Calling The Console-vs-Computer Tug-Of-War
The 'who's best' capability oscillations between game consoles and PCs are (at least to me) interesting to track. When a console is released, it usually delivers near-state-of-the-art performance and quality features. However, console designs have multi-year lifetimes (assuming, of course, that they succeed in the market at all). Witness, for example, the Sony PS2, which is nearing its seventh anniversary of initial production in Japan.
PCs, conversely, thrive on 2x (or more) per-year product refresh cycles. Not only is there a significant disparity in generation-to-generation transition rates between consoles and PCs, console content developers insist on a stable hardware platform, thereby precluding hardware innovation within that platform (beyond multi-to-single chip integration for cost- and power-reduction purposes). As a result, you'll find that by the time a console's lifecycle concludes, its technology is archaic compared to even entry-level PCs available at the time.
Why do I bring this up? As my late-2005 game console feature article pointed out, it's widely believed (though neither Nvidia or Sony has ever officially confirmed, to the best of my knowledge) that the graphics processor in the PlayStation 3 is a minor derivation of the Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX GPU. A few days back I shared with you some high-quality images rendered on the PS3.
Now take a look at these still images, which this video clip will prove to you were rendered in real time. They're from the intro event for the Nvidia GeForce 8800, which I covered in detail in my previous post. Not only has the GeForce 7800 GTX in the just-entered-production PS3 already been superseded by several GeForce 79xx GPU follow-ons, it's been completely generation-jumped by Nvidia's 8800 chips.
Even if Sony's Phil Harrison is wrong about nobody ever being able to use 100 percent of the PS3's capability, or for that matter if developers ever figure out how to exploit the Xbox 360's potential, both consoles will over time be increasingly obsolete in contrast to PCs containing dual- and quad-core CPUs and the latest GPUs from Nvidia and its competitors. Ain't technology advancement grand?
By the way, for all you Nvidia graphics-inclusive system users contemplating a Windows Vista upgrade, RTM (Release to Manufacturing) drivers are now available.
