>>5095843
Now the SFC PPU is generally praised as representing a technological step forward over the older MD VPU, but it isn't that simple either.
>SFC: Can only do vertical tile scrolling in 2 layer/low-color modes (essentially when it enters "Mega Drive mode")
>MD: Can do vertical tile-scrolling in all modes.
>SFC: Can display up to 128 sprites on-screen.
>MD: Can display up to 80 sprites on-screen. However, both consoles are VRAM limited in how many sprites they can display. In practice, neither the SFC or MD can display up to 80 sprites simultaneously, but the MD can get closer to it due to having slightly faster VRAM.
>SFC: Can display maximum sprite size of 64x64, however, all sprite sizes MUST be square shaped, so any sprite that isn't square shaped basically wastes VRAM space/bandwidth with blank data. Also, only two sprite sizes out of the list of supported sizes can be displayed simultaneously (so if you use 64x64 sprites and 32x32 sprites, you cannot have 16x16 sprites or any other size on-screen unless you waste VRAM with more empty data).
>MD: Supports sprites of any size, for significantly greater efficiency. Any combination of sprite sizes can be mixed and matched on-screen.
>PPU: Has a massive set of registers, half of which aren't useful giving programmers a huge headache.
>MD: Clean and minimal, easy to program. No ridiculously limited sprite system to worry about.
>SFC: Actually attempted an entirely PCM based sound system in an era where cartridges had fuck-all memory, so PCM samples eat up precious cartridge room. All sounds currently being played have to fit in 64 KB of audio RAM. Impressive technology, but used too prematurely. At least it's easy to use.
>MD: Uses arcade quality 4-operator FM channels (albeit with less channels than arcade machines) which sound crisp and take up minimal space. Theoretically has more "voices" than SFC due to Master System channels also being available. Unfortunately, FM is very hard to do "right".