How do latest games run on current consoles?

[Guest2]

How do all the latest games run on consoles like the Xbox 360, on hardware that is 6 years old?

I know games are generally designed for these consoles but imagine what types of games can be created for current pc hardware

Just looking at some games like F1 2011, I dont see how it is possible for it to work on the 360. It sure as hell wouldnt work on pc hardware of 2005 (ATI X1800XT, 7800GT?)

 

[Reaper 392]

the answer is, they run very badly. the xbox and playstation will have the graphics on a very low setting. they will also be on a low resolution (below 720p for sure) and then be upscaled to 720p or 1080p. they will also generally run far lower than the recommended 60FPS apart from a few exceptions (forza 2 and 3 come to mind). the Wii's graphics are so pathetic it cant even go above SD resolution, and is outdone by stuff like the iphone.

test drive unlimited 2 was a fantastic comparison game for me because i have it on the xbox and know what its graphics are like: mediocre even for the xbox and the framerate does drop below 25FPS at times so it feels like its a slideshow, not a moving picture. however, when i saw it on the PC the graphics were immensely improved with frame rates keeping well above 60 if you had a decent PC.

i remember from a battlefield 3 video that consoles have about ten times less computing power than a half decent PC these days, which is why battlefield 3 is running below 720p resolution and at 30FPS on the xbox and PS3