EA Exec: Xbox One and PS4 Are "A Generation Ahead" Of PC

[CrystalShadow]

Hahahaha! Good one. XD

No, but in all seriousness, this claim is pretty dubious. Especially if you're going to talk about 'Raw Power'

Having said that, several well-known developers (and the hardware manufacturers) have pointed out in the past just how high the overhead on PC is.

For instance, the 360 can manage about 10 times more render calls than a PC ever could. - That doesn't translate into 10 times more performance. (it in fact means that you waste less CPU time getting the GPU to do work).
But it's not trivial.

The overhead on PC's is huge. Be that as it may, saying the new consoles outdo high end PC's is laughable. (And even if true now, it probably won't be remotely accurate even a year or two from now...)

 

[BaronIveagh]

I hate to join in on the PC master race, but they're right, the specs are out and this is one of hte most absurd statements I've heard from EA since 'ME3's ending is perfect'.

 

[Warped_Ghost]

Depends what he means by "on the market".
The highest end alienware? yeah probably
Triple nvidia titans with a i7-3770k? i highly doubt it

 

[pilouuuu]

So... is he trying to show that EA is a more idiotic company than Microsoft or what? PCs are already more powerful than PS4 and XB1. I was expecting these new consoles to be amazing, so we PC gamers could finally start getting games that make good use of the hardware, but instead we got those underwhelming consoles that are equivalent to a mid-range PC and a lot of bullshit marketing from companies like EA. They weren't even able to show their games without a lot of CGI and now they're trying to convince gamers that these new consoles are not crappy.

 

[jcfrommars9]

*laughs* Just reading the title alone, I knew the article was going to go over very smoothly with the PC gamers here. I realize this is a useless platitude but you guys shouldn't let articles or people like this rattle you. On the internet these days, they let anyone speak.

 

[Olrod]

Give it 18 months and the Xbox One will go back to being laughable compared to a new PC.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

... because everyone cares what EA execs think? This is bad comedy.

 

[FalloutJack]

This is awkward as hell. It's like Hannibal Lecter telling you you're an excellent cook. You like being a cook, but you hate where the compliment's coming from. Somebody call this guy up and tell him to get someone more reputable to sing anyone praises.

 

[Lightknight]

While I would certainly question his comments, I should point out again that consoles are optimized in an entirely different way than pcs and specs are not directly comparable. Optimization includes bandwidth efficiencies.

Skyrim's minimum pc requirements requires a 2.0 GHz dual core processor, 2GB of RAM and a DX9c video card with 512MB RAM.

Yet it is playble on systems with 6-7 year old CPUs that have 512MB of RAM (The ps3 even divides its RAM into two segments).

You cannot look at their specs and think, oh, that's a pc with 512MB of RAM. It won't work that way.

That being said, I do have a hard time believing that the mentioned specs are ahead of the most advanced pcs on the market. We don't even know the CPU specifics on the Xbone. I'd say the PS4 at least is the equivalent of a high-end pc. But highest? I guess we won't know until we get to play with it.

Do not in ANY WAY trust modern day system requirements. It is just not correct.

The minimum requirements are generally set to prevent you from burning a hole in your video card. But yes, as an employee in the software industry, I will admit that a lot of our minimum specs are pulled out of our ass. Though I'm not so sure that pc games wouldn't spec things out a little more thoroughly.

 

[Lightknight]

I want to repeat for the sake of the discussion that the EA Exec does not appear to be talking about overall CPU or computing power. His words are that the "electronics and an integrated systems-on-a -chip (soc)" architecture was a generation ahead of computers. This is essentially the only lead that consoles have over pc's. It's what makes them more optimized and so of course that's going to be better.

So we may seriously be jumping the gun here.

 

[Li Mu]

But lets all just step back from the comment and look at the man who's making it.

He works for EA.

EA.

Yes, EA, the Westboro Baptist Church of gaming.

I think that's enough reason to ignore anything this man says.

 

[gorfias]

If they're saying "A generation ahead of PC", they must surely mean, "for the same price point".

I think you just said what I meant but you did it much, much better. Thank you!

EDIT: My bad!!!! I haven't finished my coffee :-( You are writing of PSUs!

I was told get whatever feels really heavy, so, that + wattage is what I've been doing. Works for me so far, but I don't over-clock anything.

2nd Edit: That thing is 1600 Watts. I've never even heard of anything claiming to go over 1250!

This is where I normally shop. I got to see if they're even offering anything, though, I'm trying to hold off on building another computer for 2 years. I want my next PC to be a good leap over what I have now which is about 2 years old.

www.microcenter.com
This looks pretty good. I like the brand.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/413455/SuperNOVA_NEX1500_Classified_1500W_Modular_Power_Supply

 

[BakedZnake]

If the price of a Xbox One or PS4 comes to £400+ then I would rather just upgrade my gfx card/add another gfx card for that price

 

[XDravond]

It's probably been said before in this short thread but he is actually correct it it one generation before the current. Until this monday when AMD released the Jaguar architecture... A high end gaming desktop is fitted with a Ivy Bridge processor and a nVidia GTX670 (or better) or a AMD 7900 Series graphic card all of witch is a year or more old... however I consider 8GB RAM and an SSD minimum for a proper high end gaming rig...
So "next Gen" well sort of but not the "high end" stuff.. Jaguar is a low power architecture made for light and long lasting laptops...

What is true is that it's a powerful solution at the moment for it's electricity usage, in 5 years well not so much and in 10 well don't even need to go there..
The thing is though that it's so much easier to code for one kind of already known hardware so the games will run fast and smooth at surprisingly high gfx quality for quite a few years...

But however you bend it he is still dumb claiming the consoles are "1 gen ahead"... Generations doesn't mean that much anymore considering the difference in for example the IPC between a high en Intel CPU and a high end AMD....

 

[punipunipyo]

Yes... it's true.... I had to admit it...looking from that mighty fine chart, and looking at the average gaming PCs out there... Xbone and PS4 IS GOING TO BE ONE GENERATION ahead of the current PCs.. The way it's made, and how the hardware is dedicated to BEAT YOUR TV, and web browsers (maybe still few generations behind firefox though..) Their hardware capacities EXCEEDS my own PC by far...So... yes Mr. spoksperson is "wright", Xbone is NOT fossil, and PS4 means one up the PCs(AND TVs); They ARE ONE GENERATION ahead...

but PC advances a generation EVERY 6 MONTH!(TAKE THAT)

the price for Xbone and PS4 to beat high end PC's would make it too pricy for Joe public.

one of the more recent high end graphics card the Titan by Nvidia costs £800. add to that everything else that needed to make a console/pc run we're looking £1000+

i doubt very much PS4 and Xbone are going to compete with that

on a side note, i dont think they need to, theres more to gaming than graphics

Consoles actually are sold lower price than the matereals it self, it's the games that the companies will profit by, not the machine, I remembered they talked about that when we were all bitching about PS3 price; console is an investment for the companies. But again... our current average PCs will be shaken by the awesome/powerful new Consoles NOW, but in like 2 years (or less) that same graphic card would be on Every One's PC; and some of us would have better, AND our computer does MORE than a console can, we should call or gaming PC "PC-ONE" because it has MORE functionality! again... like I said, PCs evolve EVERY 6 Month!

 

[OZAuCkn7J28sHLCv]

I think it's very misleading to say that a better architecture is the same as a more powerful or better machine.

The Single solution nature of the PS4 and XB1(3) means their architecture will naturally be less bottlenecked than a socket-based desktop PC. However, this improved bandwidth will only go so far to save the consoles from the fact that they are compatible to budget to mid-range PCs at best.

Taneja clearly said the architecture was a generation ahead, and not the performance as a whole. The escapist has callously misquoted Taneja in this case, and turned what was a perfectly valid statement into untrue Flamebait.

Shame on you, Escapist mag. >=(

 

[qeinar]

i don't understand where the people making these claims are buying their pcs.. we don't have the full specs for the new xbox yet, but the ps4 specs is out there, and they're not that impressive when you compare it to a expsensive pc.

Also claiming it's 1 gen ahead is kinda stupid since pc probably have gone 2 generations further when the consoles are released anyways.

 

[AlwaysPractical]

As it stands, there are clearly PCs more powerful. My discussion on optimization is just to explain why they're not low-end pc equivalents and are more mid-high than they'd be low-mid. My current home pc appears to be a bit better as well. Maybe a lot better but I'll wait and see.

The are two sorts of benefit of the doubt we can give him:

1. If he's talking about the average home pc vs the specs of the console. That is the only way it could be a generation ahead of the pc.

2. This is the most likely, what he said was that the "electronics and an integrated systems-on-a -chip (soc)" architecture was a generation ahead of computers. Perhaps he's not talking about video cards or cpu but rather the way they're optimized. In which case it'd be correct.

But... eh... we don't know what he actually meant, do we? Maybe 3. He is announcing that he is leaving Microsoft to become a host on the Onion.

I would agree with both 1 and 2, since we do have resellers selling i5-3570s with "15.2 GHz" and "gaming grafix gt 610" and as much as I would love the PC to retain its modular nature, where you can replace parts instead of replacing half the computer for 3 times the money, I can see the advantages of SoC systems with reduced latency times and less need for optimisation. If 3 is true, it'd just be an added bonus.

 

[Antari]

Sorry but hes full of shit. Even if they DO catch up to the same sort of power I'm running, it would only take me around $60-$70 to take back that edge.

 

[crystalsnow]

Spoiler

Let me know when Microsoft/Sony figure out how to pack $2000 worth of hardware into a $400-$600 console.