PDF said:
Correct me if I am wrong but wasnt the PS2 more powerful than the GC.
Anyways the comparison between the 2 is pretty amazing in similarities but I am afraid to say it looked better for Sony in 2001 than it does now. From more games being exclusive, to Sony have the year advantage and a lower price point. The things the PS3 had over the ps2 are things the xbox had over the ps2 and they did not make a difference at all. Online gaming or being the most powerful system did not win it for MS. |
WHOA. The PS2 was not more powerful than the GameCube... not even by a long shot... I suppose. The best specs I can get for the two are:
| Spec | PS2 | GameCube |
| CPU Speed | 294 MHz | 486 MHz |
| GPU Speed | 147 MHz | 162 MHz |
| Memory BUS Speed | 3.2 GB/s | 2.7 GB/s |
| RAM | 32 MB | 43 MB |
| GPU RAM | 4 MB | included in above |
Basically, it was PS2 * 1.5 = GameCube * 1.5 = Xbox, or something close to that. Since the Wii is 2 GC duct tape together, the Wii is 1.3 times more powerful than the Xbox
Also, the RAM for the GameCube was bonded together, so that the developers could use all of it anyway they wanted. Want more RAM for AI and such? Go ahead, and less will be available for GPU then. It allowed developers who didn't need RAM for GPU things to use it instead for other things. It was also suppose to make developing "easier" I suppose, at least that's what I've read. Either way, the GameCube beats the PS2 in every area except BUS speed, though since it could process stuff faster, it wouldn't make too much of a difference.
Also, when you say "lower price point" I suppose you mean "lower than the PS3 price point" because the GameCube was $100 cheaper than the PS2, and the PS2 didn't have a pricecut in the US for 1.5 years or so after it launched. Then when the PS2 did drop to $199, the GameCube dropped to $149, and by the start of the GameCubes third (yes THIRD) year, had dropped to $99, while the PS2 has yet to get there. For the record, the PS2 dropped to $179 around the time the GameCube dropped to $99. I can't say for the Xbox. But I think that proves my point.
I got all these figures from Wikipedia, but I have done multiple google searches, and found other sources that back them up. Either way, you can take it with a grain of salt if you wish.
@retrasado: not that price cuts don't effect a consoles' sales, and not that the previous price cuts were all holiday, but looking at Others data for when the 40 GB PS3 was released, you can see that the numbers were quickly dropping to only slightly above previous levels, before the holiday appears. Yes, it did spike, but so will every other console that ever gets a price cut. It didn't save the GameCube, and it had many price cuts in it's first 2 years, which now that I look at it, is very similar to the PS3 price cuts. I'll say for simplicity that the PS3 had one price cut, from $499 to $399 in it's first year, and will have one this year, to $299. The GameCube had one it's first year, from $199 to $149, and then a second at the end of it's second year, to $99, which it has been since then. Obviously the PS3 has some more price cuts after the one we get this year. Yes, it'll boost sales, no joke. But how much? Probably not enough.
