I bought a 60gb PS3 off Ebay three weeks ago. As most people who own a PS3 know, the 60gb model has the Emotion Engine CPU to run PS2 games without software emulation. Unfortunately, the seller sent me an 80gb model. I sent it back to exchange for the correct model. I received a second 80gb model. After contacting them again, I sent back the second PS3 and I'm now currently waiting for the right PS3 to come in the mail. In the meantime, I've done a bit of research online as to the advantages of the Emotion Engine compared to software emulation that the 80gb has.
While the backwards compatibility of the EE hardware allows for more games to be played than with software emulation, a friend told me that his friend said that software emulation allows for "better graphics" through allowing for higher resolution. I was certain that it was complete bull**** but I looked for answers anyway. I found
this thread.
"The emotion engine chip only renders what it was meant to render and then the ps3 upconverts the image produced. I am talking about native rendering of the polygons at 720 or 1080. Textures would look the same just more defined lines."
It seems to me that there is little difference in video quality between the two methods because both are limited by how detailed the textures of the game are. Apart from that it seems like the only possible improvement from upconverting PS2 games would be "more defined lines".
By the way, this friend of my friend works at a GameStop and claims to be knowledgeable on all things concerning videogames and computers, as well as being very informed on topics and issues in the gaming community. Too bad I think he's full of it. Working at GameStop doesn't make you an expert, and while he does seem more informed than the average person, I'm under the impression that he has a habit of making bogus claims that he can't back up.