Revolution, PS3 and Xbox 360: Flops, Gigaflops and Teraflops
So what is all this flopping about? FLOPS are Floating Point Operations Per Second. Simply put, flops are a measure of how quickly a computer can calculate things. We compare the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Revolution and see which one flops the best (pardon the pun).
What the companies claim about their system’s overall performance:
- Microsoft says the Xbox 360 can do 1 teraflops (that’s 1000 GigaFlops).
- Sony says the PS3 can do about 2 teraflops - twice the Xbox 360’s power!
- Nintendo doesn’t say anything at this point, trying to keep away from the jostle of the market leaders.
We don’t really know about the Revolution at this point. All we do know is that Nintendo’s console is based on an IBM CPU and an ATI graphics chip (same as the Xbox 360, but probably not the same chips).
So - in theory, the PS3 is twice as powerful as the Xbox 360 when it comes to computational speed. Rest assured, though, that this will not make the real difference when it comes to the games, most of which will be released on both PS3 and Xbox 360, and some even on all 3 new systems.
Even in terms of graphics quality, not many predictions can be made. Yes, a system twice as powerful can possibly deal with twice as much stuff going on, but then each system has its own set of tricks up its sleeves to create the most defined, life-like visuals. So if one system is able to produce near photo-realistic graphics, is the other one able to produce twice as near photo-realistic graphics?
We think that each console will have its pros and cons that cannot be measured in Teraflops alone. Market acceptance will show which of the consoles flops (pun intended) and which one prevails. For the sake of a competitive market and high quality games, let’s hope they all make it!
May 18, 2005 @ 10:34 am
coffeeaddict Said,
never thought of it that way…. so it’s true, it’s not the size of the equipment… it’s how you use it *wink*
May 18, 2005 @ 10:58 am
vetan Said,
there is no real prof that ps3 gonna be that powerful. 2times i personally doubt it. Xbox is going to be the most powerful. And multifunctional.
May 18, 2005 @ 12:26 pm
blop Said,
you guys are both silly. im building a console out of a microwave that will be 10 teraflops easy and im releasing it right before christmas sony a […] more
May 18, 2005 @ 3:32 pm
xenon Said,
Interesting comment by “Vetan Said”, are you 12 years old? Until both systems are released, specs may and probably will change. So it’s very possible […] more
May 19, 2005 @ 5:36 am
James Said,
You guys are all wrong Xbox360 is the best thing ever. you tell me one TRUE thing that is better than xbox360 and u must write the website down so i k […] more
May 19, 2005 @ 6:52 am
Squig3273 Said,
Now..Now Kids no fighting ITS JUST A VIDEO GAME. We all know if yer a ps fan your gonna buy the ps3 and the same gos for a xbox fan as well. My person […] more
May 20, 2005 @ 5:48 am
age Said,
blop i think your crazy but prove me wrong. I think that ps3 is going to be better than the xbox 360 unless xbox improve some of the features
May 20, 2005 @ 3:23 pm
Linux Dude Said,
You XBox guys just don’t get it do you? The XBox is not about games or who’s platform is better it’s all about control or graphics, or even game title […] more
May 21, 2005 @ 1:03 am
Ace Said,
Can’t you guys see they have us fighting maby we should just stick to a computer because all the new system games always come on pc. But just get the […] more
May 24, 2005 @ 7:34 pm
IMORTL Said,
The performance claims made in this artilce by MS and Sony are COMPLETE crap! Do you have any Idea how much computing power 1 TerraFLOPS is?? (yes it […] more
May 26, 2005 @ 2:42 am
prow1 Said,
The ps3s will be able to move more information because they will process at a much higher bitrate than any current ibm type pc. The computers on your […] more
May 26, 2005 @ 9:35 pm
Crispn Crunch Said,
32bit! ?!? Have you had a look at top500.org? These machines include BigBlue, and the Japanese metereology bureau. Top500 includes IBM supercomputers, […] more
May 28, 2005 @ 6:31 pm
dirtycrime Said,
Playstation 3 is going to be SICK!! X box 360 is going to be TRICKED!! and the Revolution is going to be KICKED……..Just kidding, that was the dumb […] more
May 31, 2005 @ 3:30 pm
PS34life Said,
man why yell at each other like this. u kno that PS3 will prevail and kik the shnit out of Xbox360. Just wait by the end of 2006, xbox360 will be noth […] more
July 4, 2005 @ 6:23 pm
cyprianps3 Said,
I got a question, why wasnt Halo ever made for ps2?
July 20, 2005 @ 1:01 am
eNergie Said,
Becuase, like they said, before it could ever have been made for PS2, MS bought the rights. Therefore it can only be made for MS. Anything done that […] more
July 26, 2005 @ 3:47 am
KutlPHsh Said,
Believe it or not, Halo was originally a Macintosh game. Not PS2. Teraflops are really relatively irrelevant, you can’t say the PS3 is twice as goo […] more
July 27, 2005 @ 5:28 am
irobot Said,
i think the ps3 is da best look at those specs it simply shows dat it is da best.2 teraflops do u know wat dat means ha come on u should know. to me x […] more
July 29, 2005 @ 2:02 am
Knives Said,
i dont know why all u guys are fighting. im guessing most of you guys and girls own all the current console ( xbox, ps2, and gamecube). why not buy al […] more
July 31, 2005 @ 1:12 pm
travelling Said,
Oh, c’mon blob. Man, I’ve got a food processor throwing movie quality holographic images into the middle of my lounge room. This things got REAL proce […] more
August 2, 2005 @ 11:12 pm
KutlPHsh Said,
irobot, please put a little effort into your comments. You don’t know what flop means, you have no clue, do you?
August 5, 2005 @ 5:42 am
plzzzzzz Said,
man ur all guys pathetic u think u know everything and keep bragin about the console u like.. really u know nothing about them so u have no right to t […] more
August 6, 2005 @ 1:45 am
stupidkids Said,
plzzz and the guy who know lots of math info your right, saying “Ps3 is da bomb, ms will fail” is utterly ridiculo us. Sure you can say I prefer the s […] more
August 8, 2005 @ 8:43 am
matthew Said,
i LOVE psps and ps3s dudes
August 9, 2005 @ 3:17 pm
04031965ADA Said,
The Playstation 3 Will Destroy XBOX360 And Nintendo. The XBOX comes outin November. The Playstation Will have so much more time to progress. This i […] more
August 17, 2005 @ 3:02 pm
KutlPHsh Said,
Well Xbox had like a year. PS3 will have 3-6 months. And even then, the technology in niether system is more advanced, just different.
August 28, 2005 @ 4:45 pm
ps3srul Said,
360 is gonna suk man! thu cell processor on the ps3 has 8 cores count em 8 running at 3.2 ghz. i dont know about nintendo but i thinks they arent gonn […] more
August 29, 2005 @ 5:45 pm
Brett Said,
Uhh exuse me to the guy who said revenge PS2 doesnt have to take revenge because PS2 sold more and therefore won xbox sold 22mill and PS2 sold 91mill […] more
September 1, 2005 @ 3:32 pm
KutlPHsh Said,
8 cores, 7 of which are cacheless, 7 of which have no branch predictor, 7 of which use a different instruction set, 7 of which do not have direct acce […] more
September 4, 2005 @ 10:36 pm
Nov Said,
The vector processors in the playstation will be incredible even before the compilers are properly optimized. Ever hear of the altivec efflect? play […] more
September 11, 2005 @ 1:13 pm
KutlPHsh Said,
But there’s more to games than just physics. AI is going to be big, people want to see AI that can outsmart them. But the SPEs are ill-suited to do AI […] more
September 11, 2005 @ 8:17 pm
brianthebrain Said,
Both the heavies support High Definition eh? Well I hope BG has the box properly sorted and ready for war, because the PS3 has an undeclared advantage […] more
September 12, 2005 @ 4:54 pm
KutlPHsh Said,
Actually the graphics on the X360 and PS3 look about even except for that Killzone vid that was running at 5 frames per second anyways. And it’s doubt […] more
September 14, 2005 @ 7:45 pm
The Big G Said,
F*&K Sony and all their BS they are all about Over-powering and under delivering that should be thier slogan from now on!!!!
September 14, 2005 @ 8:00 pm
The Big G Said,
ps3srul, Dude thats total bullsh*t - only the main processor is clocked at 3.2GHZ! the other small cores are not even as powerful as the main core. Bu […] more
September 14, 2005 @ 8:08 pm
The Big G Said,
Sorry about my last entry i ment, and not system memory! XBOX 360: Memory Bandwidth - 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth - 256 GB/s memory […] more
September 21, 2005 @ 2:19 am
Xbox 360 is F**Ked Said,
Fight the new invader of the concole market. I want you to buy a PS3 PS3 all da way
October 6, 2005 @ 1:26 pm
John Said,
you guys crack me up. this is why i hate the gaming industry. retarded little minions like yourselves who bitch all day about teraflops and gigaflops […] more
October 26, 2005 @ 11:36 pm
Davost Said,
3 Word’s for you guys… WAIT AND SEE!
November 27, 2005 @ 9:29 pm
Ishimouto hikaru(still the same hikaru) Said,
Wait for the revolutions dont waste your money on Xbox360. Its pointless. Just get a revolutions and if you really want to wait get a ps3.