Are PS3 graphics next gen?

[B.Ob.]

blurp from nvidia G80 review on firingsquad.com

 

"It’s interesting that it’s launching just days ahead of Sony’s next-gen PS3 console, which by the way, is powered by NVIDIA’s RSX GPU. All the buzz in gaming right now surrounds Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 game consoles, but the GPUs in both of these consoles ain’t got nothing on them that can’t be found in the GeForce 8800 GTX’s G80 GPU. It’s got a unified shader architecture just like Xbox 360’s Xenos GPU, and a whopping 128 shading units running at an astounding 1.35GHz! Meanwhile, the RSX GPU inside the PS3 is closer in comparison to NVIDIA’s G70/G71 GPUs found in the GeForce 7800/7900 series than GeForce 8800 GTX, and you saw how the 8800 GTX performed in comparison to NVIDIA’s previous graphics architecture in our benchmarks. It just isn’t close."

 

We already know the XBox 360 graphics was a year of anything in the PC space, as just now are we seeing GPUs that are equal to or eclipse the Xenos. But if the above is true about the graphics for the PS3, then unless the PS3 has a better/faster underlying cpu architecture that can be properly utilized, the PS3 is not going to be able to show anything that we havn't seen already on the XBox 360.

 

And considering the price points Sony is heading towards, they might find themselves having a hard time after the initial wave of PS3's are sold.