In Response To: Re: OT: XBox 2, 3, and so on (TCB)
Sorry, I need to make a correction to my rushed post here, I meant, all consoles are basically computers (not PCs hehe). Whatever console's computers are, if they do their job for gaming better than the other consoles, they're better computers (or consoles, same thing). I like the PS2, but the reason the VRAM is so small is because they already started making the chips before the Dreamcast came out, so it wouldn't be profitable to start over with a new design since they'd have to scrap the chips they already made (which already yielded bad and eventually caused a shortage, supposedly). Plus Sony has to make their chips from the ground up in their own factories that they had to build, what a waste of money.
I know I sound biased, like a commercial or something, but know that I never said the XBox was a PC, I know how it is.
: I agree, all consoles are basically PCs, and like you said the GameCube uses
: an IBM processor based on the PC ones. And I agree that the XBox is
: designed really different than PCs, it's great the way it's designed for
: the sole purpose of gaming, the unified ram and no AGP bus bottleneck
: getting in the way come to mind. What I mean is, the whole XBox is made up
: of PC parts (they're modified to connect different, but they're PC parts
: made by the same companies that make them for PCs, like the 10 gig instead
: of 8 gig HD deal, those are PC harddrives, like the Intell P3, the Nvidia
: N2A which is better than the GeForce 3 with 65 megs of ram onboard). This
: way, like you said, they're already familiar with it, which is why I said
: they'd be able to max out the hardware faster from now on and in the
: future if they continued using PC based parts based solely on a gaming
: archetecture, then they could worry about fun and gameplay since they have
: the best graphics possible already.
: With a PS2, it's got a really expensive processor and ram, but the design is
: all wrong, that's why the PS2 costs so much and performs so little for the
: money (and why Sony loses so much compared to Microsoft on teh hardware).
: The tiny amount of VRAM was embedded on the chip itself (4 megs), the
: Emotion Engine was designed even before the DReamcast came out so it was
: too late when it did come out with 16 megs and 5x texture compression.
: Since it's on the chip itself, the VRAM can't be upgraded by simply adding
: more RAM to the circuit boards, it's impossible. So Sony made up this BS
: about the "new revolutionary design" that requires streaming for
: the textures, which is really a flaw of the design. The PS2 can't handle
: textures worth !$#% but it's got good lighting, rain effects, lots of
: polygons etc. Compare FFX to Shenmue and look at the textures and overall
: polygons, not much of a difference for polys, and a HUGE difference for
: the textures huh?
: Ok, I'm just comparing how designs and parts differ and how the PS2 has the
: most expensive parts and worst design, and the XBox has cheap but powerful
: parts in a great gaming design, in which people know how to program the
: code through and through since it's DirectX 8 which everyone knows how to
: exploit. The PS2 is very difficult, has lots of flaws and no features,
: almost every effect has to be done from scratch, so all the time is spent
: on making the graphics up to par with a Dreamcast game (that's why the
: games are so short and the gameplay is usually rehashed or unoriginal).
: The XBox has the most power, what takes 2 years to do on the PS2 can be done
: in a month or two on the XBox. That's how good the XBox design and power
: is, with fairly cheap parts. The parts aren't bad either, they're great
: because they've been around so long, and the yields of wafers and stuff of
: the chips makes them cheap (plus there's so many manufacturers that MS got
: the P3s almost free from Intell for the free advertising). The Nvidia is
: where all the graphics come in, it's a sole gaming chip, the best
: anywhere, and the Intell 733mhz is just for AI and stuff, that's a lot of
: power for AI.
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