Xbox 360 more powerfull than PS3

[Darth Garth]

http://www.majornelson.com/

So the chap works for Microsoft but the arguments and technical data supports their assertion.

Let the games begin.

 

[brooko]

hopefully we will see the xbox360 launched in SA this time...

 

[Perdition]

Nice comparison. It's all still theoretical though so I guess it's pretty much a "wait and see" game. I would like to get one of these consoles (assuming the price isn't too crazy) but will wait and see what each has to offer once they've both been released.

 

[Vio]

Well, seeing is believing and so far Sony have delivered.

*waits for consoles to ship*

 

[diabolus]

There's one factor which concerns me quite a bit though [maybe not a concern for others, but for me it's an issue]:

Backwards Compatibility
Read more on that : http://gamesindustry.biz/news.php?aid=8996

The news has raised more questions than it answers, however, as it suggests that game titles may need to be modified somehow before players can use them on their new consoles - but Microsoft has denied that it will ask players to pay for new versions of the software.

So it might mean, all that processing power they boast will either have to be tweaked to run older games [ATI vs Nvidia], or you'll have to get new versions. How that will turn out will be very interesting indeed.

On the other hand, Sony has said since 2003 that

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=2171

Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will feature backwards compatibility with the PS2 and PSone, ensuring continued support for older software formats in the new hardware.

 

[killadoob]

so you wanna play old games with kuk graphics as opposed to new amazing looking games?

 

[Darth Garth]

So it might mean, all that processing power they boast will either have to be tweaked to run older games [ATI vs Nvidia], or you'll have to get new versions.

Sony had it easy ... PS2 included the guts of the PS1 on a single chip.

Consumers won't pay for or swap out their old XBox titles for new XBox 360 discs because it would be too much of a hassle and what about non Microsoft games.

There is no financial incentive for a developer/publisher to recode their old titles for Xbox 360 compatability.

Microsoft has to do all the hard work themselves.

Binary "recompilation" has already been used successfully on the Dec Alpha (google for FX!32 ) when you ran NT 4.0 and loaded x86 Windows programs on this non Intel processor.

Intel is using the same technology for the new generation Itanuim processor to run the foreign x86 code.

And Transmeta (Sony Via laptop) with their "code morphing" technology to run x86 code on their foreign processor as well.

I reckon that when the XBox 360 ships it will contain a 'translation/loader'
either in ROM or on a separate disc for the best selling Xbox titles before and using that before inserting your original XBox disc for getting the graphics/movies to be loaded.

The tricky part that most folks not considered is that most XBox games assume a hard drive would be avialable all the time (now optional with Xbox 360).

If they pull it off ... it will be an amazing technical feat.

 

[martin]

Penny Arcade has some interesting comments on the PS3:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2005-05-23

A common opinion seems to be that the PS3 is actually still vaporware at this stage.

 

[diabolus]

so you wanna play old games with kuk graphics as opposed to new amazing looking games?

Let say i want to play Halo 2 on the Xbox 360. Chances are all Xbox 1 games will be cheaper in the first place , and i can live with the graphics. I seriously doubt sometihng like KOTOR2 will be considered 'kuk graphics' next year, much too early for that.

You have to assume i don't have a Xbox or PS2 right now. So if i'm gonna buy a new console next year, i'd at least like the idea to be able get the entire Final Fantasy Series and play it on my PS3 [at much cheaper prices], wouldn't you?

Even if i do have one of those consoles, i'd still like the idea of being able to dump the old console entirely and keep my collection of games on the new console. It's like keeping a 386 Pentium II under my bed so i can play Civilisation I sometimes....kinda silly.

 

[Perdition]

Backwards compatibility will only really be an issue for the XBox 360, future generations of XBox should be fully backwards compatible. The reason it's an issue in the XBox 360 is because of a COMPLETE architectural shift in hardware and software as well as possible licensing issues with nVidia. MS own the designs of chips in the XBox 360 so this shouldn't be an issue in future XBox generations.

It's like keeping a 386 Pentium II under my bed so i can play Civilisation I sometimes....kinda silly.

Agree and couldn't have said it better.