He isn't wrong. Cell, namely the SPE's are still beasts when it comes to 3d maths and probably still one of the best when it comes to decoding video. As you said in regards to FP cell smokes any consumer or even enthusiast level CPU. Using a simple Linpack puts the PS3's Cell at about 73GFLOP compared to the like 40GLOPS for an I7.
So yeah like he said some conventional CPUs can't keep pace with Cell doing certain things.
That it's just not true.
My early 2007 C2Q Yorkfield @ 3'6Ghz does 47Gflops.
An I5 2500K @ 5Ghz does 70,13Gflops.
An I7 980 Sixcore @ 5Ghz does 106,65Gflops.
Real world performance, not peak theoretical numbers as given to CELL.
That is 8 SPU in Cell vs 4 FPU in C2Q/i5 or 6 in a Sixcore I7.
CELL it's an outdated CPU not by today standards, but because of Unified Shaders release from ATI and NVIDIA. There is no need to strong FPU's at CPU anymore.
You can argue what CELL can do to help that weak RSX, but that doesn't make CELL any better. Not performance wise, not efficient wise not dollar/watt/performance either. It's not about what CELL can do, but what programmers HAVE to do due to system flaws at PS3.
CELL was a great idea at 2001, under Playstation 2 paradigma, but it research pipeline was too long and was already outdated as a concept at release time.
CELL fanbase have to move on. Any modern CPU-GPU combo will be better at any given DIE budget than CELL, as any CPU+GPU was better at 2006. That's why a cheaper Xbox360 outperform PS3 with lower transistor count, lower TDP and cheaper: wrong architecture.
Said that, any steamroller like CPU for a console would be another fail. Overkill number of unneeded threads with low IPC, high transistor count and high TDP.
It's difficult to take any advantage of too many threads in gaming, as ports from PS360 to PC proves, maxing at 2 cores usage.
Any low core count, IPC monster like dual cores I3 and a stronger GPU would be better. But I think Intel will not license their CPU's to any other thirdparty. Or not cheap, at least.
In consoles it's all about DIE budget. The more efficient system wins.
You miss the point talking about a certain high end PC model GPU. You will not have a 7970 inside your machine. You COULD have a Southern Islands derived GPU because of better efficiency at lower bandwith and cluster count compared to Nvidia. That's why it's meaningless to talk about cores. RSX can have as many Vertex/pixel shaders as a GTX 7800, but it have HALF the bandwith. So we are not talking about GTX7800 anymore, but a customized dumbed down G70 architecture.
Stop the hype about 375W high ends GPUS. Stop that stale CELL hype. CELL can't deliver, end of history. Uncharted 2 looks good because of 25GB of streamable art assets and scripts. Not because of CELL, but despite CELL.
CELL, KEEP OUT from PS4. Sony, have a look at PSOne. That's the way to go.
TL;DR:
CELL: BAD
STEAMROLLER: BAD
IPC: GOOD
DIE Size/Performance: GOOD
Sonic fanart: BAD
My english: WORSE