Supposed Rev Specs

Sorry for the long delay in updating my Blog at first got frusterated with people putting up there friend codes on Mario Kart threads but not adding anyone elses (whats the point in that?) and ive been extremely busy (I work 7 days a week) plus with the holidays coming up so i'm sure you can understand.

Ok i'm sure that just about everyone has seen these supposed specs from IGN by now. Personally i think these specs are bogus for the most part, they just do not add up. Heres the recent info from IGN.


" "To be honest, it's not much more powerful than an Xbox.
It's like a souped up Xbox," a major third party source revealed
to us. "But it's the controller that makes the difference and
the controller is really nice."

Nintendo has said all along that sheer horsepower has not
been a priority with Revolution. Rather, the company hopes to
make the console small, quiet and affordable. It is very likely
for this reason that the Big N chose not to make Revolution
compatible with the emerging 720p, 1080i and 1080p high-
definition video resolutions, which are focuses for competing
consoles.

Gamers holding out for Nintendo to reverse its stance on the
HD front may be in for a disappointment. Revolution will not
have the RAM capacity to store and display an abundant source
of high-definition textures. Third parties have revealed to us that
the console will top out with 128MBs of RAM, and possibly even
less. One studio would not give us an exact figure, but did say,
"The same as GameCube plus an extra 64MB of main RAM." That
number is by comparison nearly triple the amount of memory in
GameCube. However, it is a far cry from the 512MBs present in
XBox 360.

One studio we spoke to hinted at the possibility of accessing
further Revolution RAM, but its comments were cryptic. "There
is more RAM that you can use, but Nintendo is using that for
general memory, like game saves and all sorts of other things. You
could use it, but you can't rely on it." This comment seems to
suggest that developers might be able to tap into Revolution's
512MBs of on-board Flash memory, but to our knowledge such a
solution would be too slow to utilize in games.

Still, the studios we spoke with are still very intrigued by
Revolution and are not ruling out the possibility of additional
graphic horsepower. No developer that chatted with us had, or
was willing to share, details on the console's GPU, Hollywood.
One studio said: "As soon as we find out what it can do then we'll
know if Revolution will just be like an Xbox or something a little
more."

Asked if it was developing for Revolution, one major third
party source said that it was well past the experimental stage and
was evaluating what types of games might work on the platform.
"We are looking at it quite differently. It's like another current
generation platform for us. But it's such a nice controller that it
opens up a lot of possibilities. It's very different and it's very
precise." "




Then the next day they followed that info with this




In yesterday's article, we wrote that Revolution would
include 128MBs of RAM, or possibly less. Developers have
clarified the makeup based on officially released Nintendo
documentation. Revolution will build on Gamecube's
configuration of 24MBs 1T-SRAM and 16MBs D-RAM (40MBs)
by adding an addition 64MBs of 1T-SRAM. The result is a supply
of memory in Revolution that totals 104MBs. That number does
not consider either the 512MBs of allegedly accessible (but
hardly ideal) Flash RAM or the Hollywood GPU's on-board
memory, said to be 3MBs by sources.

Revolution's Broadway CPU, developed by IBM, is an
extension of the Gekko CPU in GameCube, according to official
Nintendo documentation passed to us by software houses. The
Hollywood GPU, meanwhile, is believed to be an extension of the
Flipper GPU in GameCube. Since developers have not gone hands
-on with the GPU, they can only go on Nintendo documentation,
which is limited.

Exact clock rates were not disclosed, but one development
source we spoke to had this to say of the Revolution CPU and
GPU: "Basically, take a GameCube, double the clock rate of the
CPU and GPU and you're done."

We presented that description to another informed studio,
which clarified that the clock rates may even fall short of
doubling those on GameCube.

"The CPU is the same as Gekko with one and a half to two
times the performance and improved caching," said a source.
"Our guys experimented with it and think they'll be able to get
about twice the performance as GameCube."

"It's a gamble for the Big N," said another source. "It's not
about horsepower for them -- it's about innovation and
gameplay."

We've also been able to unearth firm details on the storage
capacity for Revolution discs. Recent rumors suggesting that the
discs can hold 12GBs of data are false. In fact, Revolution discs
can store 4.7GBs of data on a single layer or 8.5GBs when double
-layered on a single-side. This is a massive jump from the 1.5GB
capacity of GameCube discs and more than enough storage
capacity for any non-high-definition game. "

This info is not even logical really, why would Nintendo spend so much money & 3+ years of development to just have the same CPU and GPU just slightly better even if they have the speed correct there would still be plenty of other changes to the chipsets to differenciate them from there predecessors beyond just being a lil faster, and the RAM will most likely change in the final kits although i do not expect it to be anywere near the 512MB that the Xbox 360 has, i would say 256 at most and that theres a good chance we get around 196MB of RAM.
Also note that the Editor in chief of IGN's Gamecube and Revolution channels Matt Casamassina who posted these articles had also said this in an article "Most interesting, though, was what Miyamoto didn't talk about. The Nintendo legend flat-out stated that there's more to be revealed about the Revolution controller."
When infact Miyamoto never said it had to do with the controller just that there was another secret to be revealed, so is Matt's brain degenerating? He is seeming to be a untrustworthy source of Information.

I also found these supposed specs for the GPU "Hollywood" on www.revogaming.net.


One of the two sources who gave us information on IBM's "Broadway" processor today gave us information on the "Hollywood" GPU from ATi. Details inside.

The source provided the following information under conditions of anonymity, as well as some other general Revolution statements:

- "Hollywood" is based on ATi's RV530 GPU
- The GPU has been optimised significantly (more on that below)
- The graphics are not as bad as IGN might make them sound
- The Revolution's RAM, whilst being around 128MB, is highly optimised

Here are the specs for the RV530, thanks to Anandtech:

RV530

600MHz Core Clock
1400MHz Memory Clock
512MB Maximum Memory for "XT"
256MB Maximum Memory for "Pro"
128-bit Memory
12 Pipelines
Maximum 16x32MB 1.4ns GDDR3

High Optimisation

The source described the Revolution's optimisation like this:

Although he acknowledged that Revolution will not be as powerful as 360 or PS3, he said that the optimisation level of Revolution is similar to that of the GameCube: although it did not have the highest hardware specification, it managed to churn out the best graphics in titles such as Resident Evil 4.

RAM

The RAM is 1T-SRAM, as previously reported. The source mentioned some optimisation of the RAM but did not clarify.

We remind you that this source is very trustworthy: the information that we broke exclusively on IBM's "Broadway" is now mirrored in the comments of various developers to IGN.

There is no official word from Nintendo, however. Take this as you will.

RevoGaming will keep you updated.


While this makes much more sense than the GPU only being a slightly faster version of the Gamecube's GPU i'd still take it with a grain of salt.
What do you think of all this? Comment away.