PS3 vs. XBox 360: A Side By Side Comparison
Posted by Sean Fallon on November 29, 2006
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Gaming site 1UP has put together a side by side comparison of the PS3 and the XBox 360 from a visual perspective. The verdict? Despite being touted as a far superior gaming system on the hardware side, the PS3s visuals look about the same as they do on the 360.
“We put the PS3 lineup to the test. We captured images and video of several games and their Xbox 360 counterparts - using the same exact capture device, with same type of connection cables, running at the same exact resolutions. Now you tell us, are we just missing something or was the next generation here all along?“
I’ll have to admit, the visuals do look basically the same. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Gears of War looks better on the XBox than anything available on the PS3. However, I still think that there are a couple of things missing from 1UPs argument. First off, the XBox 360 has been out for over a year. Developers have familiarized themselves with the console and are now able to push its limits. As time goes by, the secrets of the PS3 will also be unlocked (although the word on the street is that the PS3 is difficult to develop for). Second, there has been a lot of talk about the PS3 launch lineup being rather poor - an assessment that isn’t exactly surprising when you consider the extremely low number of consoles at launch. It’s pretty obvious that Sony was rushing both the PS3 and its games to market in time for the holiday season. It’s only natural that quality would suffer.
To be honest, I’m not to excited about the PS3 right now - but I would give it a good year before a real definitive comparison can be made.
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[…] Last month a side by side comparison of the PS3 and the XBox 360s graphics capabilities seemed to indicate that there was very little difference between the two consoles. This time Gamespot has taken it a step further by saying that the XBox 360 actually fared better than the PS3 from a visual perspective. “The Xbox 360 had better graphics in almost all the games we examined. The 360’s biggest victories were in Madden 07 and Fight Night Round 3, where the differences in texture detail and lighting stood out in our comparison shots. We couldn’t capture this in the screenshots, but the Xbox 360 games generally offered better framerates too.“ […]
When actually looking at FN3 and Madden you can notice extensive graphic improvements in the PS3. When you play them at the same resolution then yeah, they are noticeably close but the reason anyone purchases the PS3 ocer the 360 is because it can run at higher resolutions than the 360. The PS3 is obviously blu-ray which runs optimally at 1080p opposed to the 360 which does not offer such. How can these be compared equally when you are trying to find the better of the two?
There is a fundamental flaw in this type of side-by-side analysis. Namely that the games are the same. I will explain.
I’m not involved in the industry, so all of this is speculation. Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I understand, when game devs make their models and their texture maps, etc. they only make them once. Why would they need to start from the ground up all over again to compensate for the differences in game console hardware? Most of the games this time around are 360 games, which are then ported to the Playstation3, because the Ps3 can handle it. The graphics look the same, because their built the same. You generally won’t get a higher detail brick wall from one to the other because the game devs who made it use the same picture for both.
Numbers don’t lie. The ps3 can handle a higher resolution brick wall. The problem is game devs don’t bother to make one for it. In fact, the only definitive difference that actually counts from this type of side-by-side analysis is in framerate.
If testers want to compare to find which has the better framerate, they use the same texture maps in both consoles. If they want to find which can handle higher resolution texture maps, they should adjust the resolutions in each until the two wind up putting out the same framerate.