Next-Gen Consoles war: PS3 and Xbox 360 Face-to-Face.

Now that the Specs and Pictures of both consoles PS3 and Xbox 360 are out, it’s time to do a detailed comparison between them based on the announced Specification, it might not be completely correct but it’s the best prediction I can come up with, Enjoy.

Design
Well it’s a matter of taste, but personally I like the PS3 a whole lot than Xbox 360, it just looks simple, elegant, curved, with a very sexy design and attractive silver finish, for me it’s a clear win for PS3.

CPU
PS3: Cell processor at 3.2GHz, capable of 2.18 teraflops of performance.
Xbox360: 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each, Power-PC based, capable of 1 teraflops.

PS3 wins here, as it’s capable of 2.18 teraflops compared to 1 teraflops which Xbox 360 offers, Cell Processor is probably the most advanced CPU in the world, it has 9 internal cores (1PPE + 7SPE + 1 redundant SPE) and it’s designed to favor Vector calculations which are perfect for gaming and running codecs and predictable processes.

Memory
PS3: 512MB total, 256MB XDR system RAM at 3.2 GHz; 256MB of GDDR3 VRAM Graphics at 700MHz.
Xbox360: 512 MB GDDR3 RAM, 700 MHz DDR.

It’s a tie here as both consoles will have 512MB, but maybe there’s a slight advantage for the PS3 because of XDR system RAM which has more bandwidth than GDDR3.

Graphics
PS3: RSX "Reality Synthesizer" by nVidia, 550MHz Core frequency, 128 bit pixel precision and 1080p support, 300 million transistors, 90nm process, Said to be more powerful than two GeForce 6800 Ultras (I’ve seen the power of 2 6800 Ultras and believe me it’s extraordinary).
Xbox360: ATI Chip (probably R520), 500MHz Core frequency, 10MB Embedded DRAM.

I guess it’s a tie here, because both consoles will have Next-Gen Graphics Chips, PS3 Chip will come from nVidia and Xbox 360 from ATI, so I’ll assume that they’ll have similar performance like the last generation, until proven otherwise.

Backwards compatibility
PS3 is said to be compatible with both PSone and PS2 games.
It’s unknown yet whether Xbox 360 will have backwards compatibility, so I’ll ignore this for now.
Update: Xbox 360 appears to be backward compatible with some of Xbox games (probably the popular ones), according to Robbie Bach, senior vice president and chief Xbox officer.

Media Support
PS3: Blu-Ray (BD) discs for media; also supports CD – DVD
Xbox360: Support all versions of CD – DVD.

PS3 wins here by offering the same media support as Xbox 360 plus BD support for High-Density Media that will probably come out in the next couple of years.

Communications
PS3: Ethernet, Wi-Fi (Wireless Networking), Bluetooth.
Xbox360: Ethernet, Wi-Fi.

PS3 wins here, with amazing wide range communications capabilities, especially Bluetooth that the Xbox 360 lacks; it will enable people to move data like Sound Files, Video Files, and Photos from their mobile phones to the console, a true Media Center capability.

Controllers
PS3: It will support 7 wireless controllers on Bluetooth.
Xbox360: Will support only 4 controllers.

PS3 supports more Controllers and thus it's better, but the good thing is that they're both wireless.

Storage
PS3: Detachable 2.5" HDD
Xbox360: 20 GB Detachable 2.5" HDD (can be upgraded)

Xbox 360 wins here because it has 20GB HD included, but with PS3 it’s not included with the console and has to be bought separately, no specific sizes were defined but probably there will be different sizes starting from 20GB the same as Xbox 360, seems like Hard Disks have become a standard for consoles.

I/O
PS3: USB2.0 - Memory Stick - SD - Compact Flash.
Xbox360: USB 2.0, 2 memory unit slots (Proprietary)

PS3 wins here with wide range of Media support that makes life easier moving stuff from other appliances like Mobile Phones, Digital Cameras, PDAs, to the console, and this clearly outdone Xbox 360 which only offers USB2.0 and its own Memory unit.

Release Date
Xbox 360 will be released at the end of this year, and PS3 is slated for spring 2006 release date which means it’s a whole year from now, undoubtly this will give Microsoft a big advantage to sell its console for Next-Gen early adopters (believe me there’s a lot of them), and also benefit from the Christmas Boom in addition to have enough time to release a lot of hot exclusive games to draw gamers.

Games are the most important factor in deciding the fate of both Consoles, and it's exactly the reason of PS2 supremacy over Xbox.
I wish I was able to compare launch Titles between the two consoles, but Sony has not announced any of them yet, so it’ll have to wait a few days till we can see what Game Companies have to offer in E3 Expo.

Sony really surprised me this time in a good way; I wasn’t expecting such amazing specs with lots of features, I expected a new console with some added functions but from those specs we can expect a very powerful Game Console and a full-blown Media Center that promises to give Microsoft’s Xbox 360 a very hard time.

I'm very excited about both Consoles, and I'll be following them very closely in the time to come.

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