FROM THE IGN BOARDS @ PS2
Alright, enough of Bill\'s crap, check out our hardware comparison PS2 VS Xbox
Okay, I think all of us have heard enough of the crap Mr Bill has to say, now let\'s compare the PS2 and the Xbox ourselves.
First of all let\'s take a look at the Xbox. Don\'t you realize the system was made thinking on how it could look better than the PS2 rather than on making a good system???, oh well it certainly seems like it, take a look:
-Main processor:
Xbox 750 mhz , PS2 292 mhz
-Main Memory: Xbox 64 MB of RAM , PS2 32 MB of DRAM
-Memory bandwidth: Xbox 6.4 GB , PS2 3.2 GB
-Graphics Chip: Xbox 300 mhz , PS2 150 mhz
see what I mean... but now let\'s look beyond those specs, what microsoft doesn\'t want you to realize:
Main processor:
The P III in the Xbox is a 32-bit processor while the PS2\'s "Emotion Engine" is a 128-bit one, it\'s that simple.
Now let me explain the bit-mhz relationship.
The bits determine the number of characters the chip can handle simultaneously, one character equals 8 bits. So if we have a 32-bit chip for example we would divide this number by 8 to get the number of characters, and that would be...4 and for a 128-bit processor it would be 16.
Each of these characters is processed at the number of mhz the chip runs.
If we want to compare the "Emotion Engine" with the P III in the Xbox we have to find the total number of mhz in both by multiplying the mhz, by the number of characters which we already found out.
Too hard to understand? let me make it simpler...
For the Xbox: 750x4= 3000 mhz
and the PS2: 294.912x16= 4718.592 mhz
Alright, so the "Emotion Engine" beats the P III in mhz, which still doesn\'t take us anywhere because mhz is NOT actual performance.
Gigaflops are performance. These affect the AI and loading times of a game.
Gigaflops:
For the "Emotion Engine": 6.5 Gflops
for the P III: 1.6 Gflops
Now this IS performance and the PS2 beats the Xbox
But we still have to find out the performance affecting the graphics and the framerate.
To measure this type of performance POVbench marks are used. A POVmark is a value obtained by a chipset, representing the time it takes rendering a standard image. The lower the time it takes, the higher the POVmark, and the higher the POVmark the better.
The P III of the Xbox took 00:00:35 seconds to render the image used, obtaining a POVmark of 422.86
The "Emotion Engine" did it in just 00:00:05 seconds to get one hell of a POVmark...2960
Alright so its clear, the PS2 GPU beats the one in the Xbox. The P III processor may be good in other tasks that do not involve graphics, so the use of a processor like this in a console wastes it\'s power. The lesson companies like microsoft have to learn: Do not try to make a computer processor (CISC), beat a RISC one like the PS2\'s in handling graphics because that is what RISC processors are made for.
-Coprocessors:
The PS2 has 3 coprocessors, 2 vector units and 1 floating point unit. The PSX and PS2 developer Naughty Dog claims that not using the Vu\'s it\'s like using only a little more than half of the PS2\'s power. The Xbox on the other hand has no coprocessors.
These are the PS2 coprocessor specs:
-Main Memory:
The main memory in the Playstation 2 is 32 MB of DRAM. It means Dynamic RAM, it\'s structure allows it to send and recieve data simultaneusly making it twice as fast...as fast as 64 MB or RAM, however storage is always 32 MB. This memory is used only by the "Emotion Engine", because the "Graphics Synthesiser" (the PS2\'s graphics chip) uses it\'s own 4 MB of VRAM.
In the Xbox the, graphics chip and GPU share 64 MB of RAM, this structure lets developers choose how much memory each one will use, while in the PS2 it is already determined. Now here comes the bad part for the Xbox: Sharing RAM means that the graphics chip and GPU also have to share it\'s 6.4 GB of bandwidth which is extreeeeeeeeeeemely slow for the Xbox graphics chip when compared to the 48 GB of bandwidth the "Graphics Synthesiser" in the PS2 uses and DOES NOT SHARE . The "Emotion Engine" uses it\'s own 3.2 GB of bandwidth.
The slow main memory bandwidth in the Xbox slows down significantly the best thing inside it: it\'s NVidia graphics chip
Conclusion: Look beyond the numbers when comparing hardware. Now you see why sony spent almost 5 years creating the PS2, they made their own GPU, graphics chip and other parts so that the PS2 performed well handling graphics and if you don\'t bother to do that... you know what kind of crappy console you\'ll end up creating.
Topic: My GOD, the truth finally comes out about Billy\'s X-BOX.... (Read 2855 times)