Which is better Xbox One or PlayStation 4 ?

Two years ago Xbox One and PS4 were unveiled in the U.S. In that time, they’ve both earned their status as the origin of new generation game consoles. Microsoft found out after fews months of release,it require a $400,competitive retail price version in-comparison with the PS4 that lacks the Kinect camera, and has since rectified.

Afterwards both Xbox One and PS4 have sold quite well, with Sony on the winning side, although January’s $50 price slash for the Kinect-less Xbox One assisted Microsoft in the run up.The two companies have launched numerous bundles that unbalanced the price advantage in one direction or another depending on the consumers need in a given bundle. How can we actually compare the two consoles with each other? If you’re aiming to purchasing one of these consoles–you need to know these.

Unlike earlier console generations, the PS4 and Xbox One are very similar in the hardware-sense. With both powered by x86 AMD APU , the Sony and Microsoft consoles are wholly PCs — their hardware types, and performance, can be likened in the same way as you would compare two x86-based laptops or ARM-based Android tablets. 

Processor

For the PS4 and Xbox One way back in 2013, Microsoft and Sony both went for a half-custom AMD APU — a 28nm part fabricated by TSMC that posseses an eight-core Jaguar CPU, coupled with a Radeon 7000-series GPU. The PS4 and Xbox One CPUs are totally identical, except that the Xbox One is clocked at 1.75GHz, while the PS4 is at 1.6GHz.

The Jaguar CPU core itself isn’t particularly excellent in performance. In PCs, Jaguar was used in AMD’s Kabini and Temash parts, targeted at older-generation laptops and tablets accordingly. If you need a reason for good comparison, CPUs powered by the Jaguar core are roughly similar to Intel’s Bay Trail Atom.Having eight cores (as opposed to two or four in a regular Kabini-Temash setup), both the PS4 and Xbox One have huge amount of CPU power , even if they are not up to the standard you can get from a PC. The high core number makes both consoles to work well when multitasking — necessary for modern living room and media center use scenario.Although the Xbox One have a slightly faster CPU, it makes little  or no difference to both console’s comparative game performance.

Graphics

By virtue of being an AMD APU, the Xbox One and PS4 GPUs are technically identical — with the small difference of the PS4 GPU being larger in size. In PC terminology, the Xbox One has a GPU that’s comparable to the entry-level Bonaire GPU in the old Radeon HD 7790, while the PS4 is fitted with the medium range Pitcairn that can is found in the HD 7870. In figures,the Xbox One GPU posseses 12 compute units (768 shader processors), while the PS4 posseses 18 compute units (1,152 shaders). The Xbox One is a little bit ahead on GPU clock speed (853MHz as against 800MHz for the PS4).

In essence, the PS4’s GPU is on paper,has 50 percent more power than the Xbox One. The Xbox One’s slightly higher GPU clock speed reduces some of the disparity,in-actual fact, the PS4’s 50-percent-higher compute unit count is a great advantage for the Sony side. Games on the PS4 have more graphics power available, and that comes up in real-world terms. Putting aside clock speeds and core counts both GPUs are identical. They are based on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, and thus have support for OpenGL 4.3, OpenCL 1.2, and Direct3D 11.2.

RAM and bandwidth

At this junction the hardware features of the Xbox One and PS4 begin to differ, with the RAM having the most remarkable difference.Both consoles are fitted with 8GB of RAM, the PS4  fitted with 5500MHz GDDR5 RAM, while the Xbox One have PC-like 2133MHz DDR3 RAM. This results in a huge bandwidth surplus on  PS4 side. The PS4’s CPU and GPU posses 176GB/s of bandwidth allowance to system RAM, while the Xbox One come with just 68.3GB/s.

On Microsoft’s side, the Xbox One has 32MB of ultra-fast embedded SRAM (about 102GB/sec in each direction, for a total of 204GB/sec of bandwidth). When ESRAM is used acordingly, as a cache ,the enormous difference in main system RAM bandwidth can be accomodated.

Storage

Both the Xbox One and PS4 comes with 500GB internal hard disks and Blu-ray optical drives together with 1TB drives for each one as alternatives. The Xbox One’s 1TB drive is a hybrid, with a solid state portion together with a spinning disk so as to have higher access speeds, although real-world tests do not come up as  a huge difference as you would consider on paper.

Gaming

It is good to be able to rate hardware specs in a quick manner,most especially if you belong to the PlayStation camp, as it knocks out the Xbox  One on paper.It depends how game developers use the hardware.For a start,games on the PS4, with its higher GPU and simple memory is usually a bit less cumbersome and more attractive. And we’ve witnessed this from different titles that display slightly bad performance on the Xbox One, including new titles such as Metal Gear Solid V and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Even so, both consoles deliver amazing  graphics,if you have used an older-generation console.

Even with the difference in resolution and upscaling, there is visually no significant difference between the Xbox One and PS4. By the fact of being based on the same GPU architecture, games on both consoles will always look similar — same lighting, same textures,same smoke, and so on. If you are playing games at a distance e.g 10 feet — you may not see much difference between the consoles. Nonetheless, gamers will prefer the PS4 for its better 1080p output and, on occasion, higher frame rates.

Gaming and Other Online Services

The remaining differences between the two consoles are well known beyond this point, such as design of the controller — the PS4 obviously has the edge — and availabillty games. The biggest such as Grand Theft Auto 5, Metal Gear Solid V, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is normally platform independent, but there are exceptions. Both systems have some compelling peculiarities. Notable peculiarities on the Sony includes Until Dawn, Dragon Quest Heroes, Bloodborne, and Second Son, while the Xbox One has Halo 5: Guardians, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Forza Horizon 2. The PS4 performs better on the indie game side, though, which is a strategic advantage.

Both models work well as multi-purpose entertainment devices. The Xbox One is the foremost media set-top box substitute, thanks to its HDMI port and live television capabilities, but most buyer’s don’t care about that, and the Ps4 has obviously moved up on the streaming service front. You can have a premium Xbox Live Gold and PS Plus subscriptions for $60 and $50 per year, respectively.

In all, the Sony PlayStation 4 remains the foremost for two years, thanks to its price ramp up and improved controller.The games are the most important: If there a particular game you are excited about playing, it’s good you buy that peculiar console; the differences in hardware just do not matter and is not important anymore.