Nvidia: phone GPUs to outplay current consoles by 2014
End of gaming as we know it?
The smartphone killed the PDA, the MP3 player and the PMP - will it kill the games console next?
Ask graphics chip maker Nvidia and it will undoubtedly say 'no', not least because it would rather like to sell lots of high-power GPUs to Microsoft and Sony.
But it certainly reckons that, come 2014, smartphone graphics cores will be able to pump out more pixels than today's consoles, specifically the Xbox, can, as this slide, snapped by Anandtech, shows:
Source: Anandtech
By then, we'll be on to next-gen machines (hopefully), but Nvidia's claim raises the interesting possibility that handsets may soon eclipse consoles.
Now, hold on, I'm not talking about World+Dog gaming on a 4in screen - even a 'retina' one - rather than playing on a big, HD-or-better monitor.
Consider this though: using the phone - or tablet - as a console, wireless connected to a big screen for presentation and the handset's own touchscreen as the controller. Or perhaps Bluetooth'd up to a standard games controller.
CPU and GPU performance, all this is possible with today's tech.
And, of course, you can take the 'console' away with you for a spot of Angry Birds on Jupiter or Shadowrun VI action when you're on the move.
Agree? Disagree? Love the notion? Hate it? Go and thrash it out in the new El Reg forums. ®
COMMENTS
hmmm... no
there you are, two hours into the latest greatest game, about to reach that final goal, win the world cup, kill the big bad boss.... and your mum rings to have a chat.
What an utter load of bollocks
Considering the slow mobile GPUs nvidia is currently making, and the SGX543MP4 in the iPad 3, then according to their graph an iPad 3 already performs about the same as current-gen consoles. I'm pretty sure it doesn't, and I write lots of GPU code for it.
Plus, they've utterly ignored the fact that by then current-gen consoles most likely won't be PS3s and XBox 360s. But I guess "Phone GPUs to outplay old consoles by 2014" doesn't sound so good.
You know what nvidia's greatest success in mobile is? Their marketing. They throw stuff like this out regularly, and people think they make amazing products. The reality is that the marketing is the amazing product and the GPUs suck balls :)
Pointless
I actually think it's pointless.
We're already at the stage where we have hardware that's more than good enough to display small games on a phone as a distraction from your day.
I wouldn't even want extremely high powered hardware in a phone - I'd rather the phone was about the power of, say, dual core Krait, and no more, just getting process shrinks, therefore better battery life, and cheaper.
I never want to plug my phone in to use it as a games console. It's just too 'disposable' for that. You might be playing on your Xbox 360 still, when it came out years ago. You probably replaced your phone several times. It would be a huge faff.
In all honesty, even my single core Snapdragon in my Desire HD with Adreno 205 is adequete for anything I actually want to do on my phone, which is to say barely anything graphically intensive. If I had better hardware, I'd still be doing the same.. that is to say, not playing anything graphically intensive, because the form factor is tiring, and touchscreen controls are utterly hopeless.
In summary, for tomorrow, I'd be more excited with longer battery life and less costly handsets with today's performance, than a pocket Xbox 360.
Touchscreen as a controller?
Yeah, well screw that. Touchscreen controls suck donkey balls.
Re: turn it on it's head........
Because if the £300 console lasts 5 years, thats £5/month for as many users as fit into our living rooms. Contract != free.
