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Whenever a new cabinet or piece of tech is announced in gaming , there are a lot of technological term that get thrown around with little to no account of what they actually stand for .
Chief among those in late years isTeraflops , a term that continuously appears , trying to highlight the exponent of new console , like the Xbox One X and now theXbox Series X. But the head is , what actually are trillion floating point operations per second ?
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The answer can get a bit expert , but there are still some basics to infer . It ’s also significant to realise the implications this technical term has for next - gen , as it ’s something consumers will hear more and more of .
Floating Point Operations and What Teraflops Measure
In simple term , Teraflops , or TFLOPS , are numerical equation that quantify computing top executive . FLOPS stands for float - Point Operations Per Second . float Point Operations are the calculations a computer needs to do during a certain task , like draw in polygonal shape for graphics . FLOPS match to the number of calculations involve float - point numbers a computer can do in a 2d , and as you might await a high number of FLOPS means more computation tycoon .
Just like other unit of measurement , such as byte for data , flop have multiple unit ; kiloFLOPS , megaFLOPS , gigaFLOPS , teraFLOPS , etc . So with that , a Teraflop means one trillion calculations per second . Keep in brain this is different from something like GHz ( Gigahertz ) , which valuate a central processor ’s clock speed . Instead , FLOPS is more about the calculation that a processor can handle . Obviously , that all still sounds a number complex , but just keep in mind that teraflop corresponds to the computer science power of a figurer or system , but it does n’t necessarily mean that something is going to be all - powerful .
What Do Teraflops Mean For Next-Gen?
In the most basic sense , yes , higher Teraflops do intend that game on next - gen console will have good graphics and performance , but it does n’t vouch it . Microsoftannouncedthat the Xbox Series X has 12 Teraflops , double the six that the Xbox One X has . By comparison , the original Xbox One had 1.3 Teraflops , while the PS4 Pro has 4.2 . That does n’t mean the Series X is necessarily double as powerful , though , as more factors go into it . The scheme ’s core speed and processer bod will also factor in into everything .
In unforesightful , Teraflops is n’t something consumer will ask to recollect about when jump to next - gen consoles . Yes , it ’s a sizable improvement , but it ’s not an ultimate mensuration of a newfangled system . Companies care to throw around trillion floating point operations per second as a terminus , but consumer do n’t postulate to think about the specification . HigherTeraflopswill facilitate next - gen games as they hear to use complex systems like Ray Tracing , and the numbers do indeed show that the Xbox Series X , and most likely thePS5 , will be quite a bit more powerful than the current - gen system .
There are a flock of factors pass into the Xbox Series X and PS5 , and trillion floating point operations per second is just a small composition of the overall mystifier .
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