Xbox One's massive, custom CPU can pick you out of a lineup

The Xbox One chips are highly customized, Sell said. One significant change from the previous-generation Xbox 360 is that the graphics core is integrated with the CPU, as are most of today’s PCs chips. Sel referred to the GPU chip as a “DirectX 11.1+” chip, as it contains optimized graphics processing unique to the Xbox One. “There’s more than a CPU’s worth of processing in there,” Sell said.

[GreenRanger]

I have no idea what any of this stuff means, and I really don't think I need to know.

Games > Specs.

[GraveLord]

All it really means is that Xbox One can't be built from Newegg components. But we knew that already.

We're just getting better detail into how this console and its chips can work together. If you don't understand what's being said, don't comment. Most of these comments in the article are completely off-base.

To put it in simplest terms: Xbox One did not get a power boost.

[nosferatuzodd]

lol you go Microsoft if you're system cant match up try win in other areas its like Sony said I'm the fastest runner and Microsoft said yeah but I'm the strongest i can lift 5billian transistors

[MagnusX]

Recent reports state that it is 'stronger" but slower. How that incorporates into gameplay is yet to be seen.

[UltimateMaster]

None of it is relevant until we see games using the technology.

[Erdrick]

@MagnusX

i think "stronger" might mean more data is moved at a slower pace, whereas "faster" means less data is moved more quickly... which might equate to slower loading times of large maps vs faster loading times of small maps...?

[NeutralXP]

Then why comment Here -1

[waljaber]

O_O why am i here O_O

[dcj0524]

Yes but better specs enhance those games. So you can have more immersive and bigger games. If a system has both games and specs then it is a win win. Specs are to allow games to push further. It's up to the developers if they want to push or not.

[Heartnet]

specs dont enhance games lol... just cuz a game can look better doesnt make it more immersive...

hell take every indie game ever made the graphics on them arnt stellar but people seem to love them... and theyd run on current gen if not previous gen consoles..

[Bluepowerzz]

LMAOOOOOOOOOOO this happened to me before a sony guy took me down when im a sony guy myself

[timl241]

Games do mean more than specs, which is why the Xbox One is a smarter day one buy. I'm sorry but I'm not paying $400 for The Order and indie games. Sure Killzone, but that's quickly turning into halo with how they're churning those out. Not a fanboy just my opinion. Disagree if you will

[sync90]

Its far more appealing than $500 for Ryse, and another forza. Then you compare KZ to halo??? lol

Im not trying to be rude, but thats complete and utter nonsense and to say that shows you've never even played a KZ game.

[pixelsword]

I thought Halo was the end-all and be-all for FPS games.

[timl241]

I'm not comparing KZ to Halo. Just saying that Halo is being worn out and KZ is making that same mistake. Not there yet but a few more years and it will be. And there's more than Forza and Ryse. Dead rising 3, Titanfall in the spring, sunset overdrive is a fresh take on a shooter. Not knocking the ps4, just saying XB1 has a better lineup to start. Just like the Ps3, the ps4 will eventually have better games. Just not now

[threefootwang]

@ timl241

Launch games shouldn't determine what console you purchase. Sure maybe the X1 has what some people believe to be a "better" selection then the PS4 (Personally I find the PS4 side more interesting), but launch games are forgotten almost instantly and never look as good as the games that come out even a year after new consoles hit the market; the PS3 and the Xbox 360 can both attest to this. Also keep in mind, Sony has way more exclusive studios who have all confirmed they are working on next gen games, they just haven't announced anything publicly yet. I'd factor this into your considerations if I were you. I'm actually kind of happy knowing I'll be able to buy a PS4 and not have to dish out a ridiculous amount of money on launch games, plus with my PSN+ subscription I'll have access to additional games which will be free of charge as well.

[timl241]

@threefoot

I'll be the first to admit that the PS4 WILL have better games in the future. There is a reason I am picking up a PS3. I want to play all those great exclusives that I missed out on. However, the reason I'm getting the Xbox first is because of the exclusives at launch. That's all I'm saying. I will buy a PS4 when better games come out. But I personally find it redundant to buy both when they come out. I've been a lot more open minded about consoles recently. I used to hate Sony and PlayStation. But recently it has been growing on me because the games are very good. Those games just need to come out before I buy a PS4

[pixelsword]

I haven't looked into any of this stuff yet, but one thing's for sure: with all of that talk about MS being in bed with the guber-mint, this title doesn't help assuage anyone's feelings who might feel uncomfortable about all of that.

[buynit]

pixlesword...

You ppl are still scared of kinect? Like seriously... You have been watched many times jerking off to your favorite porn via your cell phone.. If you drive you have been recorded at intersections and highways..

Besides actually watching you, the guberment knows all about you right through your internet...

If you are that scared then move out of the united states. you need to get completely off the grid like out in the woods with no power, water supply etc.. Move back to the... How you ppl say it? "the draconian age"...

And to be fair... Halo did start and end better than kz, well not really end cause both franchises are still going strong..

[Eddie20101]

Not scared, just don't want to have to buy something that makes little difference to the type of games I play.

I not getting an Xbox One 80 anyway for this reason and many others.

[pixelsword]

@ buynit:

Microsoft already confessed that they're doing exactly that. You really need to read-up on a lot of things. If you're older than thirteen, I pity anyone within a five-mile perimeter of you because you obviously have no idea about how the world works. I think buynit really means "buying it" because of your gullible nature but that's really cool with me; because if there's enough people like you being the pillars of the house of the impressionable, all you do is provide shade and shelter when people like me drop by for a visit.

[3-4-5]

It can pick us out of a lineup ?

What, does it think we are all criminals or something ?

[threefootwang]

Pick you out of a lineup, and with Kinect know your heart rate.

NSA is going to love the X1. lol

[DonFreezer]

Why haven't you siad the same when there were all sorts of bullcrap about ps4 being more powerfull?

[Jazz4108]

Maybe micro needs to secure rights to the sequel and get octomom then sony fans will buy one. Just kidding. I cant wait for both consoles so lets let the games do the talking no Cerny bs or ms fluff.

[Tw1tch3D]

Well if the bases is emphasized on games...ppffttt, Xbox One has better games this launch and early next year.

So if the argument is carried from specs to games, either way there is relevancy on both sides of the argument supporting Xbox One.

Not trying to convince you otherwise, just stating your point as if you hinted to the sense that if this supposed Xbox One hardware is as good as it seems, that now games should be the emphasis and as if PS4 has more and better games. When it's the other way around.

...just saying.

[showtimefolks]

hopefully both companies will show the power of their systems with great games

[SmokeyMcBear]

uhhh.. did anyone read this article... the only thing it talks about is is how the cpu chip analyzes the images received from the kinect peripheral.

[Mounce]

The article creator is begging for hits about trivial facts on a Webcam rather than what the CPU can do for Gamers.

"THE CPU IS SO STRONG.....THAT THE KINECT IS STRONG....SO THAT IT CAN SHOW YOU ON CAM LIKE AN HD CAM....AND THEN TURN GREY AND SEE YOU!"

Okay there.

[kenmid]

I don't think realized how powerful the Kinect Sensor is.

[Eddie20101]

Many don't care, including myself. It's still just a motion sensor device for playing games. The kind of games most gamer's really don't care for.

[TKCMuzzer]

I get bored of reading these tech articles, as long as the games look good on my TV and run smoothly I don't really care about Tflops etc. The sooner the consoles arrive the better, then it can all be about the games again.

[kewlkat007]

Tflops + hMuma equals better graphics..

[TKCMuzzer]

I understand that but there are just to many articles about the tech stuff, I just want to see games.

[hennessey86]

Really so more teraflops are better, why is it then that some amd cards have a higher teraflop count than nvidia cards and the nvidia cards still produce the better results.................it' ;s not all about raw specs my friend.

[thehitman]

@Hennessay its just because more games are optimized for nvidia cards, drivers. I bet there will be a huge turnaround now that AMD has a huge marketshare and almost every developer will have to optimize for amd if they develop on consoles as well. There will be a huge improvement on systems that use amd cards and PC gamers will probably benefit from it the most.

Thats why PC gaming isnt all what its said out to be because even with having the latest tech, optimization drags PC gaming down.

[ThanatosDMC]

Deus Ex runs like crap compared to it's AMD counterpart. Depends how a game is optimized.

[Campy da Camper]

Agreed. I'd take 9 stories a day of straight up "Here is a 10 minute video of X game running on X system" over " CPU chip hybrid now made in silicone from moon which yeilds more gigawatts for better shader enhanced pixelation."

[Soplox]

Without Specs and the hardware there CAN'T be no games. AND the games and the Publishers DEMAND those specs.

[Heartnet]

There can be... and games cant demand anything as they are just a creation of code and have no mind of their own...

and i doubt publishers demand these specs as the lower the specs the lower the development time which means lower costs... MS and Sony are the ones forcing higher specs in consoles...

[DarkHeroZX]

@Heartnet

Actually developers do push specs. The original 360 was originally going to have only 256MB of total ram. Developers pushed MS to increase it because it was not enough. And its not about how powerful the hardware is but how user friendly. Developers have already come out and stated that the PS4 is cheaper to develop for due to it's easy to program for hardware. The cell while being a great chip has an extremely high learning curve and as a result takes longer to get that ideal performance. Having more powerful hardware typically means nothing cost wise. And specs matter dude do you honestly think they don't? Do you think any modern game would run on the N64,PS1, Dreamcast, etc? No, its impossible. Even the difference between BF4 on current gen and next gen are going to have many performance differences like 60fps vs 30fps, 64 player online vs what 24? Specs do matter as gaming evolves over time.

[Fangrim]

Same goes for the PS4:

QUOTE:

<snip>

Recounting the story of how they went from 4GB to 8GB, Adam was actually at Gearbox (Borderlands), with Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox, telling him, “If you go with 4GB of GDDR5, you are done.” Following that statement, Boyes says that the entire room of about 30 people added in that “you guys, you never listen, you’ve never been good at this stuff.”

After hearing this, Adam says he had a mini-breakdown, and it wasn’t until he reflected on this and asked himself the question, “Are we going to be the best console in every single category?” before things started moving, because “the answer used to be no.”

So, Adam went back to the developers about the possibility of doing 8GB of RAM, getting responses like “that would be incredible.” He then took all the feedback to Tokyo, got the thumbs up, and the rest is history.

<snip>

/QUOTE

http://www.playstationlifes...

[Belking]

I told all you fanboys a few months ago that the xbox-one cpu was gonna be highly customized.

[HammadTheBeast]

....for Kinect, as the article states.....

[Belking]

Nope, the cpu in the xbox-one is too. Read the article fanboy.

"The Xbox One is possibly the largest chip manufactured to date, with a comparable number to Intel’s 64-core Xeon Phi coprocessor for supercomputers, and easily topping Intel’s 8-core “Poulsen” Itanium that the chip maker launched in 2012."

Of course the one in Kinect is, duh. This thing has a lot of CPU processing power. The One!

Plus it has a kick ass sound chip too.

ttps://twitter.com/rickbmerri tt/status/372097331568857089

This console has turned out much better than what people were lead to believe.

[dantesparda]

The chip is big because of the esram, if instead of wasting that chip real estate on esram to make up for the ddr3 bandwidth deficiency, they could have better used that space to make a gpu with more transistors (in other words more powerful).

[KazHiraiFTW]

Belking, I just want you and all the other xdone fanboys to know that 363mm2 is not a big chip by any means. The gpu I have in my pc right now is 551mm2 with 7.1 billion transistors...and that's just the gpu, not including the cpu with an additional 1.4 billion processors and 160mm2 die size.

That equals 8.5 billion transistors vs your 5 billion transistors and 711mm2 of die space on the processors vs your puny 363mm2 die.

Get a grip kid, the xdone is nothing special.

[TKCMuzzer]

Maybe you should have been working for MS and you could have used your powers to warn them about not what to do on their Xbox one announcement.

[HammadTheBeast]

Still weaker than PS4 fanboi.

[cesuf]

and your ps4 is already 3-4 times weaker than my gaming pc, before it evens releases...in several months. 3-4 times, that's huge.

your argueing over tables scrapes for such small differences between consoles. lol sad and insignificant, really.

[JamieL]

I love how the BIGGEST "fanyboys" on this site are always the first ones to throw that accusation out there. It really doesn’t matter if he is a fanboy or not, that does NOT change the FACT you are one too. So why call him out acting like that behavior is wrong to you, when in fact you are here day and night doing the same thing? It’s ok for you to be a fanboy and not him? Because he likes MS, that’s the big violation to you? It’s ok to be a fanboy of Sony, but not MS right? You know what; I think I have it figured out. You’re just a hypocrite, and call people fanboy’s to compensate for your own behavior and keep the focus off yourself. It’s like the guy that cheats on his girlfriend, and is always up her a$$ because he thinks she’s doing the same thing just because he is. So you have to be so overbearing, and call her the cheater to keep the focus off your own shortcomings. Classy, keep it up.

[boing1]

Yeah, you were absolutely correct! Amazing! It changes... nothing.

[BlaqMagiq24]

And I can still tell you like a few months ago that it's STILL weaker than PS4. That is fact and that will never change

[Kennytaur]

Yeah, YOU told them. It's not like sensible people could draw such an obvious conclusion themselves... Show me a console without a custom processor. There's always some form of special sauce.

[Khajiit86]

I want one but will wait until it is 350 or under

[Swiggins]

Exactly, I'm gonna do what I did for this Gen and just wait a year. There's plenty of games coming out for the current gen to keep me occupied and in a year, there'll be a price drop, more games out, and I'll have a better look at what each console is "doing".

That said, if I were to buy a next gen system at launch, it'd probably be the PS4, despite the Xbox One's superior launch lineup.

[Khajiit86]

Superior? Titanfall gives me 0 excitement, and Ryse looks good but i need to see how the gameplay feels. I know some of my friends will own it and I am a hardcore gamer and cant wait to play some future exclusives.

[JamieL]

@ Khajiit86
Yes "Superior", and because of your opinion he's wrong? I too think the XB1's launch lineup looks better than KZ(the PS4’s lineup). I can't even name another launch PS4 title, which speaks volumes in itself, but my point is you are arguing with his opinion, because you've convinced yourself you don't like the XB1 or anything on it. I also think it's funny as hell, and VERY telling that Titanfall holds no interest for you but KZ does? What they've show of KZ looks a lot less fun than what they've show of Titanfall IMHO, but that’s my point you have the right to be more excited for KZ without having someone telling you how bad your opinion is.

[Megaton]

The chip's giant size is the reason behind the suspected bad yields, right? Something about a certain percentage of all chips being DOA, but the number going up substantially as you increase the size of the die.

[SmokeyMcBear]

yup.

[BallsEye]

Not really. Read the newest articles. You are talking about ESRAM.

[Kennytaur]

They are building it with redundancy, so parta of it can fail in production without impacting the chip. But I wonder if this means some systems may have an advantage in life expectancy, probably not but still it's interesting.

[lifeisgamesok]

This new info explains the brilliance which is Ryse: SOR

[Trekster_Gamer]

This tech is awesome. I can't wait until developers truly take advantage of everything Xbox one else to offer Kinect is going to be soooo much more accurate and immersive.

[TheKingWilliamV]

Silly rabbits Console Wars are for kids...

[Hufandpuf]

Or N4G.

[gamertk421]

This article doesn't even mention the use of tensilica in the audio and other cores, nor does it reference the 8gb flash memory revealed in the hot chips session. When everything is fully revealed in late September, in terms of the actual GPU setup, we'll see that worrying about the XB1 holding back this generation will have been completely baseless.

[Kennytaur]

There's always been an underdog in performance and there always will be. The ps1, ps2 and 360 (and ps3 up until 2009) were just fine. Yes, there will be differences, but if it worries someone that much: build a pc.

[quenomamen]

Yea ? Can it pick me out while im standing in line outside Best Buy this Nov when I get my PS4 ?and if so, will it have hate in its sensors ???

[gamertk421]

Yes, and I hope so...

[Heartnet]

it will feel sorry for you though.. missing out..

[Agent_hitman]

Kinect chip lol.. Not about the power, the article stated.

[n4rc]

Damn
... So many hidden comments.. Fanboys on both sides beware I guess lol

[n4rc]

Using racing works well so I'll continue using it....

Say you have a awesome powerful car.. It has 500hp.. You can run solid laps of a track at 90 seconds..

Then some other guy shows up.. His car only has 400hp.. But can run 80 second lap times...

It happens all the time... How did this happen when guy A has 100 more HP?

Easy... Power isn't everything...

Or let's talk about how a 10mp DSLR camera will take shots 10x better then the 30mp cam sitting next to it..

Its funny that people fall for specs so easily.. Marketing 101

[FlunkinMonkey]

No your right, it takes brilliant first party developers such as Naughty Dog, Guerilla Games, Santa Monica (just to name a few) to really utilise their hardware.

[cabbitwithscissors]

Not a very good analogy to use megapixels and cameras. There is a whole lot of things you need to look in to and lenses make a whole lot of difference when used on either camera.

[christocolus]

Yaaaaay..i like how all the trolls have been blocked off/hidden away under the bridge..i was able to read through the comments without seeing alot of them...lmao..xbox one will over time produce even greater games than titan fall, ryse, forza 5 and all that has been shown so far at gamescom.....(:

[MasterCornholio]

I'm glad that the new Kinect sensor has a chip in it otherwise it would leach off the consoles hardware.

OT: wow there's a ton of blocked comments in this article.

Motorola RAZR i

[Bluepowerzz]

let em buy the xbox one theyll see why they shouldnt have like they did this gen when there was no games for 3 years

[JunioRS101]

Yeah, I'm sure Kinect identification technology translates really well into higher frame rates or better particle effects lmao

I'm just, so jealous now...

[pyramidshead]

Damn all those hidden commys, Jesus.

[steve30x]

Why are pc elitests still arguing over the power of thye consoles? These consoles are built for gaming mostly. They need less power than a PC to run games than a gaming PC. Before anybody says I'm a fanboy. I own a PC , PS3 and Xbox 360. I enjoy gaming mostly on my PC but the consoles serve their purpose very well.

[gamernova]

But as soon as a PC gamer starts talking about Tflops and GHz's...we get called nerds lol Double standards hahaha

[shadowmist13]

In a few years this is going to be way outdated,but its amazing what developers push with old hardware,so your pc is still going to be 2 times the price to come near the fps you get lol,would really like to get the new fable and dead rising 3 but im not going to buy the xbox one yet,going to wait out a price drop.

[Knightofelemia]

I don't speak specanese I understand some what the tech looks amazing but I think I am going to hold off on the XboxOne. I want to see the reviews on this console and how it performs quality wise. Don't want to buy another Xbox and have it cook itself again. I must say the technology is neat. If Microsoft could use the Kinnect technology to help those with a disability it would be great. I may not like the Kinnect but there are those out there who like it. The technology can only get better and help those in need.

[Godlovesgamers]

"Xbox One's massive, custom CPU can pick you out of a lineup"

I'm sure the NSA are licking their chops as we speak.

[AKR]

When did gamers and gaming itself become all about the visuals and the tech powering it?

I love a beautiful game. It's amazing to play something that looks realistic enough to give the illusion that you're actually experiencing it in real-life. It's pleasing to the eye, yes I know...But people these days are WAY too up in arms about graphics and specs...It's ridiculous.

Leave that for the videogame nerds to duke it out over..Not %90 of the industry..

[Aztec_MC]

Great... Now NSA can find you if UR on probation

[thexmanone]

Only while using the PlayStation eye.