Power Rankings, The True Story About All the Systems

[KBG29]

Last Gen (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox) PS2 The PS2 was the first system out last gen as I would hope everyone knows. It had the least RAM and lowest speced chip set of any of the consoles, However, it was still able to keep up to the Xbox, and Gamecube due to a great design choice by Ken Kuturagi, who is one of the few engineers that really know how to design a system. Ken gave devs a system which as they learned it could become more powerful over time, because the EE and GS worked like sister chips. The PS2 had a 2,560 bit wide bus between the two chips which gave them the ability to work in unison unlike any other platform. This means each can help the other and that makes for a very flexable system with power beyond its looks. This design is the reason God of War 2 and Gran Turismo 4 are 2 of the Best looking games last gen, even on the weakest platform. Gamecube The Gamecube was a very simple design that was built for developers to nurture from day one. The chipset was easy to understand and had a simple design with very little head room in the future. It had more brute power than the Playstation and more RAM as well, for that reason some of the games had slightly better textures and more effects than most PS2 games. Xbox The Original Xbox was a PC. Thier was no differance between it and any other PC you could buy at Best Buy. The only thing it had going for it was that it was marketed as a Game console and had limited abilitys to make it be so. The Box was the Brute Force Powerhouse of last Gen. The fastest chip set, with the Most RAM, in fact double that of the PS2. Why then were its first party games not worlds above the PS2? Simply because brute power is not enoughf. No matter how fast your chips are if they can not comunicate with eachother, they are just being wasted. Last Word In the Last Generation all the consoles were to close to call. Even though the PS2 was extreamly underpowered compared to the competition its flexability and great deisgn, and large userbase helped it keep up.The Xbox could not take any real advantage of its power and only used its Ram as a real advantage, while the Gamecube did not even try to make a stament. You rally could argue that each system had at least one game that was not doable on th others. This Gen: (360, Wii, PS3) 360 With the 360 MS actually did a backstep in hardware. They kept their drag and drop PC design as in the last Box, but did not leave the HDD as a standared, which was one of the advantages it had in the Previous gen. Just like on the last Xbox the have a very powerful chipset, but yet again it has very bad comunication. The CPU and GPU share 512MB of RAM with 22.4GB of throughput to split 2 ways. That means you have 11.2GB through put for each of the to Processors, this is helped a little bit by the on board frame buffer in the GPU, but not to a lagre extant. The front side bus is a decent 21.6GB which gives it a far amount of comunication between the chips but nothing really out of the ordanary. At the end of the day you still have a straight forward CPU GPU chipset that can be easly learned and taped out very fast by devs. The Devs will greet this with open arms as it gives the the ability to rake in the cash, but it is not the best for gamers. Wii The Wii is a Gamecube with more RAM and 3 times as powerful chip set as the Cube. Not many specs have been released on the system, but their is really nothing to say about it anyway. Nintendo believs that people don't care about graphics, and that they would rather have a cheap console. Works for me, and I know their is know one arguing that this thing can touch the PS3/360. I will only point out one thing. Shane Bentonhouseing said one the 1up Show that if you think that it is good that the Wii has bed graphics, because that means it will have good gameplay, you are delusional. PS3 This Gen Sony did the same thing they did last gen with the PS2. The only differance this gen is they were not worried about getting to the market first. Now they have the great design of the PS2, and it is improved plus it has the most powerful chipset. The System has an HDD in every pack which also gives it a boost. Just like the 360 the PS3 has 512MB of RAM, however, instead of sharing it between 2 proccessor Ken made a pool of 256 for both, with each being able to access the others pool. With this design the system has 25.6GB through put for the CPU, and 22.4GB thought put on the GPU. The PS3 does not have a frame buffer which makes its extra though put on par iwith the 360. However the PS3 has a Front side Bus of 35GB which is almost double that of the 360. That means that every secound 7 dvds are being thrown back and forth between the to chips. This plus the design of Cell allow for devs to use the chips as one powerful flexable setup. It will take time to learn just like the PS2, but what it can give is well worth the effort. Final Thoughts This gen the Graphics Race is really a 3 hourse race. The Wii is way back in the compitition, with the 360 slightly ahead of center, and the PS3 with quite the lead. I personally think the graphics are going to be very important as this generation pushes on. This is were the Nintendo startagy fails. The 360 and PS3 can do something the Wii can't but the wii has nothing on the other two. Motion controlls are very possible on all three systems, and price is not going to be an advantage forever. The PS3 has the most room to grow in graphics, controlls, and price deduction. Once it starts to pass the 360 in graphics a lot of people will jump ship. When Sony and MS add good motion contorll options people will jump ship. Lastly when the prices drop the more powerful systems will start to take off more. The PS3 has got all of the stuff going its way. Sony will undoubtably unite the CELL/RSX into one chip at one point in the systems life which will make it extreamly chaep to produce, Blu-ray will continue to get cheaper reaching dvd like prices in a few years, and the form factor will be changed. PS3 will win this generation, Graphics do matter, The 360 and PS3 are both capable of what the Wii is doind, heck even the last gen systems could do it, and prices are a ever changing thing. Wii will have its time in the sun but its days are numbered and its power is its weakness.