It's constantly five years between console generations, except with Sony who wants to only upgrade once every 10 years. The reason the Xbox 360 is coming out when it is now is because it is forcing Sony's hand early. Sony didn't want a new console now. They wanted more profit out of the current one. Microsoft wanted to develop a new console that would cater better to consumer's wants, so the Xbox 360 was born, and then Sony was forced to develop the PS3. Why are there all these rumors that it is delayed? Because Sony isn't altogether that serious about it, which I do feel will bite them in the ass.Originally Posted by googlefest1
As for console's getting better processing power and computers getting better processing power, what is going to happen is more specialized processing. A 20GHz processor isn't that much better than a 4GHz processor if your RAM and GPU are going to be relatively similar. My computer at home is slower than my work computer, but it plays games MUCH better because it has a performance graphics card it in.
In general, I think we'll see more dual-core GPUs, and if we don't go beyond 3 to 4GHz in the future, it won't matter too much.