It looks like Microsoft has released a comparison article about the Xbox 360 and PS3 specs and how they compare. While I doubt that any AnandTech reader would even begin to take a Microsoft-authored article about Xbox 360 to be unbiased, I have received a number of emails asking me to analyze the comparison and provide some direction as to what is real and what isn't.
I've spent a good portion of this weekend doing just that, and I'm hoping to start publishing my findings either here as blog entries or as a series of Insider Stories on the front page beginning tomorrow.
If you have any specific questions about the analysis done by Microsoft (you can read it here) or any other spec-related questions, post them here and I'll try my best to address them in the article.
Take care.
I've spent a good portion of this weekend doing just that, and I'm hoping to start publishing my findings either here as blog entries or as a series of Insider Stories on the front page beginning tomorrow.
If you have any specific questions about the analysis done by Microsoft (you can read it here) or any other spec-related questions, post them here and I'll try my best to address them in the article.
Take care.
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a sad pc user..... - Thursday, June 23, 2005 - link
sometimes i really wonder about if it is worth it to customize a gamer cpu, seeing that all of the ps3s stats. why is it sooooo cheap to have an 8 core cell cpu, but it costs 1001 dollars to buy a top of the line 2 core?Anonymous - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link
"MS is talking in nebulous terms about "general purpose" processing - but what exactly does that break down to? Game logic? Do we really need 3 cores for just game logic? I guess I'm wondering - who's right about what types of processing need optimising?"And this, folks, is what is going to determine the victor of the next-gen console wars, IMHO. With CELL, you no longer have to hire artists to animate scenes: just physically simulate them. Programmers are cheap, artists aren't.
MDme - Friday, May 27, 2005 - link
I will eagerly await your article on this Anand. All this marketing hype is not good. people are misled and the developers themselves can not be trusted as they are all on the payroll of sony and MS.i personally do not like the fabled sony strategy of using pre-rendered "done to spec" demos + throwing of incredible numbers by sony to "fool" people. don't forget the Emotion Engine. If you carefully look at the sony numbers, they speak in terms of teraflops, gigaflops, etc..etc.. numbers which really mean little to gamers esp if the numbers are theoretical maximum assuming the massive parallel architecture of the cell is achieved.
the analysis of MS was i think a reaction in an attempt to fight marketing/tech jargon with their own jargon as well.
So knowledgeable people like you, Anand can make a difference. Please make it soon.
Brad Grenz - Friday, May 27, 2005 - link
"I wanna know if the R500 really has 48 pipelines becuase that way more than what ATi puts on their GPUs for computers and thats their big seller."48 shader units. The part actually only produces 8 pixels per clock. The unified shader architecture is so different you can't really quantify it using current parlance.
gert - Friday, May 27, 2005 - link
"Where is the skepticism of Sony's numbers? Everyone speaks of them as gold..."I disagree; most people are very skeptical of everything said by either Sony or Microsoft. The articles on this site very clearly state skepticism on both sides.
There is a huge amount of "fanboy" noise; but isn't there always?
IGotItFree - Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - link
I wanna know if the R500 really has 48 pipelines becuase that way more than what ATi puts on their GPUs for computers and thats their big seller.Knitecrow - Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - link
A 221mm^2 die? Better yeilds without a doubt.I wouldn't be surprised if they disabled some of the piplelines in the 300 Million transistor GPU to improve yields there as well.
clauzii - Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - link
Remember, in the PS is @ 3.2GHz, and one SPE is disabled, so it would be around 50 Watts, still a lot but easier to cool.BTW: I would like to know if the 8th SPE is disabled merely as a product of better yield or for redundancy as some sites states??
´Caus if it´s redundancy it is something quite new in a console´... ;) ??
blois - Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - link
I have a concern over power consumption of Cell processors. It is said to be very power hungry. I have read that it is about 80watt @4GhzI think it is a major disadvantage for a living-room destined device, because it will need huge fan making huge noise.
Knitecrow - Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - link
Hannibal from arstechnica has done it again. He has posted part one of the series"Inside the Xbox 360, part I: procedural synthesis and dynamic worlds"
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/xbox360...
As always, it is a good read.