How does the GBC compare to the NES in terms of power?

[fishsandwich]

I consider the GBA to be a really souped up SNES... it's had many SNES ports, plus it can do 3-D a bit better... kind of like a SNES with an FX-5 processor but a crappier sound chip.

My question...

How does the Game Boy COLOR compare to the NES? Better, worse, or the same?

Thanks!

:D

[davidbrit2]

To me, it always felt slightly above the capabilities of the NES. That's probably because it has a 10/20 MHz switchable CPU, as opposed to the CPU in the NES which is somewhere around 2 or 3 MHz, I think. I'm not sure how the GPUs compare, but they appear very similar. I think the GBC can handle more sprites at a time, from the looks of it. I don't see quite as much flicker. And if I'm not mistaken, it has a larger palette of colors to work with Of course, the screen size is smaller, and I think the NES probably beats it in the audio department.

[rbudrick]

David is right, it was a lot more powerful than the NES, but had lower resolution, heh heh. I had a crapload of colors to work with and many added graphical capabilities found in 16 bit consoles. I believe the NES had a 1.79mhz processor...could be wrong.

-ROb

[jajaja]

David is right, it was a lot more powerful than the NES, but had lower resolution, heh heh. I had a crapload of colors to work with and many added graphical capabilities found in 16 bit consoles. I believe the NES had a 1.79mhz processor...could be wrong.

-ROb

Your right,

NES: Clock Speed: 1.773447MHz (PAL) or 1.7897725MHz (NTSC)

Gameboy Color: Z80 Sharp processor Processor Speed: 8 MHz

[Raccoon Lad]

Twice as many on-screen colors too! (IIRC)

[Jorpho]

NES: Clock Speed: 1.773447MHz (PAL) or 1.7897725MHz (NTSC)

Gameboy Color: Z80 Sharp processor Processor Speed: 8 MHz

:frustrated: Yes, the GBC used a Z80, but the NES used a MOS 6502 (or some weird variant thereof). THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING! Trying to compare clock speeds of two completely different architectures is fallacious!

The only way to be sure (and I really wish someone would do this sometime) is to run a proper benchmark of some sort on both systems and compare the speed that way.

[jchesser]

I loved the GBA the only thing i didn't like was that the colors were kinda werid to me it was like 31 bits almost like something was missing.... Maybe it was just me though. Golden sun prime example. Great story beat the 1st one but the colors and the way the 3d maps felt and played were werid.

[KJN]

I think the GBC can handle more sprites at a time, from the looks of it. I don't see quite as much flicker.
The Nes can have 8 sprites on a horizontal line while the Gameboy can have 10.

[Jorpho]

Aha! I found what I was looking for!


Note that the 6502 was very clock-efficient (it was more nearly scalar) and despite clocking only half as fast as a Z-80 or an 8085 it was round about about as powerful.
http://www.redhill.net.au/c-1.html

[Damon Plus]

How does it compare to the Game Gear? and the Lynx?