The following list shows the incredible improvement in
video game consoles over the last 40 years. This steady improvement was driven
by the same technological factors that drive Moore’s law. You can see the CPU,
RAM, hard drive, and resolution specifications for over 30 game machines.
The first item on our list, the Magnavox Odyssey from
1972, can barely be considered a computer. It didn’t have a CPU, RAM, or a hard
drive, and its video output was just a few pixels. But all of the other consoles
can be compared to each other in a pretty straightforward way. As you can see
CPU speed increased over one thousandfold, and RAM memory increased over a
millionfold in the same span of time.
There may be some errors in this list, and I had to fudge
a few of the numbers in order to create an apples to apples comparison. But I
checked the numbers with multiple sources, so overall the list should be pretty
reliable.
Video Game Console Specification Comparison
Year
|
Console
Computer
System
|
CPU
Speed
Hz
|
RAM
Memory
Bytes
|
Hard
Drive
Capacity
Bytes
|
Screen
Resolution
Pixels
|
1972
|
Magnavox Odyssey
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
n/a
|
1977
|
Atari 2600
|
1,190,000
|
128
|
0
|
160 x 192
|
1979
|
Magnavox Odyssey 2
|
1,790,000
|
192
|
0
|
160 x 200
|
1980
|
Intellivision
|
2,000,000
|
524
|
0
|
159 x 96
|
1982
|
Atari 5200
|
1,790,000
|
16,000
|
0
|
320 x 200
|
1982
|
Colecovision
|
3,580,000
|
2,000
|
0
|
256 x 192
|
1985
|
Nintendo Ent. Sys.
|
1,800,000
|
2,000
|
0
|
256 x 240
|
1986
|
Sega Master Sys.
|
4,000,000
|
8,000
|
0
|
256 x 192
|
1986
|
Atari 7800
|
1,790,000
|
4,000
|
0
|
320 x 240
|
1989
|
Gameboy
|
4,190,000
|
8,000
|
0
|
160 x 144
|
1989
|
Turbo Grafx 16
|
7,160,000
|
256,000
|
0
|
256 x 239
|
1989
|
Sega Genesis
|
8,000,000
|
72,000
|
0
|
320 x 224
|
1991
|
Super Nintendo
|
3,600,000
|
128,000
|
0
|
160 x 144
|
1991
|
Neo Geo
|
12,000,000
|
64,000
|
0
|
320 x 224
|
1991
|
Game Gear
|
3,500,000
|
8,000
|
0
|
160 x 144
|
1992
|
Sega CD
|
12,500,000
|
8,000
|
0
|
320 x 224
|
1993
|
Atari Jaguar
|
26,600,000
|
2,000,000
|
0
|
320 x 224
|
1994
|
Sega Saturn
|
58,000,000
|
2,000,000
|
4,000,000
|
704 x 224
|
1995
|
Playstation
|
33,000,000
|
2,000,000
|
1,000,000
|
640 x 480
|
1996
|
Nintendo 64
|
93,000,000
|
4,000,000
|
32,000
|
720 x 576
|
1998
|
Gameboy Color
|
8,380,000
|
32,000
|
0
|
160 x 144
|
1999
|
Sega Dreamcast
|
200,000,000
|
24,000,000
|
128,000
|
640 x 480
|
2000
|
Playstation 2
|
300,000,000
|
36,000,000
|
128,000
|
640 x 480
|
2001
|
Gamecube
|
486,000,000
|
43,000,000
|
16,000,000
|
640 x 480
|
2001
|
Gameboy Advance
|
16,780,000
|
256,000
|
0
|
240 x 160
|
2005
|
Xbox 360
|
3.200,000,000
|
512,000,000
|
20,000,000,000
|
1920 x 1080
|
2006
|
Playstation 3
|
3,200,000,000
|
512,000,000
|
12,000,000,000
|
1280 x
720
|
2006
|
Nintendo Wii
|
729,000,000
|
88,000,000
|
512,000,000
|
640 x 480
|
2012
|
Nintendo Wii U
|
1,240,000,000
|
2,000,000,000
|
8,000,000,000
|
1920 x
1080
|
2013
|
Playstation 4
|
12,800,000,000
|
8,000,000,000
|
500,000,000,000
|
1920 x
1080
|
2013
|
Xbox One
|
14,000,000,000
|
8,000,000,000
|
500,000,000,000
|
1920 x
1080
|
2016
|
Playstation 4 Pro
|
16,800,000,000
|
8,000,000,000
|
1,000,000,000,000
|
3840 x
2160
|
2017
|
Xbox One X
|
18,400,000,000
|
12,000,000,000
|
1,000,000,000,000
|
3840 x
2160
|
2017
|
Nintendo Switch
|
8,000,000,000
|
4,000,000,000
|
32,000,000,000
|
1920 x
1080
|
2020
|
Playstation 5
|
28,000,000,000
|
16,000,000,000
|
825,000,000,000
|
3840 x
2160
|
2020
|
Xbox Series X
|
30,400,000,000
|
16,000,000,000
|
1,000,000,000,000
|
3840 x
2160
|
Note that to obtain the newer, multicore systems’ CPU
processing speed, the clock cycle was multiplied by the number of cores in the
CPU. Of course this exaggerates speedup by failing to recognize Amdahl's law.
Secondly, in a few early cases I combined VRAM with RAM where I thought is was
appropriate, but in most I did not. Thirdly, note that hertz and bytes are
expressed in a way that is not abbreviated. This allows a direct comparison and
avoids using prefixes like kilo, mega, and giga.
This list makes me think back to fond memories of playing
early video games in my childhood. I remember the day I first saw Super Mario
Bros at age five on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The sights and sounds
were dreamlike and hypnotic. It was a colorful cartoon with immersive music and
sound effects that I could control myself (if I could just get the kid next to
me to share the controller). Six years later at a different friend’s house I
was introduced to the world of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis. It was a
beautiful, fast-moving landscape filled with dynamic and interactive objects,
that by comparison was much more impressive.
The list above really sparks my imagination because I can
look at the console specs of the first Nintendo, at just 2 kilobytes of RAM and
compare it to that of the Sega Genesis at 72 kilobytes of RAM. These numbers
illustrate the difference in constraints on those systems, and in turn, the
difference in constraints on the programmers that created those worlds. I think
it is fun to ask myself: “what does it mean that Sonic’s world was powered by
over 30 times as much computer short-term memory?” Similarly: “what aspects of
the graphical presentation are affected by the fact that the Genesis had more
than four times the CPU clock speed?” I think the data in the columns and rows
above give us an interesting basis to compare one gaming experience with
another. Because we were immersed in these experiences from a young age I think
that studying these comparisons can provide us with a better intuitive
understanding of computer hardware.
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