It makes sense that because of the (Rage 6 or GeForce 256) T&L engine, Microsoft would be able to conserve dollars on the price of the unit by going for a low-end CPU. It also seems quite likely that Microsoft would indeed be underwriting part of the hardware costs in order to benefit from the licensing and software revenue that the console would bring. In any case, regardless of who claims victory between the NVIDIA and ATi, it should be a winning result for the consumers.
Our sources also told us that not only will the X-Box harbor USB ports but will also feature IEEE 1394 (FireWire) ports.
Finally, we're here to dispel any rumors about X-Box manufacturing. Although Dell and Gateway have been 'obvious' contenders and pointed at by some press folks, the manufacturing will more likely take place in the Far East.
We'll keep you posted on the X-Box but be prepared for an announcement at the January CES trade show. With Microsoft reportedly set to dedicate a massive $6 billion to the project, there's going to be plenty of exposure on all media fronts. Then again, let's hope that some of those dollars trickle back to the 'blue screen' department at the DirectX 8 team to the benefit of PC games as well.
Having been to the 3dfx press conference at the Madame Tussaud's Wax Works (where the Tom Jones figure was so life-like he had a selection of ladies' nickers at his feet), we've already given you the low-down on the specs involved, product lineup and features list (see our news post) but we also sat down with Scott Sellers afterwards and picked up a few more interesting points:
- Voodoo3 is the last non-scaleable architecture that 3dfx will produce. This means we can look beyond Voodoo 4 & 5 to future generations being similar in that there will be a broad range of price/performance options through multiple chip solutions. No word yet on if that would include upgradeability - always a nifty option.
- The Voodoo4/5 may ship with a 400MHz RAMDAC.
- There is a possibility they could move to .18 micron when serious volume sets in. This would be aimed at conserving silicon rather than increasing clock frequency.