ATI R500 'Xenos' GPU - Is Free Anti-Aliasing Really worth it ?

[Guest]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24628

Interesting discussion going on about the ATI graphics processor for Xbox
360, the R500 GPU, also known as 'C1' and 'Xenos'. It has two dies on a
single package. The main 'parent die' which is the main GPU core, has 232
million transistors. The 'daughter die' which is the eDRAM unit, has
embedded memory and additional logic circuitry for anti-aliasing, z-buffer,
alpha blending, etc. This part has between 100 and 150 million
transistors, giving the Xbox 360 graphics processing sub-system a total of
between 332 and 382 million transistors. This is a larger count than what
Playstation3's Nvidia RSX GPU has.

The 'daughter die' eDRAM unit basicly provides the Xbox 360 with 'free'
anti-aliasing, without the cost of an significant performance to other areas
of graphics.

the discussion centers around the question, was it worth it to dedicate 100
to 150 million transistors, mainly for the purpose of achieving free AA.

 

[Mike B]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24628

Interesting discussion going on about the ATI graphics processor for Xbox
360, the R500 GPU, also known as 'C1' and 'Xenos'. It has two dies on a
single package. The main 'parent die' which is the main GPU core, has
232 million transistors. The 'daughter die' which is the eDRAM unit, has
embedded memory and additional logic circuitry for anti-aliasing,
z-buffer, alpha blending, etc. This part has between 100 and 150 million
transistors, giving the Xbox 360 graphics processing sub-system a total of
between 332 and 382 million transistors. This is a larger count than what
Playstation3's Nvidia RSX GPU has.

The 'daughter die' eDRAM unit basicly provides the Xbox 360 with 'free'
anti-aliasing, without the cost of an significant performance to other
areas of graphics.

the discussion centers around the question, was it worth it to dedicate
100 to 150 million transistors, mainly for the purpose of achieving free
AA.

Yeah, i think it's Definitely worth it. Everyone here makes such a huge deal
out of the feature when talking about PC games, NO ONE should have anything
bad to say about this. It is a very nice feature, and i do think that 4x AA
greatly improves the quality of visuals, just as extra poly counts do, extra
fps, better quality shaders, and any other visual feature that would get an
upgrade with each new generation of hardware.

 

[Doug]

And I thought the Xbox 360 video hardware was limited to 2xAA only.