PS3 vs. Xbox 360 in poll form

Muffinator · Oct 13, 2007

The other PS3 vs Xbox 360 thread has reached 9 pages of posts, and a certain someone *nudge nudge* insisted I make this poll to end it once and for all.

I will now make comparisons by category. In no particular order...

Prices
(All prices in US$)
PS3 costs 600$, but there is also a 500$ version, though no longer in production, which is mostly identical except for its smaller hard drive (60GB instead of 80.)
Xbox 360 costs $350, but there is also the Xbox 360 Core at 280$, the differences being that it is not packaged with a hard drive and cannot output high-definition video without separately sold cables. In addition to the Core, there is the Xbox 360 Elite at 450$, its main difference being the larger hard drive (120Gb instead of 20.)

Hardware
I understand about 1% of hardware related terms, so I will simply quote Wikipedia.
PS3:

Central processing unit

The PS3 uses the Cell microprocessor, which is made up of a PowerPC-based "Power Processing Element" (PPE) and six accessible 3.2 GHz Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). A seventh runs in a special mode and is dedicated to aspects of the OS and security, and an eighth is disabled to improve production yields. The floating point performance of the whole system (CPU + GPU) is reported to be 2 TFLOPS. PlayStation 3's Cell CPU achieves 204 GFLOPS single precision float and 15 GFLOPS double precision. The PS3 has 256 MB of Rambus XDR DRAM, clocked at CPU die speed.

Graphics processing unit

The Graphics Processing Unit is based on the NVIDIA G70 (previously known as NV47) architecture, which focuses on maximizing per-pixel computation in favor of raw pixel output. The GPU currently makes use of 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM clocked at 650 MHz with an effective transmission rate of 1.3 GHz and up to 192 MB of the 3.2 GHz XDR main memory via the CPU (448 MB max).

Connectivity

The PS3 supports numerous SDTV and HDTV resolutions (from 480i / 576i up to 1080p) and connectivity options (such as HDMI 1.3a and component video). In terms of audio, the PS3 supports a number of formats, including 7.1 digital audio, Dolby TrueHD, and others; audio output is possible over stereo RCA cables (analog), optical digital cables, or HDMI. For the optical disc drive, a wide variety of DVD and CD formats are supported, as well as Blu-ray Discs. A 20 GB / 60 GB / 80 GB 2.5" SATA 150 hard disk is pre-installed. In the 60 GB and 80 GB configurations, flash memory can also be used â€” either Memory Sticks, CompactFlash cards, or SD/MMC cards. All models support USB memory devices; flash drives and external hard drives are both automatically recognized. However, they must be formatted with the FAT32 file system â€” the PS3 does not support the Microsoft-developed NTFS file system that is the standard in the Windows NT family. For communication, the PS3 has one Gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports at the front, Bluetooth 2.0 support, and built-in Wi-Fi on the 60 and 80 GB versions.

Form factor and power consumption

The PlayStation 3 console is approximately 5 kg, 325 mm (W) Ã— 98 mm (H) Ã— 274 mm (D). The power consumption ranges from 150â€“200 watts during normal use, despite having a 380 watt power supply.

Universal power supply

The console has an universal power unit built in which makes a 120 V PlayStation 3 suitable in a 240 V region. The power supply can operate on both 60 Hz and 50 Hz power grids. It uses a standard C14 IEC connector and a C13 power cord appropriate for the region being used in. Some consoles, however, read 220v~240v 1.8a which are not universal.
Click to expand...

Xbox 360:

Central processing unit

The Xbox 360 takes a new approach to hardware compared to its predecessor. The CPU, named Xenon at Microsoft and "Waternoose" at IBM, is a custom triple-core PowerPC-based design by IBM. The CPU emphasizes high floating point performance through multiple FPU and SIMD vector processing units in each core. It has a theoretical peak performance of 115.2 gigaflops and is capable of 9.6 billion dot products per second. Each core of the CPU is simultaneous multithreading capable and clocked at 3.2 gigahertz. However, to reduce CPU die size, complexity, cost, and power demands, the processor uses in-order execution in contrast to the Intel Coppermine128-based Mobile Celeron used in Xbox which used more advanced out-of-order execution. The original chip uses a 90 nanometer process, although a 65 nanometer process SOI revision was originally planned for early 2007, but it has been delayed until mid-2007. A 21.6 GB/s front side bus, aggregated 10.8 GB/s upstream and downstream, connects Xenon with the graphics processor/northbridge. Xenon is equipped with a 1 MB Level 2 cache on-die running at half CPU clock speed. This cache is shared amongst the three CPU cores. The CPU also contains ROM storing Microsoft private encrypted keys, used to decrypt game data. The heat sink implemented to cool the CPU is composed of aluminum fins with copper base heat pipes. The heat sink is cooled by two 60 millimeter fans at the back of the console.

Graphics processing unit

While the first Xbox's graphics processing unit was produced by NVIDIA, the Xbox 360 uses a chip designed by ATI called Xenos. The chip was developed under the name "C1" and "R500" was often used to refer to it. The GPU package contains two separate silicon dies, each on a 90 nm chip with a clock speed of 500 MHz; the GPU proper, manufactured by TSMC and a 10 MB eDRAM daughter-die, manufactured by NEC. Thanks to the daughter die, the Xenos can do 4x FSAA, z-buffering, and alpha blending with no appreciable performance penalty on the GPU. The GPU also houses additional capabilities typically separated into a motherboard chipset in PC systems, effectively replacing the northbridge chip. An aluminum heat sink was implemented to cool the GPU in systems manufactured prior to the second half of 2007; after this time, the GPU heatsink was revised in order to better move heat away from the GPU die. The new heatsink is made from a different material and is connected to a new secondary heatsink (located in front of the CPU heatsink, to the right of the DVD drive) via a copper heatpipe.

Memory and system bandwidth

The console features 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM clocked at 700 megahertz with an effective transmission rate of 1.4 GHz on a 128-bit bus. The memory is shared by the CPU and the GPU via the unified memory architecture. This memory is produced by either Samsung or Qimonda.
The Xbox 360 has an extensive amount of bandwidth in comparison to its competition; however this statistic includes the eDram logic to memory bandwidth, and not internal CPU bandwidths. The eDram internal logic to its internal memory bandwidth is 256 GB/s. The high bandwidth is used primarily for z-buffering, alpha blending, and antialiasing; it saves time and space on the GPU die. Between the eDram die and the GPU, data is transferred at 32 GB/s. The memory interface bus has a bandwidth of 22.40 GB/s and the southbridge a bandwidth of 1 GB/s.

Audio and video

All games made for the Xbox 360 are required to support at least 5.1-channel Dolby Digital surround sound. The console works with over 256 audio channels and 320 independent decompression channels using 32-bit processing for audio, with support for 48 kHz 16-bit sound. Sound files for games are encoded using Microsoft's XMA audio format. An MPEG-2 decoder is included for DVD video playback. VC-1 or WMV is used for streaming video and other video is compressed using VC-1 at non-HD NTSC and PAL resolutions or WMV HD. The Xbox 360 also supports H.263 and H.264 MPEG-4 videos. Unlike the original Xbox, voice communication is handled by the console, not by the game code, allowing for cross-game communication. There is no voice echo to game players on the same console; voice only goes to remote consoles.
There are no digital video outputs such as DVI or HDMI on Core packages or Premium packages manufactured before July 2007; instead, HD-quality output can only be produced over VGA or component video. An HDMI port and cables is included in the Elite SKU. A wide array of SDTV and HDTV resolutions are supported by the console hardware; up to 1080p after the October 2006 software upgrade. While most games are rendered natively at 720p, the video from all games can be scaled by the hardware to whatever resolution the user has set in the console's settings; from 480i NTSC and 576i PAL all the way to 1080p HDTV. Up to 1080p, the resolution the console will output is only limited by the chosen display equipment's capability (TV, projector, etc.) and the video cables used to connect the two.

Storage

Early production runs of the Xbox 360 are equipped with a 12x DVD drive, capable of a maximum read rate of 15.9 MB/s. The original production DVD drives were manufactured by both LG and Toshiba. Beginning in November 2006, a new model the BenQ VAD6038 was introduced, which is said to run faster than the previous models and, in addition, is much quieter. Games are stored on standard dual-layer DVD-ROMs with 7 GB of usable space available for game content. The option to apply a regional lockout to games is available to publishers, although DVD region codes are always enforced for movies. Microsoft has implemented methods to prevent hacking through the drive. Later drive models have the external debug triggering removed and black hard glue added to cover all the chip and controller pins. The drive is able to read both DVDÂ±R and DVDÂ±RW in addition to being able to play DVD-Video out of the box, unlike its predecessor, which required the purchase of an add-on remote. The system is also capable of playing standard CDs along with CD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, CD-Extra, WMA-CD, MP3-CD, and JPEG Photo CD.[15] Some users reported problems with the disc drive, as when a user changes the console's orientation, the inserted disc may brush against the drive's pickup assembly and incur scratches to it. The users manual advises against changing the consoles position while there is a disc in the drive. Announced at CES 2006 and first publicly shown at E3 2006, an external HD DVD drive was released in North America on November 7, 2006, for US$199.99, and in Japan on November 17, 2006, for Â¥19,800. In Europe, the HD DVD drive will be released for â‚¬199.99/Â£129.99 in the UK, France, and Germany. For a limited time, the HD DVD drive will be bundled with an Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote, as well as an HD DVD copy of Peter Jacksonâ€™s King Kong. The drive will play HD DVD movies, although all Xbox 360 games will remain on the DVD format. Microsoft has no plans to include an internal HD DVD player in future Xbox 360 designs. The external drive connects to the Xbox 360 via USB and contains two integrated USB ports on the rear.
The Premium configuration of the system comes with a detachable 20 GB hard drive and it is optional to separately purchase one for the Core. It is not required for standard games. The 2.5" hard drive is connected through a SATA interface and spins at 5400 rpm. A new version of the Xbox 360 (The Xbox 360 Elite) has been announced along with a new 120 GB HDD. The 120 GB drive is packaged in a black case to match the Elite, unlike 20 GB drives which are grey, matching the top of the Core and Premium units. The 120 GB HDD retail price is US$179.99.
Click to expand...

Understanding very little of any of this, it's unclear to me which console comes out the victor in terms of hardware. I would presume PS3 based on the fact that Halo 3 had to be reduced to 720p for Xbox 360 to handle it, and it still sometimes lags when too much is happening.

Other things to note:

Only PS3 supports Blu-Ray DVDs.

PS3 is completely backwards compatible: PS3 owners have access to the entire PS2 and PS1 gaming libraries. Xbox 360 on the other hand can only play a minority of Xbox games, and of the ones it can play, many have glitches.

Games
While I personally am not impressed with any PS3 games, many PS3 owners enjoy such titles as Resistance: Fall of Man and/or Motorstorm.
Good Xbox 360 games include Bioshock, Crackdown and Halo 3, and while I do not care for it, many 360 owners enjoy Gears of War. Also, there are cheaper but shorter/smaller games in the Xbox Live Arcade, including Gemotry Wars: Retro Evolved, Hexic HD, Alien Hominid HD, Aegis Wing, Pac-Man Championship Edition and Hexic 2.

Institutionalized · Oct 14, 2007

The Xbox360 hands down.

I've posted enough on other threads how much better it is compared to the PS3.

Don't feeling like typing alot again, but you have the vote for 360.

ragalshnagal · Oct 14, 2007

360, because we all know, when a good game comes out for ps3, itll come out for xbox. it happened with metal gear 2 and 3, and grand theft auto 3, vice city, and san andreas, and itl probably happen in gta4

Pur3 5kiler · Oct 14, 2007

360 all the way...It owns....Oh and did you know....

1000 POSTS!!! PUR3 5KILER = GURU!

flashcrazy81 · Oct 14, 2007

Gratz On 1000 Posts Pure And Lol Ill Just Quote Wikipedia, I Voted 360 All The Way

superman1478 · Oct 15, 2007

I haven't played ps3 very much, but I love my 360.

speljohan · Oct 15, 2007

None of these. Nintendo ftw.

Aus Pride · Oct 15, 2007

xbox 360 ftw.

Kabal · Oct 15, 2007

360... only cause it actually integrated itself into online better
If it was ps2 vs x box I would vote ps2

Macroman · Oct 15, 2007

Xbox because PS controllers are messed up.

Xbox is easier to use..

xzsgwx · Oct 15, 2007

i have both but totaly love my xbox way more my ps3 had bunch dust on it

jaamal · Oct 15, 2007

kabal said: ↑

360... only cause it actually integrated itself into online better
If it was ps2 vs x box I would vote ps2
Click to expand...

Yeah 360 owns online... I only reason why I like it more...
But Ps2 killed Xbox...

Spereff · Oct 15, 2007

360. Halo 3 and Guitar Hero. I think they fucked up making the PS3. But the graphics are really good on the PS3, still quite good on the 360.

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PS3 vs. Xbox 360 in poll form

Which is better?

Playstation 3

Xbox 360

Muffinator Active Member

Institutionalized Apprentice

ragalshnagal Forum Addict

Pur3 5kiler Grand Master

flashcrazy81 Forum Addict

superman1478 Apprentice

speljohan Guru

Aus Pride Active Member

Kabal Ex-Official Middleman ~ [email protected]

Macroman Hero

xzsgwx Guest

jaamal Guru

Spereff Guru

Log in or Sign up

PS3 vs. Xbox 360 in poll form

Which is better?

Playstation 3

Xbox 360

Thread Tools

Muffinator Active Member

Institutionalized Apprentice

ragalshnagal Forum Addict

Pur3 5kiler Grand Master

flashcrazy81 Forum Addict

superman1478 Apprentice

speljohan Guru

Aus Pride Active Member

Kabal Ex-Official Middleman ~ [email protected]

Macroman Hero

xzsgwx Guest

jaamal Guru

Spereff Guru