# EA: PS4, XBox One Are a 'Generation Ahead' of Gaming PCs



## amjath (May 26, 2013)

> Rajat Taneja, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Electronic Arts, conjured up an article on LinkedIn of all places talking about the technology behind Microsoft's new Xbox One console. He claims that both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are somehow five years ahead of the most extravagant PCs today due to their system-on-chip (SoC) architecture.
> 
> "These architectures are a generation ahead of the highest end PC on the market and their unique design of the hardware, the underlying operating system and the live service layer create one of the most compelling platforms to reimagine game mechanics," he states.
> 
> ...


EA: PS4, XBox One Are a 'Generation Ahead' of Gaming PCs


I don't know what's got into this guy, these consoles makers probably given him so much money to make a statement like this. I'm heartbroken as soon as read the title


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## TheLetterD (May 26, 2013)

*25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsgi2ribsQ1r3pcbso1_400.gif


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## amjath (May 26, 2013)

^


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## anirbandd (May 26, 2013)

*25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsgi2ribsQ1r3pcbso1_400.gif
Corrected 


whatever they say, one has to keep in mind that the games for consoles are made on PC and then ported/optimised for console.


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## sujoyp (May 26, 2013)

but isnt it true somehow...PS3 is 2005-6 model and can play the latest games beautifully ....but a 7 years PC need lot of new hardware to do that...


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## amjath (May 26, 2013)

^ As you sow so shall you reap


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## mohit9206 (May 29, 2013)




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## pratyush997 (May 29, 2013)

*i.imgur.com/E9HF8yF.jpg

Found somewhere in Facebook


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## CommanderShawnzer (May 29, 2013)

^Call of Doggy can't be compared to *glorified tech demo 3*


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## Extreme Gamer (May 29, 2013)

sujoyp said:


> but isnt it true somehow...PS3 is 2005-6 model and can play the latest games beautifully ....but a 7 years PC need lot of new hardware to do that...



okay...I didn't just read that...

Seriously dude? Try comparing the PC version of a game maxed out to the console version and see that you are mistaken.


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## pratyush997 (May 29, 2013)

Extreme Gamer said:


> okay...I didn't just read that...
> 
> Seriously dude? Try comparing the PC version of a game maxed out to the console version and see that you are mistaken.


The pic I posted should be good.


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## Extreme Gamer (May 29, 2013)

pratyush997 said:


> The pic I posted should be good.



All your pic shows me is a more detailed Psycho compared to a smooth scultp for codfish with bump-mapping.

The reason why your post is not good is that the game has to be the same across platforms.


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## pratyush997 (May 29, 2013)

Well it depends on how well game is optimized. For example gta iv on pc was bad port.


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## Ayuclack (May 29, 2013)

sujoyp said:


> but isnt it true somehow...PS3 is 2005-6 model and can play the latest games beautifully ....but a 7 years PC need lot of new hardware to do that...



It Just Like Games Are Optimized to be Used on single hardware then they use full potential of hardware but on pc there is so much variation of hardware that no game uses its full potential.... just like my ipod touch 4G can Still Play Many Games (optimised Hardware) but the older Android Device Might Struggle !!


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## Nerevarine (May 29, 2013)

sujoyp said:


> but isnt it true somehow...PS3 is 2005-6 model and can play the latest games beautifully ....but a 7 years PC need lot of new hardware to do that...



your point is legit, When the PS3 launched, the best card available was 6800 GT or something like that..
Nowadays 6800GT cant play any latest games..
But the only reason PS3/360 manage to play latest game is due to massive optimisation and massive reduction in picture quality


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## rakesh_ic (May 29, 2013)

Reduced or not, the game still look amazing on the big screens.. Also, most of the current gen games flowing to PC are ports from the consoles.. which is heart breaking for a pc gamer (now into consoles too) like me.

But the fact still remains the same that the developers love to release games on consoles rather than on pcs. Reason - "Pure business, nothing personal"


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## Extreme Gamer (May 29, 2013)

Nerevarine said:


> your point is legit, When the PS3 launched, the best card available was 6800 GT or something like that.



Wrong.

GeForce 7 Series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The PS3 uses a weakened 7800GS.


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## vickybat (May 29, 2013)

amjath said:


> EA: PS4, XBox One Are a 'Generation Ahead' of Gaming PCs
> 
> 
> I don't know what's got into this guy, these consoles makers probably given him so much money to make a statement like this. I'm heartbroken as soon as read the title



The guy is right to some extent actually. Heterogeneous computing hasn't arrived into the desktop scene yet and thus these consoles are indeed a generation ahead.
Add to that, the closed box model of consoles, which has a significant advantage over the abstraction that a desktop OS  brings. Low level access is better in consoles.
Even api's are optimized to maximize the fixed hardware performance. 

Despite PS3 having a weak and obsolete gpu by today's standards, it still produces titles like "The last of US". That's because the cell cpu's SPE's can do vertex shading which offloads a lot of tasks from the gpu. The better low level access to underlying hardware ( ps3's cell in this case), the better is the end product.

Xbox one sports a windows nt kernel, but heavily optimized for a fixed hardware config. It has all bloatwares and other unwanted services removed. PS4 too sports a UNIX kernel with modified open-gl api's leading into a new version of PSGL. 

Apart from that, cloud will also play a significant role in resource allocation for computing. Read these to know more. Sony can follow the same through Gakei if this thing is successful.

*Xbox One cloud is 'one area console has advantage over PS4', says Avalanche tech lead
But believes Sony could implement a similar feature in PS4 if Microsoft is successful.*

*Microsoft says Xbox One games can offload computing to Azure cloud*

So computations like 3d modelling in games, physics , AI and even textures can be moved into cloud servers for processing, offloading a lot of compute resources in the physical console.
I think this was the point why they wanted xbox to be always online. The cloud servers will be built using latest tech hardware.

Sony has the same potential with its gakei acquisition. In pc scenario, both nvidia and amd are upto something like this with their respective GRID and RADEON SKY server computing.
But the consoles will beat them to it for implementing something like this up first.

The hype is starting to show:

*Xbox One breaks pre-order records at Blockbuster*

Same thing's gonna happen with PS4 after its unveil.


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## amjath (May 29, 2013)

vickybat said:


> So computations like 3d modelling in games, physics , AI and even textures can be moved into cloud servers for processing, offloading a lot of compute resources in the physical console.
> I think this was the point why they wanted xbox to be always online. The cloud servers will be built using latest tech hardware.



so is it possible to avoid piracy with these consoles like checking for license every now and then from cloud servers.


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## vickybat (May 29, 2013)

amjath said:


> so is it possible to avoid piracy with these consoles like checking for license every now and then from cloud servers.



Yeah it could be. Information related to piracy protection is a bit vague now. More information on it is likely soon to follow.


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## RCuber (May 29, 2013)

what ever.. consoles can't do this for sure.. 
*i.ytimg.com/vi/ex_TKO5gWaU/0.jpg


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## CommanderShawnzer (May 29, 2013)

Eyefinity


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## anirbandd (May 29, 2013)

trolol..


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## Extreme Gamer (May 29, 2013)

vickybat said:


> The guy is right to some extent actually. Heterogeneous computing hasn't arrived into the desktop scene yet and thus these consoles are indeed a generation ahead.
> Add to that, the closed box model of consoles, which has a significant advantage over the abstraction that a desktop OS  brings. Low level access is better in consoles.
> Even api's are optimized to maximize the fixed hardware performance.
> 
> ...



Then I would have to ask why would it need to exclusively hog 3GB of RAM, when even a regular "unoptimized" copy of windows takes less space. Right now my copy of windows 7 is using ~2.1 GB RAM according to task manager, when VLC media player and firefox are open in the background.

Surely an OS meant for general use, not just gaming, and with a few more layers of abstraction should hog more memory if the bone's is really stripped down?

I think that the OS is definitely not stripped down. It had to add all the code needed to run all of it's various non-media functions, besides the fact that it has two dynamically switching OSes. Even so, it should not need that much memory- if the PS3 can do 80-85% of the things the Xbone can with only 256MB of RAM, I would expect the bone to not need a whopping 3 gigs. If it is indeed stripped down like you say, then it should take even less space than the ~2GB I would expect it to take.


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## Nerevarine (May 29, 2013)

*sites.google.com/site/aeriplayads/image/nvidia-console-vs-pc.jpg

See this chart, the Xbox 360 was SLIGHTLY ahead of it's time in performance at launch compared to PC..
But this lead melted soon after
The next gen doesnt even have such advantge


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## vickybat (May 29, 2013)

Extreme Gamer said:


> Then I would have to ask why would it need to exclusively hog 3GB of RAM, when even a regular "unoptimized" copy of windows takes less space. Right now my copy of windows 7 is using ~2.1 GB RAM according to task manager, when VLC media player and firefox are open in the background.
> 
> Surely an OS meant for general use, not just gaming, and with a few more layers of abstraction should hog more memory if the bone's is really stripped down?
> 
> I think that the OS is definitely not stripped down. It had to add all the code needed to run all of it's various non-media functions, besides the fact that it has two dynamically switching OSes. Even so, it should not need that much memory- if the PS3 can do 80-85% of the things the Xbone can with only 256MB of RAM, I would expect the bone to not need a whopping 3 gigs. If it is indeed stripped down like you say, then it should take even less space than the ~2GB I would expect it to take.



You have one os taking 2 gigs, here there are two including a hypervisor. The combined space is 3gb ( rumored and can be less too). 
The windows kernel based OS is meant for handling directx api's only and don't have any other services, unlike what your desktop OS.

The second OS is called "Xbox OS" and that is meant to handle all other services including internet, videos, music, streaming, multitasking and all that.
The windows OS has no connection with these activities. The hypervisor is responsible for the dynamic switching. So its a completely new thing for a console.
Separating services and bloatware is a good idea actually.For each os mode, the either completely goes idle, thus saving unwanted resource allocation to various services.

Now how efficient this method is going to be, only time will tell. Its too early to judge just by looking at mere specifications.



Nerevarine said:


> See this chart, the Xbox 360 was SLIGHTLY ahead of it's time in performance at launch compared to PC..
> But this lead melted soon after
> The next gen doesnt even have such advantge



That's an nvidia slide mate. Don't go by it. You cannot compare titan's desktop performance with PS4 's ( console)  closed box architecture.
Coding in windows for a variable set of hardware and on a custom OS with fixed hardware are two different things. The latter is much efficient.

Over time, pc hardware beats consoles by brute force and sheer technological advancements , while consoles are stuck with old hardware.
This time, console performance will shine much longer if you take those cloud processing concepts into account.


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## Desmond (May 29, 2013)

Ha! You guys believing what EA is saying? Of all companies EA!?

Get a load of this first :

*i.imgur.com/nRbDwAK.jpg


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## Nerevarine (May 29, 2013)

> That's an *nvidia slide* mate. Don't go by it. You cannot compare titan's desktop performance with PS4 's ( console) closed box architecture.
> Coding in windows for a variable set of hardware and on a custom OS with fixed hardware are two different things. The latter is much efficient.



hmm you have a point tho.. I never considered this


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## Desmond (May 30, 2013)

vickybat said:


> You have one os taking 2 gigs, here there are two including a hypervisor. The combined space is 3gb ( rumored and can be less too).
> The windows kernel based OS is meant for handling directx api's only and don't have any other services, unlike what your desktop OS.
> 
> The second OS is called "Xbox OS" and that is meant to handle all other services including internet, videos, music, streaming, multitasking and all that.
> ...



Yeah, but when Steam goes all in with Linux, I think the scenario would be different. Windows on PC might be bloatware but Linux can be streamlined as much as possible. Also, PC hardware can be upgraded and optimised variably over time.


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## vickybat (May 30, 2013)

DeSmOnD dAvId said:


> Yeah, but when Steam goes all in with Linux, I think the scenario would be different. Windows on PC might be bloatware but Linux can be streamlined as much as possible. Also, PC hardware can be upgraded and optimised* variably over time.*



Exactly and it will take time.


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## Thunder (May 30, 2013)

In other words EA will continue to give trash ports to PC so therefore don't waste you're money on expensive components cuz consoles are already 'ahead' of PC. Frick you EA..


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## gagan_kumar (May 30, 2013)

tats it not buying ea games anymore......


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## rakesh_ic (May 30, 2013)

gta0gagan said:


> tats it not buying ea games anymore......



Are you sure?? Hope not buying = not playing as well.. Otherwise you cant complain about EA or any of its subsidiaries later


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