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[yourself]

The "RSX" GPU in the PS3 is literally a 7900GT at 550MHz with 8 ROPs disabled, and only 256MB of DDR3 1400MHz on a 128-bit memory bus. The Cell Processor is a custom IBM Power PC CPU and it's completely unlike anything we've ever seen, or likely will ever see in a desktop PC. It's not necessarily faster or slower than what you could put in your desktop, just different. It uses the Power PC instruction set, and is an in order processor, and is asymmetrical. The main core known as the PPU in the Cell is basically the same as one of the cores in the Xbox360's Xenos CPU; the Cell in the PS3 also has 7 SPEs (originally 8 but 1 was disabled to improve yields) and 1 of the SPEs is reserved to the PS3's OS, so developers really only have access to 6 of them. If you were doing something that required a lot of branch prediction, any semi-current desktop CPU would beat the Cell. Where the Cell shows its power is with scientific applications due to its massive FP performance, which would outperform even the QX9770 because that's all it was designed to do. If you take a look at the folding@home statistics, there are roughly 6 times as many active donors on Windows than there are PS3 donors, yet the PS3 group has a total performance rating a little over 5x higher than the Windows group.

In a level playing environment both the Xbox360 and PS3 would get pounded by the current highest end hardware on the market, but it isn't a level playing field. In fact, PC games are so poorly optimized in comparison to something you will get on the Xbox360 or PS3, you have to rely on the brute strength of your hardware to compensate for the lazy coding. When we get towards the end of the Xbox360 and PS3 life cycle the gap between the PC and consoles will be huge, but that's what happens when you keep the same hardware for half a decade.

[yourself]

correction the ps3 gpu is 512 MB of DDR3, even though DDR3 has been gone from new products for the last 4 years

[Xytan]

I bought a PS3 because I was concerned my current graphics card couldn't play any new games. I have a GeForce GTS 250 512MB card. I figured buying the PS3 would be better than buying a new card, but now it appears I have ripped myself off because I essentially paid 300 dollars for a 5 year old graphics card! *kicks self in ass*

[yourself]

I bought a PS3 because I was concerned my current graphics card couldn't play any new games. I have a GeForce GTS 250 512MB card. I figured buying the PS3 would be better than buying a new card, but now it appears I have ripped myself off because I essentially paid 300 dollars for a 5 year old graphics card! *kicks self in ass*

I also have a gts 250 in one of my 3 builds, it isn't for gaming but I recently wanted to test it out and it preforms on the highest settings with AA at 16x, the game I tested was need for speed hot pursuit 2, the latest one.  I wouldn't call it a total waste.  You are better off with a PS3 than an XBOX360.  You don't have to pay to go online, you also can use it as a blu ray player.  I still don't mind console gaming but PC gaming will always be miles ahead.  I just got a new card and eyefinity (with 3 monitors)!!!

[Xytan]

Well yeah the PS3 isn't a complete waste, because now I can play those console exclusives such as LA Noire. But I think I will be sticking with PC for the multiplatform releases.

What card do you recommend for gaming? The GTXs?

[yourself]

Yeah, another thing to think about is if you are gaming with a high end card you need to invest in good optical output.  You need a monitor that can run 1920 x 1080p and a monitor that can run up to 120Hz, 60Hz is fine but 120Hz is need for the highest end gaming cards so you can see the effects of 100fps.

[Xytan]

I'm looking at a 460 GTX right now on Newegg for 170 dollars. That's not bad, and the reviews say it will play any game you throw at it.

But what about the processor? I have a Pentium Dual Core 2.7 GHz, couldn't that hit the performance too?

[yourself]

I'm looking at a 460 GTX right now on Newegg for 170 dollars. That's not bad, and the reviews say it will play any game you throw at it.

But what about the processor? I have a Pentium Dual Core 2.7 GHz, couldn't that hit the performance too?

I also have a GTX 460 1GB DDR5, it's a great card and can handle anything.  The processor does depend.   For gaming you need a fast processor to comprehend your fast GPU.  If you went a got a gtx460 and used that cpu, youd just be bottle necking your system, it would be a waste.  You need to upgrade to at least an i3 processor, or phenom II 4 core (AMD). 

[Xytan]

My motherboard only supports Core 2 Duo processors.

[yourself]

Now we're getting into the money. lol

Yeah and not to mention Intel's cpu's are not headed in the right direction.  Sandy bridge is a crock of shit.  AMD is about to rule the CPU department with it's new bulldozer release soon.  I am an AMD guy, both CPUs and GPUs.  An I3 or phenom II 955 are fairly cheap though.  I'd recommend the 955 over the I3, because in order to take advantage of an I3 you'd need to use hyperthreading, which means new RAM is needed as well.  I have 3 955s and helped a friend recently build a rig where he chose a 955 after talking with me, lol.  He loves his new rig.

[Xytan]

What's the best core 2 duo processor?

[yourself]

no idea, im an AMD guy.  all i can say is core duo wont be enough

[Xytan]

no idea, im an AMD guy.  all i can say is core duo wont be enough

In that case, maybe I will just stick with PS3. The graphical difference isn't THAT major.

And almost all games are made on consoles these days any way. That means they're perfectly optimized to run on a console.

[yourself]

no idea, im an AMD guy.  all i can say is core duo wont be enough

In that case, maybe I will just stick with PS3. The graphical difference isn't THAT major.

And almost all games are made on consoles these days any way. That means they're perfectly optimized to run on a console.

That means no difference in optimization.  The reason not all games go to PC is one simple fact, it takes more time and money to code it.  The codes are a lot more complex with PC versions of the games, so most games are just console games, the main reason...well it's easier to make a short storied game that has many games in the series than it is to keep updating a multiplatform game.  Most games now a days are multiplatform, there really isn't a game I can't play on PC.  However there are many PC games that aren't for consoles, directx 11 rocks!

[Xytan]

This is absolutely insane! The PS3 has only 256MB of RAM, but yet it can run games with incredible visuals such as this: