Beyond3D goes in depth with ATI's Xenos

[Reanimated]

Beyond3D (http://www.beyond3d.com/articles/xenos/) has an EXTREMELY in-depth article up on the inner workings of the GPU that will be powering the Xbox 360 - ATI's Xenos.

Whilst ostensibly Xenos has been hailed as a Shader Model 3.0 part, its capabilities don't fall directly inline with it and exceed it in some areas giving this more than a whiff of WGF2.0 (Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0 - the new name for DirectX Next / DirectX 10) about it.

...One element that has been reported on is the number of 150M transistors in relation to the graphics processing elements of Xenon, however according to ATI this is not correct as the shader core itself is comprised from in the order of 232M transistors.Obviously this thing is a beast. Microsoft's control of DirectX and WGF seems to have given ATI a leg up in terms of building their part to support future SM enhancements.

WARNING: This article is not for laymen.

[*Legion*]

Funny how much has been made of the PS3's "300M transistor!!11" GPU and how it dwarfs the "150M" X360 GPU.

Guess they forgot to count the Xenos' shader core.

[sTubbs]

Overall I have been quite impressed with how reasonable MS has been with its numbers. Sure, they have still released some figures that are probably bullshit, but compared to the Sony bullshit, the MS bullshit is a mere drop in the sewage refinery.

[And yes, I am getting both consoles. I just wish that Kutagari would shut the fuck up already.]

[riposte101]

Kutaragi is full of shit. This is correct. But the bullshit has a purpose and that is to fool the common consumer and from what I've seen it's worked for the Playstation since its inception so they shouldn't stop now.

[Reanimated]

[And yes, I am getting both consoles. I just wish that Kutagari would shut the fuck up already.]



Yeah, that guy is seriously off the side of the boat with all this "supercomputer" bullshit.

[kickmybum]

yeah! Down with Sony! Rage against the Machine! Down with the corporate entity that governs our lives! RAW! RAW! RAW!

So, I'll buy an Xbox. ;)

[riposte101]

I'll give it to Sony's marketing campaign. It works it's as simple as that.

[Royal Fool]

How can it be a supercomputer out of the box with Linux when you can't install/run Linux on it out of the box due to lack of a hard disk?

Kutaragi = Insane.

[EvilBob46]

I care as much about the number of transistors in the PS3's graphics chip as I do about all the little details on the ATI XBox 360 card and all its "revolutionary shader awesomeness"...that is to say not at all. I wonder if we'll ever see some decent benchmarks comparing both consoles (under reasonable similar conditions), because as far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters. The rest is just bullshit.

[Chandler]

Funny how much has been made of the PS3's "300M transistor!!11" GPU and how it dwarfs the "150M" X360 GPU.

Guess they forgot to count the Xenos' shader core.


Funny how nobody actually said that.

[gracenote]

I care as much about the number of transistors in the PS3's graphics chip as I do about all the little details on the ATI XBox 360 card and all its "revolutionary shader awesomeness"...that is to say not at all. I wonder if we'll ever see some decent benchmarks comparing both consoles (under reasonable similar conditions), because as far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters. The rest is just bullshit.

I sort of agree with you, except for one point: All the graphics in the world do not mean anything if the games suck. Both companies are setting themselves up to blow us away with next generation games, but if I get the same games with prettier graphics, I will be sorely disappointed with either/both companies.

[eatme]

I care as much about the number of transistors in the PS3's graphics chip as I do about all the little details on the ATI XBox 360 card and all its "revolutionary shader awesomeness"...that is to say not at all. I wonder if we'll ever see some decent benchmarks comparing both consoles (under reasonable similar conditions), because as far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters. The rest is just bullshit.

You'll never get meaningful comparisons; the architectures are too different. At some point into the console cycle, you'll start noticing that most of the games for platform A look better than most of the games for platform B. Whether it's because of technical reasons, or laziness, or something else, won't really matter.

[Zeal]

Ultimately, the side with the most talented developers will prevail. Either system's games can be made to look amazing with this level of technology.

A good online strategy will also be a major factor. The time when online gaming hits the mainstream is quickly approaching. It'll be standard by the cycle after this.

[mister_slim]

How can it be a supercomputer out of the box with Linux when you can't install/run Linux on it out of the box due to lack of a hard disk?

Kutaragi = Insane.
It's certainly easy to call someone insane if you twist their words out of context. I'm going to guess the 360 is going to be harder to run Linux on, anyway.

[Fonz]

its about time ATI supports ps3.0, welcome to last year? Btw im not a nvidia fan boy, or a ati fan boy, from 2002 to 2004 I owned ATI 9700's and 9800's because they were teh best at the time, as soon as the 6800 came out I switched over, ATI needs to pick up the pace no matter what architechture exclusivity they get, their cards are still inferior.

[Reanimated]

Actually you could say "welcome to 2007" because Xenos supports shader features going into WGF 2 that nobody else has even seen yet.

[Fonz]

Yeah, but we have yet to see what games will take advantage of wgf 2, and in fact how many games can you name that take advantage of ps3.0? theres not that many, Im looking at game preformance, not hypothetical 3dmark07 preformance benchmarks.