360 CPU information provided by Microsoft

PlayStation 3 Central-processing unit (aka Cell Broadband Engine)

PS3 CPU information provided by Sony

Now before I get into it I’d like to point out that while both consoles have powerful CPUs both Sony and Microsoft have played a dirty little numbers game with everyone… numbers that can easily be misinterpreted by most people to mean “The one with the highest numbers must be the better of the 2” and that isn’t how it works at all (atleast not all the time and here is the kicker both Sony and Microsoft want you to misinterpret the numbers).

Why isn’t a “higher is better” mentality always a safe bet? Simple really, one has to take into consideration important things like the architecture. To only concentrate on the raw numbers without understanding the specifics of how it operates can lead to mistakes like this example here “Midway has a car that can reach a top speed of 180MPH and Australia has a car that can reach a top speed of 90MPH.” Someone only looking at the raw numbers may assume “This is far too easy clearly Midway is going to win because his car goes up to 180MPH” Now did anyone stop to consider the fact that maybe Australia is not only the better driver of the 2, but his car has quicker acceleration plus better braking and the road they’ll be racing on is dripping wet and packed full of sharp turns which may prevent the more inexperienced driver from banking on all that raw speed?

Not the best of analogies, but this will teach everyone to be cautious when they see either side throwing around their Megahertz, dot products and GFLOPS. I’m not saying the numbers are 100% meaningless as there are numbers that are actually trustworthy, but its getting you all ready for what I’m about to tell you.