Thursday, October 29th 2020
Microsoft: Only Consoles Supporting Full RDNA 2 Capabilities Are Xbox Series X and Series S, Excludes PlayStation 5
Microsoft has today published another article on its Xbox Wire blog, dedicated to all the news regarding the Xbox consoles and its ecosystem. In the light of yesterday's launch of AMD Radeon RDNA 2 graphics cards, Microsoft has congratulated its partner and provider of processors SoCs for their next-generation consoles. Besides the celebrations and congratulations, Microsoft has proceeded to show off what the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are capable of, and how they integrate the RDNA 2 architecture. The company notes that there are hardware accelerated DirectX Raytracing, Mesh Shaders, Sampler Feedback, and Variable Rate Shading units built-in, so game developers can take advantage of it.
Another interesting point Microsoft made was that "Xbox Series X|S are the only next-generation consoles with full hardware support for all the RDNA 2 capabilities AMD showcased today." What this translates into is that Microsoft is the only console maker that uses the full RDNA 2 potential. This could leave Sony out in the dark with its PlayStation 5 console, meaning that it does not support all the features of AMD's new GPU architecture. There are not any specific points, however, we have to wait and see what Sony has left out, if anything.
Source:
Xbox Wire
Another interesting point Microsoft made was that "Xbox Series X|S are the only next-generation consoles with full hardware support for all the RDNA 2 capabilities AMD showcased today." What this translates into is that Microsoft is the only console maker that uses the full RDNA 2 potential. This could leave Sony out in the dark with its PlayStation 5 console, meaning that it does not support all the features of AMD's new GPU architecture. There are not any specific points, however, we have to wait and see what Sony has left out, if anything.
47 Comments on Microsoft: Only Consoles Supporting Full RDNA 2 Capabilities Are Xbox Series X and Series S, Excludes PlayStation 5
sony: nvme bro
lol just stupid squabbling from microsoft. whatever it actually is, im sure it amounts to nothing.. at least to the gaming experience.
We know it is not RayTracing since both consoles support it.
Ms is grasping at straws to prove that their console is better than the other.
I wonder what they mean by this though. Seems like there are two options to me: either they are being nit-picky about detailed API features (maybe the PS5 lacks mesh shader support, VRS support, or some such?), or the Xboxes have some version of Infinity Cache on board. I don't quite see where it would fit going by their own annotated die shot from Hot Chips, but I guess that stripe in between the CPU and GPU cores might be a small IC? Doesn't look like it, but I guess it's a (very distant) possibility. Or maybe the XSS has IC to make up for its lower memory bandwidth and size? We don't know anything at all about the XSS die, after all.
This is just a desperate attempt to differentiate within a gaming landscape that is becoming more samey every generation. I mean really, the only noticeable difference between platforms now is the controller in your hands. You're playing 95% ports and 90% of them are also on PC.
All I've been reading on the new consoles is just utter nonsense. Its a horsepower increase, everything else is marketing and can be safely ignored. The library will consists of lots of respins, remakes and re-releases. It gets fake 4K with lots of internal scaling and tweaking, dynamic detail layers... It gets carried by subscription and streaming services plus constant iterations and updates of existing games with new price tags.
I'm not touching this shitstorm with a 10 foot pole, especially now that we know competition is back in the PC GPU space and big strides are made in technologies, engines etc. Thanks for that, consoles, now you can f right off again ;)
Moreover if they didn't specify, its not relevant to begin with. Otherwise they would have made it big.
To be honest, consoles like Xbox and PlayStation have been quite the same with the minor difference of some titles which were exclusive for each one. Not like Switch which I've acquired 2 weeks ago :)
Plus, if MS had the infinty cache in their Xbox, i'm pretty sure they would mention it. What they are mentioned is only on the software/processing side, nothing about the hardware/architecture, so it's just API wars all over again.
However, i'm pretty sure this kind of information could sway a lot of unknowing users... Gotta love console wars :)
Just look at how much space the L3 cache eats up on a single CCX. What do you want in a GPU? Cache or compute?
Keep in mind that below you have 2MB per core, so the 128MB Infinity Cache is going to take up a whole heap more space.