OK, i knew this would be on the board sooner or later, so here we go.
Fist off you have to remeber not to compare stats from a console to a computer, for instance, on a computer you need at least 512mb to run doom 3, xbox runs doom 3 (with no frame rate drops) on a console with 64mb ram, Geforce 3 card, and 700mhz pcu. You would never even get doom 3 at .1 frames persecond on a comp of the same stats.
Now, xbox 360 and ps3 are impressive, both using 64 bit cpus and have huge amounts of ram, not to mention Xbox 360 games must support a min of 720p high def (which makes the monitor argument) and ps3 supports up to 1080 i and 1080p.
Remeber consoles do more with less, its just a fact, its easier to build a game for a console cause you can max it out, every one is running the same thing, and with 5.1 dolby digital and 760p-1080p hi def support consoles will be ahead of computer (graphically) for about a year and a half. Even then you will probably be able to play great looking games on consoles (becouse they have about a 5 year life span of good looking games). Also note, that to get a comp that will run games as smooth as these 350-400$ consoles you are looking at some major $$$$.
Now here are the specs:
PS3:
CPU
Cell Processor
PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS
GPU
RSX @550MHz
1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
Sound
Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing)
Memory
256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
System Bandwidth
Main RAM 25.6GB/s
VRAM 22.4GB/s
RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)
System Floating Point Performance
2 TFLOPS
Storage
Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1
I/O
USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1
SD standard/mini x 1
CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1
Communication
Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
Controller
Bluetooth (up to 7)
USB 2.0 (wired)
Wi-Fi (PSP)
Network (over IP)
AV Output
Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI: HDMI out x 2
Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
Disc Media
CD PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)
DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE
Xbox 360:
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU:
# 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
# 2 hardware threads per core; 6 hardware threads total
# 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core; 3 total
# 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
# 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
# 1 MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math Performance:
# 9 billion dot product operations per second
Custom ATI Graphics Processor:
# 500 MHz
# 10 MB embedded DRAM
# 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines
# Unified shader architecture
Polygon Performance:
# 500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate:
# 16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA
Shader Performance:
# 48 billion shader operations per second
Memory:
# 512 MB GDDR3 RAM
# 700 MHz DDR
# Unified memory architecture
Memory Bandwidth:
# 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
# 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
# 21.6 GB/s front-side bus
Overall System Floating-Point Performance:
# 1 TFLOP
Storage:
# Detachable and upgradeable 20 GB hard drive
# 12X dual-layer DVD-ROM
# Memory unit support starting at 64 MB
I/O:
# Support for up to 4 wireless game controllers
# 3 USB 2.0 ports
# 2 memory unit slots
Optimized for Online:
# Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, Gamer Profile for digital identity and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies or listening to music
# Built in Ethernet Port
# Wi-Fi Ready: 802.11 A, B and G
# Video Camera Ready
Digital Media Support:
# Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD
# Stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras, Windows XP PCs
# Rip music to Xbox 360 hard drive
# Custom playlists in every game
# Windows Media Center Extender built in
# Interactive, full screen 3D visualizers
HD Game Support:
# All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing
# Standard definition and high definition video output supported
System Orientation:
# Stands vertically or horizontally
So thats them, now i know their are alot of PC gaming fanboys, but any way you look at it these systems rock, look at what xbox (64mb ram, 700mhz) puts out and what ps2 (32mb ram, 350mhz) can do now these console are using 3.2ghz and 512mb ram each with new graphics cards. Both console can run Unreal 3 engine off of the Alpha dev kit, with the dolby support and 1080i, wireless controllers and unmatched online service (i.e sony world, xbox live) these consoles are gonna run stuff pretty well fro a while.
Either way i look at it, gaming pc of no gaming pc, i am picking xbox 360 up this november and am looking forward to ps3 launch in 06 spring.