Consoles that provide(d) the best performance increase from 1stgen to last gen titles

[Butta]

As a console owner, you always hope that the hardware you buy will be able to provide significant advancements from it's first gen to last gen titles. I have owned almost every gaming console since Pong initially came out and I have always been excited to find out that my old hardware can pull off a few new tricks. I also believe as we move forward that this will be an important feature for any hardware as we are getting to the point of diminishing returns in this type of technology where in order to truly make an impact we either have to have a longer console lifecycle ( no more 4 to 5 years) or sell a more expensive product.

In my opinion the PS2 has been a very successful product in providing a significant gap between first and last gen products (ie God of War). The Sega Saturn and Super Nintendo also provided a significant upgrade in this regard.

On the other hand the DreamCast was one of the worst product to show a difference between first and last gen products (Soul Caliber always looked best to me and was a launch title)... same goes for XBOX1.

When it comes to current gen hardware it seems that both the PS3 and XBOX360 have been designed with significant headroom. Perhaps even moreso on the PS3 side of things based on future software. It will be interesting to see how far things will progress!!!

 

[Lazy8s]

The major determinant is simply how much/long a platform was supported.

Even a console with an accessible learning curve, like the first PlayStation, saw dramatic software evolution because of all of the development support it received. Same with PS2 and SNES. DC was killed early.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Another key factor is how hard it is to start with. If a platform starts with great tools, you can get more out of it in the early days (XB360). If it starts with dire tools, documentation, and a weird hardware that no-one knows how to program (PS2), the starting titles are so rubbish that the difference between first and last titles is massive!

 

[TheChefO]

Another key factor is how hard it is to start with. If a platform starts with great tools, you can get more out of it in the early days (XB360). If it starts with dire tools, documentation, and a weird hardware that no-one knows how to program (PS2), the starting titles are so rubbish that the difference between first and last titles is massive!

/thread

And with that I'd say ps2 by a long shot.

Then again, when I bought ps1 I did not think I would ever see something like GT on it. Although it was a bit late and by that time I was looking at pc gaming ... 320x240 can only do so much.

 

[Butta]

Another key factor is how hard it is to start with. If a platform starts with great tools, you can get more out of it in the early days (XB360). If it starts with dire tools, documentation, and a weird hardware that no-one knows how to program (PS2), the starting titles are so rubbish that the difference between first and last titles is massive!

I think that it is far more than that... the question asked when developing the PS2 was most likely how can we make a system that will remain competitive for X amount of years at a low cost. Sony seems to take much greater chances on it's hardware designs and although things are rough at the start, the payoff is huge near the end of the lifecycle.

...and to add to that, it is difficult to provide proper documentation and tools with new unestablished hardware.

 

[LunchBox]

I think it's the PS2 as well.
Judging by the latest games I played (God of War 2), It looks like it has even surpassed (graphically) most, if not all, of XBOX 1 titles (IMO)
Even that RPG Rogue Galxy, in some spots, it almost looks next gen to me .

 

[liolio]

oops I misunderstood the thread title....

 

[Butta]

I think it's the PS2 as well.
Judging by the latest games I played (God of War 2), It looks like it has even surpassed (graphically) most, if not all, of XBOX 1 titles (IMO)
Even that RPG Rogue Galxy, in some spots, it almost looks next gen to me .

Agreed... truly a testament of good hardware design regardless of the fact of how difficult the transition was for 1st gen.

 

[TheChefO]

Agreed... truly a testament of good hardware design regardless of the fact of how difficult the transition was for 1st gen.

?

I'd put this squarely on good software design to overcome hardware design. ...

Good hardware design makes it easy/less time consuming to get good results.

With that in mind I'd say Sony had/has some of (if not the) best in the biz.

 

[Butta]

Perhaps Sony is on to something with their design decisions to go with powerful CPU based on multithreading, asymetrical cores with a relatively unimpressive video card. Everyone else's aproach is very GPU centric.

 

[The_legend_of_drtre]

You will most likely see the Wii pushed the most hardware wise this gen. Some 360 developers aren't even bothering to make games that use more than one core.

The Wii will probably get pushed the most ( especially if it keeps selling like it is) mainly because it's single core.

 

[Butta]

You will most likely see the Wii pushed the most hardware wise this gen. Some 360 developers aren't even bothering to make games that use more than one core.

The Wii will probably get pushed the most ( especially if it keeps selling like it is) mainly because it's single core.

I would say quite to the contrary.. the Wii will get pushed the least because it offers the least amount of headroom.

 

[LunchBox]

?

I'd put this squarely on good software design to overcome hardware design. ...

Good hardware design makes it easy/less time consuming to get good results.

With that in mind I'd say Sony had/has some of (if not the) best in the biz.

I agree... but, i think their hardware was quite good too, coz you can only do so much on software... Maybe it's more on the steep learning curve that was thrown at the developers to fully utilize the hardware.

 

[Butta]

You will most likely see the Wii pushed the most hardware wise this gen. Some 360 developers aren't even bothering to make games that use more than one core.

The Wii will probably get pushed the most ( especially if it keeps selling like it is) mainly because it's single core.

Also the Wii is fundamentally an overclocked Gamecube, so I seriously doubt this!

 

[function]

Hang on, are people saying it's good if you spend a lot of money on a console and it gets horribly under utilised for most of its life? Hopefully my next monitor will come with most of the pixels disabled so they can be unlocked over the coming years, making me feel better about my monitor every year!

I think it's the PS2 as well.
Judging by the latest games I played (God of War 2), It looks like it has even surpassed (graphically) most, if not all, of XBOX 1 titles (IMO)
Even that RPG Rogue Galxy, in some spots, it almost looks next gen to me .

Well, Shenmue on the DC looks better than most, if not all PS2 games.

So, who'll raise me N64 > DC? Lets take this all the way back to the 2600!

 

[TheChefO]

Well, Shenmue on the DC looks better than most, if not all PS2 games.

You know what I liked about DC is most of the (good) games had a great steady frame rate and good graphics. Great HW design. ...

 

[Butta]

Hang on, are people saying it's good if you spend a lot of money on a console and it gets horribly under utilised for most of its life? Hopefully my next monitor will come with most of the pixels disabled so they can be unlocked over the coming years, making me feel better about my monitor every year!



Well, Shenmue on the DC looks better than most, if not all PS2 games.

So, who'll raise me N64 > DC? Lets take this all the way back to the 2600!

Not at all... just saying that console's are cheap and have a long life cycle. They sometimes need to incorporate more complex architectures to keep competitive later in the life cycle.

 

[Butta]

Hang on, are people saying it's good if you spend a lot of money on a console and it gets horribly under utilised for most of its life? Hopefully my next monitor will come with most of the pixels disabled so they can be unlocked over the coming years, making me feel better about my monitor every year!



Well, Shenmue on the DC looks better than most, if not all PS2 games.

So, who'll raise me N64 > DC? Lets take this all the way back to the 2600!

Not at all... just saying that console's are cheap and have a long life cycle. They sometimes need to incorporate more complex architectures to keep competitive later in the life cycle.

Look at the 360 for example... only 10MB of EDRAM. This was not done to be leveraged day one. In fact it is hardly being leveraged today. But third generation software that is in delopment such as Forza is begining to make use of it. Microsoft clearly knew that it would be complicated but possible to make use of such a small amount of EDRAM and it will give them an advantage later in the lifecycle. XBOX1 had no such tricks to speak of and it shows.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Every single game on XB360 uses the eDRAM. You can't render without it.

 

[Deusp]

You will most likely see the Wii pushed the most hardware wise this gen. Some 360 developers aren't even bothering to make games that use more than one core.

The Wii will probably get pushed the most ( especially if it keeps selling like it is) mainly because it's single core.

I think you misunderstood the question of the OP. It's the console with the biggest improvement over time, not the one that's maxed out the most.