Microsoft's Xbox 360 Versus Sony's Playstation 3
The New Age Battle of the Titans
It's hard to say which system is ultimately better, this being that the battle does not lie on system strength alone. Gaming lineups, versatility, and ease of use are three other major factors in the success of any gaming system. However, for purposes of comparison, we are just going to look at each machines stats side by side.
First we'll start with the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of both systems. Xbox 360's CPU has more general purpose processing power because it has three general purpose cores, and PS3's "Cell" has only one. However, the Playstation 3's claimed advantage is on it's streaming floating point work which is done on it's seven DSP processors. Overall though, the Xbox 360 has more processing power, and has memory bandwidth which is five times that of the Playstation 3.
Also of interest, the Xbox 360's general purpose CPU allows for more ease and versatility in game creation. The Playstation 3, which is relying on streaming floating point work, which is generally useless in game development. Games must access the memory of the system at random times and depend almost entirely on integer and vector math. Floating-point math work is done in game creation, but account for at maximum about thirty percent of the overall game code. The Playstation 3 has devoted almost 87% of it's processing power to this floating-point math, which makes it extremely difficult for developers to produce games for it. Xbox 360 has the clear advantage in the versatility of game development. Game developers do not want to spread their code over eight processors, especially when seven of them are poorly suited for general purpose programming.
Another large area of gaming performance is bandwidth. The Playstation 3 clocks it's memory bandwidth in at around 48 GB/s, while the Xbox 360 clocks in a huge 278.4 GB/s. Why does the Xbox 360 have such an extreme amount of memory bandwidth? It's because even at the simplest of calculations a large amound of bandwidth must be used as a frame buffer, coming in at about 50 to 60 GB/s. Playstation 3 doesn't have enough to cover that, and uses Z and color compression to make up for the lack thereof. The problem with this is that the Z and color compression breaks down quickly when rendering next generation 3D scenes.
In conclusion, the Xbox 360 has worlds more processing power and memory bandwidth, which are key ingredients in providing a well-balanced gaming experience. The Playstation 3 is a strong system, but alot of the power is focused in the wrong places, such as the floating point DSP's, and the integration of the new Blu-Ray drive. While these are both impressive features, they only clutter a machine that is meant for next generation gaming. The Xbox 360 is the obvious winner when it comes to pure system power.
Published by Adam Tapley
Adam was born and bred in Georgia. Originally from a Southern Georgia town called Dublin, Adam is steeped in a blend of strange Southeastern folklore and a pseudo-liberal political mindset. View profile
- Why Sony is Surpassing Nintendo in Game Development?Sony quietly built the largest first-party development core in the industry, even bigger than Nintendo. As a result,their games are quickly rising to the top.
- Indie Game Development Tips: Deadline it or Deadlist ItMake your game ideas virtual reality by setting goals and prioritizing.
- A Guide to Video Game DevelopmentCreating Games takes time and determination. This article should assist you in the development process.
Microsoft Unlocks Game Development and Encourages Everyone to "Dream-Bui...Microsoft challenges developers to bring ideas to life on the Xbox 360 and Windows platforms.- Computer Game Development: Becoming a ProgrammerAn overview of the skills and requirements to become a computer programmer
- Playstation 3 Versus Xbox 360
- Games with a Woman's Touch: Women in Video Game Development.
- Top 10 AC Review Articles of 2006
- Building a Video Game Development Team - Part One
- Microsoft Announces Xbox 360 Arcade
- Introduction to a Game Development Career
- Borderlands is an Epic Step Forward in Video Game Development
- The Xbox 360 has five times the memory bandwidth of the Playstation 3.
- The Xbox 360 has more processing power than the Playstation 3.
33 Comments
Post a Commentps3 bah on yer bike
that was one of the most rediculous and ignorant essays i have ever read. this guy clearly has no knowledge of computers.
first off japan made the ps3 and japanese people aren't stupid with there system's actually we get most of what we have from japan and china and there tech isn't crap streaming floating point work makes up for more than the xbox 360 has to offer i have both system's i play xbox when i want halo that's it other than that it stays hidden on my shelf i use the ps3 for 8 of my ps3 games and for 127 of my ps2 games also back to the tech xbox has 3 core processors and the ps3 has one cell and seven dsp processors also internet for everything you could possibly want and when i need to get something like an essay printed i use my ps3 my xbox cant do that actually my xbox cant even to half of what my ps3 does o did i also mention i dont half to buy a seperate dvd player and it's also a billion times quiter and did you also know xbox has been out for a year and a half and they have used 96.7 percent of what the system can dish out when ps3 has not even used 10 o did you also know all the games f
omfg how can u lot say that the ps3 is beta da graphics r crap nd it looks like a flippin whale the xbox 360 is 10 tyms beta den ne playstation will eva b nd u all no it XBOX 360 ALL DA WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FUCKIN RETARDS
xbox360 is no match for ps3 in any case
to windows 95+ apple and linux arn't new companies. and if people began switching the hackers and virus makers will switch to were the market for infection is the biggest. and right now its microseft.
"And people would probibly have jobs without microsoft cause other software makers could've replaced them, and make stuff that won't get viruses or have pop up advertisments and spam in the process. I do know something about MS, people only have it cause it's the only thing availble and all of the crap in windows 95+ would've turned people away if there was an alternative."
thats a funny statement. the reason microsoft gets viruses and add pop ups is because its the most popular. not because the people working on it dont know what they are doing. there fighting a never ending war on people who want to screw with them. and the losers are us. if Apple was as popular as microsoft they would have the same problems, Same with linux or any other company microsoft does its best to stop pop ups and viruses but what are they to do when 1000 chiniese computer wizzes sit down and spend day and night trying to get around it for fun then sell off there work? and there have been alternatives to 9
X-BOX 36o , i can't say that it stinks but it is no match for the mighty PS3
X-BOX 36o , i can't say that it stinks but it is no match for the mighty PS3
this site under-estimates the PS3 and praises the X-BOX 360 , which is unfair in the comparison between them , the PS3 will break every thing it just needs time.