PS3 and Xbox 360 Technical Differences for Dummies - Graphics Processing Power

( 2 Votes ) Hey everyone, this is going to be my first comparison of the PS3 and the Xbox 360 hardware, I have done extensive research and have decided to start things off with a comparison of the Processing Power. Everyone says the PS3 is the more powerful system, but how true is that statement? Lets find out.

A look at the Graphics Cards

Both consoles have two very different Graphics Processing Units, or GPU’s for short. For those that don’t know what a GPU is, its basically the chip that puts up the image on the screen. The faster it can handle data, the more things it can render on the screen. Lets look at each ones specs

The Xbox has a ATI based GPU code named “Xenos” the clock is about 500Mhz, and has a Unified Shader core with 48 Unified Shader Pipelines. It also has 512MB of 700MHz GDDR3 Ram and can handle roughly 500 million triangles a second. This may all seem overwealming to someone who is not familiar with the technical side of graphics cards, don’t worry, I will explain later.

The PS3 has a Nvidia based GPU code named “RSX” which is also clocked at 500Mhz, and has a Dedicated shader core consisting of 24 pixel pipelines, and 8 vertex pipelines. Its ram is also split into two chips, one being 256mb 700mgz GDDR3 ram, and 256mb 3.2Ghz XDR Ram.

Explanation

Ok so first, you may be asking, what is a Shader? They basically take 3D objects and make them look more realistic. There are two types of Shaders. The first is Pixel Shaders, which change the lighting, color, and surface of each pixel on your screen, while vertex shaders put the Pixels together. When it comes to graphics cards, they use Shader pipelines, which are basically what controllers the shaders. The more pipelines, the more shaders you can use, the better the image.

The Xenos uses 48 Unified Shader Pipelines, unified meaning they can be used as either Pixel or Vertex, while the PS3 has dedicated pipelines, meaning the PS3 is limited to the set number.

The Xbox can utilize up to 41 pixel shaders in its rendering, while the PS3 is limited to 24 pixel shaders, and is forced to use 8 vertex pipelines. This is why Multiplatform games perform much better on the Xbox 360, as if there is frame rate issue, or weaker textures, it is because the PS3 ahs less access to shaders.

The Xenos also has another advantage, it has a Daughter Die with 10mb of eDRAM built onto the chip, and in theory allows the chip to handle Anti-aliasing a lot better, as Anti-Aliasing on the RSX takes up a whole lot of power. If you don’t know what that is, play any Wii game, they lack any Anti-Aliasing.

When it comes down to the texture rendering capabilities of the two they are about even, they have the same amount of ram except once again, Xenos has Unified 512, while RSX has dedicated. The 256mb XDR RSX ram is as much as 10 times faster than the 512mb dedicated ram on the Xenos, meaning that the PS3 can fill textures faster. Also the capacity of blu-ray disks allow for uncompressed textures, meaning the RSX doesn't have to decompress textures, allowing for more speed to the graphics card for other things.

The fill rate of the ram also allows the PS3 to be better at texture streaming. Texture streaming is basically the textures your close to are sharp, while the ones off in the background are blurry. The RSX can fill in high quality textures into the fast ram, and low quality textures in the slower ram, then quickly fill new textures into the faster ram again.

Conclusion

From a technical standpoint the Xbox 360 has a more versatile, more powerful graphics-processing unit, and the RSX is much weaker. So you may be asking, why do games like Killzone 2, and Uncharted 2 look way better than any Xbox games?

That's when it comes down to all the other hardware, the combination of Blu-ray, hard-drives, and the Cell processor give the PS3 an edge in the capabilities of the machine. I will cover that, in my next PS3 and Xbox 360 comparison for dummies

< Prev		Next >

Newest Articles	Most Viewed Articles
Minecraft Bomberman Map The Holy Bible: Numbers 25 The Holy Bible: Numbers 24 Half Devil Half Child The Bible and Immigration	Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) New Castlevania Judgment Movie Trailer Contact Owner - Lost Password - Join the Staff - Report Issues PSP go Accessories *TGS* The Force Unleashed Interview *PC*