Thread: Xbox 720 capable of Avatar quality graphics? Unlikely…

While this mostly concerns character interaction and texturing, Neal Robinson the director of ISV relationships at AMD has stated that the upcoming Xbox 720 will feature graphics on par with James Cameron’s epic action movie Avatar in terms of graphical quality and capability. He discussed how the Xbox 720’s A.I. and physics would be so advanced that every character in an open world game like Grand Theft Auto would act independently. While this is definitely a plausible concept for next-gen hardware, it is not dependent upon the platform. The hardware a game is designed around only sets what limits the game can go to. The coding and development of a game are what determine how realistic A.I. and physics are, not the platform itself.

Right off the bat this sounds like nothing more than hype as the statistics are against them when you do the actual math. A current Unreal Engine 3 tech demo (no where near Avatar quality but one of the most widely used gaming engines today) can require up to three GeForce GTX 580 cards to run on maximum settings without any problems. A 580 costs about $450 right now and is about 10x more graphically powerful than a single 360 or PS3. Let’s not forget that you would also need a top of the line CPU with a monster power supply to run all of this hardware. This would cost thousands of dollars and you would still not get Avatar quality graphics from it. Now AMD is claiming they can accomplish this with a console that costs much less? Unless Microsoft is building a machine made to create profit loss, this is not true nor is it possible with an affordable console. Avatar was rendered on computers that vastly exceed the capabilities of the average consumer PC or console and it did so over the course of a long time involving a lot of work. This kind of workload cannot be squashed down into a simple rendering process done instantly by a console unless that console contained hardware which costs thousands of dollars. This is obviously not in the range of the average consumer; especially not console gamers.

All consoles have marketing hype surrounding them and Microsoft has quite the history of creating hype that draws in consumers who are uninformed. The Xbox 720 will indeed be a powerful machine when it is unveiled at next years E3 but consoles have a ways to go before they can start touting Avatar quality graphics.

AMD: Xbox 720 to Have Avatar-level Graphics

-Jesse Leigh aka OmarFW via Gamer MC

Well, it can be or it cannot be. I mean, it depends how long will they work on console and when it will be released.

If consoles could be capable of this, i wonder how the PC would be doing.

Originally Posted by germs

If consoles could be capable of this, i wonder how the PC would be doing.

PCs will be capable of this long before consoles are. Having a graphical advantage doesn't mean consoles would finally defeat PCs anyway. PCs still have a much more flexible control interface which allows for some types of games that consoles can't play.

Yes. I think that pc can handle more complex games then any console.

Dammit i want Avatar quality graphics!

Originally Posted by OmarFW

PCs will be capable of this long before consoles are. Having a graphical advantage doesn't mean consoles would finally defeat PCs anyway. PCs still have a much more flexible control interface which allows for some types of games that consoles can't play.

And yeah, computers rock the console.

This would be really cool if this happens. I think it is very possible as well.

Eventually all consoles will have avatar quality graphics, films will be further ahead than that. PC's pretty much will always be superior to consoles graphically, as consoles are technically instantly technologically inferior to PC's as soon as they are released, as you can always upgrade a PC with the newest hardware however you are stuck with whatever the consoles company has given you.

PC is and allways will be superior in terms of quality, controlls and graphics over consoles. Consoles are still more suitable for anyone who wants to focus only on gaming. Cheaper too.

I agree. PC can be really better for gaming, but you have other options beside that.