Console-hardware-What's the secret?

[AzeofSpadez]

Why is it that the Xbox 360 and the PS3 actually can play Battlefield 3 in 1080p at "low" settings?
What is the magic thing about consoles that makes it possible?
Becuase I think I read somewhere that the Xbox 360 and the PS3 have 512MB RAM...If you had that on a PC you wouldn't even be able to start the game so, what's the secret?

[vesseblah]

Neither of the consoles run games at 1080p, only movies. Games are 720p at max, and the consoles cheat with hardware requirements in various ways such as lower quality textures which takes less RAM.

Both of the above are a reason why many games that come out on consoles and PC at the same time suck donkey balls as a PC version when they're done so that they'll run on crap hardware for sure.

[Deleted]

Console games are made for the console, which means it was made with those exact specifications in mind. You can't do that with a PC, so obviously some people will have problems running the games.

Also what vesseblah said.

[chaud]

It runs at 720p, 30 fps or less, has much lower res textures, a much lower player cap, smaller maps, no AA/AF/HBAO (I think), and lower quality models / less scene detail.

If you played at 720p on the lowest settings it would still look nicer on PC. You could get by with a 6750 or something slower even if all you wanted was 30fps. The PC version is intended to look much better.

[Dannz]

well... the first post basically answered the question. which is also why i fucking hate consoles and wish them gone from the market. so many games are ruined by "consolazation" >:3

and tbh, the latest lol about that is, you can't sheath weapons in mass effect 3 cause "it hogged so much memory on consoles" so it's not in the PC game either... fuck off consoles, they are only good for games such as guitar hero, rock band and sports games >:3

[helusay]

Xbox 360 specs:

CPU 3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon (with 6 available hardware threads)
Memory 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM clocked at 700 MHz
Graphics 500 MHz ATI Xenos

PS3 specs:

CPU 3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with 1 PPE (multi-threaded processor) & 7 SPEs (128-bit capable RISC processor)
Memory 256 MB system and 256 MB video
Graphics 550 MHz NVIDIA/SCEI RSX 'Reality Synthesizer'

Both systems have very powerful hardware that is not burdened with the handicap of a bloated crap operating system like Windows.

[Dannz]

Both systems have very powerful hardware that is not burdened with the handicap of a bloated crap operating system like Windows.

i wouldn't call those specs "powerful", especially not the memory or the graphics..

[openair]

i wouldn't call those specs "powerful", especially not the memory or the graphics..

Nothing "very powerful" about the 360 or PS3 anymore.

The biggest reason consoles can run similar games on less hardware is: every 360 is exactly the same, every PS3 is exactly the same. Therefor the game code is written specifically for that hardware making it far easier to optimize it for that hardware, instead of PC code which has to run on 1000s of different PC configs.

[vesseblah]

Both systems have very powerful hardware

Those had powerful hardware 6 years ago when they were designed, not anymore.

that is not burdened with the handicap of a bloated crap operating system like Windows.

X360 runs internally with WinXP that has got desktop and most of drivers deleted + DX10.

[Cyanotical]

Both systems have very powerful hardware that is not burdened with the handicap of a bloated crap operating system like Windows.

i wouldnt really call it a handicap, there are alot of things a pc can do that a console cant, like browse the internet, properly

[Biernot]

To sum it up:

Games on consoles run "better" (meaning with higher fps) because:

1) They use a lower resolution:
720p against 1080p what most computers today have, which is a factor of 2.25

2) They use lower graphic settings:
- way lower texture detail
- lower model detail
- (mostly) no Anti-Aliasing
- lower Anisotropic Filtering

3) They restrict the overall "world size/complexity" to save RAM:
- Levels are intentionally separated in smaller areas
- (Massive) Multiplayer is limited to a certain player count

4) They are optimized towards that specific hardware:
- If you develop a game for a console, you only have to keep one hardware set in mind and can use it's potential to the fullest. You would be surprised how little hardware power computer games would need to look good, if a game would be optimized towards one cpu / gpu combo.
- While consoles still need an operating system, it can be programmed without the usual bloat you would need for a normal windows/linux/osx.

[seersage]

Basically you can access the hardware directly. When you program a PC game you have to use the drivers so that you only program a generic directx game and not a game for that specific hardware you have.
Using the drivers has some limitations like you have to issue commands to a group of pixels instead of just one, and executing those commands takes longer.
When everyone has the same hardware(consoles) you can send commands directly to the console GPU, or you can also use the drivers... but you have a choice... and if you know what you are doing, you can get a lot of performance from it.
Also with time you can start optimizing, lets say you have a second or 2 that you know you are not going to be doing anything (hard to predict on PCs), you can the use that time to preload something your going to need later.. or just prepare it for later use.
Even with the same hardware you see better games coming though out the console's life.

[inux94]

1280x720/720p
No AA
Very narrow FoV
Low-medium texture quality

[vesseblah]

Consoles dont need AA/AF because TVs have lots of extra blur added. One of the many ways how those cheat.