• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Xbox Velocity Architecture - 100 GB is instantly accessible by the developer through a custom hardware decompression block

Co-processors? We don't know but there's a good chance co-processors of some sort are within the APU design.
71340_512_understanding-the-ps5s-ssd-deep-dive-into-next-gen-storage-tech.png


These are the I/O co-processors that I'm talking about and thank you for the SRAM correction. Your right that Microsoft didn't give us a breakdown of their APU like Sony has. They could have some dedicated I/O hardware in it or maybe they don't have I/O hardware within the APU.

I really hope that Microsoft becomes a bit more transparent with their I/O system because that would clear alot of the confusion up.
 

Okay then. I mean, if you want to enrich yourself with a wider perspective on potential next-gen technological features it's probably not worth shunning an idea because of tertiary things someone who brings the idea up may or may not even engage in. The concept of the post itself isn't outlandish, and there's some preexisting precedent in MS systems that could support it (development of executeIndirect, for example).

It's just a theory worth considering, all I'm saying.

71340_512_understanding-the-ps5s-ssd-deep-dive-into-next-gen-storage-tech.png


These are the I/O co-processors that I'm talking about and thank you for the SRAM correction. Your right that Microsoft didn't give us a breakdown of their APU like Sony has. They could have some dedicated I/O hardware in it or maybe they don't have I/O hardware within the APU.

I really hope that Microsoft becomes a bit more transparent with their I/O system because that would clear alot of the confusion up.

Yeah, when you see the diagram itself it just helps remind the impressive amount of work Sony has done with the SSD I/O. Very well thought-out piece of kit.

I think MS is just waiting for a good time to delve further into their I/O. There's a Hot Chips presentation on August 17th they'll be doing, focused on the system architecture. It'll be during the Gaming segment along with Nvidia and Intel's upcoming GPUs. So if they haven't gone in-depth on it by then, they will definitely do so on that day.
 

Ascend

Member
Whatever Louise said, i wouldn't take it seriously in any way ( especially when he/she is only XSX/W10 dev and also he/she follows these guys ) :

p4MdIHE.jpg
I find this kind of selective..

She also follows;
Nintendo of America
Sega
Elon Musk
Reggie
Digital Foundry
nVidia Geforce
AMD
AMD PC
RedGamingTech
Kotaku
Chris Grannell
Intel
Unreal Engine
And most importantly; PLAYSTATION

I tend to try and judge what someone said directly, not necessarily who that person is friends with, who they follow, who they had dinner with last Tuesday or who the cousin of their father's friend's neighbor's daughter is.
To take myself as an example. I follow Christina Hoff Sommers. Some people might think that makes me a feminist. At the same time I follow Stefan Molyneux. Some people might think I'm a misogynist. That would be nothing more than confirmation bias, and in reality does not prove anything.
 

Three

Member
...or maybe I was right? Probably not, but this reporting from guru3d had the same take:

"Sampler feedback solves this by allowing a shader to efficiently query what part of a texture would have been needed to satisfy a sampling request, without actually carrying out the sample operation."

If you want an explanation of what that sentence means or is describing read up on Sparse Virtual Textures one of the oldest standardized approaches. You can also look up explanations to megatextures too.

SVT render a small resolution camera view (this is the feedback map) , noting which texture and mipmap will be needed (without actually getting that information i.e without sampling the actual texture) . Then a CPU routine issues loads to the disk system to bring that texture/mip chunk into memory (if not in memory)

This stuff isn't new.
 
Last edited:

jimbojim

Banned
I find this kind of selective..

She also follows;
Nintendo of America
Sega
Elon Musk
Reggie
Digital Foundry
nVidia Geforce
AMD
AMD PC
RedGamingTech
Kotaku
Chris Grannell
Intel
Unreal Engine
And most importantly; PLAYSTATION

I tend to try and judge what someone said directly, not necessarily who that person is friends with, who they follow, who they had dinner with last Tuesday or who the cousin of their father's friend's neighbor's daughter is.
To take myself as an example. I follow Christina Hoff Sommers. Some people might think that makes me a feminist. At the same time I follow Stefan Molyneux. Some people might think I'm a misogynist. That would be nothing more than confirmation bias, and in reality does not prove anything.


He/she only follow ( if i saw rightly ) 2 Nintendo channels ( Reggie and NA ) and 1 PlayStation channel, bunch of others are Xbox related, and especially those extreme individuals. And also when one dev retweeted tweets from extreme individuals like bluenugroho or MrX or Xbox Mil Grau ( yuck ) or similar, i know surely that this dev shouldn't be taken seriously. Sorry, but no!
 
Last edited:

Tripolygon

Banned
The best way to end the delusion of hidden SSD bandwitch is to start saying that the PS5 has a hidden 3TF as well.

Because in arguments and rationality it doesn't work with these people.
It doesn't and serves no purpose but as a means to ruin every discussion. Its hard enough to have any discussion already and adding another source of noise does not help.
 

jimbojim

Banned
He/she only follow ( if i saw rightly ) 2 Nintendo channels ( Reggie and NA ) and 1 PlayStation channel, bunch of others are Xbox related, and especially those extreme individuals. And also when one dev retweeted tweets from extreme individuals like bluenugroho or MrX or Xbox Mil Grau ( yuck ) or similar, i know surely that this dev shouldn't be taken seriously. Sorry, but no!

I mean, come on, Kirby. Sony has their own API for PS4/PS5.


 
Last edited:
You can answer that it is actually the SX GPU that is idle waiting for the slow SSD of the xbox sx.

But then it would be FUD, which is the monopoly of the "fans" of the xbox.

You actually sound crazy typing like this.

Why would MS overpower their GPU, AND overpower their system bandwidth solution by having their GPU dedicated bandwidth be 112GB/s higher than the PS5 system bandwidth? What makes you believe that the XSX, which has been fully in production for a while, doesn't have the IO to feed those 560 GB/s to the GPU? Do you really think hardware engineers and developers only work for Sony?

They made deliberate cost, power, and heat choices, with a clear slate of technologies available to them. Just because Sony marketed SSD doesn't mean their entire I/O solution is performantly better. Its simple bias that undergirds that assertion.

I haven't seen one counter explanation to what Goossen and Stanard have written publicly (who are actual silicon engineers) that their claims of I/O through efficiency arent true or achievable through XVA.
 
Would also like to add that Microsoft would probably have to make sacrifices in the APU to have a better I/O solution. This could potentially lead them to having a narrower GPU which would decrease the flop count. Flops is alot easier to market than a superior I/O system plus it leads to other advantages such as increased resolution.

71340_512_understanding-the-ps5s-ssd-deep-dive-into-next-gen-storage-tech.png


I don't think one is making dumb mistakes compared to the other it's just their goals for next gen are different.

Do you have the APU architecture diagram of the XSX APU? DO you have an architecture diagram of the XVA and its interconnects? One from Microsoft particularly.
 

rntongo

Banned
71340_512_understanding-the-ps5s-ssd-deep-dive-into-next-gen-storage-tech.png


These are the I/O co-processors that I'm talking about and thank you for the SRAM correction. Your right that Microsoft didn't give us a breakdown of their APU like Sony has. They could have some dedicated I/O hardware in it or maybe they don't have I/O hardware within the APU.

I really hope that Microsoft becomes a bit more transparent with their I/O system because that would clear alot of the confusion up.
They definitely have dedicated I/O hardware and a custom I/O unit. It's just that they involve one of the CPU cores wheras the PS5 everything will be hardware accelerated. On both systems, devs just have to update their I/O code for current gen games.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
Didn't Cerny mention in his presentation that RT is not a focus for the PS5?
As it shouldn't be, since these consoles can only do very light RT. But if the HW supports it (which it is confirmed to do) they obviously are going to add it to the API, they aren't going to leave it completely out because it is not the main focus.
 
Didn't Cerny mention in his presentation that RT is not a focus for the PS5?

It has RT... The XSX uses extreme HW for RT. I think that the Ps5 sound chip (which is truly powerful and does RT audio) will have some role in accelerating HW RT in the system.

Quote from Goossen who is the system architect of the XSX and the equivalent of Cerny on the MS side:"

"For instance, Xbox system architect Andrew Goossen revealed to Eurogamer's Digital Foundry that the regular 12 TFLOPs figure for Xbox Series X effectively bumps to over 25+ TFLOPs when doing raytracing operations.

Without hardware acceleration, this work could have been done in the shaders but would have consumed over 13 TFLOPs alone. For the Xbox Series X, this work is offloaded onto dedicated hardware and the shader can continue to run in parallel with full performance. In other words, Series X can effectively tap the equivalent of well over 25 TFLOPs of performance while ray tracing.

Xbox Series X goes even further than the PC standard in offering more power and flexibility to developers. In grand console tradition, we also support direct to the metal programming including support for offline BVH construction and optimisation. With these building blocks, we expect ray tracing to be an area of incredible visuals and great innovation by developers over the course of the console's lifetime.
The Xbox Series X is also 'overperforming' in terms of IO rate thanks to the brand new DirectX extension, DirectStorage. According to Goossen, it would take a PC with 13 Zen 2 cores to match the full IO rate of the new console.

DirectStorage is less latent and it saves a ton of CPU. With the best competitive solution, we found doing decompression software to match the SSD rate would have consumed three Zen 2 CPU cores. When you add in the IO CPU overhead, that's another two cores. So the resulting workload would have completely consumed five Zen 2 CPU cores when now it only takes a tenth of a CPU core. So in other words, to equal the performance of Xbox Series X at its full IO rate, you would need to build a PC with 13 Zen 2 cores. That's seven cores dedicated for the game: one for Windows and shell and five for the IO and decompression overhead."
 
Last edited:

oldergamer

Member
You can answer that it is actually the SX GPU that is idle waiting for the slow SSD of the xbox sx.

But then it would be FUD, which is the monopoly of the "fans" of the xbox.
.... and we have just entered "fan" territory. seriously though, it was a valid argument. You aren't applying the same logic to whichever side you like.
 

Ascend

Member
As it shouldn't be, since these consoles can only do very light RT. But if the HW supports it (which it is confirmed to do) they obviously are going to add it to the API, they aren't going to leave it completely out because it is not the main focus.
It has RT... The XSX uses extreme HW for RT. I think that the Ps5 sound chip (which is truly powerful and does RT audio) will have some role in accelerating HW RT in the system.
My point was not that the hardware doesn't support RT. It most likely does. My point was that if Sony's focus is not RT, they might not add the function in API immediately if they have to finish other stuff first. It might as well be there though, because Kirby Louise has openly said she doesn't have a PS dev kit because it's too expensive for her to acquire. So she might be simply wrong on that one. Then again, the GI in UE5 can possibly be accelerated with RT hardware, and they didn't use it. So... Yeah. I don't know.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
My point was not that the hardware doesn't support RT. It most likely does. My point was that if Sony's focus is not RT, they might not add the function in API immediately if they have to finish other stuff first. It might as well be there though, because Kirby Louise has openly said she doesn't have a PS dev kit because it's too expensive for her to acquire. So she might be simply wrong on that one. Then again, the GI in UE5 can possibly be accelerated with RT hardware, and they didn't use it. So... Yeah. I don't know.
They didn't use because they wanted to show what Lumen can do without adding RT to the mix. It was in one of the interviews.
 
Didn't Cerny mention in his presentation that RT is not a focus for the PS5?

I don't think he said it's not a focus, I think his quote from the GDC presentaion was "it's there for devs who want it" or something like that.

I mean, realistically, neither console is gonna excel at 4k/full b'own RT, right? It just seems so power hungry at the moment, for current hardware
 
Last edited:

jimbojim

Banned
I don't think he said it's not a focus, I think his quote from the GDC presentaion was "it's there for devs who want it" or something like that.

I mean, realistically, neither console is gonna excel at 4k/full b'own RT, right? It just seems so power hungry at the moment, for current hardware

Of course not. Because RTX2080Ti barely ran Minecraft at 1080p/ unstable 60fps with full path RT. Expecting RT at 4k/60 is a dream. Maybe next-gen. RT is damn still power hungry. Lumen in UE5 is a great solution

It has RT... The XSX uses extreme HW for RT. I think that the Ps5 sound chip (which is truly powerful and does RT audio) will have some role in accelerating HW RT in the system.

Quote from Goossen who is the system architect of the XSX and the equivalent of Cerny on the MS side:"

"For instance, Xbox system architect Andrew Goossen revealed to Eurogamer's Digital Foundry that the regular 12 TFLOPs figure for Xbox Series X effectively bumps to over 25+ TFLOPs when doing raytracing operations.


The Xbox Series X is also 'overperforming' in terms of IO rate thanks to the brand new DirectX extension, DirectStorage. According to Goossen, it would take a PC with 13 Zen 2 cores to match the full IO rate of the new console.

RT performance in Nvidia cards

RTX 2060 37TF
RTX 2060 Super 41TF
RTX 2070 45TF
RTX 2070 Super 52TF
RTX 2080 60TF
RTX 2080 Super 63TF
RTX 2080 Ti 78TF
Titan RTX 84TF

Still, when comparing RDNA 2 Flops to Nvidia currently FLOPS, it pales in comparison even more. It's not even funny. Especially when Ampere hit the market.
 
Last edited:

Ascend

Member
I don't think he said it's not a focus, I think his quote from the GDC presentaion was "it's there for devs who want it" or something like that.
After listening to it again, yeah, it was more in that direction. He did mention later that RT would be used primarily for audio and GI. Not exactly like that, but he implied it, because the others are too expensive.

I mean, realistically, neither console is gonna excel at 4k/full b'own RT, right? It just seems so power hungry at the moment, for current hardware
Agreed.
 

Ascend

Member
He/she only follow ( if i saw rightly ) 2 Nintendo channels ( Reggie and NA ) and 1 PlayStation channel, bunch of others are Xbox related, and especially those extreme individuals. And also when one dev retweeted tweets from extreme individuals like bluenugroho or MrX or Xbox Mil Grau ( yuck ) or similar, i know surely that this dev shouldn't be taken seriously. Sorry, but no!
Actually, to me it seems like she follows a lot more PC pages than anything else. Not that it matters that much to me. I don't look at people as being universally right or universally wrong.
 
As it shouldn't be, since these consoles can only do very light RT. But if the HW supports it (which it is confirmed to do) they obviously are going to add it to the API, they aren't going to leave it completely out because it is not the main focus.

Fully agree. It's quite clear this isn't the gen for console ray-tracing (wide-spread implementation in a AAA game). It's too performance expensive, unless a DLSS like feature is ready. Which is something both are likely working on.


On another note, surprised this thread is still going, the PS5 has the SSD advantage in this case, and of course the Series X has the advantage over PS5 in terms of GPU.
 
I don't think he said it's not a focus, I think his quote from the GDC presentaion was "it's there for devs who want it" or something like that.

I mean, realistically, neither console is gonna excel at 4k/full b'own RT, right? It just seems so power hungry at the moment, for current hardware

I think RT plus shader plus DLSS type upscaling WILL be used. The XSX ran Minecraft path traced at 1080...just like a 2080... and it wasnt even optimized.
 
I mean, come on, Kirby. Sony has their own API for PS4/PS5.




The smoking gun. Dang I mean even bothering to reply to Mr X Media that way.

Do you have the APU architecture diagram of the XSX APU? DO you have an architecture diagram of the XVA and its interconnects? One from Microsoft particularly.

It's why I said that Microsoft needs to be more transparent in that department and show us how their APU is built so we can make better comparisons. thicc_girls_are_teh_best thicc_girls_are_teh_best informed me of a hot chips event in August where we can probably obtain a diagram of the APU or at least a breakdown of it.

They definitely have dedicated I/O hardware and a custom I/O unit. It's just that they involve one of the CPU cores wheras the PS5 everything will be hardware accelerated. On both systems, devs just have to update their I/O code for current gen games.

They also have software that they use in their I/O system. Not everything is hardware accelerated.

If I were to make an educated guess.i would say that both companies are using hardware and software acceleration in their I/O systems.
 
Fully agree. It's quite clear this isn't the gen for console ray-tracing (wide-spread implementation in a AAA game). It's too performance expensive, unless a DLSS like feature is ready. Which is something both are likely working on.


On another note, surprised this thread is still going, the PS5 has the SSD advantage in this case, and of course the Series X has the advantage over PS5 in terms of GPU.
MS has DLSS for AMD... implemented in XSX HW. So... they are fully gunning for RT implementation this Generation. Probably to show in Halo infinite first.
 
Thats the DISCUSSION. Not the assertion. we dont know what tech they are using for that 100Gb access yet. Like at all,

I think the issue here (and due to a lack of transparency on the part of Microsoft) people on GaF don't really have an idea of what Microsoft is talking about.

Looking at it from the most basic level, I don't believe that 100GBs of information can be instantly transferred to the ram.

With that said I read about a theory that there's a 100GB partition in the drive that's written in a certain way to allow faster access to said information. That's something that seems more realistic in my opinion.

However without Microsoft clarifying that I don't know if it's even true.
 

rntongo

Banned
It's why I said that Microsoft needs to be more transparent in that department and show us how their APU is built so we can make better comparisons. thicc_girls_are_teh_best thicc_girls_are_teh_best informed me of a hot chips event in August where we can probably obtain a diagram of the APU or at least a breakdown of it.



They also have software that they use in their I/O system. Not everything is hardware accelerated.

If I were to make an educated guess.i would say that both companies are using hardware and software acceleration in their I/O systems.

They do have software on the co-processors but it's all hardware accelerated. They never need to use the CPU. On the XSX, the DirectStorage API actually uses part of one of the CPU cores to do some of if not all the work that the dedicated I/O coprocessors do in the PS5. That's what I meant. Both have their advantages.
 
Last edited:

Ar¢tos

Member
Fully agree. It's quite clear this isn't the gen for console ray-tracing (wide-spread implementation in a AAA game). It's too performance expensive, unless a DLSS like feature is ready. Which is something both are likely working on.


On another note, surprised this thread is still going, the PS5 has the SSD advantage in this case, and of course the Series X has the advantage over PS5 in terms of GPU.
Sadly, for many people, the focus of this thread is to imagine ways of minimizing the difference in SSD speed (magic multipliers and compression schemes that turn 4.8 into 7) and downplay anything PS5 related, either by assuming incompetence in the design that will lead to the SSD design/speed advantage being negated or by assuming Sony doesn't care or have time to even add RT instructions to the API.


So realistically what sort of size we think next gen games will come in? 100 gig? 150gig?
The same as they are now or smaller.
SSD removes the need for duplicate data, and there is a TON of duplicate data in games currently (I don't see pre-rendered videos making a return next gen, the improvement in graphics is more than enough for good real-time cutscenes).
 
I think the issue here (and due to a lack of transparency on the part of Microsoft) people on GaF don't really have an idea of what Microsoft is talking about.

Looking at it from the most basic level, I don't believe that 100GBs of information can be instantly transferred to the ram.

With that said I read about a theory that there's a 100GB partition in the drive that's written in a certain way to allow faster access to said information. That's something that seems more realistic in my opinion.

However without Microsoft clarifying that I don't know if it's even true.
first, RAM is 16GB so even if the console could instantly (and I use the word 'instantly' colloquially) transfer/stream some portion of SSD it could be no more than RAM capacity. second, if it is faster than the compressed speed, lets say 2x, for a special part of SSD than that part would be open to contention among many games in the library, which one gets to stay there, and what happens when you switch games? third, a partition within an SSD can not be software for it to work it really needs a hardware difference if there is an even speedier transfer than the compressed value. So overall that instantaneous seem a lot like marketing/PR mumbo jumbo that is not real, not even representative.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Sadly, for many people, the focus of this thread is to imagine ways of minimizing the difference in SSD speed (magic multipliers and compression schemes that turn 4.8 into 7) and downplay anything PS5 related, either by assuming incompetence in the design that will lead to the SSD design/speed advantage being negated or by assuming Sony doesn't care or have time to even add RT instructions to the API.



The same as they are now or smaller.
SSD removes the need for duplicate data, and there is a TON of duplicate data in games currently (I don't see pre-rendered videos making a return next gen, the improvement in graphics is more than enough for good real-time cutscenes).
The. If you think about it, a 8-12 hour game will be about 100gig I guess. You won’t need all that data at once. If they can transfer data at 4.8gps then surely that be fast enough?
 
first, RAM is 16GB so even if the console could instantly (and I use the word 'instantly' colloquially) transfer/stream some portion of SSD it could be no more than RAM capacity. second, if it is faster than the compressed speed, lets say 2x, for a special part of SSD than that part would be open to contention among many games in the library, which one gets to stay there, and what happens when you switch games? third, a partition within an SSD can not be software for it to work it really needs a hardware difference if there is an even speedier transfer than the compressed value. So overall that instantaneous seem a lot like marketing/PR mumbo jumbo that is not real, not even representative.

After that explanation I'm even more confused on what they are talking about.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
The Xbox Series X is also 'overperforming' in terms of IO rate thanks to the brand new DirectX extension, DirectStorage. According to Goossen, it would take a PC with 13 Zen 2 cores to match the full IO rate of the new console.

See it is wording like that that fuels these debates! What should be said is their I/O is equal to 5 Zen 2 cores. Including the 8 CPU cores just confuses things. The same math's for PS5 would be 20+ Zen 2 cores. The quote about RT is also eyebrow raising but Richard didn't seem to flinch!
 

Ar¢tos

Member
The. If you think about it, a 8-12 hour game will be about 100gig I guess. You won’t need all that data at once. If they can transfer data at 4.8gps then surely that be fast enough?
It will be more than enough. I really don't know why people are feeling insecure about the SSD speed.
There might be a few Sony 1st party games that will use the extra speed to fill game scenes with more objects or detail, but 3rd parties won't bother with that, it might be even worse for Sony, 3rd parties won't have to optimize as much In that aspect and that might lead to issues that shouldn't exist anymore.
 

rntongo

Banned
I think the issue here (and due to a lack of transparency on the part of Microsoft) people on GaF don't really have an idea of what Microsoft is talking about.

Looking at it from the most basic level, I don't believe that 100GBs of information can be instantly transferred to the ram.

With that said I read about a theory that there's a 100GB partition in the drive that's written in a certain way to allow faster access to said information. That's something that seems more realistic in my opinion.

However without Microsoft clarifying that I don't know if it's even true.

There won't be a 100GB partition of the SSD because you already have the game installed. The game install itself is what acts as the virtual RAM. The CPU sees up to 100GB of data as though its in RAM, anything above that is viewed as on the SSD. In reality you can only fit a certain amount of data into RAM because it's only 16GB. I think the 100GB limitation is due to the fact there's only 13.5GB RAM for gaming. Maybe if they increased it to 18GB they can push it higher. But realistically, up to 100GB should be enough.

I can see a way in which the virtual RAM can work on the PS5 because we have gotten more details(i.e it can use the second I/O co-processor to map game install to RAM) but a limit of 100GB would also be reasonable. It will be interesting to see how it works on the XSX. But basically on the PS5 it would work by mapping addresses of the whole game into RAM. Through pointers the CPU accesses the data directly instead of using certain function calls in the game code.
 

Ascend

Member
That sounds like a disadvantage to me since that CPU core could be dedicated to other tasks.
Actually, it's supposed to reduce CPU overhead;

The final component in the triumvirate is an extension to DirectX - DirectStorage - a necessary upgrade bearing in mind that existing file I/O protocols are knocking on for 30 years old, and in their current form would require two Zen CPU cores simply to cover the overhead, which DirectStorage reduces to just one tenth of single core.
"Plus it has other benefits," enthuses Andrew Goossen. "It's less latent and it saves a ton of CPU. With the best competitive solution, we found doing decompression software to match the SSD rate would have consumed three Zen 2 CPU cores. When you add in the IO CPU overhead, that's another two cores. So the resulting workload would have completely consumed five Zen 2 CPU cores when now it only takes a tenth of a CPU core. So in other words, to equal the performance of a Series X at its full IO rate, you would need to build a PC with 13 Zen 2 cores. That's seven cores dedicated for the game: one for Windows and shell and five for the IO and decompression overhead."



first, RAM is 16GB so even if the console could instantly (and I use the word 'instantly' colloquially) transfer/stream some portion of SSD it could be no more than RAM capacity.
That is assuming that the data actually requires to be stored in the 16GB of RAM first. It doesn't have to be if 100GB of the SSD is also seen as RAM by the system.

second, if it is faster than the compressed speed, lets say 2x, for a special part of SSD than that part would be open to contention among many games in the library, which one gets to stay there, and what happens when you switch games? third, a partition within an SSD can not be software for it to work it really needs a hardware difference if there is an even speedier transfer than the compressed value. So overall that instantaneous seem a lot like marketing/PR mumbo jumbo that is not real, not even representative.
The SSD has one speed. The compression of the files on it will determine how effective the SSD output is. It might be as low as 2.4 GB/s for badly compressed files, and theoretically reach higher than 4.8GB/s if it is well compressed.
 
Last edited:

rntongo

Banned
I don't think "downplay" is the right term. He said it was there and you can use it if you want but there is a big cost for it.

HW RT is a big deal. It sounded like devs will have to develop their own algorithms to lower the workload on the GPU or CPU when making use of the RT hardware on the PS5(Instructions on how to fill up the BVH). The BVH structures he showed are fundamental datastructures used for ray tracing workloads but the algorithms to work with the BVH are where I would have expected them to invest more in that. At least he mentioned that devs were able to use the RT hardware for reflections with minimal impact on the GPU.
 

rntongo

Banned
That sounds like a disadvantage to me since that CPU core could be dedicated to other tasks.
The fact it only uses 10% of the core is impressive. Imagine Sony has two whole co-processors doing the same work. Remember the advantage of hardware acceleration is that the same process would have a high amount of overhead on the CPU. That doesn't exist here. I also suspect there is some other hardware acceleration somewhere that enables the CPU overhead to be negligible.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
Actually, it's supposed to reduce CPU overhead

It reduced overhead because Microsoft rewrote the 30 year old API, Ascend. If they didn't the XSX I/O would've consumed 2 cores. Even with this upgrade it still uses part of a core from the 7 available to games. PS5 has a dedicated HW block for file I/O that presumably uses zero of the assumed 7 cores available.
 
Sony has two whole co-processors doing the same work.

I read that each processor is performing a different task though.

Also I saw in a video that it's two cores and not 10% of one. I believe it was either NX Gamer or that Red Tech Gaming guy. I'll go watch the video again.

Edit: Nevermind I just saw the video again. My mistake.
 
Last edited:

Ascend

Member
Reading the Eurogamer article again, I think Kirby Louise is right;

The form factor is cute, the 2.4GB/s of guaranteed throughput is impressive, but it's the software APIs and custom hardware built into the SoC that deliver what Microsoft believes to be a revolution - a new way of using storage to augment memory (an area where no platform holder will be able to deliver a more traditional generational leap). The idea, in basic terms at least, is pretty straightforward - the game package that sits on storage essentially becomes extended memory, allowing 100GB of game assets stored on the SSD to be instantly accessible by the developer. It's a system that Microsoft calls the Velocity Architecture and the SSD itself is just one part of the system.


It reduced overhead because Microsoft rewrote the 30 year old API, Ascend. If they didn't the XSX I/O would've consumed 2 cores. Even with this upgrade it still uses part of a core from the 7 available to games. PS5 has a dedicated HW block for file I/O that presumably uses zero of the assumed 7 cores available.
I don't think it will use zero. The CPU still needs to tell the I/O which data to read and where to put it in RAM. The I/O handles the actual transfer and decompression by itself.
 
Give it another couple of weeks and Series x is reduced here to 8 TF, I mean wtf am I reading here. Now TF means nothing anymore? It’s a universal way to count power , just like BHP in cars , those must be absolute also ...

about the Ssd side , it will make a difference but how much, who knows, it’s uncharted territory.

TF is now meaningless because the Sony console has less. simple as that.

Now everyone is an SSD expert because Sony has a faster SSD.

The reality is, we know for a fact higher TFs and CUs means more raw power, which can result in higher resolution, higher FPS, and more RT capabilities while being more efficient (not requiring flexible clocks).

We dont know the true difference we’ll see with 5.5gb/s ssds vs 2.4gb ssds in regards to next gen games. The loading time differences will be very small. SSDs already load games at a rate that even if one is twice as fast at loading we are still only talking about a second or 2.

what we dont know is the difference in regards to asset loading during gameplay. will these games have enough asset data to load that 5.5gb/s actually makes a significant difference compared to 2.4gbs? we dont really know.
 
Top Bottom