BS. In general purpose stuff it might not be as good as our CPUs, but on gaming and gaming alone, Xenon + Xenos (Free AA below 10MB buffer, 3 POWER-derivative cores supporting 6 threads @ 3.2ghz each) are a very formidable couple. 7300GT + Pentium D = hopeless LOL compared to the close collaboration of the 360 CPU/GPU.

Remember that console hardware this time around IS ahead of mainstream hardware (HD2600 just can't compare) and with hardware tricks and slim codework, it almost always busts most near-high end rigs. See DiRT.

Of course, besides the Wii. (Poo poo.)

Slimmer OSes don't really help much (despite all those Linhuggers out there running WoW at 2 FPS). Giving the HAL (No, not 2001) the middle finger is the key. Without the HAL, expect great lengths with seperate hardware, even mainstream current hardware like the 7600.

On the other hand, w/o the HAL, EVERY graphics config would need to be coded for, same applies to CPU. And nVidia/ATi being focused on HAL platforms, won't likely have some nice tricks/cheats in hardware to exploit.

Specs don't mean that much actually.
Hardware abstraction layer is what's making Windows "unoptimized", same for other OSes. Unless you build on a specific chip(s), not a general platform, there's gonna be that pesky HAL sapping away lots of potential for general compatibility. But it's the ONLY feasible way that games are gonna run while remaining monopoly-free hardware wise.

BTW it's ALWAYS a good idea to use clean installs for games and games only.
TeamXbox is also run by the guys from IGN/Gamespy network so they're good.


[See how good Doom 3, Quake 4 and Prey ran on PCs. OpenGL developers tend to be more tender in optimizing for chips (they can't slack too much too ), coding seperate paths unless the chips are too uber, then id switches to a general renderer]

p/s: The 360 HAS upgrades. The upgrades are the developers (think of it in another way)! They push code harder and harder, making more impossibilities possible. See Project Gotham Racing 3 compared to 4, and Gears of War compared to Perfect Dark Zero. The developers push code harder than upgrades would allow. I don't think anybody thought that God of War 2 graphics could be run on the PS2 in 2001.

This post has been edited by X.E.D: Jul 1 2007, 09:00 PM