PS3 smoothing beyond that of high-end PC graphics card

[shuggabug1]

A PEICE OF INFO TO MAKE 360 OWNERS TINK BEFORE THEY SPEAK,,im not a ps3 fanboy just like the facts...

The PS3 is truly an amazing piece of hardware that is surprising everyone as time passes. Digital Foundry recently conducted an interesting analysis on the tech used in the game Saboteur, which revealed that the PS3 is capable of producing something even a high-end PC graphics card has difficulty with.

As a software developer by trade, new and intriguing tech has always been like crack to me. I recall the mystery and awe when hyper-threading was first introduced and one of our major clients requested that we upgrade our latest version of the software to take advantage of HT.

In a similar vein, the Cell processor is cutting edge stuff. The Cell in conjunction with the GPU is capable of squeezing out 2.0 trillion floating point operations per second on the fly, which is super-computer worthy and out performs the Xbox 360’s 355 billion floating operation points/second. This is the type of tech running on the latest IBM Blades residing in our maximum security data centers near DC.

Digital Foundry recently did an analysis showing that the post-processing tech, once thought to be MSAA, on the PS3 apparently is far more advanced than anything seen. Anti-aliasing or edge smoothing has always been a challenge even on the PC front.

The Xbox 360 can do up to 4x MSAA via the built in graphics card. However, the PS3 has an NVIDIA card which really doesn’t do much in the post-processing department as it was initially intended to be left off the console. The Cell processor was originally supposed to handle all graphics processing, but due to concerns that it would be difficult for the developers to program on, a decision was made to incorporate a limited graphics card.



However, Sony’s intent was for the developers to utilize the Cell processors eventually leaning off the graphics card crutch. We have seen developers like Naughty Dog who have mostly moved off the graphics card in the PS3 and are now utilizing the SPUs fully in the Cell processor as seen in Uncharted 2. According to DF, the developers for Saboteur also utilized one of the SPUs to do the post-processing work resulting in edge-smoothing beyond the capabilities of a 16x MSAA found on high-end PC graphics card.

The PS3 rendition of Pandemic’s The Saboteur is different though. It’s special. It’s trying something new that’s never been seen before on console, or indeed PC, and its results are terrific. In a best-case scenario you get edge-smoothing that is beyond the effect of 16x multi-sampling anti-aliasing, effectively delivering an effect better than the capabilities of high-end GPUs without crippling performance. Compare and contrast with Xbox 360 hardware, which tops out at 4x MSAA.

Note: DF made a correction, there are a few titles that have tried this but not to the level of success Pandemic has had.

With only a few studios attempting this tech, it will be interesting to see more developers relying on the Cell processor in the future.

 

[witchy]

....just adds more confusion to the equation, coz i can guarantee you that none of my ps3 games look any better than my 360 games. BTW, how old is your ps3 fanboy propaganda exactly?

 

[Thommo]

....just adds more confusion to the equation, coz i can guarantee you that none of my ps3 games look any better than my 360 games. BTW, how old is your ps3 fanboy propaganda exactly?

uncharted and uncharted 2 esp does look better for sure, but there the only two ive played that do, i have and play both consoles presently. also id add its not mind blowing difference.

still dont think we,ve seen developers really try with the ps3 tbh.

and just so im not to be confused as a fanboy lol, xbl is better than psn.

 

[witchy]

Hardly a fair comparison though is it.

Two games that are PS3 exclusives.

Once some cross platform games arrive that use the CELL as a GPU then we'll be able to see the real difference - if there is one.

You seem a little underwhelmed Thommo as you say
"it's not mind blowing", reading the OP post and seeing the staggering numbers being thrown around I'd expect the difference to quite impressive.

We all know the PS3 is a shit hot piece of technology, but I can't be the only PS3 owner fed up waiting for it to prove itself.

 

[Thommo]

ps3 exclusives yes but whatever game it does look better than anything ive seen on the xbox, and the comment about not mind blowing referred to more "its not nes vs xbox"

the ps3 is a good machine i think the thing that lets it down is the dash (but thats not game related) and the fact theres not hack for it.

up side free online and thats the thing that annoys me about the xbox (after all there not hosting owt its p2p except EA who do host games.

for me theres no great difference they both have good points and both have bad points, owning one over the other shouldnt even come into it and i cant see why there flame/fanboy wars, there not that far away from each other tbh.

some may not agree but for me i cant see what the fuss is about its not as said like owning a nes vs owning an xbox and comparing them, in them consoles there are huge differences but in the ps3 and xbox360 theres isnt that much at all.

i like em both but could like them both more if things change with both of them.

 

[Exclusive]

not read full thread

but ive got ps3 xbox 360 and wiiiiiii


ps3 truly pisses on the xbox

i do love the xbox but ps3 wins... graphics are amazing... i compared cod mw2 on both machines and i truly enjoyed playing on ps3...

ps3 ps3 ps3

 

[Thommo]

not read full thread

but ive got ps3 xbox 360 and wiiiiiii


ps3 truly pisses on the xbox

i do love the xbox but ps3 wins... graphics are amazing... i compared cod mw2 on both machines and i truly enjoyed playing on ps3...

ps3 ps3 ps3

i have them both (ps3/360) but cant quote mw2 but i can add another game i forgot earlier cod 4 looks and plays smoother on ps3.

i love em both but somethings are better on one console and vice versa in other cases.

 

[Exclusive]

i have them both (ps3/360) but cant quote mw2 but i can add another game i forgot earlier cod 4 looks and plays smoother on ps3.

i love em both but somethings are better on one console and vice versa in other cases.

i do like both machines.. but for some reason the ps3 wins it for me.. i dont know why but it just does.. maybe to me the graphics look alot clearer...

but i dont like it when people say ones better then the other... gaming console people should have a open mind

 

[nara]

Interesting stuff shuggagug1, but you should really quote your source if you're going to do a cut and paste. It gives people the opportunity to decide how much credence to give to the original article.

 

[Explosivo]

it may beat the xbox 360 in some games but there aint no way it's beating a high end gaming pc at anything.

my pc would bend a ps3 over and rape it in the ass

 

[shuggabug1]

Sorry guys didnt want to post a link incase i got in trouble i should state its not my article and i am not looking for any credit, i just thought it was intresting is all,,,yes your pc may rape the ps3 in the ass, but as far as tech goes the ps3 is the most powerful thing out there with them cell chips only diffrence between a ps3 and your pc is the fact that developers etc are only scratching the surface with it, bear in mind that naughty dog(uncharted 2) folk have only used 20% of one cell proccessor and there is 7 of these in a ps3. the ps3 is so powerful that the nasa ppl use them for reasearch,,(not a fan boy btw preffer xbox live) i play my ps3 more, just wish developers would get there fingers out there arse and stop being scared to use the cells,,,most of the developers are still using the standard proccessor in the ps3 that sony decided to add as they knew the cell were too advanced for what dev are used to...smoke some of that in your pipe

 

[hybrid32]

Its ok saying that devs are only scratching the surface of the ps3 but until they really bother to get the best from it we will never know.As for cod mw 2 its a 4 yr old game engine and doesnt push either console imo.

 

[chrispeters]

i actually really like PSN ...its FREE !!!!!!!!! roud:

and yeah, i have both ....

 

[Raven24]

Hardly a fair comparison though is it.

Two games that are PS3 exclusives.

Isn't the whole point of this thread to do with the power of the PS3 in comparison to the competition or vice versa ? Also you can make it fair if you want, compare 360 exclusives from Halo to Gears to the very latest and greatest and you still won't find anything to match Uncharted's graphics from the original let alone Among Thieves or Killzone2.

We all know the PS3 is a shit hot piece of technology, but I can't be the only PS3 owner fed up waiting for it to prove itself.

You can't impress a person that is predetermined to dislike regardless, that is to say quite honestly you'll be waiting a hell of a long time for the PS3 to "prove itself" if you didn't find anything in 2008/2009 which achieved this....besides it's fairly obvious that you're a 360 fanboy. I've noticed it already in your posts, truth is it not ?

Its ok saying that devs are only scratching the surface of the ps3 but until they really bother to get the best from it we will never know.

It's not really as simple as that though mate, console continuously improve what they are capable of right until the end, the PS3 is 3 years old and already we have graphics like Killzone2 and Uncharted 2 - that's not bad at all, the 360 isn't anywhere near it graphically and imo I believe that to be pretty much a fact, despite the 360 being out longer, we simply haven't seen the 360 push the technology barrier since the PS3 came out whereas the PS3 has been doing it from day one, and this year God Of War3 is coming out which will set another bar if Heavy Rain doesn't.....and then of course there's Gran Turismo5. So yeah, it's an ongoing and gradual thing as always but for me 3 years in to have graphics like Uncharted2 says to me the developers are getting the best out of the system in the moment, it's just they always refine and improve.

 

[scottymo76]

Also own both machines and there isn't a great deal of difference.

Agree with the MW2 point. Defo smoother experience on the PS3 but not massively.

I lean towards me PS3 but it is a close call. Both machines have there merits but I believe the 360 has peaked technically whilst the PS3 still has a fair bit to give as developers finally get to grips with it's true power.

Reminds me my experiences with Atari ST and Amiga in the past. For first 3 years there was little difference then the Amiga versions of games started becoming superior as developers became familiarised. Led onto exclusives etc Same situation will arise here imho

 

[bn3]

all xbox "fanboys" new this all along but its only just starting to show now the ps3 hardwear was far superior to xbox right from the start and noone could ever denie it but ther was just no point in it, it was wasted tech so to speak and at the privious rate of consol developmet it made no sence to spend the extra cash on a ps3 over a 360 ,but since microsoft has supposedly made the anouncment that ther will be no next gen console from them for a long time to come and the fact that the possible ps3 hack is just around the corner and that game developers are now been able to progress thire games towards the higher capabilaties of the ps3 i forsee alot of ppl jumping ship, but this hopefully will lead towards alot more freedom with the 360 if microsoft are not as stupid as they would have you belive, so you will never get an straight/correct answer to the witch is best.

in my opinion we are only just comming to a turning point at where the ps3 will truly become actualy "better" then the 360 as is the natural proggression for this situation (no softwear companies will right stuff for systems that arnt as widly spread as another. (pc gpu's not 360's )and i personly hope that microsoft get thire Larrabee GPU right and can come back with somthing as well designed as the ps3 (if thats what they intend to use it for)