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Developers Slam PS3 "Slow and Broken" Allegations |
Listed in: PS3 Tags: playstation 3 updates, ps3 hardware performance, Sony
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Earlier this week, we reported about the scathing PS3 hardware review made by a correspondent of the technology news site The Inquirer. The correspondent claimed that the PS3 was "slow and broken", even saying that the console's hardware was "hobbled" compared to the Xbox 360. Well, with such claims, he's bound to get some slamming from senior developers working on PS3 titles. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz this week, several developers who are familiar with the PS3 hardware have dismissed The Inquirer's report and branded it as "misleading and uninformed and "entirely meaningless."
The Inquirer asserts that the NVIDIA-designed RSX graphics unit has a slower triangle setup rate, with 270 million triangles per second, than the ATI-designed part in the Xbox 360, with 500 million triangles per second.
The contentious figures came under fire. According to one programmer:
It's just a pointless measurement. Where's the context? How were these numbers measured? There are loads of different ways you can measure tri performance, and just putting up headline figures like that tells you nothing. In fact, the PS2 had better tri performance than the Xbox, on paper. Everyone knows that the Xbox was more powerful at running real games, but if you just wanted to fill a screen with 2D, flat colour, unlit triangles, then the PS2 was much better at that, so it looked great in benchmarks. That just shows how meaningless this measurement is - it's really pointless.
But what really got the developers fuming is the claim that Cell is being "hobbled" by slow memory access. This assertion is based on a Devstation slide which shows only 16Mb/s read access to "Local Memory", compared to other PS3 component and memory types which have 10-25Gb/s.
Another developer quipped: They've got the wrong end of the stick grasped firmly in both hands. I'm not even sure if they're holding the right stick.
The developers are unanimous in saying that the claims are spurious and pointed out that even if there's a germ of truth in the claims, they would be serious flaws that Sony would not simply release the Cell chip in that state. It's taking them some time to get used to PS3, but they admit that coding for the PS3 is much faster than the last time they coded for the PS2: Sony's giving us better tools this time around. They're still not great at communicating and there are some weird holes in their developer support, but they've learned a lot of lessons from PS2.
I guess we'll just have to see for ourselves.
Via GamesIndustry
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OWNED!
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but at least it'll calm the **** xbox and nintendo fan boys out there, lol.
(I'll buy a ps3 and surely also a wii, maybe an x360 in 3-4 years when the mistwalker games will be there, and when it'll cost a LOT less, now x360 is the same price as the ps3 :| really, the ps3 core has the SAME EXACT thing as the x360 premium for the sale exact price, but ps3 have a blue-ray player too, at the same price... )
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It is simply the point that CELL doesn't really need to read from the RSX local memory. Maybe for debug purposes and then 16MB/s are sufficient, and if you really need to access the graphics memory with CELL, the RSX can copy the needed data to main memory really fast. In fact, in the PS2, the Emotion Engine didn't have any means to access the graphics memory and it didn't hurt at all.
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Anyway, good news on the PS3 front. I'm still a little worried about whether the PS3 will be worth the price, but if the devs put out games that look like what we've been seeing, then I'm sure I'll be getting one.
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It just goes to show that depending on which side of the fence you are on you will "believe" that sides propoganda.
If GI wishes to provide names of people to dispute the claims, facts, and pictures then by all means do so. For all we know it could be Sony in house developers, housing developers, film developers...
Fritzilla
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from the looks of it, anyone who knows about programming and coding have stated that video games, never, ever, access local memory, so the 16mbs is a non issue, and that the chart has nothing out of the ordinary.
and even if it is Sony damage control, can you blame them? ever since they announced the PS3 there has been nothing but bad press and negativity. i've never seen a console, in the history of gaming come under so much ire from, well, *everyone*. they seemed to know what they're talking about, i enjoyed myself with PS3 titles at E3, and *that* fact (the fact that i had hands on time with the games) is what matters the most to me, as the games proved that the system is, indeed capable of some great looking and fun games.
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dont believe everything you read .
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