[Note: We're unable to accurately compare the
specifications for the below consoles because the
method the companies used to measure performance
are so different. Sony and Microsoft's numbers are
unrealistic and denote the raw (read: not real)
performance of their respective systems, while
Nintendo's and Sega's numbers are based on real
performance during gameplay. With that said, the
figures you see are just smoke and numbers. We
refer you to compare the actual games.]
Gamecube: 6 to 12 million polygons per second
(conservative, but realistic estimate)
PlayStation 2: 75 million polygons per second
(realistically first-gen games are more like 3-5 million)
Xbox: 150 million polygons per second (does not
consider real gameplay environments)
Dreamcast: Roughly 3 million polygons per second
Nintendo 64: Around 150,000 polygons per second
PlayStation: Around 360,000 polygons per second
(lacks comparable effects)
Main Clock Speed
Gamecube: 405MHz
PlayStation 2: 300MHz
Xbox: 733MHz
Dreamcast: 200MHz
Nintendo 64: 93.75MHz
PlayStation: 33.86MHz
Memory
Gamecube: 24MB of 1T-SRAM (main), 16MB of 100MHz
DRAM (main), and 3MB of embedded 1T-SRAM in the graphics chip
PlayStation 2: 32MB Direct Rambus RAM (main), 4MB of embedded
DRAM on the graphics chip
Xbox: 64MB of RAM (unified memory architecture)
Dreamcast: 16MB (plus 8MB Video RAM, 2MB Sound RAM)
Nintendo 64: 4MB (+parity) Rambus D-RAM (expandable to 8MB)
PlayStation: 2MB (plus 1MB Video RAM, 512kb Sound RAM)
Memory Bus Bandwidth
Gamecube: 3.2 GB/s (Gigabytes per second)
PlayStation 2: 3.2 GB/s (Gigabytes per second)
Xbox: 6.4GB/s (Gigabytes per second)
Dreamcast: 800 MB/s (Megabytes per second)
Nintendo 64: 500 MB/s (Megabytes per second) or about 0.5 GB/s
PlayStation: 132 MB/s (Megabytes per second)
