3 ms·

> Games consoles are odd in that there are usually only around 3 major ones in the market at any one time and they all do basically exactly the same job. So yo

> Games consoles are odd in that there are usually only around 3 major ones in the market at any one time and they all do basically exactly the same job. So you're saying people buy consoles based on how much RAM is in the machine because they all basically do the same thing? > Even with a mac there is enough to differentiate the models in specifications alone, That is slowly eroding away. No more Macbook. Now, what's the difference between a MBP and a MBA? I think the most striking example is when you compare an MBP, an iMac, and a MBA with an iPad with a keyboard. What's the difference in the hardware? With an iPad, the screen is easily portable. That's pretty much it with regards to what matters.

jiggy2011 15y ago
> So you're saying people buy consoles based on how much RAM is in the machine because they all basically do the same thing? No, I'm not saying that. I would say with consoles since the use cases are so similar the specifications are inevitably very similar in terms of performance (between Xbox and Playstation at least the wii is arguably in a different market altogether). Since these are games consoles it's pretty obvious they are going to have powerful graphics hardware in the same was it is obvious that a ferrari will have a powerful engine. The issue comes when you have a computer intended for a larger variety of use cases. The apple devices mentioned do have relatively similar hardware but this is largely because they are all aimed towards the top of the market, it is more important at the lower end of the market where you have to make more trade-offs and you need some way of telling at a glance what those trade offs are. One example of a difference would be if I was choosing a Mac that I wanted to run games on along with other use cases where the portability may be useful. If I buy a MBA I get an Intel HD Graphics card whereas with the iMac I get some sort of ATI GPU. The 3dmark06 score for iMac is 20915 whereas the score for the MBA 4185 (I found these numbers online so I can't vouch for their accuracy) this is going to make a monumental difference if you want to play the newest Call of Duty. I suppose you could make an argument that instead of specs you should provide benchmarks but then the problem is that these need to be comprehensive and consistent. Quoting specs is certainly far from ideal but if gives you a rough idea as to what the computing device will be capable of doing if that is not inferred simply by the name or appearance of the device.

jiggy2011 15y ago

> So you're saying people buy consoles based on how much RAM is in the machine because they all basically do the same thing? No, I'm not saying that. I would say with consoles since the use cases are so similar the specifications are inevitably very similar in terms of performance (between Xbox and Playstation at least the wii is arguably in a different market altogether). Since these are games consoles it's pretty obvious they are going to have powerful graphics hardware in the same was it is obvious that a ferrari will have a powerful engine. The issue comes when you have a computer intended for a larger variety of use cases. The apple devices mentioned do have relatively similar hardware but this is largely because they are all aimed towards the top of the market, it is more important at the lower end of the market where you have to make more trade-offs and you need some way of telling at a glance what those trade offs are. One example of a difference would be if I was choosing a Mac that I wanted to run games on along with other use cases where the portability may be useful. If I buy a MBA I get an Intel HD Graphics card whereas with the iMac I get some sort of ATI GPU. The 3dmark06 score for iMac is 20915 whereas the score for the MBA 4185 (I found these numbers online so I can't vouch for their accuracy) this is going to make a monumental difference if you want to play the newest Call of Duty. I suppose you could make an argument that instead of specs you should provide benchmarks but then the problem is that these need to be comprehensive and consistent. Quoting specs is certainly far from ideal but if gives you a rough idea as to what the computing device will be capable of doing if that is not inferred simply by the name or appearance of the device.