Where to position the PSP between the Playstation models?
- Thread starter kremiso
- Start date
Skifi28
Member
This, but also closer to the PS2.
PauloRoberto
Member
PS1.7, give or take
It's between PS1/PS2, close-ish to PS2 but not quite getting there in a number of ways.
Purely on paper spec - it should trade-blows with the PS2 (eg. Dual core single-issue 333mhz CPU vs. single core dual-issue 300mhz CPU, 30M+ polygon throughput, 600Mpix GPU for 2x less pixels on screen etc.), but like the modern PC handhelds (eg. Ryzen 7840U) that are 'on paper' a Series S competitor - the limitations of mobile platform(primarily the memory subsystem) actually knee cap their performance relative to the desktop device in some ways (this is also true of Switch etc).
The original PSP design that was announced first (using all eDram - I think it was like 12-16MB of memory, no external ram chips at all), would have performed better, but it would also have much less useable memory to work with - so it's an interesting debate whether console ports would suffer more or less.
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RagnarokIV
Battlebus imprisoning me \m/ >.< \m/
PlayStation 3.4
diffusionx
Gold Member
It basically was a portable PS2. It couldn't run the games as well but it could handle many of them decently enough for the era. It ran PS2 games as well if not better than the Switch ran PS4 games. And the PSP-to-PS2 games like Syphon Filter were totally respectable PS2 games.
It was a clear generational jump over the PSX, heck it emulated the PSX.
It was a clear generational jump over the PSX, heck it emulated the PSX.
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Trunx81
Member
That´s the Vita
Back in the days we knew that it wasn´t PS2 quality, but way ahead of PS1. Probably more like the Dreamcast /s
Hideous Snake
Gold Member
Between PS1 and PS2 with it being closer to PS2
Shifty1897
Member
PS1->PSP->PS2->Vita->PS3
kremiso
Member
really with some games i am debated
i'm liking more the Phantasy Star Portable chapters that the Universe PS2 ones, gameplay and graphics wise
same for Everybody Golf
with some titles the hardware surely was greatly squeezed ++
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Shtof
Member
My favorite PS2 series were Ratchet, Jak and God of War.
All those had PSP releases, with varying quality.
The one that translated best was definitely God of War.
But in the end, my favorite PSP games ended up being Patapon and Killzone Liberation.
Games that really fit on a handheld platform and didn't try to emulate the PS2 experience.
Audiophile
Member
Power: PS1.33
Architecture: PS1.66
Cool Factor: PS9
Architecture: PS1.66
Cool Factor: PS9
kevboard
Member
the 272p screen helped here. games only needed to run at half the resolution than PS2 games did.
but that also shows how far it was away in raw power. even with half or less than half the pixels that needed to be rendered, it still had to have cutbacks beyond that. so in reality it was less than half as powerful as the PS2, but felt not far off due to the small screen
Geometric-Crusher
"Nintendo games are like indies, and worth at most $19" 🤡
closer to ps2 than Dreamcast
kevboard
Member
it's not even half as powerful as a PS2, and far below the Dreamcast
Geometric-Crusher
"Nintendo games are like indies, and worth at most $19" 🤡
far above the DC I would say
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kevboard
Member
the dreamcast can play Vice City at PS2 res and Xbox assets with framerates close to the PS2.
the PSP was only able to get similar results at around half the resolution of the PS2 and degraded assets
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CrimsonTide
Member
Above the DC? not a chance. Think the PSP can run Shenmue or Sonic Adventure? Absolutely not a chance
Redneckerz
Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
PlayStation Portable (PSP) Architecture | A Practical Analysis
An in-depth analysis that explains how this console works internally
www.copetti.org
CrimsonTide
Member
I suppose the 3DS was the first handheld that could best it? Unless some PC gaming handheld released back then I am unaware ofThis will give the answer. Its a PS 1.5, but it was literally 5-6 years before anything remote could best it technically.PlayStation Portable (PSP) Architecture | A Practical Analysis
An in-depth analysis that explains how this console works internally
Shadowstar39
Member
PS2 lite. It actually looked better than ps2. Games had proper wide screen and weren't fuzzy even if they had lower resolution (must of been the screen).
The psp also had incredible library of games, keeping the ps1/ps2 tradition alive where 3rd party supported it big time. Hell psp had 2 exclusive (at the time) gta games, and 1 a port from the ds.
It was my favorite handheld and could do way more than the switch as it had browser and media player built in.
It was also backwards compatible with almost all ps1 games. The ps4/ps5 can't play more than a handful of curated 1st party titles.
The psp also had incredible library of games, keeping the ps1/ps2 tradition alive where 3rd party supported it big time. Hell psp had 2 exclusive (at the time) gta games, and 1 a port from the ds.
It was my favorite handheld and could do way more than the switch as it had browser and media player built in.
It was also backwards compatible with almost all ps1 games. The ps4/ps5 can't play more than a handful of curated 1st party titles.
Sooner
Member
Hardware wise? Definitely not. First-party software support after the first year, sure.
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Onironauta
Member
I guess Gizmondo and GP2(X), but they were pretty niche
March Climber
Member
CrimsonTide
Member
Gizmondo was more PS1 level eh? (and hardly any games ever released for it) now the GP2 was a gaming windows handheld eh? It probably could best the PSP
CrimsonTide
Member
It was sexyI never had one due to its lack of interesting games, but oh boy if it didn't make the Nintendo DS look even more like a toy.
The designers were on fire.
BUT HOLY SHIT that nub was truly the stuff of nightmares.
Never ONCE got used to it. Worst representation of an analog stick I have ever seen
Hudo
Member
Hardware is useless without software.
Giallo Corsa
Gold Member
You think the nub was bad ?
What about some games that had the freelook (right analogue stick) assigned to...THE FACE BUTTONS ?
Man, I'm still traumatized to this day after trying MGS peace walker for almost half an hour...
CrimsonTide
Member
Oh you brought back even more nightmares..You think the nub was bad ?
What about some games that had the freelook (right analogue stick) assigned to...THE FACE BUTTONS ?
Man, I'm still traumatized to this day after trying MGS peace walker for almost half an hour...
Just beyond uncomfortable.
Syphon Filter PSP was that way too I THINK
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
So was Coded Arms. I know Syphon Filter got a lot of praise at the time, but I found it nigh-unplayable.
PSP has had kind of a weird arc for me. I thought it was super cool when it came out, then lost interest due to the horrible controls (that d-pad on the 1000 model was even worse than the nub) and the deluge of shitty, downgraded versions of PS2 games. But in like 2011, I rediscovered it thanks to all the random JRPGs and SRPGs the system eventually got over its life. These days, I think it's still a worthy system if you're into those sorts of niche genres, because it went hard with the RPGs, and most of them were never ported.
I need to get around to hooking it up to the Retrotink 4K so I can finally kick back and play the games on the TV, and have them actually look good.
The PSP for most of its like spent its time at 222Mhz (111Mhz GPU), so it would make sense for it to be between the PS1 and PS2. However it does support more graphics functions compared to the Graphics Synthesizer in the PS2, like a vector processing stage instead of using the VPU of the Emotion Engine. It also supported S3TC (Texture Compression) that the PS2 lacked in hardware.
CrimsonTide
Member
I bought the PSP at launch, and same as you, the controls never clicked for me. Not to say I did not enjoy it. I did. But FULL on PS2 type games just did not feel good control wise
HOWEVER.... once hacking was a thing. OH MAN... yeah my PSP saw tons of playtime. It became a juggernaut of the emulation scene
Onironauta
Member
The N-Gage was more PS1 level, not sure if Gizmondo was on par with PSP (it didn't have as many high profile games making use of the HW) but it was definitely closer
AGRacing
Member
Come on. Easily.
Geometric-Crusher
"Nintendo games are like indies, and worth at most $19" 🤡
Why not if all the specs of the PSP are higher than those of the Dreamcast? The PSP has always been used below its full potential for battery saving reasons.
Maybe your question is, if we put the PSP to render at 480p, how far could it go? Maybe Ridge Racer 2 is an indication, this game runs at 60fps on the PSP with 130,560 pixels, 2.35 less than the Dreamcast (307,200), so we could display Ridge Racer 2 at 30fps, nothing on the Dreamcast was better.
If we match the resolution, perhaps the PSP will tie with the Dreamcast or win by a small margin, but respecting the native resolution of each one, there is no doubt that the PSP is more powerful.
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Sooner
Member
This thread was specifically where the hardware ranks power-wise. PSP was just behind PS2. Vita just behind PS3. Both were really impressive hardware for their times.
And Vita had some great games. Most just weren't coming from Sony.
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