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PS3 vs. Xbox 360: Which Was More Powerful? Xbox 360 Better Multiplatform Performance; PS3 Higher Theoretical Peak & Best Exclusives

The Xbox 360 generally delivered better real-world performance in multiplatform games, despite the PS3's theoretical peak power.

Hardware Comparison

Component	Xbox 360	PS3
CPU	3-core PowerPC @ 3.2 GHz (Xenon)	Cell Broadband Engine: 1 PPE + 7 SPEs @ 3.2 GHz
GPU	ATI Xenos @ 500 MHz (512 MB GDDR3 shared)	NVIDIA RSX @ 550 MHz (256 MB GDDR3 + 256 MB XDR shared)
RAM	512 MB GDDR3 (unified)	256 MB XDR (CPU) + 256 MB GDDR3 (GPU)
Disc	DVD-DL (8.5 GB)	Blu-ray (25/50 GB)
OS Footprint	~32 MB	~96 MB

Why Xbox 360 Often Won

Unified Memory: Flexible allocation; PS3's split pool caused bottlenecks.
Easier Development: Symmetric cores vs. Cell's complex SPE programming.
Better Tools: Microsoft's dev tools (XDK, PIX) were superior early on.
Frame Rates: Many cross-platform games ran at higher/resolution on 360 (e.g., Bayonetta, Skyrim, GTA IV).

PS3 Strengths

Exclusives: Uncharted 2/3, God of War III, The Last of Us, Killzone 2 showcased Cell's power with years of optimization.
Blu-ray: Larger capacity allowed uncompressed assets, no disc swapping.
Compute: Folding@home, physics, and SPU-based post-processing excelled in first-party titles.

Verdict: Xbox 360 = better multiplatform performance, easier dev, superior online (Xbox Live). PS3 = higher theoretical peak, best exclusives, Blu-ray media. "More powerful" depends on metric.

PS3 Games