[quote]pookie wrote:
fallout188 wrote:
I know many people have been saying that the PS3 and 360 are the same spec wise, but how can this be true when there’s a year difference between release dates.
The PS3 specs have been known for a long time, and haven’t changed since the Xbox 360 was introduced last year.
Developer need to get development kits so that they can build games before the launch; so once the specs are officialised and dev kits start appearing, you can’t change too much before release.
The PS3 and X360 aren’t the same specwise. On paper, the Cell is quite a bit more powerful than the triple-core Xenon. They both have the same amount of total memory (512MB), but the PS3 splits it 256/256 main memory and graphics, while the X360 has a unified memory. The 360 also has a more impressive GPU, vs. the RSX included with the PS3.
And the Cell having 8 SPEs but only using 7 is not “broken”, it’s a decision that was made to increase chip yields. It allows IBM/Sony to use Cells even if one of the SPEs is not functional. A bit like Intel selling Pentium that failed at 2GHz as 1.6GHz model, it is rather common in the semiconductor industry to have built-in failure allowances.
What is often repeated in various discussion is that the Cell is one PPE (like a “standard” CPU) with 7 SPEs, one of which is reserved for the OS (with another that can be requisitioned; leaving only 5 SPEs that can be guaranteed available for games.) 5 SPEs + 1 PPE is then compared to the Xenon’s 6 hardware threads and they appear equivalent. What’s generally not taken into account, is that the SPEs are incredibly fast at certain operations and will leave any of the Xenon’s threads in the dust. The trade-off is the added complexity of using those SPEs correctly, since they need to be “babysitted” by the main CPU so that they remain busy. Splitting game logic is also made more difficult, since the instructions that the PPE and SPE accept aren’t the same. On the X360, you’re free to split your work in thread as you see fit and you let the OS schedule them on whatever core is available. The OS also reserves very little of the CPU for itself.
The lackluster first batch of games seems to indicate that many developers are having trouble really extracting the power from the PS3. The X360, on the other hand, keeps being lauded by developer as being easy and as having the best development tools ever seen on any console.
So it basically comes down to very powerful and easy, vs. more powerful but hard. I think memory might be the great leveler, since in both case, I’m sure developer would appreciate more RAM to work with.
An interesting note: it was mentioned, by fairly believable sources, that most of the games that came out in the 1st year for the X360 only made use of a single core. Dead Rising and Gears Of War being among the first games to actually take advantage of more of the power that’s available.
So, in pragmatic terms, my guess is that we’ll be seeing some pretty incredible games on both systems. I’m really curious about seeing some of the first party games that will be coming out on the PS3 in 2 to 3 years. If a game can really manage to make good use of the PS3’s potential, it should be quite an experience. Unfortunately, those games will probably be few and far between.
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