PS3 OS Resources (ZOMG teh PS3 suxx0rz!)

[Blaze Lord]

The PS3 OS, like the 360's, is one that is constantly running, especially during games. But how much system resources does it use?

"- 64mb of the 256mb of available XDR memory off the Cell CPU
- 32mb of the 256mb of available GDDR3 memory off the RSX chip
- 1 SPE of 7 constantly reserved
- 1 SPE of 7 able to be "taken" by the OS at a moments notice (games have to give it up if requested)

In the case of the PS3 this equates to 14% of the available Cores on the CPU, 12.5% of the available RSX memory and 25% of XDR Cell memory. Balancing these out, one could argue that Sony has removed a total of 14% of the available CPU power and 18.75% of RAM for these features as well as others that are not mentioned here or will be added in future updates to the PS3 Operation System."


What about the 360?

" In the case of the Xbox 360, this cost is approximately 2% of total CPU time and 6.25% of the Xbox 360's total available RAM. "

And, the CPU figure is a little skewed. Both the 360 and the PS3 are multithreaded. The 360 OS uses 3% of 2 of the 3 cores. The first wave of games haven't even used multithreads, and were running, afaik, on just the one core. The core that the OS wasn't touching.

Of course, the PS3 is claiming to have one-to-many voice chat across all games (something the 360 refuses to have, even outside of games, 'due to bandwidth') and one-to-many video chat (something the 360 hasn't announced anything on).

http://www.ps3portal.com/ps3/article/352/1

[Killer 57]

sooo. The PS3 sucks. okay.

[sharplayer]

Nice Article this is...... It's interesting that PS3 is giving up so much power to OS.

[backin-strachan]

:brow No comment :brow

[Raisedbyflames]

just like windows on your pc now hit ctrl alt delete and see what its talking up on your syterm memory and cpu now.

[Blaze Lord]

My install of Win XP almost never needs that much CPU, although with all the things I have going on, RAM occasionally runs short. But the real point of interest is the one SPE constantly being used by the OS, and the other being up for grabs. Seems a bit wonky, but I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough about architecture and processor design and usage to have more than a gut-instinct, Sony-doesn't-do-software kind of mentality.

[bingo83]

I have purchased every Sony console released but have always sold them after a few months. Dont get me wrong there are some very, very good games on the Sony consoles but the games that I like (FPS, Driving, Shooters) always seem to be better on other consoles. I do tend to buy every console that is released, but I think I will hold off buying the PS3. I am more than happy with my 360 at present and Xbox Live has changed my gaming experience like no other console could.