AMD's Cinema 2.0 demo: "you won't just play movies, you'll play in them"
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 17th 2008 1:45AM
posted Jun 17th 2008 1:45AM
That's a bold promise AMD. Nevertheless, a cinema-realistic gaming experience is exactly what they demonstrated yesterday in San Francisco. Cinema 2.0, according to AMD, is "a milestone achievement in ultra-realistic and interactive visual computing." Perhaps, but then the marketing-speak launches into unnecessary hyperbole with AMD calling its new teraFLOPS chip at the heart of the demo -- the RV770 GPU -- "more powerful than every generation of game console every brought to market combined." Really AMD? Last we counted there were about 13 million Cell processors scattered across the PS3 terra firma. But we'll assume that you're referring to a mythical mashup of a singular PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, etc. with a little Magnavox Odyssey sprinkled on top. Still, you might find the hype warranted when you realize that the demonstration was powered by a single PC loaded with a pair of (future) consumer-grade AMD RV770 graphics cards, Phenom X4 9850 processor, and 790FX chipset. Take a look for yourself in the video after the break.
I
Couldn't have said it better myself.
i? You fricken Apple fanboy...
@ Dillon lol
Man.... I lol'd pretty hard at Toshi's reply.
I think what they were trying to say was "I for one welcome our cinema-realistic gaming experience robot overlords."
No way Mehdi! Me too! I thought I was the only one who thought that!
interesting concept.
lets see how it works out.
and mehdi, were just waiting for an article to write I in the comments. just to be first?
does that matter?
I wanted to say "I *heart* Ruby"
but it cancelled every thing after the opening bracket for the heart...
engadget doesn't like ascii art
♥ just a character test, sorry ❤ still sorry ❥ final sorry❣.
test failed.. go back to character map and try again.. ill wait for the next test
Hmm, well no it didn't fail, although I need to test i on some other more basic computer that isn't so loaded with fonts, because arial unicode from MS for instance is only installed with certain MS software like MS office (or manually added) and so it's a question if these characters show on a system without lots of previously installed software, so the test isn't done yet.
(also I used babelmap, but who cares about such details)
Wwhat Wwhat? In the butt?
@ Wwhat, lmao, u pwnd. Anyway, I just wanted to say that this technological advancement developed at AMD tech labs comes to prove the accuracy of Moore's Law. I however believe, like many other computer scientists and theorists, that we will soon hit a quantum-physical barrier which in a way will force the advancement of Quantum computing and maybe even other exotic forms of computing. Simply doubling the transistor count on each successive chip won't suffice any longer. Crysis anyone?
Wow this is amazing..... I bet it is going to cost an arm and a leg.. after witch the purpose would of been defeated.. I mean who wants to play movie grade video games with 1 arm? lol
Nice!
Unless you go and buy the BenHeck 1-handed videogame controller!
I prefer the Glenn Beck one handed controller. Just think! Fear mongering and spreading vicious rumors about Barack Obama with only one hand! Revolutionary.
Does it have to be your own arm?
sweet i guess, nice prospect on the future, but come on amd get the current mobile chips in line, your getting slaughtered by intel. I am crossing my fingers by the time shrike hits, you'll get back on you feet.
why would Apple advertise on a blog where the line in the sand is so clear. Are there any wishy washy Windows users here that could be swayed to use OSX ?
dude... wtf does this have to do with the topic? I swear people always seem to find a way to turn every post into being somehow apple related.... I swear if I read another apple comment in an off topic post im gonna start talking about oranges.
It is better. so yes.
Orange ya glad I didn't say "Apple"?
The future's bright, the future's Orange..
Back on topic, that demo looks pretty amazing.
@thedesolate1
if you reread what I wrote you might see that I was pondering the fact that the ad on the right side of the screen was distracting; not to mention a waste of time. Sides have already been drawn up on this blog. On topic? No. Distracting? Yes. Oh, by the way no one calls anyone "dude" over the age of 16. Assuming you are over that age, you might want to rethink your use of the English language.
I have to go with thedesolate1 on this one.
majortom: no one over the age of exactly 17.64 really believes they can arbitrarily define the age limitations of the lexicon.
you really dont get out much then do you dude..
WTH noone gave me the memo 11 years ago that I had to stop using the word "dude"
I just got my first mac and love it, but i love my desktop PC too for completely different reasons - neither is perfect or better than the other, there are just trade offs so stop making it a huge deal.
This looks pretty sweet though - hopefully AMD can get on the bandwagon for these "HD" graphics before intel and nVidia otherwise they are going to be hurting for a while.
grapes > oranges
/begins flame war
At what age do I have to stop saying "Mr. Lebowski" and give him back his rug?
"Hey, careful, man, there's a beverage here!" -- The Dude
@ majortom
Ad? What ad?
Firefox + Adblock Plus FTW.
@ majortom
Ad? What ad?
Firefox + Adblock Plus FTW.
Thomas, it's plainly obvious they do not mean every console produced, but one of each kind from each generation. Geez.
I'm gonna go ahead and agree with RC. I think you need to work on reading comprehension a bit. I'm not saying that this is necessarily that bold of a statement, either, really. If this is over twice as fast as the previous fastest, which is twice as fast as the previous and so on, then it's mathematically going to be faster than all those before it combined. Over twice as fast isn't mind-blowing. Still it looks pretty cool.
Moore's law perhaps?
Yeah, I've got to agree.
Sounds to me like they're saying it's better than a 360 + PS3 + Xbox + Wii + GCN + DC + PS2 + N64 and so on and so on.
That sounds pretty doable if you ask me.
Still, it'll be a cold day in hell when I buy an ATi card for gaming.
Thomas knows that. It's just that he's contractually obligated to include that trademark bit of Engadget snark so he had to include it somehow.
I don't know. If you have an infinite number of systems and each is half as powerful as the one after it, 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16...1/n....
My god, it's EXACTLY as powerful as every gaming console to come before it!
But if that's the case, we have to sit here while assorted zealots (big-boy word for "fanboy", not just a Protoss unit) argue which of the current systems is the 1/2 and which is the 1/4. And I can't abide that.
limit sum(1/n) from 1 to infinity approaches one, they are not equal.
errr sum(1/(1+n)) :-) de da de
I don't get it. Can someone explain it please
AMD/ATI are showing off their new graphics card/chipset combination which can render ultra-realistic environments.
They reckon it's as powerful, if not more powerful, than every console ever designed, combined.
From the video clip, it appears this new chipset provides two amazing new graphics effects to make videos games cinema-realistic:
- de-focusing the image (to give the impression of a focus-puller hunting for the correct position);
- shaking the image (to give the impression of hand-held camera operation, without a Glidecam).
Those graphics are so uberly uber that we may need to find another word meaning super in another language to describe them.
Oberly? Perhaps you've already found the work you're looking for.
My comment barely made sense. I think it might be time for bed. Sorry.
@ robjennings
I LOL-ed at your comment! Please post comments on Engadget while sleep-deprived more often.
You really misunderstood the statement from AMD. "... more powerful than every generation of game console ever brought to market combined" does not mean they claim that it's more powerful than every game console on the planet combined, it just means it's more powerful than a combination of one of every type of game console ever sold. The term "brought to market" means "researched, developed and marketed".
I was just about to point out that fact when I read your post. It seems like such a stretch to even interpret it the way he did! But hey, we all have our cranial constipations, right?
Wow! All that on a Phenom? Imagine how good that'll look on a Nehalem CPU!
my thoughts exactly
I hate amd
Yeah, I despise any company who drastically improves our computer tech.
tsk tsk tsk
If it wasnt for AMD, competition and innovation intel would still be cranking up CPU clocks and we would all have under performing Pentium 5 cpu's.
OK kiddo, show us on the doll where AMD touched you.
Hmm does this mark a new ERA in video game history? If what we watched is accurate thats the most lifelike CGI rendered interactive video i have ever viewed.
I wouldve figured this news would make a bigger splash..Maybe a little more publicity by them.
So Nvidia what do u have show for yourself to compete with this?
Nvidia has already showed a video. In fact, this video is quite old as well.
As in, about a week. We however do know that the GTX260 and 280 are more powerful then the 4870. But, the 4870x2 will possibly be more powerful, and cheaper.
One thing to keep in mind is that video games will not look that good running on a R770. Heck, this will have some trouble running Crysis at "decent" (AKA: 1680 x 1020 or so.) resolutions.
I'm not disagreeing, but why wouldn't it be able to run Crysis...?
But LC, that was rendered in real-time...
I'm hoping you know that he meant if you were to combined a PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PS1, Dreamcast, N64, SNES, Virtual Boy, NES, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Apple Pippin, PC-FX, Amiga CD32, 3DO, Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, Amstrad GX4000, Neo-Geo, Commodore Amiga CDTV, Philips CD-i, TurboDuo, FM Towns Marty, Supervision, Sega Nomad, Mega Duck/Cougar Boy, Pioneer LaserActive, TurboDuo, Commodore 64GS, Commodore MAX Machine, Atari 5200, Vectrex, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Intellivision, Intellivision II, Color TV Game, APF Imagination Machine, Microvision, Interton VC 4000, Magnavox Odyssey, Bally Astrocade, Atari 2600, Atari 2700, Sears Video Arcade II, Atari 2600 Jr., Coleco Gemini, TV Boy, TV Boy 2, Super TV-Boy, RCA Studio II, Fairchild Channel F, Fairchild Channel F II, Coleco Telstar, Pong, Philips Odyssey, and the Magnavox Odyssey combined; they wouldn't be more powerful then the RV770 core. Which frankly may not be far from the truth. Folding wise the Radeon 3870 already performs better then a PS3. Which is part of the R600s. However, the PS3 is only one console.
This mustev taken awhile to compile lol
Dude...
and I thought I had all the classic emulators...
haha, you included Pong.
Yup, this is just the message AMD wanted to send out: Imagine a PS3+360+Pong! Win.
You have Magnavox Odyssey twice.
Why 2 magnavox odysseys?
Or more importantly, is the extra Magnavox Odyssey the straw that breaks the camels back?
Ooooohh... tackling the big issues right here on Engadget!
Hate to nit pic... but your list seems to be missing hand held consoles, and we all know how powerfull the nintendo game boy was.
"SECOND MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY BREAKS THE BACK OF AMD"
You ignorant sod. ;-)
How could you forgot the Amstrad cpc464 complete with green screen.
I am going to go nostalgic just thinking about the real good old days of gaming.
What about all of the Chinese KIRFs and other low-distribution consoles?!
The Vii, Vii 2, MiWi, Dr. Boy, XB 360, Super Com, Poly2, fcx2, Gamestation, Famicom X2, Atari Flashback 2.0, Funstation, Funstation2, Funstation3, etc etc...
I sure hope these powerful 8-bit systems were included in AMD's equation... otherwise, I'm calling shenanigans damnit!! :D
What about Tennis for Two, the oscilloscope game?
100% analog
Thomas, buddy, you owe the AMD marketing department an apology. You screwed up the reading comprehension; they did not screw up their math.
Ruby has GOT to stop getting herself in so much trouble, one of these days, she'll see that an invested multi-billion dollar multi manageable attack robot is no match for just her. unless of course she was my mother. lol
That's even too good graphics. I just hope that in the future a lot of cruel games will be banned. I would not want my child playing something like CS or any other game where people must be killed with that kind of graphics. Let's see how everything will end up in ~10 years.
in 10 years they will replace real guns with paint ball guns in FPS.
Well, you just need to take better care of your children. Don't blame the games.
I'd play that!
That was @ thedesolate1.
Set us up the radio.
Maybe you don't understand the meaning of "more powerful than every generation of game console every brought to market combined."
See by including the word "generation" in there they didn't mean every console but rather every generation of console. So add Atari + Colecovision + NES + Sega Master System + so on and forth until Xbox 360 + Wii + PS3.
That looks like Dog from Half-Life 2.
Ergo,
Half-Life CGI movie confirmed!
Just what I thought! A teaser for Halflife 2 Episode 3 (Liverpool 2)
I don't think AMD means every single console ever made. They mean their GPU is more powerful than the cumulative power of one of every console ever created. 1 NES + 1SNES +...+1 Xbox 360+ 1PS3 < RV770. Don't know if that's actually true though.
Yeah, I've got to agree.Sounds to me like they're saying it's better than a 360 + PS3 + Xbox+ Wii + GCN + DC + PS2 + N64 and so on and so on. That sounds pretty doable if you ask me. Still, it'll be a cold day in hell when I buy an ATi card for gaming.
Why? Any worthwhile reason?
Oh so you'll be purchasing one this winter :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%2C_Norway
"Temperatures in Hell can reach -20°C during winter."
Why isn't this featured? This is going to change gaming forever. For. ever.
and ever
ever ever?
Yep - ever ever.
And yes, this should be featured IMO.
So this day is finally here? Wow.
But I can't afford a Mac Pro to use it. It will not make its way into iMac any time soon.
It probably won't be out for any Mac at this stage.
(This is coming from a Mac user myself: just saying that it's AMD/ATI and Apple uses Intel chipsets.)
Why the low rank? Phy is utterly right.
turn your pc into a hackintosh.
however, drivers won't be available for mac for the first 2 years or so.
final fantasy 8?
running away from a giant robotic spider.
Pikmin 2?
Running away from a giant robotic spider.