Console Optimizations Will Improve AMD CPU Performance In Planetside 2.

[TechFan@ic]

The performance boosts will be "massive" according to Creative Director Matt Higby. The Planetside 2 dev team is already hard at work porting their game to the PS4, according Higby the reliance on multi-core technology in the PS4 is forcing the team to optimize their engine for more cores, although this appears to be a difficult challenge for the team, Higby says he's nevertheless excited :

 

 

Matt Higby :

 

Our engine sucks at that right now. We are multi-threaded, but the primary gameplay thread is very expensive. The biggest piece of engineering work that they’re doing right now, and it’s an enormous effort, is to go back through the engine and re-optimize it to be really, truly multi-threaded and break the gameplay thread up. That’s a very challenging thing to do because we’re doing a lot of stuff – tracking all these different players, all of their movements, all the projectiles, all the physics they’re doing.

It’s very challenging to split those really closely connected pieces of functionality across in multiple threads. So it’s a big engineering task for them to do, but thankfully once they do it, AMD players who’ve been having sub-par performance on the PC will suddenly get a massive boost – just because of being able to take the engine and re-implement it as multi-threaded.

 

I’m very excited about that because I have a lot of friends, lots of people who are more budget minded, going for AMD processors because nine times out of ten they give a lot of bang for the buck. Where it really breaks down is on games with one really big thread. PlanetSide’s probably a prime example of that.

We have the exact same kind of Achilles’ heel on the PC too. People who have AMD chips have a disadvantage, because a single core on an AMD chip doesn’t really have as much horsepower and they really require you to kind of spread the load out across multiple cores to be able to take full advantage of the AMD processors.

 

However Matt Higby isn't the first developer to come out and say this, John Carmack & several other high-profile devs have said this as well in recent months.
As it turns out, the console optimizations are actually a much bigger deal than what most people have thought and the impact this will have on the PC industry will definitely be felt by many.
Source

[TechFan@ic]

 hate it when people claim the next gen consoles APU's architecture will mean huge boosts to the fx line chips though.

Improved performance on AMD CPUs is exactly what Matt Higby and several other developers are saying will happen, PC gamers should be happy that they're finally getting proper multi-core support.

I really don't understand why you'd "hate" to hear this, it will most definitely benefit everyone with a multi-core processor whether it be intel or AMD but the AMD CPUs will gain the most from this because of the architectural similarities between the Jaguar cores in the next-gen consoles and the FX series of processors from AMD.

[EmmaLong]

That's true, better multi-core support is a GOOD thing for EVERYONE, not just AMD CPU users, even intel CPU users with an i5 or an i7 will greatly benefit from this.
Investing in a hexacore sandy bridge-E for gaming actually makes more sense now, and buying an 8 core AMD FX processor for gaming sounds a lot more reasonable.

[Immort]

I've always believed that the consoles will without a doubt push multi-core support which subsequently will significantly improve the performance of AMD CPUs, but I've never thought that these optimizations will have an effect this quickly, I mean the consoles aren't even out yet !

Kudos to the Planetside 2 team & hopefully all devs will start implementing multi-core support into their engines !

[TechFan@ic]

Multi threaded optimization and optimization coming to FX CPU's because they are the same architectures are different things and for the most part untrue.

They are  different, but because the FX lineup by nature has on average twice the number of cores as the intel counterparts this will in turn benefit the AMD CPUs more so than the intels.

There will be micro-architectural optimizations that will specifically boost the performance of AMD CPUs over the intel CPUs, so not just multi-core enhancements, John Carmack has stated this in his Keynote.

http://youtu.be/o2bH7da_9Os?t=4m12s

[TERAFLOP]

Which is my point, the new consoles wont provide optimization to the FX lineup but instead will bring forward multithreaded games which will benefit any cpu that has more threads.

They will do both actually, a few months back a bunch of developers said that the current AMD processors (FX Lineup) will gain more performance from the new console games due to the similar architecture and the high number of cores, so it's not just about threads.

Even John Carmack, specifically said, AMD CPUs will improve in performance "clock for clock' as compared to the intels, so it's not just about more cores, the design similarities between the CPU in the consoles and the AMD CPUs on the desktops and laptops make a huge difference.

[TechFan@ic]

Even John Carmack, specifically said, AMD CPUs will improve in performance "clock for clock' as compared to the intels.

Indeed he did, good catch, I've only just found out about that, went back to the keynote and re-listened to it.

 

I'll remain skeptical but if that's true then cool

Have you listened to the John Carmack keynote at quakecon ? the link I posted will take you directly to the time-stamp where he talks about the console optimizations and AMD CPUs.

The Eurogamer article that I've reported on also has Linus Bloomberg from Avalanche Studios saying that he'd choose an FX 8350 over a 3570K not just because of the higher number of cores but because the 8350 is "from the same hardware vendor" and that will lead to superior implementations of SIMD code.

 

[GPUXPert]

This is exactly why I bought an FX 8350 over a 3570K + the less expensive platform also allowed me to go for a more powerful GPU, win-win !

[Xorbot]

Let's not forget the truth, here.

 

Consoles should never be deemed as "heroes" of the gaming industry.  The appearance now is that because of the next-gen consoles and their multiple cores, all of gaming is now benefiting because game developers are rethinking their code to support a more multi-threaded, multi-processing nature.

 

Keep in mind that this was true for many, many years now.  It is the presence of the existing consoles that stunted the development of truly multi-core game engines.  So instead of saying "Hurrah for consoles! They have brought gaming industry forward!", it should be "Curse the damned consoles for holding the industry back for at least 4 years, if not more."

 

Seeing as how consoles already retard the progression in this industry, please note that the same thing is likely to continue in other facets.  For example, the multi-core game engines may be solved, but a new form of growth-stunt may occur.  I predict this will be game developers becoming incredibly complacent and satisfied with 30 FPS framerates, with drops to 25 FPS or even less.  I can totally see the game developers putting an insane amount of geometry, lighting, and shaders in games where the benefit of "better visuals" is at the cost of FPS.  In my opinion, high-framerate is an equally important, if not most important of all "desired visual".

 

I could care less if the lighting of the scene is 95% accurate if it is going to cost 30 FPS, taking an otherwise 60 FPS smooth experience down to 30 FPS.  This is a statement that John Carmack recently made, and I full-heartedly agree with it.

[NinjaStyle013]

*does a dance knowing he chose a fx 6300 and now it's going to be even better*

[Katness Everdeen]

Oh great news ! finally !

[jonasa97]

Yes!!! finally Intel will get off their lazy asses and give us something that's worth buying!

[onionring]

Yes!!! finally Intel will get off their lazy asses and give us something that's worth buying!

i7 3910?

at 350$ for 6 cores / 12 threads, aka 4 threads more than a 8350... (which isn t really a 8 core if you read the definition of cores)

[jonasa97]

i7 3910?

at 350$ for 6 cores / 12 threads, aka 4 threads more than a 8350... (which isn t really a 8 core if you read the definition of cores)

How is this in any way related to what I said and what is a 3910?

[onionring]

How is this in any way related to what I said and what is a 3910?

...a intel cpu worth buying... idk what you asked for if it isn t related to a intel cpu

[jonasa97]

...a intel cpu worth buying... idk what you asked for if it isn t related to a intel cpu

Still don't get what an i7 3910 is. And if you meant the 3930K, that thing costs more like 600$.

[onionring]

Still don't get what an i7 3910 is. And if you meant the 3930K, that thing costs more like 600$.

the 3910k is suppisedly a new i7 intel is releasing this year, it is a 3930k but clocked slower from factory, it is supposed to cost 350$.

[jonasa97]

the 3910k is suppisedly a new i7 intel is releasing this year, it is a 3930k but clocked slower from factory, it is supposed to cost 350$.

oh... cool. Haven't heard it... maybe post it up in the news section ?!

[onionring]

oh... cool. Haven't heard it... maybe post it up in the news section ?!

there you go

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/40747-new-intel-sandy-bridge-e-cpu-3910k/page-2#entry539623

[onionring]

oh... cool. Haven't heard it... maybe post it up in the news section ?!

there you go

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/40747-new-intel-sandy-bridge-e-cpu-3910k/page-2#entry539623

[bcredeur97]

Intel WILL still get a boost in this, all my cores in my 3570k will actually be used in this game instead of just one! lol

[cDNA]

I hope i will be able to pass the 30fps mark in planeteside 2 on my notebook with an A6. I already went from 15 to 25 by upgrading the RAM i hope this will help

[bcredeur97]

I hope i will be able to pass the 30fps mark in planeteside 2 on my notebook with an A6. I already went from 15 to 25 by upgrading the RAM i hope this will help

lol my friend was playing on a 4 core A6 "llano" laptop yesterday, got to squeeze out about 15FPS he had ram to spare so that wasn't the problem... overclocking the CPU yielded a few more frames, got up to like 18 FPS, but still not good enough... Hopefully this will fix his troubles. Those graphics in those APU's are awesome, but if you have no real CPU performance the bottleneck becomes HUGE.

[bcredeur97]

I still wish i would of bought an 8350 over my 3570k :( but i was dumb(er?)) when i bought it, i didn't think of the future:P

[Xelithium]

I still wish i would of bought an 8350 over my 3570k :( but i was dumb(er?)) when i bought it, i didn't think of the future:P

Don't worry about it. The performance difference will be really, really, really, really, really minimal. It might just bring the 8350 a little closer to the 3570k.