Bethesda: PS3 technical limitations

Amazing games such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion are chugging along once PS3 owners try to load as much downloadable content they can get their mitts on. Why you ask? Well that’s because the PS3 has limitations in memory and bandwidth.

In fact, according to a show from 1up.com, Bethesda claimed that unlike the PC and 360 versions, there won’t be much of anything, including horse armor. 1up had a few words with Bethesda. While they’re hard at work to bring Oblivion out this 2007, they had a few gripes with the PS3. Bethesda had this to say:

It’s a technical limitation. They just don’t have enough memory to load every piece of downloadable content. They tried it, did some work-arounds, but the performance isn’t there. They hope to have some, but they’re going to have some, but they’re going to have to pick and choose…

But since the Xbox 360 and the PS3 both have 512 MB of memory, PS3 people have been saying that there is no difference. Apparently there is. According to TheTjalian, the PS3 has 512 MB of memory, but it’s divided into two: 256 MB for the system, 256 MB reserved for textures. The 360, in contrast, uses around 350 MB or more for textures and the rest for the system – however there is no system-imposed limit.

It seems that the same technologies that makes the PS3 stand out is the same reason it’s not performing well. Hint? Two words: CELL, RSX. In an investigation by hardware gurus at Anandtech, they had something to say:

The downside to the RSX using the Cell for all vertex processing is pretty significant. Remember that the RSX only has a 22.4GB/s link to its local memory bandwidth, which is less than 60% of the memory bandwidth of the GeForce 7800 GTX. In other words, it needs that additional memory bandwidth from the CellÂ’s memory controller to be able to handle more texture-bound games.

Yikes! So even while the RSX G70 monster inside the PS3 is better than a GF 7800 GTX, it can’t quite give its all to the system. It’s like getting an elephant through a crevice – okay, okay, not that an elephant would make a great video card and all. And the Xbox 360 is not without it’s own hiccups and mishaps. And the PS3 does perform on par with the 360, even with the limitations considered.

You’d think that MS and Sony would get both sides of the cake right: offer bleeding edge tech and perform at maximum capability. Unfortunately, we’ll have to see another generation of Xbox and Playstation to know just where they’re going with next-gen concepts.

Via 1up.com

Amazing games such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion are chugging along once PS3 owners try to load as much downloadable content they can get their mitts on. Why you ask? Well that’s because the PS3 has limitations in memory and bandwidth.

In fact, according to a show from 1up.com, Bethesda claimed that unlike the PC and 360 versions, there won’t be much of anything, including horse armor. 1up had a few words with Bethesda. While they’re hard at work to bring Oblivion out this 2007, they had a few gripes with the PS3. Bethesda had this to say:

It’s a technical limitation. They just don’t have enough memory to load every piece of downloadable content. They tried it, did some work-arounds, but the performance isn’t there. They hope to have some, but they’re going to have some, but they’re going to have to pick and choose…

But since the Xbox 360 and the PS3 both have 512 MB of memory, PS3 people have been saying that there is no difference. Apparently there is. According to TheTjalian, the PS3 has 512 MB of memory, but it’s divided into two: 256 MB for the system, 256 MB reserved for textures. The 360, in contrast, uses around 350 MB or more for textures and the rest for the system – however there is no system-imposed limit.

It seems that the same technologies that makes the PS3 stand out is the same reason it’s not performing well. Hint? Two words: CELL, RSX. In an investigation by hardware gurus at Anandtech, they had something to say:

The downside to the RSX using the Cell for all vertex processing is pretty significant. Remember that the RSX only has a 22.4GB/s link to its local memory bandwidth, which is less than 60% of the memory bandwidth of the GeForce 7800 GTX. In other words, it needs that additional memory bandwidth from the CellÂ’s memory controller to be able to handle more texture-bound games.

Yikes! So even while the RSX G70 monster inside the PS3 is better than a GF 7800 GTX, it can’t quite give its all to the system. It’s like getting an elephant through a crevice – okay, okay, not that an elephant would make a great video card and all. And the Xbox 360 is not without it’s own hiccups and mishaps. And the PS3 does perform on par with the 360, even with the limitations considered.

You’d think that MS and Sony would get both sides of the cake right: offer bleeding edge tech and perform at maximum capability. Unfortunately, we’ll have to see another generation of Xbox and Playstation to know just where they’re going with next-gen concepts.

Via 1up.com