Call of Duty 4: Larger burden on Sony PS3 than Xbox 360
Filed under: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360 | By: Daniel
Posted on: July 5, 2008 | 127 Comments
Games like Call of Duty 4 run at a framerate of 60 frames per second on both systems. But Call of Duty 4 is a game that experienced technical problems with various bottlenecks due to the varying levels of action that occur on the screen. The game was originally designed to run at 60 frames per second at 720p, but it caused drops in the framerate.
The proof of this is the fact that Call of Duty 4 runs at a resolution of only 640p on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. This may be “equal” in terms of what is displayed on the screen, but the FACT is that Call of Duty 4 is putting a much larger burden on the PS3 than it is the Xbox 360.
Confirmation of this can be seen in the large number of games that “run smoothly at 60 frames per second on the Xbox 360, but struggle to run at 30 frames per second on the Playstation 3.” That was a quote from Gamespot.
It’s simple math: The Xbox 360 can display approximately 500,000,000 polygons per second, compared to 275,000,000 polygons per second for the Playstation 3.
Multi-platform games use what is called a “Lowest Common Denominator” form of programming.
Basically, what this means is the developers start out by saying to themselves, “We need to develop a game for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.”
Then, the developers put limits on how many polygons they are going to put on the screen, and they determine what framerate the game will run at as a result of that number.
When the developers multiply the number of polygons displayed on the screen by the number of frames being displayed each second, they examine what that number is. Multi-platform games can NEVER display more than 275,000,000 polygons per second, or else they can’t be released for the Playstation 3, since the PS3 cannot display more than 275,000,000 polygons per second.
As a result, developers are often conservative with the number of polygons being displayed with multi-platform games, especially with the poor reputation of inconsistent framerates that the Playstation 3 has acquired over time.
It basically comes down to these THREE factors:
If a multi-platform game running at 30 frames per second on the Playstation 3 uses 250,000,000 polygons or less, it gives the developers the ability to allow the Xbox 360 version to run at 60 frames per second, since 500,000,000 is double the number of 250,000,000.
If a multi-platform game running at 30 frames per second on the Playstation 3 uses over 250,000,000 polygons per second, it means the Xbox 360 version is also forced to run at only 30 frames per second. This is an unfortunate situation, because it means the Playstation 3 will be using 90-100% of its power by displaying somewhere between 250,000,000 to 275,000,000 polygons per second, while the Xbox 360 will only be using 60% of its power, since the Xbox 360 has so much more polygon power.
If a multi-platform game is intended to run at 60 frames per second on the Playstation 3, the Xbox 360 version will also run at 60 frames per second. The Playstation 3 version will be limited to 275,000,000 polygons per second. The Xbox 360 will also be limited to 275,000,000 polygons per second, due to the fact that 275,000,000 is the Lowest Common Denominator. This is unfortunate, because it means the Playstation 3 version will be using between 90% to 100% of the systems power, while the Xbox 360 will be using only 60% of the systems power. Call of Duty 4 is an excellent example of this situation.
The Playstation 3 only transfers data at a rate of 54MB per second as a Blu-ray player being used for movies. When it comes to gaming, there are hardware “bottlenecks” that the Playstation 3 faces, which allows the PS3 to transfer data at a rate of only 9MB per second. The Xbox 360 transfers data at a rate of 16MB per second.
The Official Playstation Magazine wrote an article about the longer load times of PS3 games shortly after the Playstation 3 was launched. The only time the PS3 does not have to deal with either noticeably or significantly longer load times is when the game is placed on the PS3 hard drive. Sadly, it often takes over TWENTY long minutes to write the game onto the PS3 hard drive. Even when a PS3 game is written onto a hard drive, the load times between Xbox 360 games and PS3 games is virtually identical, as we saw in Devil May Cry 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4.
Gamespot has conducted a Graphics Comparison between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 each year since the Playstation 3 has been available. Xbox 360 has been declared the winner of the Graphics Comparison each of the three years: 2006, 2007, 2008.
2008 shows that the gap in performance continues to get bigger, in favor of the Xbox 360. Here is the hyperlink that shows the newest comparison–one the Xbox 360 easily defeats the Playstation.
Also, the Xbox 360 uses 10MB of eDRAM. This new form of RAM technology is something that even Windows Vista-based PCs do not yet take advantage of. The next release of Direct-X on the PC will start to take advantage of eDRAM technology for gaming, but it still hasn’t happened yet.
This just goes to show you how incredibly far ahead of its time the Xbox 360 Unified-Shader GPU/Multi-Core CPU design is.
Thanks to Mike Zoran
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Usually I see myself as above fanboy arguments, owning to the fact that they are pointless, and I own both 360 and ps3 (and a good PC rig), and have no interest in owning a wii (good as it may be).
However, I am getting sick of 360 fanboys trying to make the 360 out to be more powerful. Its not. Get over it. Its older. of course its going to be less powerful. For gods sake the PS3 is using the most powerful/versatile processor in the world, developed by computing giants. The ps3 has great games, and so does the 360. Its not dead yet, but it IS less powerful. Stop crying, and enjoy the great games being released for 360.
This article is just flat-out wrong, and smacks of typical fanboy ignorant hearsay bias and nontechnical mumble-jumble. The PS3 is widely regarded as the MORE POWERFUL machine, more powerful than the XB360. There is no proof anywhere that the XB360 can display more polygons per second than the PS3, nor is the metric of “polygons-per-second” claimed by Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo a reliable indicator of graphical performance anyway. Trusting a company’s claim of polygons-per-second is like trusting an HDTV company’s claim of their LCD’s contrast ratio. Polygons-per-second has NEVER historically been a good indicator of graphical power, PERIOD.
The biggest reason that some multiplatform games have performed better on the 360 than the PS3 is that developers have yet to come to grips with the specialized PS3 hardware, particularly its unique and nontraditional Cell processor. The Cell processor is not trivial to develop for, and is a very different beast than what programmers have seen in the past, whereas the 360 is closer to the familiar PC processor, and has a quicker learning curve for them to overcome, allowing them to achieve results quicker on the 360. Another factor that doesn’t help the PS3 is the fact that many multiplatform titles were developed first on the 360, and later ported to the PS3, which isn’t ideal in and of itself to tailor a game to the strengths of the PS3, but also hurts because the porting process was usually done in a less than optimal way that doesn’t do the best job to leverage the Cell processor.
Load times identical??? This guy is smoking crack. PS3 games loads faster thanks to the game data installation. I have both consoles and when I see PS3 and XBOX 360 games, 360 is no comparison in terms of graphics.
Seemingly I got pushed by your unconventional reasoning - moving from resolution to polygons in the blink of an eye to justify your argument.
It would help if you provided sources and continued along a logical line of thought. You are still referring to COD4 low resolution and trying to relate it to polygons.
It is true that the PS3’s RSX has been guessed to process 250million triangles per second, as opposed to Xenon’s 500million per second http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1082499&postcount=6 - but it’s not as simple as that. There are other factors included, and by the examples I gave…ie. GT5p (rendered at 60fps at 1280by1080) is certainly not a low polygon game.
i suggest staying away from technical discussions when you don’t understand the content, nor do you provide trusted sources to back your arguments (for want of a better word).
“Matt // Jul 5, 2008 at 7:28 pm
“Even the guys that made Call of Duty 4 said that there is a long way to go until the PS3 reaches its max potential” except that COD4 looked like crap on the PS3 compared to the 360. Why was that if the PS3 is so much more magical and wonderful, hmm?”
Chris, you really are a tosser aren’t you 360 fanboy?
The PS3 use the cell to process graphice as well which, quite franyl, shits all over the 360. Once developers begin to maximise this the 360 is going to look llike a real lame horse!!!
As for the author, how insecure can you get? What a feckin idiot
let’s see it took only ONE YEAR for the PS3 to match or exceed the graphics of the 360 which two TWO YEARS! (MGS4, Uncharted, GT5p and more…) THIS ARTICAL IS BOGUS!
Fanboys of any console makes me laugh. Nothing funnier then hearing fanboys calling other fanboys. All you guys calling the author a fanboy are fanboys themselves. Unless you are being by MS or Sony to defend there consoles then shut up. People pulling out there butts numbers like 360 is at 85% of its power, but mad at the author for pulling numbers out his butt.
PS3 guys only want to believe positive articles on there system and the same with 360 guys. Yet when a negative article comes out it is dismissed as biased and fanboyish. I have both systems and can careless what somebody writes, if you enjoy the system you bought then enjoy it and be quiet. Unless you are being paid by MS or Sony why the extreme loyalty. People acting like the authors of these articles are talking about your mothers
first things first,i own all 3 consoles!im not a fanboy! im a gamer! and i really have to agree in the major point of this article “YES,THE GREAT MAJORATY OF MULTIPLATFORM GAMES RUNS MUCH BETTER ON THE 360!!if you guys so call gamers can see that is just because of two points,”BLIND FANBOYISM,OR NOT OWN A 360 !!!”. by the way MGS4 is a GREAT GAME !! BUT RUNS AT 30frames per second !! and not totally constant!!
Haha!
I must say: great article!
It’s amazing to see how (for at least a paragraph or two) you manage to convice the reader you know what you’re talking about. But then, the rest of the article happens…
Why do people write about subjects they don’t know anything about? Why?