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PlayStation 3 Vs Xbox 360 |
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At E3 2005 Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo showed plans for their next-generation video-game consoles, setting the stage for the competition to take place over the rest of the decade reports Seattle Pi. Microsoft and Sony unveiled Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on Monday respectively and Nintendo showed off Revolution the next day.
Sony believes PlayStation 3's advanced technology would outweigh its rival's early start with its Xbox 360. Microsoft believes that timing will be a key factor in the Xbox 360's success. Microsoft is launching its next-generation Xbox 360 console ahead of the 2005 holiday season, ahead of Sony's planned launch of its PlayStation 3 in Spring 2006. The company also believes its stronger relationships with the industry's top game publishers will be another Key factor.
Rant. Aesthetics are pretty big for me, I would say based on looks, I would go with Nintendo's Revolution (pictured)... end rant
XBOX 360 / PLAYSTATION 3 PERFORMANCE COMPARISON IGN
"Now that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 specifications have been announced, it is possible to do a real world performance comparison of the two systems. When you break down the numbers, Xbox 360 has probably more performance than PS3. Keep in mind that Sony has a track record of over promising and under delivering on technical performance. The truth is that both systems pack a lot of power for high definition games and entertainment. "
There are three critical performance aspects of a console:
Central Processing Unit (CPU) performance.
The Xbox 360 CPU architecture has three times the general purpose processing power of the Cell. (The Xbox 360's CPU has more general purpose processing power because it has three general purpose cores, and Cell has just one.)
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) performance
The Xbox 360 GPU design is more flexible and it has more processing power than the PS3 GPU.
Memory System Bandwidth
The memory system bandwidth in Xbox 360 exceeds the PS3's by five times.
PS3's Cell claimed advantage is on streaming floating point work which is done on its seven DSP processors.
Xbox 360 has 278.4 GB/s of memory system bandwidth. The PS3 has less than one-fifth of Xbox 360's (48 GB/s) of total memory system bandwidth.
CELL BIT ( Thanks Brian ) - There is no doubt Sony may be over hyping the Cell but the technology is real and has been knocked about for over 15 years now (SUN's MAJC etc). At last someone has got it to work and to work well by the looks of it. The Cell in question is not just the hardware but the way the software is packaged to be delivered to any free processor that can take it i.e. in a cell - the main 3.2GHz Power PC is just the cell dispatcher in the PS3 - think of it like TCP on a network sending out packets.
On standard multi-threaded systems (XBOX 360) for full use of the system you need 6 (3x2 dual threads) separate processes/threads to be running full on but in games only one is usually applied to it's full use with minor work going on by maybe 2 or 3 others (network play etc) so the XBOX 360 is going to behave more like a fast 3.2GHz PC than a 9.6GHz one. The Cell's use of memory is also very far advanced of the standard systems due to it's use of small very fast blocks for each hardware cell and no caching.
The view of the industry is that the Cell technology will be very quickly copied by other namely Intel as the whole industry has now basically decided this is the way to go - what you have to understand is that modern processors are way over powered for general tasks and the only thing that slows your PC down is it's need to do massive SIMD operations which the Cell is unbelievably good at.
update - CELL BITS
This is the simplest article on the Cell and how the idea works...
It's not the most official but it's the best explained.
More detailed and more realistic about Cell's uses ...
Video game wars: Playstation 3 vs. Xbox 360
Sony had acheived what it had set out do at E3 - make the Xbox 360 look like a minor leap in graphics technology. An unfair plight being that the company only displayed demos and not real software. But with the reputation of the Playstation and Playstation 2 behind it, we can believe that the company will render its promises into reality.
Pictures
Xbox 360
Sony PlayStation 3
Scroll down for comparison chart by gamespot .
Compare: |
Product Name |
Sony PlayStation 3 |
Microsoft Xbox 360 |
Release Date |
2006 |
Q4 2005 |
Controller |
Bluetooth Wireless |
2.4 GHz Wireless |
Graphics Core Clock Speed |
550 MHz |
500MHz |
Graphics Processor |
RSX "Reality Synthesizer" |
Custom ATI Processor |
System Memory |
256 MB XDR |
512 MB UMA (Shared with GPU) |
Video Memory |
256 MB |
512 MB UMA (Shared with CPU) |
Embedded Video Memory |
n/a |
10MB eDRAM |
Resolution |
480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p |
480p, 480i, 720p, 1080i |
Controller Ports |
Supports up to 7 Bluetooth Controllers |
Supports up to 4 Controllers |
Digital Media Formats |
Compatible with CR-ROM, CDR+W, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R |
DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R,
CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD |
Game Media Format |
Blu-ray BD-ROM |
Dual-Layer DVD-ROM |
Integrated Communications |
802.11 B/G Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 |
802.11 A/B/G Wi-Fi ready, adapter not included |
Other I/O Connectors |
Ethernet (RJ45), 6 USB 2.0, CF Slot (Type I, II), SD Slot
(Regular, Compact), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, 1 x Optical Audio |
3 USB 2.0, 2 Memory Slots, Ethernet Port (RJ45) |
Plug and Play Storage |
2.5in Removable Hard Drive (Unkown Size) |
20GB Removable Hard Drive |
Standard AV Output Connectors |
2 x HDMI, 1 x AV |
n/a |
L2 Cache |
512KB L2 cache, 256KB per SPE |
1MB |
Processor |
Cell Processor |
Custom IBM PowerPC CPU |
Processor Clock Speed |
3.2 GHz |
3.2 GHz |
Built-in Features |
Backward Compatible with PlayStation 2, Stands Vertically
or Horizontally |
Backward Compatible with Xbox (limited), Stands Vertically
or Horizontally, Interchangable Face Plates, Xbox Live Service, Media Center
Extender |
Memory Bandwidth |
25.6 GB/s main memory bandwidth, 22.4 GB/s video memory bandwidth |
22.4 GB/s main memory bandwidth, 256 GB/s to eDRAM, 21.6
GB/s FSB |
Surround Sound |
Multichannel Output (software driven) |
Multichannel Output (software driven) |
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