ubersyanyde said:
lolwut!?
We're not even thinking of 16 core CPUs for hardcore gaming PCs. AMD have only just released an 8 core CPU which is still a hefty amount. A Radeon HD 7000 equivalent seems a little far fetched as well having seen how far they can push what's in the current xbox's card.
Either this thing's gonna cost a bomb or I'm underestimating Microsoft.
Hardcore graphic desingners and various other creative computing types already use multiple multi-core processors in their machines. I can see how it could help in a console. It can take the stress off the videocards, can run more processes at once, especially intensive tasks like physics engines. That being said, it's almost certainly not going to be 16 cores. That's just overkill, like you say, look what they can do already.
Consoles may be considerably less powerful than a PC, but look what the xbox 360 can do, compared to what a 6 year old PC could do, I reckon it's a lot more. I'm not even sure where graphical fidelity can even go from here, without getting into ultra realistic looks. I mean, I haven't been blown over by graphics in like 2 years. Yes there's minor improvements, but the improvements are slowing. I mean, Crysis is like 5 years old now and still looks pretty damned good. Now think about, for example, Half Life 1 and Half Life 2, which had like a 5 or 6 year gap. The difference between those two, graphically, is incredibly easy to spot. Not so much with games these days.
The challenge for Sony and Microsoft then, is improving the hardware, but still making a profit, or at least breaking even on each console sold.
