PS4 vs Xbox One: comparison at the hardware level.
The PS4 vs. Xbox One war is at its highest point, and although the first has already been launched in the United States, it will not arrive in Europe until the 29th, while Microsoft’s next-gen console will make its appearance in our country the day after tomorrow . If you plan to buy one of the two consoles but you still don’t know which one, this little analysis of the hardware they mount may be decisive when deciding.
When we talk about the hardware of a game console we have to keep in mind that this will be the same from the beginning to the end of the console’s life, and that is that one of the main disadvantages of consoles with respect to the PC is that you cannot make extensions of hardware, and for this precise reason it is so important to keep in mind the hardware that both mount before buying them, since this will be decisive when it comes to seeing the possibilities and limitations of the game console.
the processor
Both next-gen consoles are equipped with a Jaguar architecture processor manufactured by AMD, and customized for each of the consoles, although the differences between the two are quite small. The Jaguar architecture is the same that will be used in the next AMD Kabini and Temash APUs, so in this sense we are undoubtedly talking about processors with a lot of potential. As we have mentioned before, they are similar processors but customized for each manufacturer. These are processors with 2 modules of 4 cores each (making 8 cores in total), although the PS4 works at 1.66 Ghz while the Xbox One works at 1.75 Mhz. A slight speed increase, which however ends up in favor of PS4 when we talk about the amount of memory and its controller (not counting the hidden hardware that the PS4 hides).
And it is that the PS4 has 8 GB of GDDR5 RAM, while the Xbox One despite also having 8 GB, these are DDR3. The difference is that the PS4 happens to have a memory bandwidth of 176 GB/s compared to only 68.3 GB/s for the Xbox One.
graphics card
You will already know when we have talked about that both consoles have an APU that the graphics card is integrated into the same chip as the processor. Both consoles feature an AMD Radeon HD 7000 series graphics card with Graphics Core Next architecture. Also in this section, AMD has customized the graphics integrated in each of their consoles for Sony and Microsoft, and although it is not very orthodox to compare these graphics with those of a desktop PC, the one that integrates the Xbox One would be equivalent to a Radeon HD 7790 and that of the PS4 to a Radeon HD 7850. These are mid-range graphics (being higher than that of the PS4, whose computing power is 1.84 TFlops compared to 1.31 TFlops of the Xbox One), but let’s remember that the Games will be specifically optimized for this hardware.
PS4 vs. Xbox One: Comparison
There is nothing better to make a comparison than to see it as a table, and this is precisely what we present to you below.
It is evident that the biggest difference between the two consoles is the section on RAM memory and integrated graphics, where the Sony game console takes advantage of both, at least from a hardware point of view. However, you already know that the software is still a fundamental point, and the real performance of the games on the consoles will depend as much on the operating system (where by the way Microsoft has always stood out above Sony, at least on Xbox 360 vs PS3). as well as the optimization of the games for each of the consoles.
Next we are going to put a couple of comparative videos of games running on both consoles so that you can draw your own conclusions.
Comparisons are hateful: next-gen consoles vs PC
Many times we have talked about the comparison in games of next-gen consoles and a PC. We know that comparisons are odious, and some of you even told us that we mix apples and pears when doing it, but it is not like that at all. In fact, with the exception that both consoles have custom hardware, they are still PC components. To begin with, for the first time, game consoles are no longer “PowerPC” (both Xbox 360 and PS3 were based on IBM’s PowerPC architecture, the Xbox 360 with a Xenon processor and the PS3 with a Cell) to have x86 architecture, as in The computers. This architecture leap makes it much easier for developers to make games for both consoles and PC using the same architecture.
For this leap in architecture, the main hardware of both consoles is based on a SoC made by AMD (we repeat, customized for both manufacturers), and if we compare it with a PC, the only difference is precisely that they are customized. After all, both consoles use an x86 processor and AMD GCN graphics. Both consoles use PC RAM (DDR3 in the case of Xbox One, the PC standard, and GDDR5 in the case of PS4, the standard for PC graphics cards), not to mention storage, since both PS4 and Xbox One use mechanical hard drives with SATA interface.
We agree that the technical differences compared to a PC are still great. Today’s PCs use much more powerful processors and graphics, not to mention more efficient and faster SSD storage devices. However, here comes another of the advantages of consoles, and that is that they are much cheaper than building a PC with high-end components.
The conclusion
It’s time to “get wet”, and after this article it has become quite clear that when it comes to raw hardware, Sony’s PS4 is superior to Microsoft’s Xbox One. However, we have already commented that the final result depends to a large extent on the software, and if we base ourselves on previous experiences with Xbox 360 and PS3, in this section it would be the Microsoft console that would have a certain advantage.
