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Thread: How powerful is the Gamecube?

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    Peach (Level 3) dairugger's Avatar
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    Default How powerful is the Gamecube?

    while reading a old issue of Next Gen mag (lifecycle 2 vp;3 #12-12/01) I came upon a Gamecube launch special section where they go indepth into the system, and compare it to the Ps2 and Xbox. I always thought it was more powerful than the Ps2 but less than the Xbox, but they lead you to believe its the weaker of the 3.

    under the breakdown of the 3 under hardware they say this about it:

    "Although gamecube may lack raw horsepower, nintendo has created a cost-effective, efficiently designed piece of hardware. The games look great out of the gate, but developers may be stifled by the system's technical limitations later in its lifecycle."

    oh yeah, and i forgot that alot of 1st gen Ps2 games werent anti-aliased..

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    The Gamecube was in the middle of the three. Much faster processor, more RAM, higher FLOPS, etc. Although, looking at it now, the PS2 apparently has 16 pixel pipelines, compared to the Gamecube's 4. I think what happened was that the PS2's GS (graphics card) had more raw power, but the Gamecube had more memory, and was thus able to do more and produce better-looking stuff.
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    If you go by the opinions of some, about as powerfull as a 2600. Others, more powerfull then X-Box. System specs put it at the bottem of the 4 between the x-box, PS2, and DC but the software for it often times showed the system to be superior in ways over its more popular competition.

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    A good example for me is Resident Evil 4. The GC version is superior in nearly every way to the PS2 verion.

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    Mine uses 220 V that's pretty powerful

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    Another good example is SoulCalibur 2. I always thought Gamecube looked best. Especially when compared to the hideous SoulCalibur 3 on PS2.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cinder6 View Post
    The Gamecube was in the middle of the three. Much faster processor, more RAM, higher FLOPS, etc. Although, looking at it now, the PS2 apparently has 16 pixel pipelines, compared to the Gamecube's 4. I think what happened was that the PS2's GS (graphics card) had more raw power, but the Gamecube had more memory, and was thus able to do more and produce better-looking stuff.
    The Gamecube could apply 8 textures per pass, while the PS2 could apply only one, so, if the clock rate of both were the same, the Cube could apply two times as much textures as the PS2.

    If there is one spec where the Gamecube (and Wii) is severely lacking, that would be pixel fillrate. The Gamecube just can't push as many pixels as the PS2 or Xbox (GC 648Mpixels/s, Wii 972, Xbox 932, PS2 2400).

    In fact, I think that pixel fillrate constrains is one of the causes of the letterbox mode found in RE4. In a game with such rich textures and high color depth, pixel fillrate would be constrained, so they limited the visible area on the screen. It's supposed to be a 480p game, but taking out the black bars it's more like 400p or something.

    In reality, where the Cube stands varies from game to game. Most of the time it sits just between the PS2 and Xbox, some times it comes out on top of the three and sometimes it's in the bottom.

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    When God himself created the Gamecube, he made it so powerful that only a handful of titles would show what it was capable of. He saw that this was good, and the world was at peace.

    And when the humans became restless for a "next-generation" console, God took a hard look at his masterpiece. Perfection was not something easily improved upon, so he saw it fit to make his next creation almost a full 2x as powerful as the Gamecube. The masses wept at his feet, and bought this divine gift in droves.

    The world was once again at peace, as Nintendo was restored at it's mighty place atop all video game charts far and wide.
    Last edited by TheDomesticInstitution; 02-07-2009 at 08:15 AM.

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    the only gcube i like is the panasonic q with the LCD Screen........that blows everything away

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cambot View Post
    Another good example is SoulCalibur 2. I always thought Gamecube looked best. Especially when compared to the hideous SoulCalibur 3 on PS2.
    Agreed. It was a real kick in the nuts when Namco announced SC3 would be a PS2 exclusive. I had the Gamecube version of SC2 and was hoping SC3 would be on all three systems as well.
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    It is as powerful as a grain of sand awash upon the winds of time.
    "And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"


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    Guy: "How strong is the Gamecube with me?"
    Other Guy: "Err, It's as strong as a small pony."
    Original Guy: "Mighty strong that is!"
    2nd Guy again: "Yes, but your force skills could use some improvement."


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    Quote Originally Posted by heybtbm View Post
    Agreed. It was a real kick in the nuts when Namco announced SC3 would be a PS2 exclusive. I had the Gamecube version of SC2 and was hoping SC3 would be on all three systems as well.
    Blame Sony for that..They gave Namco Money to keep it PS2 exclusive

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    More powerful than you can possibly imagine.

    But less than the PS2 and Xbox.

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    I always thought the GC was more powerful than the PS2 in most cases (although I still love my PS2). As noted already, only a few games really showed what the GC could do in the right hands, whereas later games on the PS2 (MGS3, God of War, DQ 8 and even RE4...though not as much as the GC version) REALLY pushed the system where few thought it could go. Regardless, I love my Resident Evils, Rogue Leader, Metroid, etc.
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    As has been stated above, the raw processing power between the gamecube and PS2 are relatively even, with the GC having a slight edge. The problem with the PS2 was the aforementioned rendering pipeline and fact it only had 16 MB of ram.

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    Quote Originally Posted by dairugger View Post
    while reading a old issue of Next Gen mag (lifecycle 2 vp;3 #12-12/01) I came upon a Gamecube launch special section where they go indepth into the system, and compare it to the Ps2 and Xbox. I always thought it was more powerful than the Ps2 but less than the Xbox, but they lead you to believe its the weaker of the 3.
    That might be because the specs of both the PS2 and Xbox were severely exaggerated in Sony and Microsoft's official documentation. (And don't forget the whole "PS2 can launch missiles" hype.) Nintendo, in a strange marketing move, published severely understated GameCube specs.

    I remember Nintendo's official documentation stated the GameCube could push 6 to 12 million polygons per second, in-game...whereas Microsoft's documentation stated the Xbox could push over 70 million polygons per second (not in-game, of course).

    Yet, top-notch developers, like Factor 5, were able to push 25 million polygons per second in their GameCube games, and that's with fancy lighting and other effects.


    To me, some of the very best looking GameCube games are Star Fox Adventures, Star Wars Rogue Squadron III, F-Zero GX, Metroid Prime 2, Resident Evil 4, and Twilight Princess. How do those graphics compare to PS2 and Xbox games? Better? Worse? The same?


    Some other fantastic-looking GC games:

    Beach Spikers
    Beyond Good & Evil
    Burnout 2: Point of Impact
    F-Zero GX
    Fight Night Round 2
    Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
    The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
    Mario Golf
    Metroid Prime
    Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
    NBA Street V3
    Pikmin 2
    Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
    Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within
    Resident Evil (remake)
    Resident Evil 4
    Soulcalibur II
    SSX 3
    Star Fox Adventures
    Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
    Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
    Super Mario Sunshine
    Viewtiful Joe
    Wave Race: Blue Storm


    Again, how do they stack up against the graphics in PS2 and Xbox games?
    Last edited by Rob2600; 02-07-2009 at 07:17 PM.

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    There are people out there that actually think the PS2 is more powerful than the GC? Can I get some of that crack, please?

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    Because of it's design, the NV 25 was the most advanced GPU of it's time. It also happened to power the Xbox.

    Real world, the Xbox could push 125 million pollys per second. Using a backbuffer at 60 FPS, that equates to about 2.1 million pollys per frame. Two vertex shaders and a per pixel shader were all built into the silicon, which means that you don't take any performance hit when you use them. Shadows are calculated live with no impact to the frame rate.

    So while the 733 mhz CPU may as well have been stock (and yet, still twice as powerful as it's competitors), it was the GPU that made the Xbox shine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by izarate View Post
    If there is one spec where the Gamecube (and Wii) is severely lacking, that would be pixel fillrate. The Gamecube just can't push as many pixels as the PS2 or Xbox (GC 648Mpixels/s, Wii 972, Xbox 932, PS2 2400).
    The pixel fill rate is directly related to the frame buffer, not the performance. The GC only has a 640x480 frame buffer, so a higher fill rate is going to do anything. And yet, the PS2 could never seem to get rid of the jaggies. I always went with the GC version of a game if it came out for PS2/GC, to avoid those nasty jaggies. Some PS2 games even looked like the horizontal resolution was being upscaled to full screen. FFX was a good example of this. Then you also have the problem that the PS2 lacks any texture compression and only has 4mb texture work space. Probably why a lot of latter games look 'drab'. I really hated that washed out color look of later PS2 games.

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