[Beowulf] Comparing PS4 with Xbox 720 next

[Vincent Diepeveen]

 From the article:

"As TG Daily previously reported, the PS4 is powered by an AMD CPU  
and GPU. According to reports, the console boasts 8 x86-64 CPU cores,  
while the GPU is based on the next-gen Radeon graphics engine,  
capable of 1.84 teraflops of performance power. Because it is an APU,  
both the CPU and GPU reside on the same physical die, sharing 8GB of  
GDDR5 memory.
The console is also packaged with a redesigned controller that  
features a touchpad on the front, a share button, a headphone jack, a  
light bar for player identification and tech to sense a player's  
depth and 3D position.

Meanwhile, the Xbox 720 (Next) is reportedly powered by an AMD eight- 
core x64 1.6GHz CPU, a D3D11.x 800MHz GPU and 8GB of DDR3 RAM.

Read more at http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/ 
70724-microsofts-xbox-720-is-aligned-with-sonys- 
playstation-4#YVukSix4LtIM80P6.99 "

There is a huge difference between DDR3 and GDDR5 ram in bandwidth.

1.6Ghz AMD chip with 8 cores to feed the GPU seems rather low lock to  
me.

I'd prefer 1 module of 4Ghz. At the CPU there runs a lot of stuff for  
a game. Important is the script/scenario.
That's all scripts usually or interpreters that figure out what to do  
next and it's usually completely sequential code.

You really want a 4.4Ghz core for that rather than 8 times 1.6Ghz.

Latency really matters there as the entire GPU won't do a thing until  
the CPU undertakes action.
Not much information there further that's useful.

Parallellizing the script is not so easy. Prefetching total nonsense  
simply is not what you want as anything you have the GPU do will take  
away bandwidth lowering your fps.

The only guess i can make is that AMD simply offered a great GPU for  
cheap dollars and that Sony simply took the GPU and took the CPU for  
granted, with of course Microsoft
negotiating after that in a manner which to say polite is a  
disgusting way of doing business - yet it works.



On May 6, 2013, at 3:17 AM, Christopher Samuel wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 04/05/13 16:32, Eugen Leitl wrote:
>
>> Purportedly, there will be something resembling the PS4 architecture
>> for the PC market. That would be an APU with 8 cores and stacked
>> memory.
>
> Also interesting that Microsofts next XBox (720) will also be AMD,
> with similar specs to the PS4.
>
> http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/70724- 
> microsofts-xbox-720-is-aligned-with-sonys-playstation-4
>
> # Meanwhile, the Xbox 720 (Next) is reportedly powered by an
> # AMD eight-core x64 1.6GHz CPU, a D3D11.x 800MHz GPU and 8GB
> # of DDR3 RAM.
>
> Of course being in a console doesn't mean a lot for success, just
> look at Cell..
>
> cheers,
> Chris
> - --
>  Christopher Samuel        Senior Systems Administrator
>  VLSCI - Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative
>  Email: samuel at unimelb.edu.au Phone: +61 (0)3 903 55545
>  http://www.vlsci.org.au/      http://twitter.com/vlsci
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAlGHBKcACgkQO2KABBYQAh8qaQCeKyh2k0fGZlsfIUOvpyWvml0K
> G+kAnjdxCaBJwaJRa8cemrR2tfgTZTYB
> =uktG
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> _______________________________________________
> Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin  
> Computing
> To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit  
> http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf