By: Sarju Shah - Posted on Friday, December 19, 2008

Back in 2006 (when the current generation of consoles was still called the next generation) we did our first Xbox 360 vs. PlayStation 3 graphics comparison. Since then we've released rounds 2, 3, and 4, but we hadn't touched the third rail--the PC--until now. The graphics comparison features started out as a way to examine which console had better graphics, but readers began asking us to include PC image comparisons for games available on all three platforms. We focused on more recent games for our current comparison, because those are the games people are still buying and playing. You'll likely recognize many of the shots from our previous graphics comparisons. The results aren't terribly surprising, but the differences are still interesting to see. A well-equipped PC beats both consoles easily--of course, that same PC also costs three to four times more than either of the consoles.

On the PC, we used FRAPs to capture images at 1920x1080 resolution. We equipped our test PC with high-end components, a GeForce 280 GTX, and a quad-core Intel Core 2 CPU. The PC allowed us to enable high-quality settings in most games and have plenty of power left over to kick antialiasing up to 4x and anisotropic filtering up to 8x. For the consoles, we captured all of our images over HDMI with games running at 720p resolution, and we enabled full HDMI range on the PS3.  

Each game has four sets of rollover images. The first image is a full screenshot set resized to fit the width of the page, followed by a zoomed-in image set that we created by cropping the original screen grabs to show you how the games look at a 1:1 pixel ratio. To easily compare the PC to the consoles, we scaled down the original 1920x1080 PC images to 1280x720 and cropped from there. The third and fourth image sets follow the same pattern. Mouse over the captions to swap the images back and forth. Keep in mind that these are large screenshots, so viewers with slow Internet connections should expect to wait a while for images to load.

Fallout 3

A Washington, DC, teeming with automotive executives seeking government aid isn't nearly as dismal as the postapocalyptic DC setting in Fallout 3. Shadows and lighting change according to the game's day-and-night cycle, and we made sure to match timestamps for our comparison shots. In what will come as no surprise, the PC shames both consoles in the image-quality comparison. Everything from the textures to the antialiasing to the reflections looks better on the PC. Foliage, piping, and far-off buildings look far superior on the PC due to transparency antialiasing effects. Even draw distance is better on the PC, as the rocks and a fence near the burned-out bus aren't even visible on the consoles.

PC       Xbox 360       PlayStation 3      

PC       Xbox 360       PlayStation 3      

PC       Xbox 360       PlayStation 3      

PC       Xbox 360       PlayStation 3      

4201 Comments

  • Vikasgames94 posted Nov 14, 2009 3:24 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Vikasgames94

    Posted Nov 14, 2009 3:24 am PT (hide)

    PS3 is very dark and texture is also very bad. PS3 only has some games which have extremely great graphics and those games only release on PS3. X Box has better graphics from ps3. But one thing is fine that PS3 is very expensive but has great hardware.
    The biggest thing in graphics of pc is that it is very clear.

  • Vikasgames94 posted Nov 14, 2009 3:15 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Vikasgames94

    Posted Nov 14, 2009 3:15 am PT (hide)

    For Dead Space ps3 is very dark and pc again the best.

  • Vikasgames94 posted Nov 14, 2009 3:13 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Vikasgames94

    Posted Nov 14, 2009 3:13 am PT (hide)

    PC is always best. PS3 has better view distance and X Box has good texture.

  • Moloch121 posted Nov 11, 2009 5:41 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Moloch121

    Posted Nov 11, 2009 5:41 pm PT (hide)

    That sucks gizzy!\
    I definetly can't play it on a console because I love modding my games too much

  • gizzy82 posted Nov 5, 2009 3:58 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    gizzy82

    Posted Nov 5, 2009 3:58 pm PT (hide)

    I gotta say FO3 is outstanding on pc, when it worked.... Unfortunately it gave up working on me and now ctd without even loading up! I have a more than powerful enough system and prior to the crashes was running it at 60 fps at 1680 resi.
    I gotta play it now on my 360, that's not a bad thing except after seeing FO3 with such beautiful graphics on pc it's kinda downgrading... boo hoo

  • Dne123456 posted Oct 26, 2009 6:04 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Dne123456

    Posted Oct 26, 2009 6:04 am PT (hide)

    pc roxxxxxxxxxxx

  • shadowblade34 posted Oct 24, 2009 11:41 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    shadowblade34

    Posted Oct 24, 2009 11:41 am PT (hide)

    erm my pc cost abut 500$ (custom built), and it can run crysisi on the best graphical settings to date

  • Ro555 posted Oct 20, 2009 6:45 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Ro555

    Posted Oct 20, 2009 6:45 am PT (hide)

    @ Lord Orion and all other PC owners, yes the PC version does look slightly smoother and you can get a much better resolution but more often than not you have to sit at your PC leaning over your keyboard looking at a 15-21" monitor, and at the cost of 750$, i'd rather sit on my Barker & Stonehouse recliner with my wireless pad looking at a 55" Sammy and couldn't care less about an extra few pixels on the screen! And for 750$ bet you cant run Crysis!! Its like "hey guys look i got a 2000$ rig and i can play crysis on 1024x768 woohoo,take it back get a refund, go buy a PS3 and 360 and get a dozen games and while your on pick up a maccy d's with the change!

  • tat2pap posted Oct 18, 2009 11:18 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    tat2pap

    Posted Oct 18, 2009 11:18 pm PT (hide)

    proud pc owner .

  • Reiken37 posted Oct 16, 2009 11:24 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Reiken37

    Posted Oct 16, 2009 11:24 pm PT (hide)

    Ugh, are you surprised? with XboX Sony and PC players here? Xbox has kids, Sony has (I forgot), and PCers like myself are called noobs for not bieng able to use controllers? I am ashamed at us for doing this to boards such as this. The only evidence I have of any of this is when an Xboxer was yelling out random army commands. But even so, one section of the xbox army shouldn't repersent them all. We should unite! Power to the players!

  • penguins227 posted Oct 16, 2009 4:09 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    penguins227

    Posted Oct 16, 2009 4:09 pm PT (hide)

    I think someone is hacking the thumb system. Notice how all (or most all) of the marked comments come up with -10 EXACTLY as the thing to mark them as spam? Seems like a Union raid or a Hacker to me.

  • TheClown24 posted Oct 16, 2009 9:59 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    TheClown24

    Posted Oct 16, 2009 9:59 am PT (hide)

    You get what you pay for, 360 is inferior to PC but costs a fraction of the price

  • EagleTiTi posted Oct 15, 2009 1:14 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    EagleTiTi

    Posted Oct 15, 2009 1:14 pm PT (hide)

    The PC version look better! I think thi is not all high on PC, and there is no blur on on PS3 or 360

  • Nobri posted Oct 12, 2009 2:05 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Nobri

    Posted Oct 12, 2009 2:05 pm PT (hide)

    Holy carp! Look at all the people who had their comments hidden!

  • Szeiden posted Oct 5, 2009 5:19 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Szeiden

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 5:19 pm PT (hide)

    I find it hilarious that q8sauod's comment was hidden. All he said was that he didn't know there wasn't a reflection in the PS3 version of F3. He didn't say 'the PS3 sucks' or anything like that. Give it a break. (waits for Sony fanboys to thumb down this comment... ironic because I also have a lot sony products... ps3, psp, tv, dvd player, et cetera...).

  • q8sauod posted Sep 14, 2009 10:57 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    q8sauod

    Posted Sep 14, 2009 10:57 am PT (hide)

    no water reflection in the ps3 o.0 didnt kno that..

  • da2x posted Sep 11, 2009 12:17 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    da2x

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 12:17 pm PT (hide)

    The thing with the pc is they release cards 3-6months apart. that is true but to avoid spending remember to go midrange and not high end. all computer games (xbox ps3 gameboy psp etc etc etc) are made in pc's in contrast to this a pc is much more than a gaming machine. i appreciate consoles being a pc gamer i have a psp so i can play the console only games i love so much.(tekken soul cal etc etc etc) what im trying to say is a well maintained and balanced pc will always overpower any console due to how and why its built. but a good console will always cope with the times due to its nature of not being upgradable. graphics will always be better on a pc. but longlevity and financial stability will go to the consoles.

  • WarLokk1980

    Posted Sep 3, 2009 5:06 pm PT

    PC is much better than the consoles because it is upgradeable. I built my rig myself and I know for a fact it plays games better than 360 and PS3. Fallout 3, COD:WaW, Gears of War, Left 4 Dead and Street Fighter IV all run maxed out with smooth framerates of around 60 fps at my monitors maximum resolution. I've played these games on the consoles and it cannot compete. They still look good, don't get me wrong but they lack the edge that PC has. Hell if you don't believe me, take a look at Crysis and that was released years ago. And with consoles you don't have mouse and keyboard.

  • ilguider posted Aug 30, 2009 4:46 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    ilguider

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 4:46 pm PT (hide)

    oh and i mean only SOME features of dx11 can be used on a dx9 card. not like its 100 percent compatible.

  • ilguider posted Aug 30, 2009 4:45 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    ilguider

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 4:45 pm PT (hide)

    Okay, so as of now practically i think computer gaming is almost unnecessary. unless u like the games on pc only. the ps3/360 can produce similar/same graphic minus AA at 1080 just like a pc can. okay pc's are upgradeable: true. Its ridiculous though because gpu companies release a new generation every year (almost). starting at 500 each time. The 360 is like a pre-hd2900gt 2/3gens back and ps3 is like a 7800gtx 3/4 gens back(8 series had two gens kinda) and they can produce graphics damn near close to a new card at playable speeds. The 360's been out for 5 years and the ps3 3. And ive seen the cryengine 3 and that brings near CRYSIS graphic to the console. oh and the ps3 slim is 300 and the 360 elite is 300 at walmart now. try and build a rig on that. oh and i heard that dx11 can be used on dx9 cards so in the future that could bring some tessellations to the 360 because its a modified dx9, maybe in the future(ps3 is open gl, but maybe something can be written for it). so that only means that consoles can be utilized a little more. Im sure the consoles wont keep up with dx11, im just saying the consoles can still produce a pretty playable game.

  • Gothika707 posted Aug 28, 2009 2:53 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Gothika707

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 2:53 am PT (hide)

    Cause PC has much more AA!!!!

  • fatpumba3 posted Aug 26, 2009 10:58 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    fatpumba3

    Posted Aug 26, 2009 10:58 pm PT (hide)

    Why is PC so much better?

  • seanth posted Aug 24, 2009 11:07 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    seanth

    Posted Aug 24, 2009 11:07 am PT (hide)

    You people are so wrong, I just build a computer FAR superior to any console... Wanna know how much it cost? 1000$ including the monitor(160). So lets see... 840? For a machine that will last a LONG time due to upgrade ability. GG consoles. And these photos are lame... I'm on HDMI with a radeon 4890, GTA4, CoD, Fallout all look much better on my computer. And another thing, ever heard of add-ons? I have fallout 3 with blue skies and green grass all around, with new weapons and new visuals. You should see the way energy weapons are. Hehe. Unless consoles allow addons PC wins BY FAR, not even a contest.

  • xthabeast posted Aug 24, 2009 3:52 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    xthabeast

    Posted Aug 24, 2009 3:52 am PT (hide)

    Pc always wins due to the neven ending development of more powerfull GPUs. Round 4 would be good. I wanna see ps3 slim vs elite

  • Excedra posted Aug 22, 2009 5:38 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Excedra

    Posted Aug 22, 2009 5:38 am PT (hide)

    GTA 4 2nd best game ever, next to MGS, graphics are great on ALL systems. I love it.

  • Pauldraper posted Aug 21, 2009 3:06 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Pauldraper

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 3:06 pm PT (hide)

    Isn't it about time for Round 5? I want to see PS3 finally coming on top of Xbox 360.....!!!

  • Elaqure posted Aug 20, 2009 8:20 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Elaqure

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 8:20 am PT (hide)

    @bcwjlv: You haven't considered the fact that to get the most out of the xbox and the PS3, you pretty much have to buy a high definition TV. So, at release, a TV and an xbox would cost about \$1500 and a PS3 would cost about \$1600(assuming a \$1000 tv). Overall, the price will equal out in the long run considering the fact that without the hi def TV, the xbox/PS3 wouldn't even be able to compare to the PC...

  • bcwjlv posted Aug 19, 2009 9:23 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    bcwjlv

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 9:23 pm PT (hide)

    How can you compare a \$2000+ gaming computer with consoles that are both going to be only \$300 now bring in a computer that is only worth \$300 along with consoles then see how it compares

  • ridethefire908 posted Aug 19, 2009 3:25 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    ridethefire908

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 3:25 pm PT (hide)

    yeah pc looks better butt im dissipointed in how much better every one hyped up the pc but its not enouph to make me want to play it

  • thingta42 posted Aug 17, 2009 3:08 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    thingta42

    Posted Aug 17, 2009 3:08 am PT (hide)

    Dead space looks nothing like that on PC.. Because the PC Version has no Suppor for AA

  • crazyshooter93 posted Aug 15, 2009 5:40 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    crazyshooter93

    Posted Aug 15, 2009 5:40 pm PT (hide)

    i don't know why they still compare them if you have xbox 360 play on 360 if you have ps3 play on ps3 and if you have pc play on the pc is that simple

  • spikepigeo posted Aug 12, 2009 4:58 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    spikepigeo

    Posted Aug 12, 2009 4:58 am PT (hide)

    I built my machine for a great price, only about 3 times the price of a 360 and it does far more than 3 times as much stuff as a 360 so you could think of it that way. Screens for consoles look great but this just makes me even more happy to be a PC gamer. Seems to be an issue with brightness though...

  • 60spaure posted Aug 11, 2009 11:28 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    60spaure

    Posted Aug 11, 2009 11:28 am PT (hide)

    That doesn't make sense. The 2th GTA picture is so much dark on the PS3 it would not be playable. If you put full RBG and ultra white it would be OK.

  • 60spaure posted Aug 11, 2009 11:26 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    60spaure

    Posted Aug 11, 2009 11:26 am PT (hide)

    you didn't even put the same lightning everywhere. That's the only thing that makes a difference.

  • cantoncrusha posted Aug 4, 2009 11:22 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    cantoncrusha

    Posted Aug 4, 2009 11:22 am PT (hide)

    unfortunately gta IV on pc was completely broken...

  • LordRaymond posted Aug 2, 2009 11:12 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    LordRaymond

    Posted Aug 2, 2009 11:12 pm PT (hide)

    PS3 wins this game and every other game shown on E3! PS3 FTW!

  • frogfromarz posted Aug 2, 2009 9:31 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    frogfromarz

    Posted Aug 2, 2009 9:31 pm PT (hide)

    really cant see the diffrence besides the pc has more brighter images but ofcourse pc is always at the cutting edge eventhough i own a 360 im just starting to get n2 pc gaming..

  • Stealth-patriot posted Aug 1, 2009 4:25 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Stealth-patriot

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 4:25 pm PT (hide)

    One game that really stuck out to me is Call of Duty WoW. Compare them all and see for yourself.

  • Stealth-patriot posted Aug 1, 2009 4:24 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Stealth-patriot

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 4:24 pm PT (hide)

    Why in the world does everyone think that it cost 2000 dollars to make pc do this? Lol, i have a dell inspiron 531 w/ amd 64 x2 +4200 and 2gb of ram. I got a sweettt video card EVGA geforce 9800 GTX w/ 512mb vram and it plays all these games trumendously. Only thing i have problems with is the new flashpoint game... i forgot what its called lol, got the demo and can run high and some very high settings but anyway, it all cost me under 600 bucks and that was money spent over the course of a year and a few months. PC rules! Also, ps3 actually looks better on some of these games this time around, believe it or not. PS3 will slowly emerge, trust me, though im not sure why sony decided all they could have in the ps3 is a lousy video load of 256mb.... Seriously would it cost so much more to double that?

  • volleyballer008 posted Jul 31, 2009 5:31 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    volleyballer008

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 5:31 pm PT (hide)

    wow all the comments "do not meet display criteria" lmao

  • volleyballer008 posted Jul 31, 2009 5:29 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    volleyballer008

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 5:29 pm PT (hide)

    wow all the comments "do not meet display criteria" lmao

  • vexum posted Jul 18, 2009 1:26 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    vexum

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 1:26 am PT (hide)

    wow. all these comments got too many thumps down.
    fanboys! the stupidest people on earth.

  • wiirkokonuts posted Jul 15, 2009 6:26 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    wiirkokonuts

    Posted Jul 15, 2009 6:26 pm PT (hide)

    Fallout 3 for PC and 360 were on par, PS3 behind. Dead Space was extremely blurry for PS3 and 360, if it wasn't I wouldn't of had a problem with their graphics for Dead Space. COD: WaW was hard to call, but overall PC looked better and PS3 right behind, with the 360 just looking unimpressive. PC beat both PS3 and 360 easily in GTA. This is just my opinion, for the group of people giving out negative comments to everyone for no reason.

  • wael3000 posted Jul 14, 2009 4:19 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    wael3000

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 4:19 am PT (hide)

    pc with high end graphic card is the best

  • Icylobster posted Jul 12, 2009 8:14 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Icylobster

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 8:14 pm PT (hide)

    I kind of like it on all of them. The PC can do the best detail but sometimes the others look good just because the way some things are blended or shaded to reduce graphic intensity it ends up giving it a different style or feel to it. I think even though PC is the strongest machine I think that certain games will feel great on a system because of this.

  • Glokwerk posted Jul 12, 2009 3:19 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Glokwerk

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 3:19 pm PT (hide)

    PC will win the graphics war 10 out of 10 time, no console can compete with it.

  • iwantapepsi posted Jul 12, 2009 2:38 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    iwantapepsi

    Posted Jul 12, 2009 2:38 pm PT (hide)

    ps3 to much blur. pc 2nd but i got to go with 360 ( not being a fan boy)

  • LordShoot2Kill posted Jul 10, 2009 7:39 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    LordShoot2Kill

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 7:39 am PT (hide)

    PC ownz

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