Xbox 2 specifications now officially available

[BenSkywalker]

Heh. So it is set in stone, Xenon is faster than PS3.

You have that backwards it would appear. The quoted total computing power should come up well short of what the PS3 will be pushing. Of course, the most powerful console has failed to claim the best seller status since prior to the days of the 8bit NES.

each to his own, i have played prject gotham 2 and to be honest i didnt find it all that good to look at, i prefere the GT series

Visually I would still have to give a slight edge to PGR2 over GT4, but Forza blows them both out of the water.

Gamecube isnt really all that with its fixed function T and L, they do a good job to make quality looking games on it, props to them

The PS2 has no hardware T&L at all, and the Cube can handle certain pixel shader ops that are beyond what the XBox is capable of.

i think GT3 and GT4 have been the best racers ive played on a console, again thats my preference as i like that type of driving, PGR is more about sliding and style. you seriously cant deny that GT4 doesnt look good.

I'd certainly agree with GT4 being a much better game the the PGRs(don't like the idea of earning points for driving poorly) but I would be much more likely to stack Forza and RalliSport against GT when it comes to best racer.

Will I be able to use my XBox controller with the new Xenon console?

More then likely you will be able to, although they will also likely have a modified XB2 version available also. IMO the only controller that desperately needs a redesign is the dual shock(although it is doubtful that will happen as so many Sony fans love the design).

 

[Shlong]

Specs look impressive, I'm gonna probably buy all 3 of the next gen consoles. I own 3 of the current gen consoles & X-box has the best graphics but it has the weakest library of games imo.

 

[footbal07]

i wonder if there will be a port of osx for the cell architexture since its essentially a powerpc.

 

[Ecgtheow]

Originally posted by: footbal07
i wonder if there will be a port of osx for the cell architexture since its essentially a powerpc.

Only Apple knows (and Sony too, probably).

I wonder to what extent using a PowerPC in the Xbox2 will make Xbox <-> PC ports more difficult for developers. Xbox2 <-> Mac might be easier...

 

[Eug]

If Apple uses a Xenon or PPE-like core, I'd guess it'd be dual-core variant, at high clock speed, probably with none of Cell's SPEs. Curiously, gamespy says the developers are currently using dual-core test units.

 

[ponyo]

I'll be buying one of these. Specs just sound crazy.

Oh as far as Microsoft losing money on the Xbox, it's not a big deal. Microsoft figured they would not turn a profit with the Xbox1. They just wanted to get in the foot in the door and get a nice tax writeoff. Xbox 2 was their real goal and their model expects profits for the second gen. Xbox division turning a profit last quarter was nice surprise for them and huge success for the Xbox and Microsoft.

Microsoft total sales are over $38 billion a year and the company nets $10 billion a year after all expenses and taxes. Trust me when I say they are always looking for tax writeoffs.

 

[Eug]

Lots of info about Xenon here.

Screenshots of Xbox 2 Guide.

 

[rikadik]

Originally posted by: JackBurton
This is a big question for me, but probably not that important to others. Will I be able to use my XBox controller with the new Xenon console? I LOVE the original XBox controller and I have a special controller that won't be matched in the console world (or PC world for that matter) for a LONG time. I would love to move it over to the new Xenon console.

I've heard that the Xbox controllers are being completely re-thought out, and being made wireless as standard - this would hamper your chances of using the old pad unfortunately!

See here for more details!

 

[Eug]

Wireless controllers standard? Not a chance.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

You can't even buy this kind of advertising "Leak" something and you get them salivating like Pavlov's dogs well before they can even get their grubby hands on it. Save those pennies boys, I suspect you will need a bunch of them.

 

[ZimZum]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

Heh. So it is set in stone, Xenon is faster than PS3.

You have that backwards it would appear. The quoted total computing power should come up well short of what the PS3 will be pushing. Of course, the most powerful console has failed to claim the best seller status since prior to the days of the 8bit NES.

Either way, both the PS3 and XB2 are going to have plenty of horsepower to spare. I don't think it will be like this gen where you can clearly state that the one console (PS2) is at a distinct hardware disadvantage.

The Sega Genesis, for a while was not only the most powerful console but it was the top seller.

 

[Griffinhart]

Originally posted by: doublejbass

And that model failed, champ! Why did they axe the HD from the base model of XBNext? Because they lost too much money on the original XBox hardware sales.

I don't think that's the reason. MS wants to continue working on the "digital living room" concept. One of the problems with the original X-Box was that it was too noisy to really accomplish what they want. This is mostly due to the noise of the hard drive.

MS will want people to use the next console to:
-Play Games
-Communicate through the Internet and X-Box Live
-Watch Movies
-Interface with media Center PC's

The Current X-Box can do all this, but it's too noisy for a home theatre set up. Making the HD optional gives people the option of a quiet console.

 

[GT4]

Is anybody surprised it will use a normal DVD drive instead of newer techs like HD-DVD or Blu-Ray? Only a few games reach the need for DVD9 disc (GT4 the latest). Blu-Ray I understand since it is sony's tech. but this Xbox will certainly use HD quality out of the box:lol: just surprised going with an "old" technology.

 

[SlapFunk101]

Why does one system HAVE to be better than another? I've played games on PC, Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, Gameboy Advance, SNES...etc and enjoyed them all. I find the argument about the PC being a better game machine funny. It should be for its price. I can get all three consoles for the same price as a high end videocard. Every system has its strong points and its weak points. As far as the price, I will be interested to see how much the Xbox 2 will cost. I think the videogame industry is much bigger now then it was back in the 3DO days. I think people are more willing to pay more for a system now.

 

[Accipiter22]

lol@ neogeo reference...i wanted one of those things soooo bad..i was devestated when my mom told me it cost roughly 8x what she could afford

 

[bjc112]

500mhz video card?

Is that core clock? memory clock? effective 1ghz?

Faster than anything on the PC market right now???

I would like better details before I believe that's the final specs..( or close to )

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Accipiter22
lol@ neogeo reference...i wanted one of those things soooo bad..i was devestated when my mom told me it cost roughly 8x what she could afford

Dude, that thing was $600 BACK THEN! And I thought to myself, if I can save up enough money to buy it ($600 is pretty dang tough to save up when you're a kid), I wouldn't have enough money for the games because they cost freakin' $200 EACH!!! :Q Thankfully we have nice NeoGeo emulators now.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: bjc112
500mhz video card?

Is that core clock? memory clock? effective 1ghz?

Faster than anything on the PC market right now???

I would like better details before I believe that's the final specs..( or close to )

It's using a next gen ATi core.
Of course it's going to be faster than anything currently available.
Obviously though, ATi will probably release their next card by/around the time of the next XBox launch, which will probably be faster than the XBox GPU, so it is probably true that the GPU is faster than anything we have right now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah. I had a Neo-Geo, sold it because I couldn't afford to buy any more games than the one that it came with (M.L.), and I got bored of that one too easy. The system was pretty awesome at the time though, it was the only one that could bring the true arcade experience home.

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: JackBurton
If they release it at $299, I'll buy it the day it comes out. Sh!t, even if they release it at $499 I'll buy it the day it comes out.

Ditto!

Their dedication to supporting HD resolutions is phenominal!

 

[iamskew]

Yeah,i'm impressed with this thing...I'll likely be getting one. Hopefully it's more hackable than the first xbox, then we might just have a very impressive $300 PC on our hands...just switch out the dvd drive for a burner, run win xp...and smile at yourself

 

[Dug]

Originally posted by: iamskew
Yeah,i'm impressed with this thing...I'll likely be getting one. Hopefully it's more hackable than the first xbox, then we might just have a very impressive $300 PC on our hands...just switch out the dvd drive for a burner, run win xp...and smile at yourself

How are you going to run XP on a non x86 architecture?

 

[iamskew]

magic?

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: GT4
Is anybody surprised it will use a normal DVD drive instead of newer techs like HD-DVD or Blu-Ray? Only a few games reach the need for DVD9 disc (GT4 the latest). Blu-Ray I understand since it is sony's tech. but this Xbox will certainly use HD quality out of the box:lol: just surprised going with an "old" technology.

Not really. Sony is only doing to get the Blu-Ray to get more market share and it is their technology

Games don't need 7Gb! Maybe if you pack in LOADS of Hi-Def video but still you have plenty of Gb with DVD's. But in the end if you 'want' a new gen HD player it'llb e CHEAP just like DVD with time. Remember people playing DVD's on their PS2 when it first came out? I suppose it is useful for some when it is new but not after a few years down the line for 'homes' but students will use it.

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: Accipiter22
lol@ neogeo reference...i wanted one of those things soooo bad..i was devestated when my mom told me it cost roughly 8x what she could afford

Dude, that thing was $600 BACK THEN! And I thought to myself, if I can save up enough money to buy it ($600 is pretty dang tough to save up when you're a kid), I wouldn't have enough money for the games because they cost freakin' $200 EACH!!! :Q Thankfully we have nice NeoGeo emulators now.

Dude NO LOAD TIMES for your games! The Neo Geo was SO SICK man. My email address has neogeo in it because I was such a hardcore gamer back then. People think it is a reference to "The Maxtrix"

NeoGeo true arcade experience? It was the frigging arcade unit basically!

I'll probably go with PS3 as I like the games for it, but if the games I like are on the Xbox 2 I'll probably switch to that. I love the PS2 pad. Fits in my hand great and the buttons are in a good position to play fighting games. But I really need to get a decent arcade stick and get use to it...

Either way I hope Sony get their act and get the dam online 'play' thing sorted out. MS really have kicked the sh!t out of Sony on that front.

Koing

 

[eclavatar]

Originally posted by: doublejbass

Originally posted by: Eug
Undoubtedly they'll be taking a loss on each unit sold, but if they can make it up in software sales...

Also, the 3 GHz of a Xenon won't be like the 3 GHz of a G5, or even the 3 GHz of a P4. The core is capable of performing much less per clock. However, with 3 cores it's still a monster.

It will be interesting to see how the games pan out.

Xenon is gonna have 3 moderate speed cores. Run the code on just one core and the game may just suck. The coders are gonna have to really try to make use of all three cores.

Cell is gonna have a much faster clocked CPU with a PPE core very similar to Xenon's core, but most of the work is supposed to be done by the SPE vector units, of which there are a ton of them.

Porting and optimization of these games from one platform to the other is gonna prove interesting...

Well said.

That isn't well said considering it factually inaccurate. All sources point to the cores being more powerful than normal Power PC G5.

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

Heh. So it is set in stone, Xenon is faster than PS3.

You have that backwards it would appear. The quoted total computing power should come up well short of what the PS3 will be pushing. Of course, the most powerful console has failed to claim the best seller status since prior to the days of the 8bit NES.

No one currently knows how powerful the Cell processor will be in the PS3. I would guess they will include one as they have had many problems manufacturing multi-core Cell processors. Which would drastically increase the price.

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

Gamecube isnt really all that with its fixed function T and L, they do a good job to make quality looking games on it, props to them

The PS2 has no hardware T&L at all, and the Cube can handle certain pixel shader ops that are beyond what the XBox is capable of.

Gamecube has really poor pixel shading capability, I don't know where you are getting your information from.