Nintendo Wii vs Sony PlayStation 3

Every spec side by side, from each maker's published figures.

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Wii compared with PlayStation 3

	NintendoWii	SonyPlayStation 3
Overview
Released
Released	December 2006	March 2007
Performance
Type
Type	Home console	Home console
CPU
CPU	IBM Broadway (PowerPC), 729 MHz	Cell Broadband Engine, 3.2 GHz
GPU
GPU	ATI Hollywood, 243 MHz	RSX Reality Synthesizer
Memory
Memory	88 MB	512 MB (better)
Storage
Storage	512 MB	60 GB (better)
Disc drive
Disc drive	Yes	Yes
CPU
CPU	IBM Broadway (PowerPC-based) at 729 MHz (WiiBrew hardware research)	Cell Broadband Engine at 3.2 GHz, with one PowerPC-based core and seven active synergistic processing elements (Sony)
GPU
GPU	ATI Hollywood at 243 MHz (WiiBrew hardware research)	RSX graphics processor, codeveloped by NVIDIA and Sony
Memory detail
Memory detail	24 MB 1T-SRAM plus 64 MB GDDR3 (WiiBrew memory map)	256 MB XDR main RAM and 256 MB GDDR3 video RAM
Storage detail
Storage detail	512 MB flash memory; Wii optical discs and GameCube discs	60 GB 2.5-inch Serial ATA hard drive, user-replaceable; Blu-ray, DVD and CD drive (read only)
Storage expansion
Storage expansion	SD card slot; GameCube memory card slots	Memory Stick, SD and CompactFlash card slots; USB storage
Display and video
Maximum output
Maximum output	480p	1080p
Built-in screen
Built-in screen	No built-in screen	No built-in screen
Video output
Video output	AV Multi out; composite and RGB SCART at 576i on PAL consoles; component up to 480p (Nintendo)	HDMI out; AV Multi Out (composite, S-Video, component); 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p on the UK model
Audio
Audio	–	DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL); Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 and up to 7.1-channel linear PCM over HDMI (Sony)
Design and power
Weight
Weight	1,220 g (better)	5,000 g
Colours
Colours	–	Black
Connections
Ports
Ports	2 × USB 2.0, SD card slot, 4 × GameCube controller ports, 2 × GameCube memory card slots, AV Multi out, sensor bar port (Nintendo; WiiBrew)	4 × USB 2.0, HDMI out, AV Multi Out, DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL), Gigabit Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T), memory card slots
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g; Bluetooth for Wii Remotes (WiiBrew)	Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR); up to 7 Bluetooth controllers
Controller
Controller	Wii Remote and Nunchuk; also works with GameCube controllers	SIXAXIS wireless controller at launch; later bundles came with DUALSHOCK 3
Backward compatibility
Backward compatibility	GameCube games, controllers and memory cards (original model)	PlayStation games; the UK and European model plays some PS2 games through partial software emulation (its PS2 Emotion Engine chip was removed)