Picked this up from another site good read!
The term "General Purpose" CPU Power is one that is very useful for gaming.
One of the reasons why Xbox 360 versions of multi-platform games always end up so much better than Playstation 3 games is because the games use traditional programming code, which really gives the Xbox 360 a big performance advantage over the Playstation 3.
Just look at the way games like Call of Duty 3 and F.E.A.R. have perfectly smooth framerates on the Xbox 360, but the Playstation 3 versions of the game have very choppy framerates.
The reason for performance problems like that with the Playstation 3 is often because of the lack of General Purpose CPU power.
The other reason for those framerate performance problems in Playstation 3 games is because the PS3 is always limited to 256MB of CPU RAM, much of which is dedicated to the 96MB PS3 Operating System that takes up too much memory.
Xbox 360 has a much more efficient Operating System that takes up only 32MB of RAM, and the Xbox 360 can use up to 512MB of RAM for the General Purpose CPU functions. Xbox 360 even has an addition 10MB of eDRAM to help with General Purpose CPU power.
No doubt about, the General Purpose CPU power is something the developers of games appreciate very much! I should know, because I'm a game developer! General Purpose power gives you the ability to use processing power and RAM wherever you need it at any time; it is very flexible.
But the Playstation 3 has so many hardware bottleneck restrictions and limitations that it makes programming very difficult. What would you rather have, one 3.2 Ghz CPU with two threads, like the PS3 has, or would you rather thave three 3.2Ghz Power PC chips, each with two threads, for a total of six threads, like the Xbox 360 has. I think it's pretty obvious that the Xbox 360 is better.
I was reading an article from Ubisoft that talked about how the Xbox 360 version of Assassins Creed will have noticeably better Artificial Intelligence than the Playstation 3 version. The reason for this is because the developers said they could devote an entire CPU to focus entirely on Artificial Intelligence with the Xbox 360.
The Playstation 3 can't compete with that kind of performance, because it's outdated parallel processing architecture won't allow it. PS3 only has one CPU with only two threads. There are seven SPE subprocessors that receive instructions from the CPU with their thread. The problem is the fact that the CPU has only two threads to send signals with. Sony originally wanted to include two Cell CPU processors with the PS3, but they couldn't because of the pricing. This means the PS3 can only send instructions to two SPE subprocessors at a time. This is not an efficient way to program games; it is literally like trying to juggle seven balls with only two hands...it's pretty much impossible, and it offers very poor performance.
More and more publishers and developers have become aware of this as time has passed. The performance game continues to increase in favor of the Xbox 360 as time goes on.
Just look how Call of Duty 3 was better on the Xbox 360 when it was released on both systems. The Xbox 360 version had a perfectly smooth framerate, allowed 24 people to talk online with each other, and the controller rumbled. But with the Playstation 3, the controller doesn't rumble, the framerate isn't smooth, and you can't talk to anyone while you are playing online.
Look at how newly released games like Virtua Tennis 3 still don't have online play for the Playstation 3. The Xbox 360 version has online play and online voice chat. Those are awesome features that add a lot of fun to the Xbox 360 version. General Purpose CPU power is one of the reasons why the Xbox 360 is so much better in terms of all the features included in the games.
The gap in performance really is getting bigger, though. Look at the way games are released so much earlier for Xbox 360, and yet the Xbox 360 versions of the games end up so much better. Rainbow Six: Vegas has been available on the Xbox 360 for over six months, and it is awesome! Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 is another Xbox 360 game that has been available for a long time now. The Playstation 3 versions of those games are nowhere to be seen, because there isn't enough "General Purpose" power on the Playstation 3, and it is causing the developers to have to spend a lot more time and money developing the games for the PS3.
The problem is, the Playstation 3 versions of the games aren't worth the wait. Just look at the way F.E.A.R. won all sorts of awards for being a great game with cool gameplay and great graphics when it was released for the PC and Xbox 360 over six months ago.
But when the Playstation 3 version of F.E.A.R. was released, we saw there is a BIG difference in performance between the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. The framerate in F.E.A.R. on the Xbox 360 is smooth at all times, and the online play is great on the Xbox 360. But with the Playstation 3, the framerate often dips below 20 frames per second at times, which makes the game virtually unplayable at times. When you play online, you can't talk to anyone on the PS3. The reason traditional features like that aren't included in the PS3 versions of the games is because the PS3 doesn't have enough traditional "General Purpose" CPU power.
If you want to read the review of F.E.A.R. for yourself, go here: http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3158930
But, the lack of General Purpose CPU power is the reason why the PS3 has developed a reputation for having poor framerates, and offering fewer features in games. This lack of General Purpose CPU power is also why PS3 versions of games are released later in many situations where developers aren't familiar with that type of non-traditional programming environment. Overall, my friends and I are very disappointed with the Playstation 3, it's lack of games, it's difficult programming environment, and it's overall lack of performance.
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