The video system for the Xbox 360 doesn’t have 512mb of memory - the whole system barely has that. The videocard itself has just 10mb of a very specific kind of memory, and it really isn’t analogous to what goes into current PC hardware. It is developed by ATI, but it’s a custom Xbox component with specific requirements different from ATI’s regular PC hardware. In terms of sheer graphics horsepower, this tech is not as powerful as their current topshelf component, the X800 XT platinum (what a ridiculous name!). However, since the Xbox hardware is crafted just to run games without worrying about a Windows desktop, running AutoCAD or Maya, etc, as well as have drivers optimized for its software titles, it can get a lot more bang for a given gpu cycle’s buck.
Also, when someone is talking about modding a console, he doesn’t mean swapping out video cards and things - that stuff is all integrated on a gaming system, it can’t be done. Modding a console really refers to what software it can handle, often by soldering a new or different chip onto the mainboard or by flashing/altering the system firmware. A modded unit might be able to play foreign games (Japanese imports, let’s say) or burned/copied titles (arrrh, thar be pirates!), as well as allow for region free DVD playback (Xbox and PS2 are both region-locked by default). Being able to mod that stuff is cool, but it comes with some risk. I actually had an old PS1 get fried back in the day trying to get it to play imports, and I think MS has a system to lock modded Xbox’s out of the Live online service. Modding consoles doesn’t really hurt the manufacturers’ business much, if at all, but media companies do love their market controls…
Sorry for all the geek-speak; most of that doesn’t translate, I’m afraid. If anyone wants to wallow in the 360’s specs themselves, they’re online as of today:
[quote]Kuz wrote:
Microsoft HAAAAATES this and if you have a modded XBox, you can’t use XBox Live. [/quote]
Sure you can, if you install a switch, which is what I did. That way, I can turn the mod chip off, make everything “normal” again, and go onto XBox Live.
I guess we know who the x-box cheerleader is. But in my defense - 512mb video memory sounds WAY cooler than saying 10mb. I think i’m going to start saying that it has 10,000kb video.
I also read somewhere that the new processor will process the imtermediate windows language, or something like that - which will make the x-box 2 games faster.
I think that’s what the article said - but I blew it on the video memory, so maybe you shouldn’t even pay much attention to the last paragraph.
[quote]nephorm wrote:
Kuz wrote:
Microsoft HAAAAATES this and if you have a modded XBox, you can’t use XBox Live.
Sure you can, if you install a switch, which is what I did. That way, I can turn the mod chip off, make everything “normal” again, and go onto XBox Live.[/quote]
I thought that they ‘finger printed’ the HDD when you first log on, and if you modded your box with a bigger HDD, then you would be flagged on x-box live and not allowed to log in on that particular box.
But what the hell do I know. I’m still stuck in NYC on SC:CT.
No problem, man. I work in digital media for a living, including video game art, so this stuff is the kind of thing I’m supposed to know about
Regarding how the Xbox 360 will work with respect to Windows code, you are correct. Obviously, this is a Microsoft product, so the backbone of the system will still be a Windows derivative. However, there’s a huge advantage with consoles rather than PCs in that all of the hardware and software is custom built for the version of Windows they’ll be using. Every Xbox has the same parts inside, so that keeps the OS a lot leaner - it needs just a few essentials to run, no surprises are going to show up. The software is also specifically designed with MS’s development tools to take direct advantage of the hardware as efficiently as possible.
There won’t be any gamers using hardware from the early 1990s here, or people trying to run TurboTax at the same time as Halo2; it’s all streamlined, uniform gaming tech. Whereas Windows XP is sort of a jack-of-all-trades (it needs to adapt to so many things), the Xbox core is a trained specialist which only needs to perform one task extremely well.
This is also why consoles get such badass performance from seemingly lesser hardware. With just this web browser open and a handful of systray apps, I’m losing nearly 400mb of my system memory to whatever the hell Windows is doing. The Xbox doesn’t need nearly as much, so it can get along fine with tiny bits of video ram and a blazing fast memory bus to pulltexture and vertex data out of system ram as needed. Great toys, but at the cost of versatility.
Isn’t the current x-box designed, not on the intermediate windows language, but on the X86 platform? If I understand my geekese correctly, that means that the new x-box will run faster on the same hardware setup as the original. Is that correct?
I’ve just topped out on my nerd scale for today, and must now go and lie down with a cold compress upon my throbbing head.
Haha… I hope you didn’t strain anything, this geek talk is heavy stuff! ;D
Actually, I’m not really certain what you’re referring to. The term X86 refers to a type of processor architecture, not an OS or high-level programming language. The previous Xbox used standard Pentium3 500 chips from Intel, IIRC, which is a 586 descendent (can’t remember exactly, the pentium name screws up all the model numbers - might technically be 686). The new Xbox chip is a PowerPC design from IBM. It’s a different style of CPU architecture, and has no real relationship with the X86 series of processors. I don’t deal with any machine code in my work, but I would assume that the OS backbone for the Xbox 360 is completely incompatible with the version used on the original one.
This doesn’t really matter with respect to the gamer’s experience, though. Basically, software talks to the OS/firmware and the OS/firmware talks to the hardware. Since the games are being directly built for the 360 platform, the nature of the hardware is largely irrelevant. However… I haven’t heard anything yet about how backward compatible the new Xbox will be. Since the machine architecture is so different, some sort of emulation (which would slow down performance on old titles, may be necessary.
We’re getting far afield of my expertise here, though, so take the above with a pinch of salt
That’s what I get for trying to remember stuff like this. I’ll find what I’m talking about and post it so you uber-geeks…er… tech savy guys can see it.
[quote]Kuz wrote:
Professor X wrote:
As far as GTA, I doubt I am anywhere near half way done beating this game and I have had it since Christmas. Granted I don’t sit and play video games all day everyday, but I do spend a good couple of hours on the weekends. Any game that even keeps my interest half that long is worth the 50 bucks. There are very few games I can say the same about.
One thing though…don’t use the cheat codes. Yes, it is fun to be able to fly and make cars pop out of thin air but it takes away the realness of it.
Cheat codes completely baffle me. I mean, maybe if I have finished the game and I am going back to sort of screw around, I can see it. But so many people use them to “beat” the game, which is just a punk cop out.[/quote]
Not really. With all the stuff in games these days (especially games like Grand Theft Auto) without the walkthrough books and cheat codes your going to miss out on a bunch of stuff you could discover. Some people dont have time to play the same game over and over when they have beat it.
This reminds me of a funny story. My story. I Work at gamestop, Im a Manager, i have 15ish people under me at any given time. They are all nerds, and I could eat roughly two or three of them a day to hit my Cal requrement. I started there when i was 16, i’ve been there almost 5 years now and worked my way to the top of the store and one of the best stores in the district. Now i bring this up cause everyone thinks im weird cause im a bodybuilder that works at a videogame store. I just got a kick out of this thread being on T-Nation. Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside knowing my fellow T-brothers play games too, then reminds me of all the guys who reserved GTA that i’m going to deal with launch day and im not fuzzy anymore.
