I feel sometimes we collectively fail to appreciate how underpowered computers of the past were. Especially when it comes to game consoles.
| Component | Xbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Nintendo Wii |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 3.2 GHz PowerPC (3 symmetrical cores) | 3.2 GHz Cell (1 main core + 7 sub-processors) | 729 MHz PowerPC (Single core) |
| GPU | 500 MHz ATI Custom (Xenos) | 550 MHz (Reality Synthesiser) | 243 MHz ATI (Hollywood) |
| RAM | 512MB GDDR3 (Unified. Shared by CPU/GPU) | 512 MB Total (256MB System / 256MB Video) | 88 MB Total (24MB Internal / 64MB External) |
This level of performance was in pursuit of a lower price point, and games only managed to be as impressive as they were because they could target fixed hardware. Optimisations could be made for specific resolutions, processors, GPUs, and provided system-specific APIs, which isn’t possible with the wide array of configurations seen in general-purpose computers, even if many personal computers had rivalling hardware.