Not bad at all.

I'd be surprised if Microsoft went with a BRD-ROM drive though. That said, maybe it comes to cost and (if these rumours are true) so they reasoned that DVD-ROM is history and that developing their own media would be too expensive.

That brings two other points into focus. Namely that the notoriously penny pinching Nintendo have their own proprietary disc format for Wii U, albeit that it doesn't have as high a capacity as BRD. If Ninty did that then Microsoft sure as hell could. Therefore one is left to deduce that Microsoft will be pushing the optical media multimedia aspects of next-gen Xbox in the realisation that not everyone wants (possibly due to slow broadband speeds) digital streaming (Netflix, et al) to watch movies with.

Second point being that if the decision were all about optical media capacity then Microsoft could presumably have used its failed HD-DVD format. The fact they've (supposedly) gone for BRD suggests they're going to push the multimedia aspects hard, as just stated.

following from that leak here is some more info which I found quite interesting

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/xbox-720-just- ... 00010.html

I doubt I will get one unless it has backwards compatibility, I will probably wait until it comes down in price.

I'm also surprised they are releasing a gaming tablet I think that will be a bit pointless in a years time

By Mike Jackson for CVG UK

Detailed new tech specs for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox, codenamed Durango', have emerged online in alleged leaks.

According to VGleaks, Durango will be powered by an 8-core CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz - widely tipped to be from AMD - and an 800-MHz graphics processor with 12 shader cores "providing a total of 768 threads".
The console is said to be packing 8GB of DDR3 RAM - as previously hinted by developers - supplemented with 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM.

The disc drive is apparently a Blu-ray drive, capable of reading 50GB Blu-ray discs at x6 read speeds, and an internal hard drive of unspecified capacity.

The console will also reportedly come with "Kinect multichannel echo cancellation (MEC) hardware" which we assume will work hand-in-hand with the next iteration of the Kinect motion sensor bar, also tipped to be included out the box.

Here's the full reported specs list:

CPU:

- x64 Architecture

- 8 CPU cores running at 1.6 gigahertz (GHz)

- each CPU thread has its own 32 KB L1 instruction cache and 32 KB L1 data cache

- each module of four CPU cores has a 2 MB L2 cache resulting in a total of 4 MB of L2 cache

- each core has one fully independent hardware thread with no shared execution resources

- each hardware thread can issue two instructions per clock

GPU:

- custom D3D11.1 class 800-MHz graphics processor

- 12 shader cores providing a total of 768 threads

- each thread can perform one scalar multiplication and addition operation (MADD) per clock cycle

- at peak performance, the GPU can effectively issue 1.2 trillion floating-point operations per second

High-fidelity Natural User Interface (NUI) sensor is always present

Storage and Memory:

- 8 gigabyte (GB) of RAM DDR3 (68 GB/s)

- 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM (ESRAM) (102 GB/s)

- from the GPU's perspective the bandwidths of system memory and ESRAM are parallel providing combined peak bandwidth of 170 GB/sec.

- Hard drive is always present

- 50 GB 6x Blu-ray Disc drive

Networking:

- Gigabit Ethernet

- Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct

Hardware Accelerators:

- Move engines

- Image, video, and audio codecs

- Kinect multichannel echo cancellation (MEC) hardware

- Cryptography engines for encryption and decryption, and hashing

Could be interesting here.To have Kinect 2 inc as standard, ie out of the box, along with a 500 G ? HDD would be pushing prices up, so are MS willing to loose money on the hardware initally? (Kinect MK 1 had on board CPU removed, camera down graded to cut costs).

Moves engines? Cloud gaming stuff? reduced lag on Kinect 2?.

Not bad at all.

I'd be surprised if Microsoft went with a BRD-ROM drive though. That said, maybe it comes to cost and (if these rumours are true) so they reasoned that DVD-ROM is history and that developing their own media would be too expensive.

That brings two other points into focus. Namely that the notoriously penny pinching Nintendo have their own proprietary disc format for Wii U, albeit that it doesn't have as high a capacity as BRD. If Ninty did that then Microsoft sure as hell could. Therefore one is left to deduce that Microsoft will be pushing the optical media multimedia aspects of next-gen Xbox in the realisation that not everyone wants (possibly due to slow broadband speeds) digital streaming (Netflix, et al) to watch movies with.

Second point being that if the decision were all about optical media capacity then Microsoft could presumably have used its failed HD-DVD format. The fact they've (supposedly) gone for BRD suggests they're going to push the multimedia aspects hard, as just stated.

You know your PC stuff, DC, so in 'laymans terms' thiose specs, what we looking at? say something like Crysis 2, in max or v.high graphical settings, 60 FPS?

Regarding the Optical Media angle:Was interesting to see that, given when HD DVD died (picked up 2 360 HD DVD players at the time, £30 each), MS seemed to be saying, well, future is DOWNLOAD, guess they've re-evaluated that as many of us tied into 'fairusage' or 'limited download packages as it is or from exp, the unlimited B.B deals from likes of Talk Talk are bloody awful, service wise.

Specs look great to me, having said that there are rumours the the PS4 is 50% more powerful going on leaked info..

MS need to make sure this has a BRD, big mistake if not.

Specs look great to me, having said that there are rumours the the PS4 is 50% more powerful going on leaked info..

MS need to make sure this has a BRD, big mistake if not.

Sony have already stated that the PS4 will not be much more powerful than the PS3

They would mate just to put people of the scent.. Really would be pointless selling a new console not much more powerful than the PS3..

Would be Game over..

They would mate just to put people of the scent.. Really would be pointless selling a new console not much more powerful than the PS3..

Would be Game over..

Not really because firstly they want it to be backwards compatible and also because the true power of the PS3 has never been unlocked due to the over complicated design making it hard to code. Also you have to remember the Wii U is the first machine this gen and is no more powerful than the PS3 or Xbox 360. Lastly you have to remember that Sony are in a dire financial state.

You know your PC stuff, DC, so in 'laymans terms' thiose specs, what we looking at? say something like Crysis 2, in max or v.high graphical settings, 60 FPS?

I'm no expert but my impression from having looked through those specs is that the console will be the equivalent of a current upper middle (or lower high end) of the range PC. However, when making such comparisons much caution must be exercised due to the fact console games can be and are heavily optimised for the hardware and so may well out-perform the same game on an equivalent spec' PC.

That said, I'd still be a little surprised if this supposed new console of those specs could run Crysis 2 to the same high standard as a current high end PC with all the game's video settings set to 'ultra', in 1080p at a constant 60fps. I'd expect some of the video settings would need to be the equivalent of the PC version's medium settings to run at that frame rate in 1080p.

apparently the console has 8 cores all running at 1.9ghz... I don't know of any pc that has that sort of spec at the moment, I have a quad core i5 with 8gb RAM, do we know how much RAM it will have in real terms? I mean I know the GPU will have its own RAM and the system will probably have additional seperate RAM but consoles as a rule tend to have PROPER low RAM compared to what I'd expect. Definitely interested to see this in action when its out. I just hope they do include backwards compat

Specs look great to me, having said that there are rumours the the PS4 is 50% more powerful going on leaked info..

MS need to make sure this has a BRD, big mistake if not.

The question of more powerful though, can be so miss-leading:

3DO:More powerful than SNES, but SNES out did it in 2D in terms of Parallax scrolling etc (Jez San was very vocal in an Edge interview about just how dissapointed he was by this), Saturn had more CPU power than Playstation 1,better sound chip, better 2D abilities etc but was a mare to code for, think the PS1 could pump out more 'raw' or 'plain' polygons than the N64 etc etc.

PS4 may well indeed 'boast' a faster processing speed on paper, but so did PS3 over 360, yet the way the Ram was handled between the 2 systems worked out in 360's favour for games like Skyrim, Unreal Eng.3 seems better suited to 360, DICE's engines more so the PS3 etc.

The on-paper part? just 1 small piece of the jigsaw, whilst console X might excel in 1 area, it's usually weaker than Y in another, then there's question of just how easy it is to tap into that power, how much Ram is avaiable (it might read faster, but if you need more...) etc etc.

A poorly coded PS4 game would be worse than an optimised Xbox Next game and vice versa, until we see how developers get on with BOTH systems, we won't have any idea who's approach has worked out for the best.

You know your PC stuff, DC, so in 'laymans terms' thiose specs, what we looking at? say something like Crysis 2, in max or v.high graphical settings, 60 FPS?

I'm no expert but my impression from having looked through those specs is that the console will be the equivalent of a current upper middle (or lower high end) of the range PC. However, when making such comparisons much caution must be exercised due to the fact console games can be and are heavily optimised for the hardware and so may well out-perform the same game on an equivalent spec' PC.

That said, I'd still be a little surprised if this supposed new console of those specs could run Crysis 2 to the same high standard as a current high end PC with all the game's video settings set to 'ultra', in 1080p at a constant 60fps. I'd expect some of the video settings would need to be the equivalent of the PC version's medium settings to run at that frame rate in 1080p.

Appreciate the reply.

My 'gut' feeling is, MS don't see it as being 'All about da power!' anymore, Kinect proved that for them, so they'll make it powerful, but continue to push Kinect, Surface or someother game pad link up, continue to secure timed exclusive on DLC/Map packs for latest COD's etc, and continue to push the Xbox as a device that provides all your home ent. in games.

Their own figures show Xbox Live now used more for movies etc than gaming, so don't think they feel they need to be packing the biggest gun this round, but just build on the key areas 360 has delivered on.

The arms race would be pointless as console would be out dated in PC terms soon enough and your competing in very different fields hardware wise (mate at work talking last night about a £1200 PC graphics card!), console would i feel, have to be retailing around the $300 mark, for the target market MS would be after.

apparently the console has 8 cores all running at 1.9ghz... I don't know of any pc that has that sort of spec at the moment, I have a quad core i5 with 8gb RAM...

Lord knows where that claim of eight cores comes from. High end gaming PCs with 'Ivy bridge' third generation Core i7 CPUs mostly 'only' have quad core CPUs and only a very few of them have the six/hex core variant of said generation of CPUs. Suffice to say, the cost of such a CPU is a damn sight more expensive to buy than the price MS will likely be selling their next-gen Xbox for so the chances of it including a genuine eight core CPU would seem extremely remote.

Maybe the claim is being 'creative' with the truth...

god knows but I definitely read it in both articles so I'm not hallucinating!! But that's why I'm finding it hard to believe, if those specs are right, how any pc game could stand up to that for a long time, I mean the xbox won't have to run programs in the background on the same scale as Windows nor an operating system etc.

Ok it will run xbox stuff and the video chat but they are going to allocate a whole Core to handle that. Leaving maybe 6 left to PURELY handly gaming. Sounds crazy to me which is why I was having trouble believing it. If that technology were possible surely it would be in PC's soon?