This link is for all the people who are just commenting because they feel that MS is the devil and they want to talk endless **** about the next XBOX.
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6124293/p-3.html. Do not get me wrong though I appreciate all the people who actually know what they are talking about because even though I already knew the information that they posted its nice to see an informed educated comment. And for all the people saying that shouldn't Apple get the new tech first two things ( I didnt read a few of the middle pages of this thread so it might have already been posted). The chip design is owned by MS not IBM. MS contracted IBM to design the chip but thats all they did they do not own or fabricate the chip hence how MS plans to keep all their cost down its the same for the graphics card and all the other components. They obviously did this because of bad taste that was left in their mouth after the whole NVIDIA hoopla. For the guy who said its one processor umm you should really figure out what your talking about before posting. It's three cores on one die, 1 core on one die = 1 processor, 3 cores on one die = 3 processors, not to mention the fact that since it processes 2 threads parrallel (I believe its parrallel correct me if I'm wrong) the argument could be made that it is actually 6 proccesors. However I'm not sure if 2 threads are both calculated at 3.2 ghz each or each thread is calculated at 1.6 ghz. As far as the 48 pipelines go....no there is not 24 pipelines your flat out wrong but what you are right about is the fact I'd be willing to bet it functions much like a dedicated 24 pipe card but the fact is there is actually 48 pipelines. The reason I think that it might run like a 24 pipe card is that since the card processes vertex and pixels through the same line instead of having dedicated pipes for each I'd be willing to bet its not as good as a dedicated pipe for each more like 1/2 the power but hopefully more god willing 150% the power of a dedicated pipe. As far as cost go hopefully the rumors circulating are true that it will run 299. As far as the graphics for the games go I know that they will be great and much better looking than the current generation however currently I dont think it shows. This is obviously due to the fact that they are first gen title's, I'd be willing to bet alot of developers are first focusing on just getting games to work on the platform much the way sega did when it popped nfl 2k2 onto the next gen consoles of the time. Sadly the game looked much like a dreamcast port with a few graphical improvements and a more stable fps. This is what Tony Hawk and the new Tiger Woods games looked like. Both of those games could have been totally done on current gen consoles from what I saw on MTV. But when developers have had the time to create new more powerful engines that take advantage of the hardware Tiger Woods should be able to have all completely rendered blades of grass if nothing else. The only argument that could have been made for Tony Hawk was that supposedly the entire LA is set in, no loads. But a simple Halo or Metroid system of loading in the background could have easily accomplished this without any notice with this much power. I also dont see the current beautiful games as any test of the systems power. The fact that the Doom 3 engine runs in full glory no hinderance does not really impress me. It will provide much better just remember that these things have to stay competitive visually for 5 yrs as great as Doom 3 looks it wont be able to hold a candle to the next great engine at the end of this console life cycle ( Remember we all thought Half- Life looked great when it came out now we laugh at it, fortunately I think todays cutting edge is so great looking it will never be laughable or even close, thank you John Carmack). And remember this all easily attainable because 2 things, the system has incredible power, but most importantly a game console doesnt have to worry about anything else at all there arent OS'es running windows or os x for that matter in the background so every drop of rescource is dedicated to what is on your screen. (I sure hope including media center functionality is the beggining of a trend that would basically be like an os) And that is where consoles processing strength is and why they are able to at least stay competitive at the end of a life cycle. Well sorry for the long post but hope it got some things cleared up....hope to see you out there in xbox 360 land ******** on longhorn (aka longwait os since its never going to come out at this rate) with me lol. Any corrections please let me know
