🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <r6VE2.132$xl4.3054@ptah.visi.com>,
  nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) wrote:

>    As I said earlier in this thread, console makers are NOT shackled
> by existing busses, memory designs, or anything else. They can make a

But they ARE shackled by the need to make the system affordable. They
can't do anything they want with the system, the bean counters
will tell them that the system they designed is too expensive.

Case in point, Nintendo64. All the hype and arguments that have been
used for Playstation2 were used already for Nintendo64 when it was
announced. It will have an almighty MIPS CPU and SGI graphics subsystem
that will trounce any PC with any 3D graphics card (Verite and Voodoo
at that time, in mid-to-late 1996). It will have a power of a $10000
SGI graphics workstation. It will not have any memory bottlenecks because
it uses the almighty RAMBUS that Intel and 3Dfx can only dream of.
It will have Toy Story quality 3D graphics. It can do real time
raytracing.

Look what happened. N64 fell far short from the hype. At best it
is comparable to a P133/P166 system with a Voodoo1 card. Look how slowly
Turok2, Goldeneye and Zelda64 run (for a SGI workstation). Look how
even a lower end Pentium with old 3D card runs Turok or Turok 2 faster
and with better resolution than N64.

What happened to all that SGI Onyx power it was supposed to have?

Also at one point of the development of N64, SGI told Nintendo that
they can't meet the design specs for the price point Nintendo had
been thinking of. I don't know how they got over this hurdle, maybe
they cut some corners to meet the price point then (reduced
functionality and/or speed on N64).

I guess what I am saying is that I am taking these specs and demos
of PS2 with a hefty amount of salt. I am sure it will be great, but
I am also pretty sure it will not live up to the hype, even near.
I guess I'm becoming cynical with any console's ability to live up
to their announced specs.


Interesting reading for anyone interested (so you see I am not the
only sceptical one):

http://www.next-generation.com/jsmid/news/5998.html

http://www.next-generation.com/jsmid/news/6012.html

> video chip with a 96bit wide bus at 87Mhz, or any other specs, and
> they're totally free to do so. Just because PCI is available in a few
> flavors doesn't counteract my original point-- you missed it entirely.

You have a point, but you also missed the price point.


-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/       Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own