Xbox 360 reported more powerful than PS3

LOBO2999

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Apr 1, 2004
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Cumming, GA
PS3 vs 360… 360 vs PS3… is a very touchy subject as everyone is aware I’m sure. Before this article gets underway its important that everyone keep in mind that neither of these 2 consoles is weak by any stroke of the imagination. Both are very powerful and significant upgrades over their current generation counterparts such as the PS2 or Xbox and as always it’s about the games. What it TRULY boils down to for the vast majority of people out there is that they don’t care about the specs of a console. All most people care about is “How good are the games available for it?” So I want it to be understood immediately that by no means is this article meant to be some sort of indication of which of the two consoles will end up coming out on top. Nor is this article meant to, in any shape or form, change anyone’s mind about which console they decide to purchase. This is simply an article intended to inform people about both machines and in doing so there will of course be comparisons between the 2 machines, but they will be facts. With all of that said lets get down to business shall we?

PS3 CPU & 360 CPU

Let us start off by just showing what Microsoft and Sony released to the public in regards to the cpus in both their machines. Many press releases in many different formats and or styles, but this is the gist of it.

360 Central processing unit (aka Xenon)

90 nm process, 165 million transistors (65 nm process SOI revision in 2007)
Three symmetrical cores, each one SMT-capable and clocked at 3.2 GHz
One VMX-128 SIMD unit per core, dual threaded.
128×128 register file for each hardware thread, 2 sets per VMX unit
1 MB L2 cache (lockable by the GPU)
Dot product performance: 9.6 billion per second (33.6 billion combined with GPU)
115 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance
ROM storing Microsoft private encrypted keys
360 CPU information provided by Microsoft

PlayStation 3 Central-processing unit (aka Cell Broadband Engine)

PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
Dot product performance 22.4 billion (51 billion combined with GPU)
1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
Total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS
PS3 CPU information provided by Sony

Now before I get into it I’d like to point out that while both consoles have powerful CPUs both Sony and Microsoft have played a dirty little numbers game with everyone… numbers that can easily be misinterpreted by most people to mean “The one with the highest numbers must be the better of the 2” and that isn’t how it works at all (atleast not all the time and here is the kicker both Sony and Microsoft want you to misinterpret the numbers).

Why isn’t a “higher is better” mentality always a safe bet? Simple really, one has to take into consideration important things like the architecture. To only concentrate on the raw numbers without understanding the specifics of how it operates can lead to mistakes like this example here “Midway has a car that can reach a top speed of 180MPH and Australia has a car that can reach a top speed of 90MPH.” Someone only looking at the raw numbers may assume “This is far too easy clearly Midway is going to win because his car goes up to 180MPH” Now did anyone stop to consider the fact that maybe Australia is not only the better driver of the 2, but his car has quicker acceleration plus better braking and the road they’ll be racing on is dripping wet and packed full of sharp turns which may prevent the more inexperienced driver from banking on all that raw speed?

Not the best of analogies, but this will teach everyone to be cautious when they see either side throwing around their Megahertz, dot products and GFLOPS. I’m not saying the numbers are 100% meaningless as there are numbers that are actually trustworthy, but its getting you all ready for what I’m about to tell you.

More here http://dpad.gotfrag.com/portal/story/35372/?spage=2
 
But..but.. 360 had a year head start! Yea thats it! Sony stopped testing and writing the software until it was ready to release.:hatsoff: Good article the both are fun to play with.
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I have read this article and on the face of it the XBOX360 seems to come out on top of the PS3 . However, the PS3 Cell CPU seems to be misrepresented. Those 7 SPREs with 256K each (That's 1.75 mb total) can operate independantly of each other and of the CPU. Also the PS3 supports seperate gates for both the CPU and the GPU while the XBOX360 has only one. If you don't think that this affects the program running thru the system then why the claims of the PS3 being hard to program for?

I hear that the XBOX360 has 512kb of ram but so does the PS3. The ram is split evenly between the CPU (256k) and the GPU (256k) and both the CPU and the GPU can access each others ram and they have their own gates. On the 360 the CPU cores share memory and the CPPU and GPU share the one gate. Now what does this exactly mean? Well one thing is that the PS3 has more bandwith then the XBOX360. That is not debateable and anyone with a high powered PC understands what more bandwith means -- right?

Well, the article is very well written from the 360's point of view. Whats that you say? I will explain, simply the CELL makes the PS3 differant than the 360 interms of how it processes information. A good example brought up is out-of-branch instructions -- on the 360 you can do that but on the CELL you cannot. Right now everyone does the out-of-branch and assumes that is the only way to program. So programming for the PS3 becomes harder immeadiately because to do the same thing on the PS3 you need to plan those instructions in-order. The 360 with its internal structure being the same as a PC can easily be programed by any PC programmer. But to me that also means nothing can be done on the 360 that cannot be done on my PC (and better on my PC). Can we say the same thing about the PS3? Right now who knows?

Does this make the PS3 harder to program then the XBOX360 -- YES! Does this mean that the PS3 cannot do things that the XBOX360 does -- NO! And here is where the DOOM & GLOOM of such postings begin.

One tech article praises the 360 and its GPU (rightly so -- without that GPU the 360 would be lame!). Another article praises the CELL and future capabilities (Without which the PS3 would be lame). Both systems have their plus and both have their weaknesses. I have a prediction based on history.

When the PS2 came out every programmer griped about how hard it was to program for. Still, 100 million units and some great gaming came out and blew away the competition. Along comes the XBOX -- alot easier to program for with some new twists for a console (hard drive and online service to name a few) and a year after lauch --- BAMMM -- HALO strikes. Made me buy an XBOX and most of you. Someone bookmark this, in a year I predict a game will come out on the PS3 that does things never done in a console before -- and it will make everyone want one - especially if the price of the system comes down.

Bottom line, I expect that there will be some great games -- especially visually -- for the 360 over the next year. Programmers really start to tweak a systems abilities after that first year. And by next Christmas the PS3 will have some great games rolling out with some great physics and visuals. Those who have both systems will really be having a great time. And I for one will be one of those. :)
 
I hope you are right and the PS3 has GOOD games coming out! I will be waiting.

Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy Versus 13, Metal Gear Solid 4, GTA 4, Assassin's Creed, Gran Turismo 5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, God of War 3, Tekken 6, new Driver, White Knight Story, Virtua Fighter 5, new Spyro, new Dragon Quest, new Kingdom Hearts, The Getaway, new Jak and Daxter, new Ratchet and Clank, new Ace Combat, Devil May Cry 4, new SOCOM, new Onimusha, new Crash Nitro Kart, new Soul Calibur, Resistance 2, Lair, Warhawk, MotorStorm, Ridge Racer 7, Killzone2, Heavenly Sword, Unreal Tournament 2007, Afrika, Alone in the Dark, Eight Days, Untitled Naughty Dog Game, L.A. Noire, Lemmings, Winning Eleven 2007, possible Final Fantasy VII remake, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tomb Raider 8 (working title), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road, Virtua Tennis 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, F.E.A.R., Major League Baseball 2K7-2k8, Madden 08, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Golden Axe, Turok, Black (working title), Burnout 5, BioShock, Sega Rally Revo, Endless Saga, King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 3....and much more.

http://ps3.ign.com/index/release.html
 
Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy Versus 13, Metal Gear Solid 4, GTA 4, Assassin's Creed, Gran Turismo 5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, God of War 3, Tekken 6, new Driver, White Knight Story, Virtua Fighter 5, new Spyro, new Dragon Quest, new Kingdom Hearts, The Getaway, new Jak and Daxter, new Ratchet and Clank, new Ace Combat, Devil May Cry 4, new SOCOM, new Onimusha, new Crash Nitro Kart, new Soul Calibur, Resistance 2, Lair, Warhawk, MotorStorm, Ridge Racer 7, Killzone2, Heavenly Sword, Unreal Tournament 2007, Afrika, Alone in the Dark, Eight Days, Untitled Naughty Dog Game, L.A. Noire, Lemmings, Winning Eleven 2007, possible Final Fantasy VII remake, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tomb Raider 8 (working title), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road, Virtua Tennis 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, F.E.A.R., Major League Baseball 2K7-2k8, Madden 08, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Golden Axe, Turok, Black (working title), Burnout 5, BioShock, Sega Rally Revo, Endless Saga, King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 3....and much more.

http://ps3.ign.com/index/release.html


Yea Looks like i will STILL be waiting!:( I am really shocked these are not out yet! Delay the PS3 for eight months and still only a few games? Why did programers just stop?
 
Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy Versus 13, Metal Gear Solid 4, GTA 4, Assassin's Creed, Gran Turismo 5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, God of War 3, Tekken 6, new Driver, White Knight Story, Virtua Fighter 5, new Spyro, new Dragon Quest, new Kingdom Hearts, The Getaway, new Jak and Daxter, new Ratchet and Clank, new Ace Combat, Devil May Cry 4, new SOCOM, new Onimusha, new Crash Nitro Kart, new Soul Calibur, Resistance 2, Lair, Warhawk, MotorStorm, Ridge Racer 7, Killzone2, Heavenly Sword, Unreal Tournament 2007, Afrika, Alone in the Dark, Eight Days, Untitled Naughty Dog Game, L.A. Noire, Lemmings, Winning Eleven 2007, possible Final Fantasy VII remake, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tomb Raider 8 (working title), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road, Virtua Tennis 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, F.E.A.R., Major League Baseball 2K7-2k8, Madden 08, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Golden Axe, Turok, Black (working title), Burnout 5, BioShock, Sega Rally Revo, Endless Saga, King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 3....and much more.

http://ps3.ign.com/index/release.html

Khm, he said GOOD, not all kind of crap...
 
T2k, Do you game? I mean seriously, you do not see some great games in that list by ShinNYC?
 
T2k, Do you game? I mean seriously, you do not see some great games in that list by ShinNYC?

Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy Versus 13, Metal Gear Solid 4, GTA 4, Assassin's Creed, Gran Turismo 5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, God of War 3, Silent Hill 5, Tekken 6, new Driver, White Knight Story, Resident Evil 5, Virtua Fighter 5, new Spyro, new Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts III, The Getaway 3, new Jak and Daxter,new Ratchet and Clank, new Ace Combat, Devil May Cry 4, new SOCOM, new Onimusha, new Soul Calibur, Resistance 2, Lair, Warhawk, MotorStorm, Killzone2, Heavenly Sword, Unreal Tournament 2007.

Most of these games are from franchises that sold 2million + in the US alone.
I don't think he knows a lot about console games tbh.
 
sequel, sequel, sequel, sequel, sequel, sequel, sequel, sequel, sequel,,,,

Well those are the very known games, give it a year and we'll see some Resistances, Heavenly Swords, assassin's creeds,...etc. You have so far:

- Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War
- Lair
- Heavenly Sword
- Warhawk
- Fatal Inertia
- Bigs, The
- Assassin's Creed
- Army of Two
- Area 52
- Lost
- WarDevil
- Eight Days
- L.A. Noire
- Rockstar Old West PS3 Project
- Heavy Rain
- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

And much more not announced yet.
 
And because HALO 3 is a sequel you are not going to buy and play?
 
And you don't believe that there will be several sequels on the XBOX360? If a game sells extreemly well you will see sequels. That is how money is made in the software business. There were several titles on the XBOX that you are just now seeing the sequel on the 360.

Just so happens that the PS2 had a great many hits and so you will see alot of movement over to the PS3. Nothing wrong with that as there are alot of games people are looking forward to seeing on the PS3. Sony's console business is extreemly mature when compared to the XBOX. M$ did a good job with the XBOX360 and I believe you will start to see some really nice sequels -- once again anyone here for a game of HALO3?
 
Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy Versus 13, Metal Gear Solid 4, GTA 4, Assassin's Creed, Gran Turismo 5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, God of War 3, Silent Hill 5, Tekken 6, new Driver, White Knight Story, Resident Evil 5, Virtua Fighter 5, new Spyro, new Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts III, The Getaway 3, new Jak and Daxter,new Ratchet and Clank, new Ace Combat, Devil May Cry 4, new SOCOM, new Onimusha, new Soul Calibur, Resistance 2, Lair, Warhawk, MotorStorm, Killzone2, Heavenly Sword, Unreal Tournament 2007.

Most of these games are from franchises that sold 2million + in the US alone.
I don't think he knows a lot about console games tbh.

This kind of idiocy is pretty virulent in the US, not only in console "gaming expert circles" (ROFL) but just about everything - selling a lot doesn't make something good.
I know some of you will have hard time to grasp the idea but it's a subjective term - or you think one billion flies can't be wrong when they eat sh*t?
 
I'm only looking forward to MGS4, RE5, FF13, GTA4 and Assassin's Creed. And only the PS3 will gave me the chance to play all of them.
 

SCORE BABY!! PS3 & 10% off to boot!

Xbox 360 dashboard update now

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