AMD Says next Xbox will have graphics like Avatar

AMD currently supplies Microsoft with the GPU that powers the Xbox 360, a capable little chip called Xenos. While the company, which swallowed up graphics hardware supplier ATI, hasn’t confirmed it’s actually working on the next Xbox GPU, its director of ISV relationships, Neal Robison, has said that gamers have “a lot to excited about.“

The next Xbox, claims Robson, will be able to produce a graphical fidelity that will rival James Cameron’s bit of 3D wizardry, Avatar. He also claims that the physics and AI of the next-generation console will “allow for every pedestrian in a game such as Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row to have a totally individual mentality, meaning when you shoot a gun or run someone over they don’t all just do the same thing.  There will be no more mob mentality, where everyone just screams and runs away; every NPC will actually be an individual character.”

As amazing as that would be, even if its technically possible, it just isn’t feasible. The current budgets of modern AAA titles are already astronomical, and this sort of implementation would only send them higher. Plus there’s this :

This is a sample of the 40,000 CPU-strong digital data center used to render the animation in Avatar. To match or exceed that in the near future, in real-time on a home console? Unlikely.

Source : Examiner.com

Last Updated: July 18, 2011