All Three Next-Gen Consoles Sporting AMD GPUs?

If true that one massive win for AMD and IBM.

... open standards is the key here... and because of that... it will be easy to program an port games to all platforms: Linux; Windows; Mac; Consoles... and maybe mobile devices too, as they get more powerful....

Yeah but open standards also means potentially easier piracy

'Current rumors indicate that Microsoft will reveal the console next year at E3 2012, but there's indication that the company may hold off an additional year or two due to the success of the Kinect. '

Microsoft should not do this. If Sony launch first, they'll have a much harder time trying to get sales if they don't release is for 2 years. Why did the Xbox have such good success in the first place? It was released ahead of the PS3. Most of the people I know who had PS2's waiting for the PS3 bought the 360 because it was there and are now Xbox fanboys.

Unless ofc the PS3 is priced ridiculously...... Anyways grats to AMD. That's a massive win. How many consoles do you think will be bought? 20-30m or so?

... maybe... but... then go to other selling models... many games are now free... but whit some twists... some offer faster upgrades for a fee... some offer DLC for free for a licensed game... or offer payed DLC for a free game... subscriptions... so many ways to go...

how much you want to bet that if onlive goes to xbox, they will use that to justify a price hike like they did with that espn crap

I find it very hard to believe that the next XBox would have a Cell processor. When sony first dropped one into the PS3, loads of developers complained about how hard it was to programme for the cell. Have then now worked out how to get the most from it?

Well, it is about time they started talking seriously about a new generation of consoles!

I hope PS3 uses a brand new Nvidia GPU instead based off the upcoming Kepler design with Sony added touches. ^.^

I'm actually begging that the GPU manufacturers are thinking really hard about what GPUs they are going to push into the consoles.

Since the PS3 and the Xbox 360 have been around for so long and pretty much set the mark also for the PC games it might be worth the while if they put a really fast GPU into the next generation consoles even though it may be at loss of R&D expenses. (Or at least make them expandable or something.)

This is because a beefier GPU on the consoles may create a market for video games that can more easily be ported to computers and fully utilize the extra power of better graphics cards on them and in that way create a demand for such cards.

As it is now, it is the video games that set the pace of the development and with an old console not many games utilize the full power that is available on the current generation graphics cards that are available on today's computers which is damaging this market considerably.

So I hope they will employ a strategy that will also benefit the PC graphics cards market.

It makes business sense for MS. They can sell more of their old Xbox 360 riding on the success of Kinect if they delay the launch of next xbox.

Agree, but we know these hacks will want probably more proprietary DRM crap than the last set of consoles, we need controlled, sieg heil.

Consoles have a life span of about 10 years, so I do hope for something better than "good enough" when they decided which GPU, CPU, amount of RAM etc...

Even better give us the freedom to expand our consoles by simply been able to add more RAM, add more video memory, or even change the GPU 5 years down the road if we want.

Everytime i read some one asking for consoles with upgrade uptions i question wether people even think before making such wishes.

Such options are available on PC because, PC parts are not only used by gamers they are used by millions of other consumers.

If custom GPUs, RAM, CPUs, made it across to consoles it would have to made for that specific console meaning no one else around the world would be able to use it. The costs to make parts for a specific machine would be tremendous, and then console makers would like their own royalties on such stuff. Lets just say 2 gigs of ram bought on PC would be considerabaly cheaper then buying the console counter part. Due to much lower production, royalties to console maker.

It would also eliminate the entire idea of a console, easy to use and single unified hardware. Where a developers knows exactly what they will be coding for. It would essentially become a locked down controlled PC (well they already are that), but i hope you get the picture.

PC gaming FTW!!!

More expensive, you think? What I think is that these part are already being made, and are part of the price you pay when you buy a console. The only change they have to make to the current hardware inside the consoles is to replace the soldering with a removeable connection. Solved. It would save both the company and the consumer money if all they had to do in order to upgrade a console for another 3 years was replace 1-2 parts rather than the entire system. Do you not agree?

Not at all, just a small example for you, note how much microsoft charges for stuff like Hard drives, Wifi devices for the Xbox. I can assure you unless off shelf PC parts are not used, console upgrade parts prices will be sky high compared to PC counterparts.

good that they putting AMD gpu's in there. Then all the console ports will say "optimized for AMD gpu's" and not that crappy "the way its meant to be played" Nvidia optimization.

if all the consoles have the same guts what will make them different?

I don't see how new consoles will really raise the graphics bar (in the long run). Sure for the next year or two they will help, but when the consoles debut, the GPU tech will already be 2 - 4 years old. In 2015 or so, we all might be talking about 'console ports' all over again. But then again, I'd rather take a year or two of awesome graphics, then not.

By the time any of these consoles are released with both the AMD Radeon RV770 GPU and IBM's 45-nm multi-core a whole new generation or two will have already been on the market for PC's.

Sry, jfby, I didn't mean to step on your comment. I was thinking the same thing.

This is awful news. Even the 28 years old nurse thinks so.

The new Xbox to use an IBM cell processor? Seriously? This sucks, why in the world would they not use Sandy Bridge or even better Ivy Bridge? If you want max performance with lowest possible thermal overhead (and avoid a new generation of RRoD's), why not go with these chips?

Silly newkids, this is the first generation to ever have a lifespan of 10 years. Previous console generations lasted around 5-6 years.

I really doubt that MS will put the next XBox out any time after 2013, 2014 would give the Wii U a 2 year start. Notice how they announced these after the WiiU was announced? Nintendo forced their hand, they have to at least have something for people to look forward to while Nintendo's new product is being released.

I would think it better for Sony/MS to use a similar architecture that's different from the Wii U. The idea is to prevent Nintendo from having 3rd party support, a necessity if they want to bring their fans back. Devs don't like having to develop for different architectures, so whoever the odd man out is will get less attention from developers. Nintendo's already made things a bit more difficult with a wacky controller, so if their system was also inconvenient to work with, it would hurt their chances of getting 3rd parties back on thir side.

Considering MS already is using a 3 core IBM processor and an AMD graphics chip in their 360 its not really suprising to hear they'd use the same partners for their next gen console.

Don't forget, nvidia burned bridges with MS with the original XBox, AMD seems to have kept a good relationship with MS through the life cycle of the 360

There's no law that says the XBox must be manufactured with expensive custom parts. If they weren't making all those custom parts for consoles, maybe upgrades and consoles themselves wouldn't be so expensive.

Making custom parts probably holds them back far more than it helps. They should turn the XBox into a mini upgradable computer specific for gamers. Maybe we should be able to connect it to our computers and have the mouse/keyboard option.

Hardcore gamers are always saying that PC's are far better with much better technology and that consoles hold back development and technology. Maybe Microsoft/XBox should listen? They might gain many new PC customers. It sounds like a win/win to me.

Saying that they charge these higher prices because they are limited run though is just kind of silly. The royalties are honestly the bigger chunk here and even then it's them being overly greedy. While I'm not against the Unified platform, I wouldn't think it would cause any problems so long as they stuck with the same lineage of video card. It might limit the number of possible upgrades but it does open the door for them to make a few more bucks without gouging the rest of the consumers. As an example, my current video card is using the same actual driver as the one two generations prior last time I checked. I didn't even bother to upgrade the driver for a while til I ran into a problem down the road and it didn't even fix that. As for memory? Haven't they been essentially charging us for Memory in the form of Memory Cards for years prior to the current generation? My only real fear is the SegaCD/32X factor of it and those had a tougher climb imo because of the shorter upgrade cycles versus the current one.

I knew Apple was rotten, but wow!

@burnley14

cause sandy bridge is a gfx crunching monster......

@drwho1 and stingstang

windows has a large amount of junk handlers that allows for unknown multitudes of hardware to interface with it, partly why it has such a big foot print, throw that into your console and it's going slow the thing down like no tomorrow. If you know that your using a specific hardware you can streamline it, also means you can directly address the hardware without the requirement of middle-ware negotiators, this has a significant speed advantage (drivers and directx are middle-ware negotiators ensuring the software can reliably communicate with the hardware)

They should at least use the best GPU available today and a 32nm CPU. I assume they will all be DX11 like.

After these next-gen consoles there will little pressure to change until mainstream TV adopt 4k resolution (preferably more), which is going to be a long, very long time. 1080P sucks on larger screens, and most people do or will own at least a 50in screen. I dream of a day when I can get a 100in screen at 33MP resolution.

Amd Currently controls the Low Power Consumption segment while providing ultimate performance and lower prices than Nvidia.