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The Inevitable Question- What Game Console is the iPhone 3G S Equivalent To?

G

G4R2

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2006
547
4
The inevitable question-

Which game console is the iPhone G S now equivalent to with the increased processor speed, augmented RAM, and support for OpenGL 2.0?

Personally, I haven't been in the gaming generation since I owned an Amiga but despite it's whimsical seeming relevance gaming power has proven to be an useful metric to give developers and users an idea of what a device is capable of. This is true not only for games which push the envelope but also for other non-game applications. If I recall correctly this very same question was asked of the iPhone 3G once the App store came online and resulted in heated debates and fiery opinions.
 
I'm going to say none. Its portable, has internet, an app store, fits in your pocket, makes phone calls, sends SMS & MMS, records video, handles email, oh and it games quite well. It's in a league of its own right now, not to be compared to a console I don't think. But that just me.
 
gloss said:
Hard to say.



Well, the processor speed is about 2x the PS2. It all comes down to the GPU, really.
Click to expand...

The SGX 535 is on equal ground with the DC GPU (made by same company to boot). The iphone is most likely using a less powerful GPU than the 535. This is compensated for by a stronger CPU. Still, MHZ for MHZ, the emotion engine of the PS2 is more powerful than the cortex A8.



edit: It's nothing like the Wii. It has a powerPC out-of-order core compared to an in-order mobile architecture.
 
TurboSC said:
I agree.
Click to expand...

Nah. Not even close.

chrmjenkins said:
The SGX 535 is on equal ground with the DC GPU (made by same company to boot). The iphone is most likely using a less powerful GPU than the 535. This is compensated for by a stronger CPU. Still, MHZ for MHZ, the emotion engine of the PS2 is more powerful than the cortex A8.
Click to expand...

Yeah, as I said, it's hard to measure without having all the nitty-gritty on fill rates, etc.
 
Would have been amazing if the 3G S was as powerful or moreso than the PS2. Imagine a jailbroken 3G S with a PS2 emulator, and with the 32 GB of space now we could have several PS2 games on the phone at one time. FFX on the go? That would be cool. I'm excited to see what game developers do now with the OpenGL 2.0 technology.
 
SirithX said:
Would have been amazing if the 3G S was as powerful or moreso than the PS2. Imagine a jailbroken 3G S with a PS2 emulator, and with the 32 GB of space now we could have several PS2 games on the phone at one time. FFX on the go? That would be cool. I'm excited to see what game developers do now with the OpenGL 2.0 technology.
Click to expand...

There aren't good PS2 emulators for desktop PCs yet. The iphone has trouble with some emulators it should do just fine with based on specs because of OS overhead that can't be undone. Just because something is more powerful than something else doesn't immediately mean it can emulate it. You have an instruction ratio tradeoff, which can be anywhere from 1:1 (ideal) to 1:20 or higher.
 
I'd be interested in a spec and raw performance comparison to the DS and PSP. I think the big gaming push will be next year with all of the resources Apple has been picking up, but the S looks like it could make some big waves.
 
True, however this is because independent developers with little resources are the ones making the emulators. If Sony themselves for example made the emulators, like they did as far as getting PS1 games to work perfectly on the PSP, then there would be a lot of improvement as far as emulation. Not saying this will ever happen, just an idealistic notion. I'm sure the 3G S would need better hardware too and lots of optimization to truly be able to support such things.
 
SirithX said:
Would have been amazing if the 3G S was as powerful or moreso than the PS2. Imagine a jailbroken 3G S with a PS2 emulator, and with the 32 GB of space now we could have several PS2 games on the phone at one time. FFX on the go? That would be cool. I'm excited to see what game developers do now with the OpenGL 2.0 technology.
Click to expand...

From what I've heard about emulators a good rule of thumb is you need roughly 2X the power of what you are trying to emulate.

Not sure if thats necessarily true, but I can guarentee that a ps2 emulator wont happen, not at any acceptable speeds.
 
racers said:
its just the whole motion control sucks. I like to have a controller :p
Click to expand...

Depends on the game, really. A lot of games don't really use waggle.

Zack and Wiki, though, is a point-and-click puzzle game and it just couldn't be done with the 360 or PS3 controllers. It's perfect for the Wii.
 
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