Video games a key battlefield in DVD war

Reuters ^ | Fri May 5, 2006 8:51pm ET14 | Sue Zeidler

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Posted earlier:

E3 2006 Preview: The showdown between consoles and PCs

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Terpfen]

The console market will only give a boost to Blu-Ray, via the PS3. The 360's HD-DVD add-on will go nowhere.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And there is this:

Video game industry gears up for annual show
New generation of consoles get serious about online services

**************************AN EXCERPT **********************************

By Matt Slagle

Updated: 2:36 p.m. ET May 5, 2006

The new generation of video game consoles from Sony Corp., Nintendo Co. and Microsoft Corp. have more than zippy processors and flashy graphics in common: They’re also getting serious about online services.

Although earlier models also provide the necessary plugs to enter most online worlds, they’ve done little to capitalize on them.

That’s changing with the upcoming PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Wii from Nintendo, as well as the Xbox 360 released by Microsoft late last year.

[Sofa King]

Video game ping!

If you want on or off this list, Freepmail me

Not quite worth posting a thread about right now, but I think this supports my statements that Cell processor yeilds were the real force that kept the PS3 from being on time. Between this and the Blu-ray, the PS3 is going to be pretty costly to produce.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think that processor is going to be a real powerhouse....

[Sofa King]

Everything I've read about it so far has indicated that it's performance is more theoretical than real, below what even a mid-range AMD PC processor can do.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I don't know how they measure,....got to get the parallel action going...will require some real programming.

[Sofa King]

This article is a good read.

[Terpfen]

As far as multi-threaded performance goes... IBM's compiler supposedly reconfigures single-threaded code into multi-threaded code. I don't know how well it works at this point, but it'd be quite the boon to development.

Regarding Cell yields... it's The Inquirer. Believing their non-sourced stories is like believing The Weekly World News.

[RadioAstronomer]

I still wish the PhysX PPU made it into this round of game consoles. Sigh!

I am currently running an Asus P5WD2-E Premium with an EVGA GeForce 7900GTX (512), an Intel 965 Presler, and an X-Fi Fatal1ty.

The PhysX cards are supposed to be out this month. Will add to my machine when they are avilable.

However, I do enjoy the consoles as well. :-)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This rational?

Here's an early look at a sample board

[ECM]

PhysX is out BUT, having run through GRAW on it, I'd strongly suggest waiting since it actually degrades overall performance and only adds more detailed exlposions (does nothing to the actual gameplay.)

[ECM]

I'm no fan of Sony, but I believe the Inq was referring to the move to 65nm away from 90nm (at which IBM has previously stated yields are good) which, naturally, is something Sony needs to do ASAP to avoid bleeding to death on hardware costs.

[RadioAstronomer]

Thats the one. There is also an AI CPU in the works:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdext/is_200509/ai_n15325223

[RadioAstronomer]

Ouch. Is the PhysX really that bad? Thought it would be cool to have my machine with:

CPU (965 Presler)
GPU (7900GTX)
PPU (PhysX)
AIP (AIS-1)
SPU (X-Fi)

I would have all but the AIS. - Too bad the PPU is not living up to the hype darn it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

6-May-2006
AGEIA will be showing the following PhysX-accelerated game titles on the show floor( In Los Angeles ):

• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™
• City Of Villains™
• Bet On Soldier: Blood Sport™
• CellFactor: Combat Training™
• Alpha Prime™
• Monster Madness™
• Stoked Rider™
• Switchball™
• Taiser (CellFactor Mod)

[ECM]

Yes, the performance hits, in spots, is actually severe (I believe Anandtech has a story on it) and the system I demo'ed it on had a dual-core 4400/x1900xtx/2 gigs of fast RAM and it was pretty apparent that the technology and/or implementation isn't there yet.

Tha said, I think that if the company can last long enough, we'll get some amazing games, but we're a long way from a. games that requires the card (e.g. Cell Factor) and b. it being cost-effective for the end-user to purchase which will lead to more of 'a'...ye ol' chicken and egg, *sigh*.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

On Page 8 of the latest June 06 MaximumPC is a writup on the PhysX card...says a Demo was impressive...