I have been looking up info about the new "Cell" chip that Sony has been developing... They are planning on makint it the core of the PS3, and using it in other home electronics such as TV's... What's so spectacular about this chip? PS3 will likely be the last of that generations of consoles to be released, unless a new face enters the market (or an old one returns... Colecovision Ultraviolet, anyone? hahahaha)
I'm guessing this thing will surpass the ATI stuff, otherwise Sony would be stupid to risk releasing it AFTER the X-box 2 (in 2006) and the new Nintendo system... That's a good part of what has been hurting the X-box (that, and the lack of true variety, but whatever.) This should be interesting... Obviously, the X-box 2 will have graphics on par with the newest PC ATI cards (9900? 10000?) but I think Sony is really trying for something more... Cinematic rendering (such as Antz and Monsters Inc) in real time is what I heard... Of course, ATI's 9800 did some incredible stuff, but putting it in the context of games with a whole lot of BObs, and it wasn't nearly as impressive... To be able to render a scene in a movie like Antz in real time, that is impressive.
It's pretty obvious that no matter how much hype surrounds the new systems, they'll all be pretty close in power. Of course, one of them could surprise us... I just hope it's not Microsoft...