PS3 SPUs are 'total monsters', says inFamous 2 dev

Sony has described its PS3 console as being "future proof", but just how powerful is it?

Well, inFamous 2 developer Sucker Punch reckons the PS3 is the business.

"The SPUs kick ass," he said.

"Move your shit there! The SPUs are just total monsters. You just have to move more and more and more and more and more stuff there. We have post-processing graphics passes going on in the SPUs. We have more particle stuff, more collision and physics stuff going on in there. They're unbelievable."

[Cloudberry]

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Looking forward to inFamous 2. : )
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EDIT :

The link's broken......... /: (

[FangBlade]

Music to my ears.
I'm glad I have a PS3.

[Gamerbee]

Just give us the the old Cole. Not Skinny nathan drake.

[Rumor]

I love em all. Not only do they LOVE to make games, they LOVE to make GOOD games. And we ps3 owners benefit it all! Take your $60 to gamestop and choose a game like alpha protocol after playing uncharted or something, i guarantee u will return it within an hour.

[NYPunkster]

F**k Gamestop bunch of thieves.

[Cevapi88]

lets see them back those words up with another great title...if the first Infamous is the devs 1st attempt...imagine how well the 2nd installment will play after all the bugs and minor hiccups are resolved along with pushing the PS3 even further

[DaTruth]

"We have post-processing graphics passes going on in the SPUs."

MLAA confirmed!!! Lord knows the first game could have used some of this!

[Strange_Evil]

Try this link if you can't access the article...

http://www.videogamer.com/n...

[madpuppy]

http://www.videogamer.com/p...

[raztad]

If released inFAMOUS 2 screenshots are not bullshots. I'd say the leap from inFAMOUS 1 to 2 is a lot bigger than from UC 1 to 2.

It's amazing to see a dev so excited by the power of the SPUs.

"It's frickin' unbelievable how far we've come. It's crazy how much we've been able to get out of it [the PS3]. It's crazy how much more we're able to do."

inFAMOUS 2 will show R* how a proper HD, with smooth framerate game is done on the PS3.

[NecrumSlavery]

Yeah, it looks as if inFamous 2 will be damn near the same graphical caliber as Uncharted 2, but in a full sandbox. About a year out and this game is already 10x what infamous was. I am completely in awe of what these Sony First Party Devs are capable of.

[Incognegro]

Me too.. but SuckerPunch isn't first party.

[NarooN]

Yeah, they aren't. I think what he meant is pretty much any dev who works really closely with Sony for a good period of time. A lot of people think Sony doesn't care about the games, but a lot of Sony teams help the HELL out of any dev that shows that THEY care about the platform.

[ProjectVulcan]

Its sort of common knowledge now to developers that the key to PS3's performance is in the SPU utilisation. If you treat it as a conventional system with a general purpose CPU and a dedicated GPU then it will be slow, slower than 360 without a doubt. Its been clear to the most talented developers for a while now that offloading tasks to the SPUs that conventionally the GPU would be given frees up a huge amount of GPU cycles for what it does best, mostly pixel shading and throwing triangles about. RSX has strangled bandwidth, but when you look at CELL, SPUs have enormous memory bandwidth for a CPU (25.6Gb/s which is more than every modern PC desktop CPU bar a core i7 with very fast triple channel memory) - unusually high and a strange balance or so it seemed at first. Then you realise that it was DESIGNED to take tasks from the GPU and thats what that masive chunk of bandwidth is intended for....

Most of the early criticism of the architecture from developers were because it does not comply with their instinctive method of seperating the tasks firmly between what the CPU can do and what the GPU should. Valve clearly found this irritating as a pc developer, but as they became more accustomed to consoles they realised this is just how it is, its not the machine's fault, its your fault for your preconceptions on how to dev for PS3.

Once you work to the machine's strengths instead of your own stubborn ideas of what it should do then the results will come. The library of exclusive PS3 titles is now solid evidence of this fact.

[nefertis]

TGSI

[nveenio]

Bubbles for Well Said. Honestly, I think that devs have been spoiled by companies like Microsoft that build dev kits that are "too easy" to use. Apple is the same way. The iPhone/iPad SDK is so simple that you really don't have to think anything through unless you're trying to do something insanely innovative. When Sony released the PS3, there was little-to-no experience for utilizing the Cell besides simple tech demos and conceptual code. Now that Sony has found some good devs and stood behind them 100%, the devs have learned to realize that when the engine starts to chug, they can just shovel something else over to the SPUs. The SPUs have more theoretical terraflops than any PC CPU out there (except maybe Intel's new 16-core). It only makes sense that their ceiling is uber-high.

[Morituri]

Dude, you just blew my mind... What, are you from the future or something?

[P1NKY]

The internal BUS that the SPUs and PPE use has a bandwidth of 300Gb/s

[saint_john_paul_ii]

quoted for Truth.

[ProjectVulcan]

Internal bus between the SPU and the controlling PPE is obviously huge but i was referring to the bandwidth between the processor as a unit and system memory. Typical bandwidth of a core 2 and dual DDR2 800mhz memory is about 7GB/s, a phenom which has an IMC (integrated memory controller) and dual channel 1333 DDR3 is about twice that and a core i7 with triple channel 1600mhz DDR3 over the 20GB/s mark.

In other words only the very fastest consumer desktop x86 processors and compatible system memory even in 2010 surpasses the bandwidth CELL enjoyed in 2006. Which gives a clue to how much performance Sony's engineering team expected to be exploited, they gave the CPU huge system memory bandwidth for a reason, the reason being they saw it as a graphics co-processor and not just a general purpose CPU

Gabe Newell's early complaints in 2006 were that developing for PS3 is useless BECAUSE the techniques didnt apply elsewhere, its a unique system. He was right of course partially at that time! But he looked at it negatively that being unique was a problem and not a challenge. However four years later the whole scene has changed even for PC, as GPGPU takes hold (CUDA, OpenCL etc) the once tightly controlled barriers between what a CPU and GPU can do are fading and becoming very fuzzy. That makes using CELL, a hybrid CPU of sorts, for traditionally held graphics tasks more relevant than it was when PS3 launched!

[thereapersson]

It really does show that Kutaragi was a visionary, and he did everything he could to ensure the PS3 would remain relevant for years to come. Most developers are just *now* realizing what the PS3 can truly do, so just imagine how good PS3 exclusives will look like in another few years!

[sikbeta]

There is a lot of Improvement going in Infamous2, I totally believe in them

Cant wait to Play this Monster...

[Blackfrican]

The PS3 alone is proof of aliens. The technology present inside of the PS3 is so technologically superior to anything else that the only possible explanation is that we reverse engineered this technology from a UFO wreck--or that the PS3 was made with the assistance of aliens.

[NewZealander]

thats just a wee bit OTT dontcha think...aliens lol

[jerethdagryphon]

while its an incredibly powerful chip its not alein what it does do is show how some people are capable of lateral thinking rather then more speed more cores more ram. thinking of the late nighties early noughts

218gflops theoretical output,

cell and ageia both changed the way people are looking at cpugpus

larrabe is more in line with cell or a graphics card then it is with the x86 archatecture

[Snakefist30]

Hellya PS3 is the ULTIMATE GAMING CONSOLE!!!!!!

[nefertis]

nuff said.

[FwanK]

THE ULTIMATE ALIEN CONSOLE!!

[NewZealander]

im not a fan of games like infamous, but i cant wait to see what naughty dog do with uncharted 3, if anyone can tap the ps3 its them. and last guardian is going to be pretty awesome too.

[Heisenberg]

Mission accomplished.

[FACTUAL evidence]

Don't you just love it when dev's get used to the ps3? Only positives baby! It only does monster SPUs!

[Shadow Flare]

Thats why the ps3 is still going to be fresh 5 years down the line. Still pushing bars. Combined with the massive storage of bluray, the ps3 is the most future proof console ever created. And its really gonna stand Sony in a good position in years to come. They saw the generation as a marathon, not a sprint, and planned accordingly. Getting trashed by the media in the process. But they've designed a console which will last a very, very long time. There isn't going to be a need for a PS4 for quite a while yet. Sony had a vision and stuck with it, and its done gamers the world of good.

[iceman2929]

I agree with what you say to a certain extent. There was about a 200 dollar difference between "comparable" skus between the ps3 and 360. If the ps3 can continue to be pushed in a way that allows for a comparable experience with the next xbox then what you say is true. However, if the next xbox completely blows the ps3 out of the water in terms of features and graphics and whatnot, then I feel that releasing a less future-proof console was the better strategy. If Microsoft were to release a console with similar prices to the 360s launch, and did manage to blow the ps3 out of the water, with the 200$ saved , this would essentially pay 2/3 of my new console. essentially the determining factor would be whether or not the remaining 100 -200 dollars of cost makes it worth a new console.

Sorry if my thoughts are a bit murky, im currently slighttttly tipsy so please forgive me :)

[Shadow Flare]

MS have said that they don't plan to release a new xbox until at least 2015.

http://n4g.com/news/548840/...

Kinetc is supposed to lengthen 360's lifespan. Ergo, PS3 is gonna keep pushing and pushing, while 360 is gonna be really held back since Kinetc uses the 360 to process its games as well. PS3 games like Uncharted 2 already clearly surpass 360 titles, but over the years, that gaps just gonna get bigger.

Also, if console sales carry on the way they are, PS3 will definitely push 360 to 3rd place, possibly as soon as next year, if MS aren't planning a new xbox till 2015. Analysts predict PS3 will outsell 360 this year by 4 million units, leaving a 1 million gap between ps3 and 360, which will most likely dissapear in 2011. And if Kinetc isn't a success.....well......it's over.

[iceman2929]

I think people have it wrong with that article.
"What you've seen is with this new sleek design and Kinect for Xbox 360 we've got at least another five years of this generation where we continue to offer great experiences for people."

I think this means they will support the 360 until 2015 , but I can't see them not releasing a new console before then. Especially if kinect isnt a hit... however even if it is, I still think we will hear an announcement for the next xbox at the next E3.
Also, in my personal opinion , I feel like the reason why they took the chip out of kinect and made it use the consoles processing was sort of a future-proofing the technology. They will allow you to use the same camera on the next xbox. So on the 360 its sort of a BETA!!

And I don't really care about which console wins or looses or sales, all I want is for them to give me the best gaming experience possible for my money.

[Demonsdown]

Well MS investors are pushing for them to get out of the console business so there may not even be another xbox at this point. Depends on how far they are in to developing it I guess might get one more maybe.

[iceman2929]

I feel like xbox live would be the reason why they keep the xbox around.

There was another article on here talking about the revenue from the sales passing the revenue from the subscriptions. Thats pretty big news!

[nveenio]

That $200 difference was worth every penny. PS3 has half-a-dozen games that are insanely better than anything on the 360...and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon.

[P1NKY]

Don't always believe what MS says. They might say they won't be releasing a new console till 2015, but that could be so that they can get a head start.

[sikbeta]

Totally True Shadow Flare, if the PS2 was the "inferior" Console of Last Gen and has 10 Years in the Market, I can't Imagine How Long the PS3 is going to be...

[Starlight]

I do agree but you can't say that there won't be a need for a PS4 for quite some time. Depending on what you mean by quite some time, we'll be seeing a PS4 launching in November 2012 in JPN and US following Sony's history, we should also see the launch of PSP 2 next year.

[kws1065]

SPU pride

[MGRogue2017]

... Those SPUs are just one of the nightmares that Xbox 360 experiences about the amazing PS3 every night. :D

[mushroomwig]

I wonder what the last batch of PS3 titles will look like compared to the first batch.

I remember a huge difference between an early PS2 title and one of the last titles to be released.

[fooltheman]

interesting question...but let sony surprise us

[Topshelfcheese]

good example is The Bouncer-ps2 launch year game, and Final Fantasy 12, both from Square, and it was a huge leap.

[bjornbear]

we put an early PS2 game ( Devil May Cry ) and then a VERY late PS2 game (SoTC) and the resolution of textures, jaggies, frame rate and even lighting were VASTLY improved

but you think "OH BUT THOSE ARE DIFFERENT DEVS! TEAM ICO PWN CAPCOM"

well ok, look at ICO against SoTC, or even MGS2 vs MGS3! the leap is HUGE just technically (not only artistically, but that too)

so...the PS3 must have that powa =O

but we've seen a very small version (albeit HUGE visually) of that leap: Uncharted 1 ---> Uncharted 2

edit: topshelfcheese props + FF12 looks amazing too, i'd even argue to say better than FF10 (technically not artistically)

[Prcko]

Ps3 best console on market!!!
That's why we have a lot of exclusives going on,this console is a true monster with a lot of potential!

[nefertis]

Im glad to be a proud owner of a ps3, I never look back too the 360 again unless M$ get there act together.

[ForzaGT]

personally I feel its well worth the money when you consider what you get both top class AAA games and as complete entertainment system

fat ps3 FTW !!!

[ArcFatalix]

it gets ignored in multipaltform games, they dump everything on ppe and mandatory installation

[raztad]

LOL. So true. They are getting a little better though. Some games havw started to use the SPUs more.

[nickjkl]

when will this madness end sony should just get all devs to make one game and throw copious amounts of money at it to see if they can max the ps3

i just thought of something isnt the ps3 cell not fully functioning lik eisnt their a spu that was locked because it wasnt functioning properly

6 spus for games one for os and the other is locked if i remembered correctly

imagine if it was fully working

[raztad]

"6 spus for games one for os and the other is locked if i remembered correctly"

Yeah one is locked. I remember that back during pre-launch days, Sony said one SPU was disabled to improve yield chips. To be honest, I dont quite buy that story. Just for starters IBM is not amateur at producing chips and second Sony is known for locking stuff and unlocking it latter. The PSP initially was locked at 233MHz and then sony made the full 333MHZ power available to every developer.

I would not rule out, that Sony latter in the game, when devels are fully exploiting the SPUs power decides to unlock the last one, providing a late substantial boost in performance.

[xAlmostPro]

once its coming to its final years they'll probably go "bang heres that other spu" lol

[kneon]

I don't doubt that initially it was to increase yields. The cost of chip production is directly related to the die size and failure rate. During the early days of production it's quite normal for the yields to be low. If by disabling one SPU they could significantly improve yields then you can bet they would do it. Remember, they were losing a fair chunk of change on each PS3 at the beginning.

But by now I expect the yields are quite high and it's not necessary to lock out one SPU. The problem is that if you unlock it then you will have some PS3s that are more powerful than the old ones. But it may not even be possible to unlock the extra SPU as it's not uncommon to disable dead parts of a chip by blowing on chip fuses. that's not reversible.

[MorganX]

They're probably telling the truth. This is common in CPU production. The yields per wafer with the last SPU were probably too low to be economically feasible so they just disabled it.

[P1NKY]

Maybe they will unlock for future Move titles. Move uses an SPU so by unlocking the 7th. Developers still have 6 for gaming.

[jerethdagryphon]

@ below

its true thoughout chip development side lines are made

each chip is made to a specification but if it cant handle the load its released as a different variation celerons from pentium 3s 5630s from the 70s all done to maximize sellable silacon from each wafer

[yogaflame]

PS3 IS FUTURE PROOF AND THATS A FACT! Thats why it will be MS who will first chicken out to show there next gen console

[remanutd55]

man , i wanted to play the game at E3 but they didnt have a demo , bah

[MechaGear]

It only needs coders willing to take the effort. The SPU's are the reason why PS3 are used in clusters for scientific purposes, why the Cell is still used in IBM's Roadrunner supercomputer.

[Blitzkid]

wow he is really clever. I told him so years ago.

[fOrlOnhOpe57]

Kick-ass SPUs

[Lord_Ranos]

PS3 is the best.

[gano]

No fboy, but this is called progress.
Not games coming out every other yr looking exactly the same watered down.
I want a 60 dollar game that's on a 30gig disc up not multipla game @ 6 ta 7.
It has the pwer, let's do it. kh3 jebus.... * breaks into seizure of thought*

[Meryl]

told you the cell was powered by a black hole:):) now here we have infamous 2 a proper sandbox game, with unmatchable graphics, take that alan lake....

[bjornbear]

its kind of comforting knowing the PS3 is a monster. that way I know i'll keep getting impressed well into the 10 year cycle =D

nt planning on getting a new console in the next 4 years =( so if it shows potential yet to be unlocked, better for everyone!

[washingmachine]

monsters in ur pants

[jhani]

can someone give post a link to screens shots that give comparison between infamous 1 and infamous 2?

[Ravage27]

judging from the screenshots i've seen, inFamous2 is going to be a huge graphical upgrade from the first

[hallz907]

I'ma likin'....

[SephireX]

Powered by Cell technology!

[DelbertGrady]

Never saw this one coming. They forgot to mention that it only uses x% of the PS3s power. Next time borrow some lines from Naughty Dog, Santa Monica or Guerrilla.

Next month: "The Cell is more powerful than a nuclear powerplant, says EatSleepPlay".

[JustTheFactsMr]

You forgot to mention the 360 only uses 50% of the PS3's power part.

But I guess that extra year and supposedly easier development environment and familiar PC architecture explains the shortcomings of the 360.

Couldn't possibly be the lousy hardware. Like memory that runs 4.5X slower than the Cell but still managed to melt motherboards.

[DigitalAnalog]

Sucker Punch <--- 2nd party.. 2nd party... 2nd party....

Leave the % to first-party studios.

-End statement

[insomnium]

He used to be rational. Nowadays he's NOTHING.BUT.A.TOOL. It's depressing to see someone in such a miserable state. Dildo this and exaggarate much that.

I still remember how mighty and rational you were when we found out about the timed exclusive (before the update) problems in PS3's Ghost Busters. What happened to you Soda?

[Hallmark Moment]

Sony always does this when developers show great looking games on the competition's platform.

[Ingram]

awww, you're no fun anymore Soda, you could at least give a little credit where credit is due, no one's attacking the 360.

[ElementX]

I hope they use AA.

[MexicanAppleThief]

It's been confirmed that they're using MLAA. The best there is on consoles.

[DigitalAnalog]

The "New" standard for exclusives AA.

-End statement

[CernaML]

Killzone 3, Twisted Metal, LittleBigPlanet 2, and now Infamous 2. Is there one PS3 exclusive that won't be using this amazing technology?

[DigitalAnalog]

For now it's GT5. But we can be rest assured that GT6 will implement that tech as opposed to the garbage quincunx AA.

Just imagine... TLG... with MLAA....

-End statement

[ElementX]

Awesome, good to know!

[NumeroUno]

I'm looking forward to InFamous 2.

[Richdad]

PS3 SPU's are really superb, look at it like this was if Nvidia designed a graphics chip with 8 unified processing units but to the catch they are clocked at enormous 3.2 GHz. That is what Cell is exactly a merger of GPU and CPU.

Yes if used properly they can create shaders and effects which could be unmatched. There is a catch that since GPU have more pipe line this type of shading could be used in less amount but still it will be something that is unapproachable even by a Nvidia 480 GTX.

[hoops]

"There is a catch that since GPU have more pipe line this type of shading could be used in less amount but still it will be something that is unapproachable even by a Nvidia 480 GTX."

LOL Ok now i heard it all.....

[BannedForNineYears]

This is like what Naughty Dog said.

[XBOX360_HAS_NO_GAMES]

no shit

[AntBoogy90]

We need more people like you.

[Digital-_-Smoke]

is known as Playstation

[Starlight]

Only does Everything.

[SuperStrokey1123]

Really looknig forward to Infamous 2, such a good series (well game turning into a series).

[DoomeDx]

Hmm, I heard the xbox360 has a better SKU though ;p

but its nice to hear devs are liking the PS3 SKU!
Infamous 2 cant come soon enough! Just like KZ3 :D

[Sprudling]

lol, a SKU is something else entirely :)

The PS3 has one PPE and 7 (available) SPUs. The 360 has none of this, but a totally different architecture.

[DoomeDx]

Oh fuck lmao.

i was confused between SPU & SKU.

[MechaGear]

Just to be fair, the PPE is a single core PowerPC to feed the SPU's.
The 360 has actually a triple core PowerPC architecture, but thats about it.
It cannot be stressed enough how very different both systems are.
Therefore multi platform remains p.i.a. in every way.

[jerethdagryphon]

sku= model type used by retialers for book keeping and priceing ie a 800 gram box of corn flakes is an sku

spu: is a in order processor core

[LiquifiedArt]

Thats one of the reasons i support them. I love how the Playstation Grows over time.

[stuffwithstuff]

Isn't it obvious?

[divideby0]

all the doubters amongst the gamers ...Gabe is one that comes to mind...

[waterboy]

should know how powerful cell is and how much it basically multiplies the power of the rsx which is already a floating point beast

[PS360PCROCKS]

Someone's excited! lol

[NarooN]

To any non-believers: play these games in HD. Most 3rd-party devs always end up using sub-HD resolutions with different framebuffers to keep the framerate up (all Call of Duty games this gen, Saint's Row 2, GTA4, Red Read, etc.) with no AA at all, yet Sony devs and even some 2nd/3rd-party devs who spent some time with the system always maintain a *locked* 30fps with 720p, usually accompanied with some form of AA. These games not only look amazing, but have so much going on at once it's no wonder the CELL is still a beast to this day.

[hoops]

Its such a beast that less than 1% of the total PS3 game library runs at 1080p@60fps....

[Morituri]

Really, Sony should have a free weeklong retreat every 6 months and bring developers up to speed on all the new tricks and techniques their best programmers have learned to code for the ps3. Sone devs still seem to be in the dark on how to optimize their games for the ps3 and it shows. I think an information seminar would be beneficial for innovation across the board.

[Belasco]

Looking forward to all these exclusives, however I am sort of rolling my eyes at these statements, just pr drivel, same thing goes for MS

[raztad]

There are several bar-rising exclusives already: KZ2, UC2 and GoW3. GoW3 is amazing. Next incoming is GT5.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

Mastering the PS3, another proof that PS3 is superior than any other console in the market.

[Gene]

I want to see a on the tenth year for the ps3 a exclusive head blown off.

[jalen247]

Infamous 2 looks phenomenal...Sucker Punch is making great use of the SPUs