SA1 was very similar to the SNES main CPU but running at 10 MHz.

Neo Geo definitely packed the most punch, but that's to be expected as it was a premium priced system that basically stuffed an arcade board into a console shell and was outside what was possible for a mainstream console at the time. Still, none of that discounts that it boasted some of the most gorgeous pixel art of all time.

The SNES though really held its own with games like the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy, Yoshi's Island, and Super Mario RPG, all of which I'd argue still look beautiful nearly three decades later.

Final Fantasy VI. Didn’t have the intricate animation of DKC but the attention to detail was amazing. 

Comes down to cost and design choices.

Nintendo invested heavily into it's graphics and audio processing.. And because consoles are cost-sensitive devices, there had to be some corners cut... Which ended up being the CPU.

It did mean that games like Donkey Kong could truly shine on the hardware as it was front and center a visual and audio feast back in the day.
The SNES could have more colours+Mode 7 and sample real-life sounds.

One thing to keep in mind is that... People are comparing them based on clockrates alone, which would be highly erroneous, the SNES CPU could definitely punch above it's weight when programmed it's way.
The SNES CPU would actually require less cycles for most instructions, which some developers leveraged, which meant that both CPU's had relatively similar MIPS (Although Sega still had a slight theoretical advantage.)

The main reason why the 68000 typically legged it ahead of the SNES was actually due to the memory bus, it had a wider internal memory bus and a wider external memory bus, so it was far more efficient at shifting data around to be executed.

In the end due to these smaller memory nuances, the 68000 was fairly similar to Ricoh's performance on most instructions... But some instructions it was significantly better. (I.E. larger ones that would saturate the bus.)

Overall, Sega definitely had the hardware advantage when not accounting for external cart-processors or addons.

Fixed, thanks.

Should also add that the SNES didn't have T&L... Even on the FX chip.

T&L can be done in "software" but it was never a hardware feature until the Nintendo 64, OG Xbox and Playstation 3 for the respective 3 console manufacturers.

Otherwise... Ray Casting aka. Rudimentary Ray Tracing might as well be a feature of the Mega Drive. (I.E. Toy Story.)

Ok I see, that's an important distinction. I'll update the data, thank you.

Neo Geo was well ahead of everything else at the time.

Ranger X on Genesis had some neat tricks to fool you into seeing 3D. It's not 3D at all.

Graphically SNES destroyed Genesis.  The color palette was night/day.  And the music in games like Trigger and VI was just a generation ahead of the Genesis.  The SNES controller was far superior, with a button layout/should buttons that are still used today.  

Graphically the Neo Geo was unmatched...  but good God the prices of those cartridges.