processor). Or they are just money hungry. (It's M$, duh.)

[thayne]

As a matter of fact, I used to have a MS mouse and a MS Sidewinder

I know that microsoft would not even contemplate their own processor.
I agree with pyrate83 that speed such as 7 or 8GHz probably wont be needed due to the amount of data they can fit on one DVD, unless they end up splitting games across multiple DVDs to give the highest possible quality.

I'm sure Xbox 2 will use Blue ray DVD, which is like 23GB disks

[pixel]

Yeah, 23GB.

I never even thought about that. For that the 8GHz processor might not even be enough!!! Of course it all depends on the quality of the original game production.

[flaninacupboard]

nah, we all know the discs'll end up with 1GB of game data, and 22GB's of HDTV quality cut scenes.....
Anyone remember the Mega-CD?
Seriously, a top-notch game engine today could easily soak up that many GHZ if you use high rez textures, and advanced physics systems. Heh, one day game engines will be so advanced they'll use quantum calculations for particles instead of classical ones, that'll -definitely- need more Ghz!!
Not sure how well an Xbox1 emu would run on an Xbox2, even at that speed. even if the graphics tasks -can- be translated into something the Xbox2 understands, that's a pretty major job translating it on the fly! i don't know if an Xbox emu exists for the PC yet, but if it does i imagine it's far from playable on consumer hardware.

[pyrate83]

You know what I would like to see is a console that is completely(and easily) upgradeable like our PC's are. Even if it was just software and driver updates for the console I would be happier. I mean XBOX 1 is using DirectX 8.0 and now we have 9.0 on our PC's. The same goes for graphics card drivers and sound card drivers. My PC is capable of producing similar graphics to the XBOX now...better than when I got it in Febuary because I have updated everything on it. Playing games is so great now on my PC. Not that it was bad when I first bought the computer..but you get the picture.

[RabidDog]

the whole point of consoils is that they are everything a Pc is not.. expandable upgradeable etc. This however means the game companys know exactly what they are working with. Also people will spend all their cash on games rather than new hardware...which is much more under the control of the companys. How can anyone say 7-8ghz wont be needed .. if its there games designers will use it. bluray schumay they want something unpirateable like the gamecube discs. What about a ps3 emulating a ps2 emulating a ps1 ! tho who will still be playing ps1 games... they will be played on your mobile phone by then.

Pixel ..what is the point of going from 2.4 to 2.8, I always aim for at least a doubling or trebling of anything b4 I upgrade.

[thayne]

Not sure how well an Xbox1 emu would run on an Xbox2, even at that speed.

The Xbox is basically a PC, why would the Xbox 2 need to emulate? It will just be a faster PC/Console. Doom plays on my P4 just like it did on my 486....