Ok, it's time for an honest feature benefit comparison! The reigning champ PS2, vs newcomers Xbox and Game Cubicle!

[Lex]

Ok, it's Game Cube. Seriously, I thought about adding a new system, as our PS1 and 64 Nintendo are obviously aging. I would like to see a layout of features, benefits, performance comparisons, software futures, capabilities, etc...

First, in reading tonight, I hear that even though the PS2 has a 300 mghz CPU, it's actually a gaming designed CPU, that will transverse graphics 9 times as fast as X box and 6 times as fast as Game Cube. Fact or fiction?

Some say if your gonna get an XBox you might as well get a computer, true or false?

Game Cube, great for little kiddies.

How about resolution?

software titles and prices?

The future?

Backward compatibility? PS2 is compatible with PS1 discs, right?

Ok, you guys call yourself gamers, take an honest look, not being wooed by the latest bells and whistles. It's elimination round baby! They can't all be winners.

Let's play elimination gamation!




Cable Guy DVD Collection

[Trevor Schell]

Here is how I look at it..

PS2..
Great for everyone in the family.
Everygame I have seen to date has displayed graphics and detail that is always more than satisfactory. No 5.1 sound on games however.
There are games that appeal to the older crowd and there are games that appeal to the younger crowd like my 4 year old daughter..
Other advantages are that the PS2,
- Does play the older PS1 games which are cheap to purchase.
- Plays DVD's,,the girls frequently play their Disney DVD's in the PS2 when the main TV is tied up.
- The game library is huge and current release titles seem to be A+ titles with 3to 4 new ones out every week.
- Large selection of titles to rent at the same price of renting a DVD and a 5 day return window.
- PlayStation magazine comes with a PS2 disc packed with game demo's..

We already have the PS2 and have more than received our money's worth out of it..No regrets here.

GameCube

More titles aimed at the younger crowd..
Does not play DVD's..
I think this would be a must have though for those with younger kids as it could be considered as a learning tool for children. My daughter has really developed her hand ,eye cordination as well as sense of direction from playing adventure games on the PS2..Also develops memory as she has to return to certain locations periodically through out the games.
The kids are getting one for Christmas.. There will be more games suitable for them than what was available for the PS2..So that is the reason for this purchase.
Zelda will be for me though,,When it comes out.

XBOX

An adult box for the big screen gaming in High-Def and 5.1 surround sound!!:E:E:E
Look no further..
I'm getting one.


For Lex,,I would recommend the XBOX.




Trevor
My HomeTheater S.E.
Sonically Enhanced
C5

[SiliGoose]

I hear that even though the PS2 has a 300 mghz CPU, it's actually a gaming designed CPU, that will transverse graphics 9 times as fast as X box and 6 times as fast as Game Cube. Fact or fiction?

Transverse graphics?
I don't even know what that means.

Here's the deal: Xbox is a bit more powerful than Gamecube which is a bit more powerful than PS2. Don't get caught up in the tech specs with consoles because in reality, they don't matter.

All 3 systems are so close in terms of graphical power that the average gamer will never notice the difference. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't know what he's talking about. It's that simple.

Some say if your gonna get an XBox you might as well get a computer, true or false?

In my opinion, Xbox is no more a PC than Gamecube or PS2. Sure, it uses off the shelf parts (including a hard drive) but it's the OS that distinctly separates Xbox from your typical Microsoft-based PC.

Game Cube, great for little kiddies.

True. But Nintendo is making a real effort to appeal to older gamers as well. No one makes games like Nintendo -it doesn't matter how old or young you are.

How about resolution?

PS2 tops out at 480i. Gamecube can do 480p (as long as the game supports it -which many do). Xbox can theoretically do 1080i but only one game has even been announced with support for that resolution. Most of the Xbox launch titles will do 480p (which I predict will be the most common high-res option).

software titles and prices?

New software for each system starts at $39.99. The PS2 has the advantage of being a year old so you can find older titles discounted.

The future?

That's the real question, isn't it?
It's all about exclusive content. Nintendo has their own franchises (Mario, Zelda, Metriod, Pokemon, etc.). Sony has paid lots of money for others to develope exclusives (Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Wipeout). Microsoft seems to be following Sony's model of paying for top tier exclusives.
I think all three can thrive in today's market.

Backward compatibility? PS2 is compatible with PS1 discs, right?

Yup...a library of over 1000 games from the moment you open the box.

Right now the PS2 can't be beat. The graphics are great, the software library is great and the future prognosis for software is great. It's that middle category (having a great software library) that Nintendo and Microsoft cannot currently compete with. Having just launched they are at an obvious disadvantage. I'd certainly argue that each launched with a mediocre selection of titles (Xbox has a small advantage over Nintendo, IMO). That will certainly change over the next year, however.

The real battle will occur Christmas 2002.




-Sili

[Bing Fung]

Lex in answer to the Sony's graphics cabability over Xbox let me just say this.

Sony

CPU Emotion Engine(EE)
295 Mhz
128-bit Integer
21 KB L1 cache
16 Kb scratch pad cache
450 drystone
2.1 MIPS
6.2 GFLOPS

System RAM
32Mb RDRAM RAM @ 800 MHz 2 x 16-bit
3.2 GB/sec Memory Bandwidth

Graphics Processor (GPU)
Sony GS
150 MHz
2.4 gigapixels per second
1.2 gigatexels per second
20 million polygons per second
32-bit color processing
24-bit color output
4MB video memory
19.2 GB/sec read
19.2 GB/sec write
9.6 GB/sec texture read
1.2 GB/sec texture swap

Sound Processor
SPU2
48 2D voices
ADPCM encoding
2MB RAM
_________________________________________

Xbox

CPU Custom Intel P3 CPU.
733 MHz
32-bit integer
80-bit floating-point (x87 FPU)
64-bit MMX (integer SIMD)
128-bit SSE (4x 32-bit precision floating-point SIMD)
32KB L1 cache (16KB instruction + 16KB data)
128KB L2 cache
1980 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS
2.93 GFLOPS (SSE)
~120.0 GFLOPS (CPU+GPU)


System RAM
64 MB DDR @ 200 MHz 128-bit
6.4 GB/sec Memory Bandwidth

Graphics Processor
NVIDIA xGPU
250 MHz
1.0 gigapixel per second
2.0 gigatexels per second
4.0 billion anti-aliased samples per second
60 million polygons per second
programmable vertex and pixel processors
texture compression
full-scene anti-aliasing
32-bit color processing
24-bit color output
shares 64MB system memory
6.4 GB/sec memory bandwidth
no swapping due to unified memory

Sound Processor
NVIDIA MCPX APU
256 2D voices
64 3D voices
Dolby Digital
shares 64MB system memory
800 MB/sec via HyperTransport


The Sony CPU is very impressive, and uses 2 co-processors to assist in FPU calculation, however it is very difficult to program and utilize the co-processors to extract the optimal performance from the assembly. The EE has a very small on-die cache, 16KB, it's no secret that a high-bandwidth L2 cache is critical to performance, which the EE is lacking.

The EE also relies on the CPU to perform all floating point calculations and aid in 3D transform & lighting (T&L) calculations. The biggest known problem of the Sony system is the implementation and handling of the T&L calculations during 3D rendering. The PS2's architecture is non standard to what developers are accustomed to and can really be tough to extract the best performance.

The Sony does not natively support Anti aliasing which is very important for resolutions at 640x480 for it eliminates the jaggies. The 4 Mb video memory is too small to hold enough information to provide high frame per second rendering. It relies on a very fast memory bus to transfer data from the CPU to the GPU. This amount of memory band width of 3.2GB/s limits the amount of storage for game execution code as well as high resolution textures.


The Xbox Coppermine CPU is a very well known architecture that is very easy to extract top performance from, developers have been building on this code for many years now. It has 128KB L2 cache with a 256-bit data bus. The CPU does not have to handle any of the T&L calculations like the Sony's EE. If a program is coded correctly, the CPU should only be used for AI, physics and other such calculations, leaving the GPU to handle all of the T&L and actual 3D rendering. That's how the Xbox can theoretically achieve such a high GFLOPS (120 vs Sony's paltry 6.2) the CPU is freed to do it’s job.

That leads us to the box's GPU, it is with out argument the more powerfull of the 2 GPUs. The numbers and features really speak for themselves with it's 60 Million polygons/s vs the Sony's 20 Million polygons/s, high memory bandwidth, DirectX 8.1 support, programmable pixel and vertex shaders, support of Full Screen Anti Aliasing and support for 480I, 480P, 720P and 1080I High Definition resolutions. As programmers really start to develop games that utilize the full potential of the Xbox, we will really start to see the difference that technology can make.

Add on top of that the built in 8 MB Hard Drive, 10/100 Broadband support, available on-line gaming (NOW) Dolby digital sound, Nvidia’s Nforce based motherboard….

Which on of those 2 do you think rocks?

GC is a nice option as well if it has games you would like to play, the power of the Cube lies beneath the Xbox and above the PS2. It's very impressive as well for what they have packed into it, however, I don't really see that race as GC vs Xbox, rather PS2 vs Xbox, GC is a culture entirely upon itself.

Future is uncertain for the Xbox and GC as they are new releases. One thing is for sure though, the PS2 could stop production today and you would never run out of games to play. Thats not to say all the games are good, however you have a good percentage over the other 2.

Xbox, won't be lacking for titles and should survive if MS plays there cards right. What does concern me is is I have yet to see an Xbox add on TV, not that I have been watching a lot of TV, still I haven't seen much of that 500 Million marketing budget MS is goingg to spend, word of mouth can only do so much. MS has a lot of game developers on board and they do have deep pockets.

Nintendo has a huge fan base of loyal players that are supporting the GC. However most sales of the GC are based on Parent sales, that is they are parents buying the unit for their kids based on name and not really being gamers themselves. The biggest selling GC title to date is Luigi's Mansion, whichj is kind of a childs game. Still, N will have adult games coming, but it all depends on what you want to play that will determine which one is for you.

Those are just my speculations and could be all wrong :B




Bing

[Lex]

Wowser, great posts guys! All 3, good info, slightly different twists, and Bing, the PC God comes through with number crunching info!

I have read it all 2 times, and still trying to digest it all. lol. Any other entries? If so, belly up to the bar and tell us.

Lex

[Bing Fung]

Just a mere mortal who thinks he knows more than he actually does Lex...

Sili's post was really to the point and addresses the tabled items very well.

Trev's and mine has a pro Xbox slant




Bing

[SiliGoose]

It's all about opinion. Lex, the best thing you can do is shop the available games and make your decision based upon titles you find interesting.

I'd bet you choose PS2.

I love my Xbox (Halo in 5.1 DD is amazing) but am a bit disappointed with the initial Gamecube software (not a Mario title in the bunch!). I, for one, LOVE Nintendo's first party games and expect great things in the near future. That said, the PS2 is running at full steam right now. Neither Microsoft nor Nintendo can really compete with that.




-Sili

[Chip]

With a 16:9 Mitsubishi and a smok'n 5.1 rig, the choice was simple.... XBOX all the way!

- Chip




Chip Engle


"Concrete ain't a spectator sport"


<a href="http://www.htguide.com/bilder/index.cfm?fuseaction=arkivbilder&userid=0&selected userid=336" target="_blank">My HT

[Trevor Schell]

And you don't have to worry about these game boxes catching a Virus..




Trevor
My HomeTheater S.E.
Sonically Enhanced
C5