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PS3 GPU Less Powerful Than GeForce 7800?

Posted by Zonk on from the confusing dept.

dividedsky319 writes "The Inquirer (as well as a more biased Team Xbox) is reporting that the PlayStation 3's GPU will be a little less powerful than a GeForce 7800, which would also mean it's less powerful than the Xbox360. If true, what could this mean for the release of the PS3, a year later than the Xbox360 is released?" From the article: "It's all awfully confusing we know, though it is an interesting tech mystery to try and get to the bottom of. Of course Microsoft and Sony engineers all know exactly what's in the difference between the two consoles, but the marketing people want to tell us that their console is twenty times better than everyone elses, so we must wait until someone rips the two boxes open and benchmarks them..."

8 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Disproven in minutes by TechniMyoko · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/9132/PlayStation-3-G PU-More-Powerful-than-GeForce-7800/

    Kick the fanboys off the editors panel!

    1. Re:Disproven in minutes by TechniMyoko · · Score: 3, Informative
      NVIDIA contacted us today after we published the "PlayStation 3 GPU Less Powerful than GeForce 7800" story based on a report found at The Inquirer. Derek Perez, NVIDIA's Director of Public Relations, was kind enough to provide us the actual paragraph from the September issue of PSM. Here is the information from the blurb in question:

      There's no doubting that NVIDIA's new 7800GTX is the ultimate in PC graphics technology. The card's G70 GPU, which is more than twice as powerful as two of NVIDIA's previous top-of-the-line 6800 boards, shares a lot of similar workings with the PS3's RSX chip - only it isn't as fast. Oh, and it retails for $599.

      The article actually says the GeForce 7800 GTX is not as fast as the RSX graphics processing unit that NVIDIA developed for the PlayStation 3.

      We apologize for any confusion and we'd like to thank NVIDIA for providing the exact info

  2. Relativity? by DamienMcKenna · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The PS3 will be released for the same price as one expansion card and have (guessing) ten times the technology in it and people are bitching? Get a life. Does the 7800 have a cell processor behind it? Or any of the other advanced features?

    Damien

    1. Re:Relativity? by yasth · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One should keep in mind the bill of materials cost for producing a graphics chip is actually pretty low. Nvidia places a massive markup to cover research, and product development (and marketing and other things). So there is no cost to eat. They lose some margin, but make it up in volume, and since you can't rip the chips out and use them in a pc, they don't hurt any other market (except for those few that would have bought a high end card that will now buy a console)

      --
      I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
  3. Who cares! by defkkon · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I really don't think that many of us care whether the PS3 graphics chip will be a generation behind, and the Xbox 360 will be the cutting edge for the next 12 months.

    How many times do we need to say it - its not the hardware that makes great games - its the gameplay! The graphics chips will help make a more immersive environment - but other than that, who cares?

    The only thing these statistics help is the pissing contest between Sony and Microsoft.

    I'm buying an Xbox 360. Its not because of the fact that its graphics chip is "bigger" than the PS3's.

    BTW, don't even bother reading the Team Xbox article. It extremely biased, and sounds like it was written by the PR department.

  4. Already corrected by Murrow · · Score: 4, Informative

    Inq has already corrected the story. NVidia says the PS3 GPU will be slightly more powerful than the 7800.

    1. Re:Already corrected by Satorian · · Score: 3, Interesting

      From the link on TheInq: For all those who have blamed this debacle on us, we'd point casually towards the people we sourced. What the fuck? This quote shows everything one needs to know about TheInq's 'journalism'.

  5. System specs are second... by Irish_Samurai · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Man, the only people who buy systems on systems specs alone are idiots. Who cares how beefy a console is if it has 1/3 the library of another console? Game Cube anyone? That purple box could render graphics far superior to the PS2, yet the PS2 library is waht made it king.

    I know fanboys love to brag about the specs for their boxes, but it really doesn't mean that much.

    Take for example the way developers make their games. Japanese developers prefer to prerender their cinematics as opposed to rendering them in real time. The XBOX 360 is designed to render these cinematics in real time. Japanese developers have to change the way they build their games, and that is a speedbump when it comes to garnering the powerful Japanese 3rd party support.