Which system has the greatest graphics capabilities – PS2, Xbox, or GameCube?
Many of the “answers” on here seem to be from biased opinions. Allow me to explain simply the differences between each system. Playstation 2 – This came out first of the three systems, and is said to be the weakest. This however is not the fault of the hardware, but simply the fact that the system is extremely difficult to program for. There is 32MB of System RAM, and 4MB on-chip on the GS. The GS has 16 parallel pixel pipelines and is heavily dependant on extreme parallelism to produce great graphics. All the work though is done in the Emotion Engine, which is powerful to do polygon calculations and effects by itself. The Emotion Engine is also capable of generating studio-quality effects. Sony reports the PS2 can do 75 million polgons a sec, but the highest count for a game so far is around 20-25 million for Jak 2 and God of War. PS2 supports up to 1080i (Gran Turismo 4) but most games only use 480i or 480p. Best graphical games to look for are God of War, Gran Turismo 4, Jak 2&3, MG
