Versus Mode: PS3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Wii, round 2 (Power)
Last week I compared the 3 current-generation video game consoles by looking at differences in the design of their controllers. This week I’m going to continue my video game Versus Mode series by looking at the power of the three systems — after all, controllers aren’t everything, and computing power has a great impact on how games run. Along with the CPU, I’ll look at hard drive size while we’re at it. Let’s go!
Xbox 360
The 360 sports a nice 3.2 gigahertz PowerPC tri-core processor, 512 megabytes of ram shared by the CPU and the Graphics Processing Unit, plus 10 bonus MB in a special frame buffer to help reduce issues with graphics. The GPU runs at 526 MHz. Depending on the configuration, the Xbox 360 may come with a 120 GB hard drive, a 20 GB hard drive, or no hard drive at all. Hard drives may be purchased separately (say, by those who bought the cheap version and then realized that yes, they really did want a hard drive).
Playstation 3
The PS3 also has a 3.2 GHz processor, the Cell. which has 7 sub-processors called SPEs. These allow a certain division of computing tasks not possible in a regular processor, and theoretically kick the pants off of the 360’s tri-core processor, 204 gigaflops to 115.2 gigaflops. Granted, the value of this depends much more on how well the architecture is used by programmers than anything else, but it does present the possibility that the PS3 might reach a level of processing power that the 360 cannot. The PS3 has a total of 512 MB of memory, half of it high-speed XDR memory connected to the CPU, and the other half graphics memory. The 550 MHz GPU can access the CPU memory if necessary, but the PS3 lacks the extra 10 MB frame buffer of the 360. As for hard drives, the PS3 is currently available in the USA with either a 60 GB or 80 GB hard drive, with all models including hard drives.
Wii
Poor Wii. Unlike its brothers, it doesn’t get many handouts when it comes to power. If the Xbox were America and the PS3 Japan, the Wii would probably be a nomadic tribe on the African savannah. Still, its 729 MHz processor and 243 MHz GPU are a healthy step up from the GameCube and most of the previous generation of consoles. The Wii sports 88 MB of RAM, plus 3 MB of frame buffer memory. It has a whopping 512 MB storage capacity. With the exception of the larger hard drive, the Wii clocks in around the original Xbox.
And the winner of round 2 is…
The PS3 nudges out the Wii easily, and the Xbox 360 with difficulty. Both the 360 and PS3 are powerful consoles, but the PS3’s SPEs and slight MHz advantage balance out the 360’s frame buffer. The main thing that gives the PS3 the win this week, though, is the hard drive. By making every console have one, Sony has kept all versions of their console functionally equivalent — designers can rely on a certain amount of hard drive space, and that’s important. I’m handing the PS3 4 points, the 360 3, and the Wii 1. They also get 1 each from last week, so the total is…
PS3: 5. Xbox 360: 4. Wii: 2.
Next week: it’s all about the dough. Oh, and maybe Mario.
August 25th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Please say it’s a typo. Baby Jesus is crying otherwise.
August 25th, 2007 at 1:57 am
Jacob:
Oh, yeah, it’s a typo. My bad. That should be GB, not MB (and will be in a minute when I fix the article). However, that doesn’t quite excuse the fact that one of their configurations comes without a hard drive at all, especially after the original Xbox made hard drives in consoles a viable reality.
On the other hand, the 120 GB option only showed up after the PS3 came on the scene with its 20 GB or 60 GB selections, so their initial options were on the low end of the specturm, all told. The 120 GB was more of a catch-up option in this arena … surprising, since they were doing quite well at the time, and arguably aren’t in bad shape even now. All in all, I don’t think it’s worth the money you save to not have a hard drive. I can’t tell you how annoying it gets having to deal with two 8 MB (not a typo) PS2 memory cards…
I think I was typing too many capital letter abbreviation thingies. Thanks for the heads-up.