XBOX ONE vx. PS4 - WHAT WE KNOW

This list is just an unbiased honest comparison between the two systems. I will only be posting confirmed specifications and hardware as we have been given access to so far. I must admit, with the Hothchips event a month ago, Microsoft seems to have been much more forthcoming about alot of its hardware than Sony. That said, let us begin the comparison.



The main components being compared are CPU, GPU, RAM, and BUS.  This is what we know thus far, weeks from launch:

CPU:

PS4 = 8 core Jaguar processor. 1.6 GHz. 1 thread per core, and 2 ops per thread, for a total of 16 ops according to Sony.

X1 =  8 core CPU processor. 1.75 GHz. No detailed structure thus far, but Microsoft has confirmed that it performs 48ops total.


Point: X1, at the above specs, X1 CPU will have up to 3 Times the performance of PS4 CPU.

GPU:

PS4 = AMD SI based GPU. 800 MHz. Organized as 14:4 GPU: GPGPU split with 2 disabled CU’s. 1.84 Tflops of Raw performance.

X1 = AMD SI based GPU, 853 MHz. Again, no detailed structure thus far from Microsoft, but they have confirmed 768 ops per clock. 1.3 Tflops Raw performance
.
Point: PS4, PS4 has a 30% more raw Tflop count, as well as additional ROP’s, and ACE’s that should aid it in rendering. X1 structure has been silent as to the GPU internals it should be noted.

RAM:


PS4 = 8 GB of GDDR5. 176 GB/s Bandwidth.

X1 = 8 GB of DDR3. 68 GB/s Bandwidth + 47 MB of ODESRAM, 204 GB/s or higher Bandwidth.

Point: TIE. X1 has gone with a cheaper, faster, but more complicated route, the system should have no problem pushing around about 190-200 GB/s between the pools of ram as stated on Digital Foundry interviews, but this will come at a cost of more complicated use. The PS4 on the other hand went with a more expensive, but easier to use single pool of fast ram with a higher latency (opposed to X1's two pools, one extremely fast, one slow), but should be easier to develop for.

BUS:

PS4 = 3 Bus Pipelines. Onion, Garlic and Super Onion.  These allow for HAS and Huma operations between processor and GPU in connection to the GDDR5 RAM.

X1 = 8 Bus Pipelines, 2x256 Bit Buses with 4 lanes each. One pipeline to the ODESRAM, and one to the DDR3 RAM. Additional Bus Pipelines to the CPU on both the DDR3 and the ODESRAM, as well as various Bus Pipelines to the Audio, Video, and Memory controllers and Kinect.

Point: X1, as it may be a more complicated solution with the multitude of Bus Pipelines and structures to all of these components, however the two main Pipelines are extremely robust:  2x4 lane 256 Bit Bus Pipelines will be able to move a MASSIVE amount of data while allowing the GPU/CPU to offload the work to the other systems like sound and memory.

OPTICAL DRIVE:

PS4 = BluRay
X1 = BluRay

Point: TIE. MS wised up and went with the most popular physical media currently.

HDD:

PS4 = 500 GB Removeable. 5200 RPM.

X1 = 500 GB Permanent. 7200 RPM. + 8GB Flash Memory HDD.

Point: TIE. PS4 HDD is removable, but slower. X1 is permanent, but faster, with an additional Solid State Flash Memory Drive.

EXTERNAL HDD:

PS4 = Will support after launch for storage.

X1 = Will support after launch for storage, game installation, HDD extentsion.

Point: X1, as game installation and ADD extension to external drive means it will actually be easier to increase disk space on the X1 than it will be removing the internal HDD on the PS4.

CLOUD:

PS4 = Gaikai Streaming, cloud storage for achievements. 12K cloud server infrastructure.

X1 = Free Dedicated Servers for all Multiplayer game developers. Unlimited storage for Gold members. Cloud compute powering games. 300K cloud server infrastructure. 700 Million invested in server technology just for gaming on X1.

Point: X1. Not very hard to see the differences here.

CONTROLLERS:

PS4 = Dual Shock 4

X1 = Xbox One updated controller

Point: TIE. Mostly a matter of preference.

CAMERA:

PS4 = Eye. 720p dual camera system with 4x directional microphone receivers. Possible voice commands. Not included.

X1 = Kinect 2.0. 1080p. 3d vision. IR blast. Tru3d heat sensor.  Dark room tech (no lights required to use) Facial recognition. Voice recognition. Voice command.  Internal processor. Included in every box.

Point: X1.

AUDIO:


PS4 = Dedicated audio processor with bulk of processing directly on CPU/GPU.

X1 = Dedicated audio processor capable of processing almost all Audio and Kinect functions without using CPU/GPU resources.

Point: X1.

MOVE ENGINES:

PS4 = None.

X1 = Move Engines are separate internal processing hardware that will allow the system to move data around without using CPU/GPU resources.

Point: X1

VIDEO DSP:

PS4 = DSP for up scaling, compression, decompression, video streams.

X1 = DSP for encode, decode, compress, decompress, up scaling, rasterazation, and 4x swizzle operations, as well as steaming video, all on three separate channels.

Point: X1. Upscaled resolutions will likely fair far better on the X1. This will be most visually apparent in 4K gaming in the distant future.

CONCLUSION:

Beyond the GPU raw performance argument, it is apparent that X1 has has a slight edge over the PS4 in terms of confirmed specs overall. Since each system is designed around an APU with key differences, the raw GPU performance argument is much different than arguing GPU specs on a traditional PC. The end result is going to show up in the games  being released for each system.

It's always about the games.

Thus far, both systems are showing marked achievements in games such as Killzone: Shadow Fall,  Ryse, Forza 5, Killer Instinct and Infamous 3. But this is just the tip of the iceberg my friends.

These games at or around launch are just barely showing us the power in each console. They were likely developedfor the most part on hardware much different than the final specs and drivers we will see at launch.

Exciting times are ahead, and neither of these consoles should be underestimated.  No matter your fancy.