This is something that's been going through my mind a long time now. I keep thinking the 360 is being maxed out only to be surprised by newer games that keep pushing the boundary like Alan Wake and even Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

I know the system's GPU is DirectX 9 based, so there's some limits on the graphics. Yet at the same time, some of these games look about just as good as Crysis, at least on an HDTV with the highest and best possible resolution. The system uses a Tri-Core (3 core) processor that's still worthy today, since many PC games today only require a Dual-Core (2 core) processor. Although I think the biggest limit on the 360 is the amount of RAM, which is only 512 MB. I'm suprised the system can even run the games it does on this small amount of RAM. I know consoles run differently, but even Epic Games said Gears of War 2 was hard to develop because of the low amount of RAM in the system.

This may have been discussed before, and I don't mean to ramble on, but do you guys think the 360 is nearing it's maximum limit, or does it have more untapped power that's waiting for the right developer to unleash it? And if it does have more power inside it, when will you guys think it will reach it's limit?

If the 360 is nearing its limit then so is the PS3 as they both have very limited memory, cpu and gpu power compared to todays latest technology.

360 is maxed out already, Halo reach is not much different from Halo 3. Developers on 360 only focus on Xenos which already reached its limit year before.

PS3 although has a slightly weaker GPU RSX, the power of the Cell with its 7 SPU has not been fully improvised (its 7!!!, not 2 not 3), u can expect Uncharted 3 to be way better than Unchatered 2.

However, 360 still can have plenty of innovation from Natal. Graphics is not everything, wait for E3

There will ALWAYS be more juice left to squeeze out of every console. its just a matter of further maximizing your engine to take advantage of the hardware. No console/PC can ever be truly maxed out.

From the way you described things you clearly know very little about computers. Really you think any 360 game yet released looks as good as CRYSIS? I beg to differ. Art style is one thing but from a purely technical standpoint CRYSIS > any game on the 360 or PS3 hands down

i bet halo reach will be technically more impressive. It may not graphically beat it but as a whole package it does ofcourse without mods.

Nope Reach will not be more technically impressive. The 360 hardware cannot even come close to providing enough CPU power and RAM and GPU strength to even come close. While you may find Reach to be a better looking game due to art style or whatever it will NOT be more technically  impressive

When this gen is over and they start making games for the new systems, then and only then can we look back and say when the 360's potential was fully realised.

developers still don't use all the tools the 360 has so there is tons of room for improvements... parallel processing programming is still in it's infancy and is no one has really pushed the 360 because there has been very little reason to... Remedy said that they were able to optimize there engine before Alan Wake was even finished (but to late to implement it) something like 30 percent reduction in overhead(that seems a bit to simplistic but I think it gets the point across)

First off, just because the cell has 7 spu does NOT mean that that is "4 more than the 360" so its somehow better. SPUs are different than traditional PC cores. You can't measure their worth in number, genius. Not saying the Cell isn't awesome, it is. But they are apples and oranges, not same thing.

And obviously you HAVE NOT played Halo: Reach, if you had, you would know that Halo: Reach is vastly superior in visuals and gameplay than Halo 3. I play it every day and the difference is night and day. Powerhouse = beautiful. They are advancing tech all the time. Alan Wake, Halo: Reach, Brink, Crysis 2, and Gears 3... all upcoming awesome visual games that prove the 2005 console still has some tricks up its sleeve. I remember the kinds of visuals they were able to pull off in the last part of the SNES' life.

it has been maxed out long time ago even the most recent xbox 360 exclusives arent running at 720p (alan wake, SC:C) i guess that gives you a hint.