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[Genesis Knight]

One thing never changes about these threads: there's always a bunch of people who think that consoles run on the same $20-a-pop RAM their desktops at home run on.

 

[iceatcs]

Obviously?

Aye, no way MS will go Blu-ray.

 

[GlamFM]

2gb of RAM should be fine.

I'm more interested on finding out what optical drive that'll be used.

HD DVD. Honestly makes perfect sense.

 

[AshMcCool]

One thing never changes about these threads: there's always a bunch of people who think that consoles run on the same $20-a-pop RAM their desktops at home run on.

No I don't. But If MS orders tens of Millions of those fuckers that can't be much more espensive for them.

 

[thepotatoman]

One thing never changes about these threads: there's always a bunch of people who think that consoles run on the same $20-a-pop RAM their desktops at home run on.

Well is it different then? Why don't you inform us instead of being a snide jerk about it.

 

[TunaLover]

Will it be able to run games and Windows7 Windows8 in parallel?

 

[Globox_82]

HD DVD. Honestly makes perfect sense.

nah

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

One thing never changes about these threads: there's always a bunch of people who think that consoles run on the same $20-a-pop RAM their desktops at home run on.

My desktop at home runs on DDR3, as per this rumor. So does everybody else here. The standard excuse for lowballing RAM in consoles is that the consoles use low latency, high bandwidth specialist RAM rather than the cheaply mass produced DDR3 that we use in our PCs. According to this rumor that isn't true, and suddenly it becomes extremly viable to stick 4 or 8 GB into your console at low cost.

 

[GANGSTERKILLER]

CES is already in Januari, WOW. Bring it Microsoft!

 

[wsippel]

No I don't. But If MS orders tens of Millions of those fuckers that can't be much more espensive for them.

Even ordering billions of chips wouldn't decrease mainboard space and complexity issues, heat dissipation requirements or power consumption.

 

[TunaLover]

Even ordering billions of chips wouldn't decrease mainboard space and complexity issues, heat dissipation requirements or power consumption.

Yeah, I don't think that MS is crazy enough to generate a massive recalling again. They will be more messured I think.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Yeah, but scaling down to that pathetic amount of power would still be an issue. It might be fine for a year two, and even after that it'll still get the Sonics and the MegaMans and the Batmans and whatever other less-demanding games are made, but things like Battlefield or Souls or Metal Gear or GTA or main series Resident Evil? The big games that really matter still won't have Wii U versions because the graphics downgrade would just be too much.


dat heat

SMH, who's going to be designing these games that are a full generation beyond a ~4870's display capabilities? For $20 million?

I can't imagine why MS would go with a 6-core, dual-GPU monster and throw in $15 of the worst RAM on the market. Could they be going with a PC-like setup with a near equivalent GDDR5 pool on the cards?

 

[specialguy]

This rumor is ridiculous. Like I said, the idea of "dual GPU" alone makes it completely obviously false. The other obvious falsity is the timeframe, CES would not be the debut venue regardless, and 2012 is out of the question.

GAF's penchant for swallowing every annoying Xbox rumor is well, annoying.

That said, I guess at least these rumors contain a machine with some actual beef, making it a little less ludicrous.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Cool. This gen needs to be over.

 

[BruiserBear]

I would be very surprised if they announced this at CES.

 

[Krauser Kat]

Things i think of when i see this.
6 core = 6 thread of 6 inline cores. probably clocked lower or at the same of the 360 currently.
doubling the cpu power of the 360 is still shit by pc standards intel has made huge jumps with the 2nd gen and 3rd gen i3/5/7 processors.

2gb will be alright for all non graphical purposes especially if it going to be running apps and looks like metro, shit might as well be a windows 8 arm in box that plays games. 2gb V ram would be nice.

2gpus will at least lead to more cross-fire and sli optimization for the pc crowd.

 

[McHuj]

No I don't. But If MS orders tens of Millions of those fuckers that can't be much more espensive for them.

I don't think it's so much the cost of the ram itself, but the impact on the system. More ram means more chips on the motherboard so you're dealing with an overall more complex and expensive system.

 

[Genesis Knight]

My desktop at home runs on DDR3, as per this rumor. So does everybody else here. The standard excuse for lowballing RAM in consoles is that the consoles use low latency, high bandwidth specialist RAM rather than the cheaply mass produced DDR3 that we use in our PCs. According to this rumor that isn't true, and suddenly it becomes extremly viable to stick 4 or 8 GB into your console at low cost.

That's exactly what makes this rumor so improbable - see wsippel's points.

Well is it different then? Why don't you inform us instead of being a snide jerk about it.

ThoseDeafMutes just answered you. This has also been repeated ad nauseum in every other rumored next-gen console spec thread.

 

[iceatcs]

Gotta love the fact how much difference thread between this one and ARM CPU rumour.
ARM CPU made lot people crazy. This one was little better but 2GB nerve them.


So people still want more powerful, not bother ensure to be success market.

 

[AshMcCool]

Even ordering billions of chips wouldn't decrease mainboard space and complexity issues, heat dissipation requirements or power consumption.

Serious questions: How much is the difference in power consumption between 2gb and 4gb ram? Does 4Gb neccesarily take up more space than 2gb chips? And do they produce a relevant amount of more heat?

 

[[Nintex]]

I would be very surprised if they announced this at CES.

This is Microsoft and Ballmer we're talking about.

 

[GlamFM]

This rumor is ridiculous. Like I said, the idea of "dual GPU" alone makes it completely obviously false. The other obvious falsity is the timeframe, CES would not be the debut venue regardless, and 2012 is out of the question.

GAF's penchant for swallowing every annoying Xbox rumor is well, annoying.

That said, I guess at least these rumors contain a machine with some actual beef, making it a little less ludicrous.

CES would be a great place to start talking about it - with a full reveal an E3 few month later.
Actually I think it´s how the 360 was introduced as well.

 

[DCKing]

I still don't see why you guys think this?

Rumours put Wii U on 3-core multithreaded POWER7 based CPU, 1+ GB of RAM, and a reasonably powerful ATI GPU. Pretty much half the console that's described by these rumours. It seems Nintendo is maxing out what is possible for a given box and price. Microsoft can't magically do much better. Anyway, consoles that are in the same league with similar architecture are gonna see ports all the time.

If these rumours have any truth in them (which I don't think) however, it seems to me that it's actually an AMD Fusion hexacore CPU with onboard GPU as well as an external GPU for some extra power. AMD CPUs and some relatively high-end GPUs are already built with a DDR3 memory controller, so that explains the memory configuration as well. If anything this would be devkit hardware though, not final stuff. That's the only way that this is not complete BS.

 

[DonMigs85]

Hopefully Epic can again persuade them that 4GB is the way to go. The 360 was originally only gonna have 256MB RAM.

 

[Angry Fork]

Disappointed at 2gb. Was hoping for 4, 2gb is already old on PC's.

Maybe Sony will 1 up them and put in more but I doubt it.

 

[CosmicGroinPull]

Ah, shit. This means that PS4 will probably have 2gb of ram as well, right?

 

[RedSwirl]

Rumours put Wii U on 3-core multithreaded POWER7 based CPU, 1+ GB of RAM, and a reasonably powerful ATI GPU. Pretty much half the console that's described by these rumours. It seems Nintendo is maxing out what is possible for a given box and price. Microsoft can't magically do much better. Anyway, consoles that are in the same league with similar architecture are gonna see ports all the time.

If these rumours have any truth in them (which I don't think) however, it seems to me that it's actually an AMD Fusion hexacore CPU with onboard GPU as well as an external GPU for some extra power. AMD CPUs and some relatively high-end GPUs are already built with a DDR3 memory controller, so that explains the memory configuration as well. If anything this would be devkit hardware though, not final stuff. That's the only way that this is not complete BS.

So if everything is legit so far, the difference will be like between the PS2 and Original Xbox? What is that in Dragonball terms? The Wii-U thread says that's like the difference between Captain Ginyu and Stage 2 Frieza but that's a pretty big gap if you ask me.

 

[Router]

CES would be a great place to start talking about it - with a full reveal an E3 few month later.
Actually I think it´s how the 360 was introduced as well.

360 was unveiled on MTV.

 

[jax (old)]

I miss j allard. :'(

and kind of excited to see the new console.

 

[TunaLover]

So if everything is legit so far, the difference will be like between the PS2 and Original Xbox? What is that in Dragonball terms? The Wii-U thread says that's like the difference between Captain Ginyu and Stage 2 Frieza but that's a pretty big gap if you ask me.

I don't think that FreeMufasa was being exactly accurate with that comparison heh.

 

[TouchMyBox]

Two GPUs kind of sounds like a bit of a nightmare for a mainstream electronics device.

RAM is cheap, put that money into at least doubling it.

The article says 2GB for CPU. Not 2GB total memory anyway.

Or am I reading it wrong?

Considering how much microsoft touts the ease of development with the unified memory of the 360, I'd be very surprised to see them splitting it up.

 

[BurntPork]

SMH, who's going to be designing these games that are a full generation beyond a ~4870's display capabilities? For $20 million?

I can't imagine why MS would go with a 6-core, dual-GPU monster and throw in $15 of the worst RAM on the market. Could they be going with a PC-like setup with a near equivalent GDDR5 pool on the cards?

I'm thinking more 4670 than 4870. MAYBE 4770 or 5750.

 

[Dragon]

I think people thinking: "oh they can just add 2 gigs more of RAM, it's only five bucks on Amazon" are missing the point. MIcrosoft isn't going to use consumer level RAM in their next gen system. So 2 gigs will end up being more than five bucks per console.

Anyway, if this rumor is correct we only have to wait a few months to hear about this at CES.

 

[Lagspike_exe]

Don't look at hardware from a pre-2006 POV. Wii has proven you can easily win with very cheap hardware and I bet that if MS could they would have chosen 256MB back in 2004 if they knew what's coming.

 

[McHuj]

dual-GPU monster

If the dual GPU rumor is true, I wouldn't assume dual GPU implies dual high performance GPUs.

In terms of power budget and silicon yields, it maybe easier to achieve a performance level with two smaller, lower clocked GPUs versus one big chip (potentially requiring a high clock as well).

 

[Boogybro]

Well is it different then? Why don't you inform us instead of being a snide jerk about it.

This isn't tech class, homy. Either get yourself informed on the subject or eject your insulting attitude from the discussion.

 

[TouchMyBox]

I think people thinking: "oh they can just add 2 gigs more of RAM, it's only five bucks on Amazon" are missing the point. MIcrosoft isn't going to use consumer level RAM in their next gen system. So 2 gigs will end up being more than five bucks per console.

Anyway, if this rumor is correct we only have to wait a few months to hear about this at CES.

They will absolutely be using "consumer level" RAM, but it will be GDDR5 most likely, which isn't terribly expensive either.

 

[xemumanic]

Disappointing if true. I'd much rather see 4GB of RAM, and a Blu-Ray drive, or at very least, a derivative like the Wii U has. HD-DVD just isn't enough capacity. Still this is just a rumor, last week we were hearing all types of talk about multiple ARM CPUs. I really wanna hear about the GPU. Needs to have some amount of embedded RAM, and unified shaders.

 

[demigod]

Dual GPUs, lol. Prepare for RRoD 2.

 

[Shadow of the BEAST]

Gotta love the fact how much difference thread between this one and ARM CPU rumour.
ARM CPU made lot people crazy. This one was little better but 2GB nerve them.


So people still want more powerful, not bother ensure to be success market.

i want an as powerful technological standard as possible for the absolute cheapest price.

thats the whole point of console.

Great hardware at a good price, subsidised by software sales.

 

[walking fiend]

I think people thinking: "oh they can just add 2 gigs more of RAM, it's only five bucks on Amazon" are missing the point. MIcrosoft isn't going to use consumer level RAM in their next gen system. So 2 gigs will end up being more than five bucks per console.

Anyway, if this rumor is correct we only have to wait a few months to hear about this at CES.

The ram people mainly say this about, are not DDR3, I suppose.

 

[Bluemercury]

How is having twice as many cores and twice as much RAM good for Wii U? This news assures that Wii U will not have better support than Wii. Seems like MS's goal is to max-out hype before Wii U is even truly unveiled.

The dual GPU is likely just for the dev kit. This thing is going to be a beast. Still not sure if I want it, though.

Ps3 also had multiple core's remember, more so than the 360, im talking about the memory. The dual gpu solution is never optimal, so for that reason alone i say this wont happen...

 

[SomeDude]

How can anyone be happy with these specs? They're absolutely horrible. We shouldn't even be begging for 4gb of ram. It should be at 8.


What do you think pc games will look like 6 years from now? All xbox fans should protest this insanity.

 

[Shadow of the BEAST]

I think people thinking: "oh they can just add 2 gigs more of RAM, it's only five bucks on Amazon" are missing the point. MIcrosoft isn't going to use consumer level RAM in their next gen system. So 2 gigs will end up being more than five bucks per console.

Anyway, if this rumor is correct we only have to wait a few months to hear about this at CES.

eh no. Ms is guaranteed to pay alot less than any consumer is, regardless what they are ordering.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

I still think it's way too soon.

 

[[Nintex]]

What do you think pc games will look like 6 years from now? All xbox fans should protest this insanity.

So in 6 years they'll release a new Xbox?

 

[onQ123]

why does this remind me of the PS3?


CPU with high number of cores , spit memory

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

In terms of using memory it still is, I have yet to see a game on consoles with ~100-1000 AI entities which interact with each others in a game world.

As far as I understand it, it's not the AI that takes a lot of memory for having very many differently-behaving entities on screen, but the amount of memory needed for the textures and animations for all these characters. The AI code itself is usually very small, but very hard to design and write...

 

[SlaughterX]

Would be nice, I am going to CES next year!

 

[Dragon]

eh no. Ms is guaranteed to pay alot less than any consumer is, regardless what they are ordering.

My point was more the RAM isn't consumer level so I don't think one can assume a linear consistency with current consumer RAM, more so than MS will pay less because they'll buy it in bulk, etc.