DanglingPointer
November 26th, 2013, 05:11 AM
Hi All,
I was just thinking logically, Kaveri APU's will be out next year and eventually it may get an octacore paired to the GCN-Mantle capable iGPU or the next architecture after Kaveri gets the octacore.
The R9-290(X) is ALREADY orders of magnitude more powerful than both consoles even if you combine the PS4 and the XBONE together the Hawaii cards would still be much more powerful.
Now with AMD releasing their AMD-Spec-SteamMachines next year paired to proper-mature FGLRX drivers (yet to be seen though); the consoles could still have the upper-hand due to price.
HOWEVER...
within 2yrs to 3yrs; APU performance + Mantle games for most of the AAA games being developed by EA, Rebellion, Crytek, etc; plus the usual drop in price of APU chips as they mature; could mean a brand new SteamMachine running SteamOS or Ubuntu with Steam could cost less AND be MORE powerful than any of the mass-market consoles!
What do you think? By the end of 2015 or 2016, SteamMachines can sell for cheaper prices and be much more powerful than consoles due to Mantle!
Food for thought huh!?
UPDATE:
Come to think of it, after giving it more thought, perhaps as early as the end of next year or early 2015 if prices go south! A medium to low priced APU plus lets say a cheap 270X at end of 2014 year prices. If games are guaranteed to work via SteamOS/SteamMachines, then there really is no reason to get a console especially if the top games are developed using Mantle which is virtually the same paradigm for console game development.
I was just thinking logically, Kaveri APU's will be out next year and eventually it may get an octacore paired to the GCN-Mantle capable iGPU or the next architecture after Kaveri gets the octacore.
The R9-290(X) is ALREADY orders of magnitude more powerful than both consoles even if you combine the PS4 and the XBONE together the Hawaii cards would still be much more powerful.
Now with AMD releasing their AMD-Spec-SteamMachines next year paired to proper-mature FGLRX drivers (yet to be seen though); the consoles could still have the upper-hand due to price.
HOWEVER...
within 2yrs to 3yrs; APU performance + Mantle games for most of the AAA games being developed by EA, Rebellion, Crytek, etc; plus the usual drop in price of APU chips as they mature; could mean a brand new SteamMachine running SteamOS or Ubuntu with Steam could cost less AND be MORE powerful than any of the mass-market consoles!
What do you think? By the end of 2015 or 2016, SteamMachines can sell for cheaper prices and be much more powerful than consoles due to Mantle!
Food for thought huh!?
UPDATE:
Come to think of it, after giving it more thought, perhaps as early as the end of next year or early 2015 if prices go south! A medium to low priced APU plus lets say a cheap 270X at end of 2014 year prices. If games are guaranteed to work via SteamOS/SteamMachines, then there really is no reason to get a console especially if the top games are developed using Mantle which is virtually the same paradigm for console game development.