Want a taste of what gaming on next generation consoles is going to be like? Well, according to the folks over at AMD here’s what to expect from the next Xbox (speculated to be called the Xbox 720): games that feature graphics that are on par with James Cameron’s blockbuster 3D movie: Avatar. At least that’s what AMD’s director of ISV (Independent Software Vendor) relationships, Neal Robinson told the Official Xbox Magazine.
AMD also claimed that the next Xbox will be powerful enough to give individual AI to every single pedestrian in games with crowds i.e. Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row etc so that each single character will be able to react differently to different actions – no more predictable mob behavior.
While sounding like it knows a lot about what’s going on with the new Xbox, AMD has refused to confirm that it’ll be providing the GPU for the system though. Whether it’s unconfirmed at this stage, or due to private and confidential issues, we don’t know. But there’s a high chance of AMD providing the GPU for the next Xbox since it already powers the current one. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Avatar-style graphics sounds great, but since we don’t have an ETA for the next Xbox, there’s a possibility that by then; we’ll probably be capable of graphics that put Avatar to shame.
Hubert‘s take: come on, we’ve heard that one for years. Each generation of GPUs is supposed to reach “cinematic level” and although there has been tremendous progress in that area, this is pushing marketing a bit too far. The next-generation graphics will look very good, but assuming that Xbox 720 was coming out in the next 18 months, take the Battlefield 3 graphics, multiply that by 2, and that’s pretty much what you would get – it’s still 1000X away (probably more) from Avatar. A lot of folks would be happy to be doing Toy Story 2 in real-time today, let alone Avatar.
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