News - Microsoft’s E3 Xbox One demos ran on Nvidia powered PCs

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Company used Hewlett Packard PCs with Windows 7 and Nvidia’s GTX 700 series GPUs.

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So... won't need to pickup a Xbox One, just play the games on Windows 7 ;)

So this is an example of the "next generation" running on the current PC gaming generation?

I don't mean to sound elitist! It means that I might not have to upgrade... Which is is always a good thing!

They needed hardware to develop the new games for the xbox one before it was even announced, plus the both run on X86 and DX11 so it was probably just being emulated on the computers

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It has emerged that Microsoft used Hewlett Packard made PCs equipped with Nvidia GTX 700 series graphics cards to demonstrate Xbox One titles at E3 last week. ... Windows 7 desktop. ... Meanwhile at the E3 show, many Sony PlayStation 4 games were definitely running on PS4 “dev hardware” - the same as the final shipping console but in a utilitarian box.

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So surely Sony are being a lot more honest - especially as I was under the impression that a GTX700 is a better spec than what the XBone will ship with? (Prepared to be corrected on that last point).

PS4 is looking better and better imho, at the expense of the XBone.

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Further fun is poked at Microsoft in the Gaming Blend article as these PCs running Xbox One demos weren’t even using the Windows 8 OS, which is supposed to be partly what the Xbox One’s OS is based upon.

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So Microsoft won't "eat their own dog food" - are they saying that Windows7 is a better gamers desktop than '8? rofl

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Originally Posted by Dooms

So... won't need to pickup a Xbox One, just play the games on Windows 7 ;)

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Quite. Sounds like good advice Mr Microsoft. :D

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Whether an HP gaming PC running Windows 7 and packing an Nvidia GTX 700 series GPU is comparable to the Xbox One console is debatable.

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Hey, it's an x86 box with DX11 gpu part!

lets not forget the PS4 freezing and crashing issues as well....

I wonder if both are having teething issues with chip fab'ing?

It is amazing how this has become a news story.

The 'dev kits' for the xbox have always been made with off the shelf PC components, this isn't new. As for it *not being windows 8* well good lord, do they know the version of the kernel its running? No, they just looked at explorer and said it's 7, it's 7!

These alpha grade demos are always unstable, and normally not remotely representative of what will ship. The Drakes Fortune bus video trailing being a brilliant example. In the demo it looked amazing graphically. In reality it was rather poor.

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Originally Posted by crossy

... I was under the impression that a GTX700 is a better spec than what the XBone will ship with?

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Depends which GTX700-series card it is: if it's the GTX780 then yes, it's got a lot more raw oomph. If it's a GT740 it's got a lot less. Plus if it has to run a load of Windows bloat and abstraction layers, you need more powerful hardware than when you're running on a bare-metal console OS.

I guess the only real surprise is that it was running nvidia, not AMD. Got to wonder what the red team will make of that... :O_o1:

This is the funniest thing I have read today.
Microsoft using PC's and emulators to showcase XBOX ONE and then using an nvidia graphics card :D

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

Depends which GTX700-series card it is: if it's the GTX780 then yes, it's got a lot more raw oomph. If it's a GT740 it's got a lot less. Plus if it has to run a load of Windows bloat and abstraction layers, you need more powerful hardware than when you're running on a bare-metal console OS.

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Thanks for this - yep that makes sense.
Windows - bloat? Shurely not? LOL Linux-based prejudices aside, I know what you're getting at.

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

I guess the only real surprise is that it was running nvidia, not AMD. Got to wonder what the red team will make of that... :O_o1:

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Seems strange - after all it's not as if HP don't do machines with 7900 series cards. If the production XBone's are red team powered then not using the same family of graphics cards in the "development" machines seems a little perverse.

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

It is amazing how this has become a news story. The 'dev kits' for the xbox have always been made with off the shelf PC components, this isn't new. As for it *not being windows 8* well good lord, do they know the version of the kernel its running? No, they just looked at explorer and said it's 7, it's 7!

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The "story" is noteworthy for two aspects. Aspect 1 being that Sony appears to be able to put some "representative" hardware at E3, whereas Microsoft had to make do with a "parts bin special" (yes, I'm being unfair in that assessment). Aspect 2 is that the aforementioned "parts bin special" chose to use a competing graphics product.

Wrt that second bit, I'm not going to go to the panic that some have - saying that it's indicative that Microsoft are having second thoughts about the AMD parts they chose. You know what the 'net rumour/gossip mill is like!

I did write a full post on this, but may have accidentally hit cancel, so here's the condensed version:

This is not a Microsoft booth - this is a booth for Twisted Pixel Games
Michael Wilford (mrwilford on Twitter) took credit for using PCs.
Microsoft was not involved in the decision at any stage.
This "revelation" came out on the 14th.

While I disagree with the decision to go PC at an Xbox stand, it's not MS to blame here. Put your pitchforks away and actually research your news stories, guys. 3 days after the issue has been resolved, this just comes across as clickbait.

they should just release all their games on PC

As far as Microsoft are concerned the games require DX11 and the frameworks not AMD or NVidia hardware, it's rather like saying "ooooh you demoed your new x86-64 app using Intel chips when the final device will use AMD" - i.e. the two should be 100% interoperable and it shouldn't matter, the choice of AMD for final hardware was cost and integration motivated.

The PCs they used are obviously designed to showcase how XBox One *will* look to the end user and currently the unoptimised code on prototype hardware probably doesn't, they needed something more powerful... so they took the most powerful they could get, PCs are flexible and modular so it's easier to set something up. Putting it in a custom case and calling it a prototype doesn't make much difference.

Also many of these games will get PC ports and they want them to look their best... nobody wants to be "the game from E3 that looked crap" so they have to keep up with the joneses...

Didn't they say a while ago that the Xbox Live environment was going to run all their games on both Xbox and PC? I'm sure there was talk of one game being able to run on either Xbox or PC. One big happy family.

I agree with most people here. This isn't even really newsworthy imo. It's like really? You're saying they used an x86/dx11 platform to emulate another x86/dx11 platform?? Wow! Amazing! I mean come on, it's not like they had a choice. The hardware for the console hasn't even been finalized yet, and they had to develop the games somehow. We're no where near the release date yet, and if you're smart, you'll wait at least a couple weeks after launch before making a decision anyway.

It's obviously become a "story" on the back of all the (justified) negative reactions to the XBO on the internet - and I am sure we'll see many more stories around the net that are just as anti Microsoft over the next few months until public opinion changes (if it ever does).

Personally I don't see a real problem here, nothing of note really.