Vijay Pande, creator of the Folding@home project, which harnesses the power of networked Playstation3s across the world to carry out essential research into Alzheimer's Disease, has revealed to Pro-G that the 360 is of limited help to his work.
After being asked if he thought the power of the 360 could be useful, he said: "Possibly, although the cell processor in the PS3 is much more powerful for our calculations than the CPU in the Xbox 360."
Giving details of how the power of the Playstation3 was useful to his research, Pande explained: "We are simulating key processes in protein folding and misfolding in Alzheimer's Disease. PS3's are performing aspects of these simulations, and doing so about 20 times faster than a typical PC."
The program has seen a strong uptake by PS3 owners with more than 250,000 unique users having registered, delivering nearly 400 teraflops of computing power. Total computing power at a single moment is now recorded at 700 teraflops, more than double the capacity of the network before PlayStation 3 joined the program.
There is still no word on any plans for the folding@home project to embrace the Xbox 360, but we're sure that many Xbox 360 owners would be more than willing to help out such a good cause.
User Comments
MCK
mck
ffs
im glad the ps3 is protein folding to save lives
number 2
i dont see why people are being so ****ing ignorant and saying they dont care what happens when you get cancer say you dont care then go on!
number 3 mega man please learn to spell
number 4 WILL 360 USER's PLEASE STOP FLAMING!
there realy isnt any point. you dont see any ps3 user's complaining
number 5 STOP BITCHING AND GET ON WITH LIFE
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
KillerXL5
Jeffa
...
Gamespot is MS biases all the way because MS gives them money to be so. Half the staff of Gamespot works for MS. I have done my own comparisons and seen very different results, and maybe thats because I was playing my games on Full HD.
The Cell is ridiculously faster than the 360's GPU. The limits of the systems simply have not been tested yet because the programmers have not caught up.
The 360 has a year left tops as a top-runner.
...
A: PS3's games are ****ing fine, their premier's dont come out till the fall just like every other f**king console ever made. The 360 has almost reached its limit in processing and graphical capability and will do so this fall, where as the PS3 still has a sh1t ton more to go. Blu-ray, looks 10x better than regular HD DVD and the 360 cannot even do that to its fullest. The 360 cannot support 1080p and it shows. I have put the two systems side by side on my 1080p 40-inch and the 360 is a joke. The only thing holding the 360 in the market is that they released a year early to establish a fanbase. Well, this time last year, the 360 had less games than Sony, which in turn means that the PS3 has a higher rate of out-putting new games. And to top it all off, the PS3 can partition a second hard drive with Windows Vista and hook up to play 360 games on the PS3. So as a PS3 owner I would be saying, I can play your games and my own. "Oh, but its so xpensive :(," you get a lot more for each dollar you spend on a ps3 than a 360. Not to mention in 1.75 years you pay the cost differential in free online vs xbox live.
The reason the xbox 360 works in the US and nowhere else is simply because the American public is retarded when it comes to electronics.
PSian
PSian
fribbet
Is this meaningful information for games? No. F@H is not a game, and if my understanding is correct, it is not remotely decision based. Each run simulates 100ps and returns the results to the server, where the decision making occurs. Although it is about folding, it doesnt appear to do any spatial queries, like a game must do during collision detection. Certainly, in games there is a large amount of just pushing 3D numbers to do the graphics, but judging how much I like my Wii, pretty != fun. Secondly, this compares the PS3 CPU to the 360 GPU. If full clients were written that used PS3 CPU+GPU vs. the 360 CPU+GPU, who knows who would win?
I suspect that Vijay knows exactly what he is doing. His remarks, reward Sony for stepping up and at the same time encourage Microsoft to give him more processing power.
charlie101
If the whole p*****g against the wall contest (xbox got more games than ps3, ps3's more powerful than xbox 360, blah blah blah) could be put to one side and xbox 360 could get involved with the F@H project and work ALONGSIDE ps3, think what could actually be achieved........??
Charlie101
To the 360 xbots, sure there are a lot more 360 games than ps3 games, but maybe that's because the 360 has been out a clear 12 months before the ps3 was launched in the uk???
To the ps3 fanboys, I've owned a ps3 since the uk launch and the one thing that is scaring the bejesus out of me is whether I have thrown a wad of money away on a console that is going to fall on it's ass cos of the slow release rate of games and apparent difficulty developing games on the ps3!!! look at rainbow 6 vegas and it's constant release date slips, for example.
Oh and to those xbots who'd like to gloat at my above comment, I'll say just one thing... PSP!!!
To explain, historically, nintendo has owned the handheld market, knocking out all competition. The game boy in it's many guises has out sold and seen the death of the neo geo pocket, sega game gear and atari lynx (I'm showing my age now!!), as well as others I can't remember. That is until the PSP came along...
Initially, like the ps3, there were very few games for the PSP. But look at the market now... sony continued to support it's console, allowing time for the other games companies to get on board. Now, just under 18 months later, there are more games than I can count, let alone ever hope to own on the PSP, from both big and smaller companies and publishers, with new ones being released all the time. Sony now hold a hefty share of the hand held market, more than competing with the Nintendo DS!!!
I'm not going to go into whether the PSP is better then the DS, both consoles have their pros and cons...
Without trying to sound like a playstation fanboy, I address this to the 360 xbots who seem to spend their time on these forums slating the ps3 and saying it's doomed.... are you really more worried that the ps3 could actually give the 360 and microsoft a shock when it (finally) gets up and running and possibly blows the 360 out of the water???
To the ps3 fanboys, I refer to my earlier comment..
At the end of the day, it's all a matter of personal preference...
xbox owners are more likely to go and buy an xbox 360...
playstation 2 owners are more likely to go out and buy a ps3 (I did)...
sorry Wii owners, personally think the Wii is a nice idea for a console and be great for playing on when your friends come round, but doesn't appeal to me as a serious gamer...
I bought a ps3 cos playstation is what I know (god I'm sounding like a fanboy again)... I've played on xbox's and personally can't stand the controller..
There are pros and cons with both machines...
The 360 has more games, but you have to subscribe to play online???? OUCH!!!!!
ps3 has a lot less games at present, but has FREE online gaming (for now at least, lol).
Sure 360's getting HALO, ps3's getting Gran Turismo and Tekken (an online version of Dark Resurrection is due later this year to download on playstation store) and Metal Gear Solid 4!!!!!
Point is, there are always gonna be games exclusive to xbox and exclusive to ps3 and always gonna be fans of both consoles... I'm happy I made my choice. Are You????
I think both consoles are here to stay, for how long though, no one knows (that's addressed to both ps3 and 360 fanboys, don't get cocky!!!).
I own a ps3, a PSP and a ps2. My Fiancee owns a Nintendo DS and some of my best friends are Xbox 360 owners. Just for info......