Defective PlayStations 3??? Cell Core Not In Use???

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Well,

I think Sony could have made better choices with the PS3. The Cell cpu was a bad choice IMO. The Xbox 360 wasn't much better, but better for ease of making games for it. The GPU in the 360 is quite a bit better. It is faster than the 1900XT and 7900gt(x?). The gpu in the PS3 is a close to a 7800GT(x?).
Another thing I don't really like is the proprietary media that is being pushed by Sony again. It might end up being better in the end, and eventually I might like it, but, at this point in time, the cost and benefits of it are nil, and I don't beleive it is needed in the console. It seems like Sony is just using it as marketing and away to try to win the media standard battle, while the consumers lose in the end. Don't get me wrong, both companies are doing it, Sony just has the history of doing it.

One thing I do like about the PS3, is the built in wireless capabilities. But, that is about it.

wes
 
In my opinion, the PC equivalent of a console isn't very relevant at all, they are all about programming. Don't forget the PS2 only has 32 Megabytes of RAM and a 200MHz CPU, but can still produce pretty good graphics.
 
AFAIK, the Cell is being used in a number of devices, not just PS3 (blade servers, supercomputers...). there is a supercomputer being built/planned by BM that is using clusters of fully working (8-core) Cells to achieve a petaflop performance. So my guess is - if a Cell has 8 working cores it goes to the supercomputer/blade server basket, if it has 7 working cores - it goes to PS3 factory. as was stated on this site around half a year ago in an interview with... don't remember, someone from Sony or Toshiba - only a minor part of Cells (~20%) coming out of the production line are good enough for PS3, so the ones with 8-cores running must be "priceless" and I can't believe, they would just waste them like this

links:
Wikipedia - IBM RoadRunner - 1 petaflop hybrid supercomputer, Cells & Opterons:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Roadrunner

however, I'm absolutely sure there was another entry in Wikipedia about Cell in supercomputer, with pictures and clear statement that it would use Cells with all 8 cores working

PS first post, though I've been reading THG forums for a year or so
 
The GPU in the 360 is quite a bit better. It is faster than the 1900XT and 7900gt(x?). The gpu in the PS3 is a close to a 7800GT(x?).
Click to expand...

The 360 GPU is an ATi chip, maybe X1800 or slightly faster, but developers can use it more efficiently & extract more from it than the PC equivalent because every X360 is the same, so developers know exactly what they're working with.

Yes, the PC has (inevitably) overtaken it in performance, but the X360 did come out over a year ago now.

Also, could someone please tell me why Sony would make an 8-core CPU only to disable one of them? You would think it would be cheaper & easier just to make a 7-core CPU...
 
X360 has a 48 pipe R600 class GPU. PS3 has a 7800 GTX.
Click to expand...
Both of these statements are incorrect... but you can believe whatever you want.
Yep, he is wrong. Xbox360 has a special GPU that is infact DX10 compatible, making it the first commercial DX10GPU, but it's not some R600. It's designed specially for Xbox360 and is probably missing features and such. The PS3 has the... well, it has something (forget the name) that closely resembles the G70's but is not infact a 7800GTX. Eitherway, graphically, their similar until DX10 comes along en masse. Then, the Xbox360 will pull ahead with far more spectacular effects than what the PS3 can provide.
 
Well,

Sony and IBM are trying to make an 8 core cpu.... but they are having issues with it. It is easy for them to disable a core, and if they just disable a core, it makes it easier for them to actually have cpu's to use since 8 core cell cpu's would be more rare than a 7 core cell. I am sure if yields were great, they would have this issue..... but they aren't.

Plus, some people might be upset if some had 8 and some had 7, so, since the performance is probably the same on either, just kill a core if need be, and slap the cpu in.

Also, the core clock of the 360 GPU might be close to an X1800, but the architecture is so different it can't be compared. The 360 GPU actually outperforms the X1900XTX and the 7900GTX because of the efficiency. It can have 4XFSAA on with no performance hit at all, not due to the programmers, but due to the efficiency of the arch. in comparison to the desktop counter parts.

Did you read any of the article dissecting the tech in the two consoles? dpad gotfrag has a good one.... and there is also another good one floating around.

wes
 
X360 has a 48 pipe R600 class GPU. PS3 has a 7800 GTX.
Click to expand...
Both of these statements are incorrect... but you can believe whatever you want.
Yep, he is wrong. Xbox360 has a special GPU that is infact DX10 compatible, making it the first commercial DX10GPU, but it's not some R600. It's designed specially for Xbox360 and is probably missing features and such. The PS3 has the... well, it has something (forget the name) that closely resembles the G70's but is not infact a 7800GTX. Eitherway, graphically, their similar until DX10 comes along en masse. Then, the Xbox360 will pull ahead with far more spectacular effects than what the PS3 can provide.

Its not automatically "DX10" because it has unified shaders. There is a really good article on the Xbox 360 CPU and GPU at beyond 3D, you should check it out...

http://www.beyond3d.com/articles/xenos/index.php?p=11

EDIT: I must be tired, lol. Sorry about that... While I agree that RSX is a modified G7x, Xenos is just not a DX10 Part.
 
Understood. I do that from time to time as well. At any rate, there are parts of the gpu that could make it DX10 compatable, and there are other aspects that make it not DX10 compatable from what I have read. Either way, it's a pretty damn good gpu for a console.

wes
 
Xenos is somewhere in between DX 9.0 and DX 10; it has some features of DX 10 (ie unified shaders) but it also lacks some (ie geometry shaders)

it is/was codenamed R500
 
Did you read any of the article dissecting the tech in the two consoles? dpad gotfrag has a good one.... and there is also another good one floating around.
Click to expand...

I don't think I saw that article; I've been unable to get online much recently. Do you have a link at all?

P.S. The most effective form of suicide known to man is to type 'Chuck Norris' into Google and then click ''I'm feeling lucky''.
 
God why so much hate for the PS3 here... Is it just cause it's not made by MS!? :lol: No one has the right to say anything bad about the PS3's graphics, check out the latest GT:HD in-game screenshots. You can literaly misake them for real life so none of this Fanboyism plz...

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=751440&view=by_date_ascending&page=194
- middle of page.

By the way between PS3 and PC I would say PC wins graphically depending on hardware of course. PC is my favourate gaming machine!
 
Where did you see anyone saying anything bad about the PS3? It is very powerful; however if you ask me it's not actually superior to the Xbox 360 and putting a CELL in it was something of a marketing ploy - "We're not selling an overpriced console; we're selling an UNDERpriced supercomputer!"
 
No not based entirely on this thread. I have seen it quite a bit on the forums though... Look I want to make clear that I don't mean to start a war and I am not a fanboy. I come in peace :)
 
I don't think he said anything about unified shaders did he?

wes
Click to expand...

Yeah, i guess not. Although that seems to be why everyone thinks Xenos=R600 and Xenos=DX10. When this is just not true.
Back when everyone was arguing 360 or PS3 before either was released, everything I have read states it is infact DX10 compatible. Does it hit the specifications exactly? Not sure, but from my understanding, it is capable of doing DX10 stuff. Also, I never stated anything about unified shaders.
 
well in terms of launch day performance of both 360 and PS3 there the same, the 360 didn't launch the way it is, Microsoft updated the hell out of it. So to compare the consoles at present is a moot point.

Most games are cross platformed, and since the PS3 just launched, most of its games are cheesy ports that were optimized for the 360, hence the reason they might end up worse on the PS3, it just shows how different the two consoles were built but how similar they perform.

In terms of GPUs theres no doubt in my mind the Xenos (360) is superior to RSX (PS3), but its no way in effect DX10, its hardware wasn't built with DX10 specs. because the specs weren't known when it was made. They had ideas of what DX10 was going to be and they implemented some of them, i like to refer to the Xenos as a DX9.5c compliant card. RSX is rumored to be a G70 derivitive, i think it may be of similar design but entirely different. We need someone to rip apart these consoles on the software and hardware level and tell us what we all need to know.

As for my personal opinion right now i think the PS3 has far greater potential. Come November 2007 we'll see how the PS3 is fairing, and then judging that to the 360 from Nov 2006, its the only way your going to fairly judge these consoles against each other.

Viva la PC gaming
 
I don't think he said anything about unified shaders did he?

wes
Click to expand...

Yeah, i guess not. Although that seems to be why everyone thinks Xenos=R600 and Xenos=DX10. When this is just not true.
Back when everyone was arguing 360 or PS3 before either was released, everything I have read states it is infact DX10 compatible. Does it hit the specifications exactly? Not sure, but from my understanding, it is capable of doing DX10 stuff. Also, I never stated anything about unified shaders.

Um, did you even look at the Beyond3D link? It doesn't meet DX10 requirements.... It does exceed the DX9 specs but so does the Radeon X1XXX and the Geforce 7 series (possibly even Gefore6 does too) but that doesn't make them DX10 by any means.
 
X360 has a 48 pipe R600 class GPU. PS3 has a 7800 GTX.
Click to expand...
Both of these statements are incorrect... but you can believe whatever you want.
Yep, he is wrong. Xbox360 has a special GPU that is infact DX10 compatible, making it the first commercial DX10GPU, but it's not some R600. It's designed specially for Xbox360 and is probably missing features and such. The PS3 has the... well, it has something (forget the name) that closely resembles the G70's but is not infact a 7800GTX. Eitherway, graphically, their similar until DX10 comes along en masse. Then, the Xbox360 will pull ahead with far more spectacular effects than what the PS3 can provide.Sigh... Where's Ape when you need him? The GPU in the Xbox360 is NOT a Direct X10 GPU. While it does share many of the characteristics of a Direct X10 GPU, it lacks the ability to use geometry shaders, and runs a version a modified version of Direct X9, however it is slightly more advanced than your standard Direct X9.0C GPU.
 
I don't think he said anything about unified shaders did he?

wes
Click to expand...

Yeah, i guess not. Although that seems to be why everyone thinks Xenos=R600 and Xenos=DX10. When this is just not true.
Back when everyone was arguing 360 or PS3 before either was released, everything I have read states it is infact DX10 compatible. Does it hit the specifications exactly? Not sure, but from my understanding, it is capable of doing DX10 stuff. Also, I never stated anything about unified shaders.

Um, did you even look at the Beyond3D link? It doesn't meet DX10 requirements.... It does exceed the DX9 specs but so does the Radeon X1XXX and the Geforce 7 series (possibly even Gefore6 does too) but that doesn't make them DX10 by any means.


From what I understand, the 360's is almost a DX10 card, but not quite and the PS3 is a 7800 (GTX maybe). From what I've read before, in a statement by some person from nvidia, the PS3's vid card is faster than 2 geforce 6800's. And the 7800GTX did prove that, so logic would point for me that the PS3 IS a 7800GTX.

As for the 360, I haven't read much about it but i think that it'd be quite impossible for it to be a fully working or even compliant to the COMPLETE DX10 specs. Again, using logic, if the 360's vid card is a full DX10 card, then wouldn't it have been wise for ATI to release a DX10 card since they already have the architecture for it?

Does the 360 have a full DX10 card? I doubt it.

Then what is in the 360? Maybe, and only maybe somewhere along the lines of DX9.5 or the next DX for XP, DX9L.



Back on topic, it has been announced way before that only 7 cores of 8 would be working. I think that if one failed, there's a backup one. Else maybe there are simply production issues to address, such as making 8 cores when they need 7 so that in the production process if 1 is faulty they could still roll-out the same board as 7 of them works. Well these are only my speculation.
 
I don't think he said anything about unified shaders did he?

wes
Click to expand...

Yeah, i guess not. Although that seems to be why everyone thinks Xenos=R600 and Xenos=DX10. When this is just not true.
Back when everyone was arguing 360 or PS3 before either was released, everything I have read states it is infact DX10 compatible. Does it hit the specifications exactly? Not sure, but from my understanding, it is capable of doing DX10 stuff. Also, I never stated anything about unified shaders.

Um, did you even look at the Beyond3D link? It doesn't meet DX10 requirements.... It does exceed the DX9 specs but so does the Radeon X1XXX and the Geforce 7 series (possibly even Gefore6 does too) but that doesn't make them DX10 by any means.


From what I understand, the 360's is almost a DX10 card, but not quite and the PS3 is a 7800 (GTX maybe). From what I've read before, in a statement by some person from nvidia, the PS3's vid card is faster than 2 geforce 6800's. And the 7800GTX did prove that, so logic would point for me that the PS3 IS a 7800GTX.

Then what is in the 360? Maybe, and only maybe somewhere along the lines of DX9.5 or the next DX for XP, DX9L.


I hate to drag this on longer but... the RSX has a bigger die size than the 7800GTX which means that they are in fact different. How they are different we can only speculate at this point...

Also, this is no such thing as DX9.5. Many cards now available have extended capabilities, that doesn't mean they have a higher DX version.
 
Also, this is no such thing as DX9.5. Many cards now available have extended capabilities, that doesn't mean they have a higher DX version.
Click to expand...

The Xenos is halfway to DX10 but based on DX9.0c. The DX9.5 is just an implied reference to that fact. While yes you can call the x1xxx and 7 series DX9.5 if you want to get technical. Its just a label or inference, its nor right or wrong, and can't be proven either way until Microsoft names it. I name it the same thing in my past although i give it the DX9.5c moniker, its a good way to disprove its strictly DX9 or a DX10 GPU
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom