Yes, the PTE housings are larger in external dimensions. I believe the main reasoning behind this was due to the fact, that the Garrett .63 A/R housings did not have enough material, to allow for machining for larger turbine wheels. This necessitated a larger casting, not only for size limitations, but also for availability issues. You have to remember, Garrett only made a limited number of 3 bolt .63 and .82 A/R turbine housings for the Buick applications. And I'm sure they stopped production on them back in the mid to late 90's. So, a decision was made to invest in a casting that was not only larger in diameter, but could be machined for pretty much all of the available turbine wheels at the time. Flow limitations of the stock Garrett housing was also a contributing factor in the design of the PTE casting. Sure it looks huge when compared side by side with a Garrett, but in reality, it's what is inside that counts. Eventhough it says .63, it might be closer to .65 A/R, maybe more, but until someone actually shells out the high price to have one flowed by Garrett we won't really know. And to my knowledge, no flow tests were ever done, or if they were done, they were never published by PTE. I never saw any info during my time there.
Just for the record, the .63 A/R PTE housing for a TE-44 turbo, should have part number THB3-31 CNC cut into the downpipe face of the housing.
HTH
Patrick