[gevatter Lars]

Just found this little article...Powermac G5s at the Show

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by gevatter Lars
Just found this little article...Powermac G5s at the Show

so?.. it's no big secret that the XB360 is using a Custom IPM powerpc (same thing in macs,) with three symmetric cores in it

, IBM is making the processors for the PS3 and the Revolution also.

the G5's are most likely either the alpha kits, of the development/show models... since they came in a very simular case to the G5 mac.

why did Microsoft do this?.. it's also no big secret that Microsoft owns something like over 50% of Apple.

[gevatter Lars]

I know that XB uses IBM stuff, but I didn't know that MS owns Apple by 50%...so we could expect the Mac to die since MS is more interested in selling PCs with Windows?

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by gevatter Lars
I know that XB uses IBM stuff, but I didn't know that MS owns Apple by 50%...so we could expect the Mac to die since MS is more interested in selling PCs with Windows?

naaah..  just expect to see office products for macs... (they actually exist, y'know!)

microsoft's had a percentage of apple for years.

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/office2004.aspx?pid=office2004


oh and..


that article's either old, or somebody's very slow in surfing the internet.

[gevatter Lars]

Lets say I am not very interested in the new consoles since I am more a strategie gamer and their aren't much good strategie games for consoles as far as I know.
So I just found it accidental.

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by gevatter Lars
Lets say I am not very interested in the new consoles since I am more a strategie gamer and their aren't much good strategie games for consoles as far as I know.
So I just found it accidental.

i was referring to whoever wrote the article you linked, not yourself..

if the guy only "just" found it at E3, well.. you get my point  

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Turnsky


i was referring to whoever wrote the article you linked, not yourself..

if the guy only "just" found it at E3, well.. you get my point  

I think he was more surprised it was running on devkits rather than actual consoles.  Not having been to E3 or similar myself, I don't know how commonplace it is for console manufacturers to use Pcs/Macs/any standing tech instead of the actual console when giving playtests, etc.

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by aldo_14


I think he was more surprised it was running on devkits rather than actual consoles.  Not having been to E3 or similar myself, I don't know how commonplace it is for console manufacturers to use Pcs/Macs/any standing tech instead of the actual console when giving playtests, etc.

well, as far as i know, they were running the slower alpha units at E3, which aparrently explains lack of AA, slightly choppy framerates, etc.

they have until november/december to finalise then mass-prod the consoles themselves.

[Clave]

*plots to steal a 3.2GHz processor for his Mac*

[gevatter Lars]

Just had the insane idea to use some XBs for a rendering farm ^_^
Would be funny if it would work.

[Clave]

It *could* work - I think with Linux distro and a fast network...

[Deepblue]

Heh, this won't die. Everyone seems to want to jump on Msoft and call them cheaters when they don't even take the time to research and find out that the G5s were the Alpha dev kits. If anything its a handicap not a cheat considering the fact that they are missing AA and are about 30% of the projected specs of the Xbox 360.

[Deepblue]

@Aldo.

Actually, apparently there was at least one working Xbox 360 at E3, in ATI's booth.

[Clave]

If I had some of those stickers, I could play XBox games on my G5....

[aldo_14]

Well, a 360 running a demo with reduced (throttled back) hardware specs & no method of interaction.

Presumably there are no final production model Xboxes and/or games ready yet; I'd imagine they'd have put the actual things there for playing and whatnot if there were (it'd make no sense not to).

I've read the final devkits are scheduled to go out around July-time (which'd give what, 4-5 months to optimize & test the release date games?); so I'd imagine it'd be the next generation that actually make full use (because you, IMO, couldn't develop 'full-strength' games on the basis of a 1 or 2/3 power devkit without the risk of under or overestimation of resources).  Likewise for the Revolution/PS3, of course.

Albeit I'm sure I read - before E3 - that the devkits were 2/3, not 30% power.  i think in an interview with one of the guys from Epic, not sure.  It's possible he was wrong, or even that Ms are intending on upping the specs as a response to the PS3 (despite Ms' own PR analysis, most reports assign the PS3 as being superior - whether or not this is true, I'd imagine MS will be preparing a more effective counter than media-spread techy stuff).

[Deepblue]

Hmmm, all developer that I have seen statements have consistently ranged from  20% to 35% power of the final package.

[aldo_14]

I don't know; I can barely remember let alone re-find the source.  Of course, the actual power of a console is a very relative thing to measure; I'd wager odds on that the 1/3 figure from MS is operating at peak performance, efficiency, etc - i.e. the completely impossible-in-reality values, same as used for determining every PC/console stats in the history of everything, ever.

I've not seen any developer comments, though.  Not even from the lot that did the XNA demos before switching over PS3 (who'd be the most likely to out-and-out criticise stuff from a position of knowledge), although they might still be bound by NDA.  Or maybe Sony don't want to get into that whole slagging match justnow, I'm not sure if Japanese PR is different from MS' in that sense.

[Deepblue]

Can't find the specific quote now, but it was in reference to Gears of War. We will see how things look when the games are running on the actual final machines.

[Deepblue]

But I don't think its in reference to peak performance, I believe it's in reference to the lack of the real processor and the lack of the actual graphics card, especially since none of the G5 run games had any AA which will be always on at 4x in the final package.

Speaking of GoW:


and how about a little GR3:



The lack of AA is really obvious here, but it still looks gorgeous.



Sorry. I can't help it...

[Kosh]

Originally posted by gevatter Lars
I know that XB uses IBM stuff, but I didn't know that MS owns Apple by 50%...so we could expect the Mac to die since MS is more interested in selling PCs with Windows?

Apple would have gone bankrupt years ago, but M$ came in and bailed them out. Why else is Apple not porting OSX to PC (which is superior to Windows, except that it only works with Mac)?