 I’ve compiled a side-by-side comparison of the PS3 and Xbox 360 for your next-gen hardware drooling pleasure. Some aspects (such as the CPU) are a bit like comparing apples and oranges, and these engineering marvels are nothing without good games to play on them, but the breakdown gives you an idea of what they have crammed into these curvy boxes.
| | Xbox 360
 | PlayStation 3
 | | CPU | Custom IBM PowerPC CPU - 3 symmetrical cores @3.2 GHz each
- 2 hardware threads per core, 6 total
- VMX-128 vector unit per core; 3 total
- 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
- 1 MB L2 cache
| Cell Processor - PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
- 1 VMX vector unit per core
- 7x SPE @3.2GHz
- 7x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
- 7x 256KB SRAM for SPE
- 512KB L2 cache
| | Graphics | Microsoft/ATI @500MHz - 10 MB of embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines
- Unified shader architecture
- 48 billion shader operations per second
| NVIDIA RSX @550MHz - 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
- Dual screen output, each up to 1080p resolution (1920x1080)
| | Memory | | - 256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
- 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
| | Memory Bandwidth | - 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s front-side bus
| - Main RAM: 25.6GB/s
- VRAM: 22.4GB/s
- RSX: 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
- SB: 2.5GB/s
| | Floating Point Performance | 1 Teraflop | 2.18 Teraflops | | HDD | Detachable 20GB | Detachable 2.5" HDD
(size TBA) | | Communication | - Ethernet
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g (optional extra)
| - 3x Ethernet
- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g (built-in)
- Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
| | I/O | - up to 4 wireless controllers
- 3x USB 2.0 ports
- 2x memory unit slots
| - up to 7 wireless controllers (Bluetooth)
- 4x Front USB (2.0)
- 2x Rear USB (2.0)
- 1x Memory Stick Standard/Duo, PRO x 1
- 1x SD standard/mini
- 1x CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1
| | AV Connections | Component, composite, VGA, Optical Audio | - 2x HDMI, Optical Audio, AV Multi
| | Video Output | 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i | 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p | | Audio Output | - Multi-channel surround sound output
- Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32-bit audio processing
- Over 256 audio channels
| - Dolby 5.1, DTS, LPCM, etc.
| | Disc Media | - CD:
CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD - DVD:
DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW
| - CD:
CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, DualDisc - DVD:
DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW - Blu-ray Disc:
BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE
| | Backwards Compatible? | “Selected Backward Compatibility” | Compatible with PlayStation & PlayStation 2 | | Price | "around US$299-$360 depending on pack-ins" | "under US$465" | | Launch Date | "Holiday 2005" | "Spring 2006" | UPDATE: I can’t find any information on physical sizes for the 2 consoles, so here’s a dodgy mockup to show relative sizes based on the width of the DVD trays. 
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