okay, noticed a few things here. One, the 360 is supposed to have a more powerful GPU then the PS3, but it lacks in CPU instructions. Reason being is in its unique architecture. Also, heard a comment earlier in the thread of the dx10 being out, HOWEVER, the 360 uses some dx9 and dx10 ideas, but is in its ownright uterly and totaly unique. You can NOT compare the two, to be honest. You also could not just pop one of these processors into a computer, much like you couldn't do with the cell. The reason, again, is the architecture. Many people are making the VERY large mistake of comparing gigaflops/teraflops and other speeds, well this is only a small part of the whole picture. 'When it comes to actual, real-world performance, teraflops are useless (and to a certain extent, so are megahertz and bandwidth numbers). It all depends on how efficient the architecture is and how well the software can take advantage of it.' As of now, the architecture is VERY effecient (in instructional execution, that is not in the time it takes to program) and like stated by others, has an incredible future when the hardware is taken full advantage of. Also, as far as it taking a long time to program, most companies are employing more programmers on a single project, thus the increase in game prices. Now, onto how long it will take for the PC to catch up. You MUST understand the architecture of this system to fully appreciate it, that includes how the cache system works in conjunction with the GPU (amazing bit of engineering), environemental synthesis, thread handling, unified shading, etc. For a PC to do this, you are looking at MANY changes having to be made. A MBD to support this architecture, the machine level instructions able to support many different developers of graphics cards, think about the problems that will arise making not just one system with such a specialized MBD, but being able to make MANY various card manufacturers communicate. The new architecture and low level languages make this a daunting task. So, not only the technological level is causing a road block for this, but the many different types of developers and making the os stable enough to handle it. Not to mention, will the major public do a complete overhaul of not just a processor, but new everything that will not be as user friendly to swap parts for as its predecessor?
Here is a little tidbit about FP:
Ps3 will have one processor, one core, and 7 dsp "processors" which don't do squat for gaming since Floating point calculations are for streaming
Regardless of all of this, the PS3 isn't out, the specs listed for it is not completely confirmed, so what it all comes down to is between the 360 and PS3, we dont know because we are unsure of the official specs. The 360 vs computer, well the computer will take longer than normal to catch up because of the unique architecture.