The Xbox One and PS4 share similar specs, but the devil’s in the details

Ars Technica compare and contrast the next-gen consoles' innards just in time for launch.

[LoTuZ]

The devil is always in the details.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Engaging article.

[Eonjay]

Agreed:

"...the PS4's beefier GPU will give it the performance edge in the long term, but this console war is one that will be fought primarily with software and services, not with silicon."

[BitbyDeath]

Here's those devilish details

PS4 - http://oi42.tinypic.com/211...
Xbone - http://images.anandtech.com...

[JokesOnYou]

Good Read:

"In any case, we certainly aren't looking at the kind of difference in graphical quality you see in some cross-platform games from earlier in the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, where graphical details could differ significantly between platforms. As we've mentioned, these two consoles are largely capable of rendering the exact same scene in the exact same way. Even though the Xbox One has a slightly faster CPU, the PS4 has a larger GPU. And both consoles take different approaches to delivering developers similar amounts of memory and memory bandwidth."

"One thing is clear: the era of the console wars that focused entirely on raw specifications is already on the wane following the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation. You have to dig pretty deep and have strong moral objections to resolution scaling to find significant arguments about console specs in this day and age (unless you're arguing about the Wii U, of course)."

"Microsoft and Sony will bend over backwards to tell you how different one console (their console) is from the competition, but in the end the boxes are very, very similar, even if they're not identical. If early games are any indication, the PS4's beefier GPU will give it the performance edge in the long term, but this console war is one that will be fought primarily with software and services, not with silicon."

[LoydX-mas]

Jokes,

Your post shows the blatant fanboys here since all you did was post a direct quote........but still got disagrees?!?!?! :)

[Sono421]

i'll amdit I disagreed with jokes without even reading... why? Because I know he's ignorant and no matter what the news is he will somehow try to spin it. If it's Xbox negative.. he will spin it into something Xbox Posotive or if it's PS4 positive he will try to spin it into PS4 Negative even though the facts are always contrary to what he is saying.. so yes.. now I just disagree as soon as I see a post from him.

[GrandTheftZamboni]

"...Battlefield is running at 1280×720 on the Xbox One but 1600×900 resolution on the PS4. Both versions are running at 60 frames per second and look mostly similar from a normal viewing distance..."

Now 57% more pixels is "mostly similar", but last gen some minor pixelation on PS3 Bioshock was a huge difference???

Gaming media is nothing more than a marketing tool for the highest bidder, pretending to be unbiased. They crossed the line of being relevant, except for dumb consumers who think they are making a wise choice following reviewers' advice.

[n4rc]

Ars usually has good reads.

[pharmd]

LoTuZ, thats exactly what I came in to say. +1

[AngelicIceDiamond]

"There are differences between the way the Xbox One renders something and the way the PS4 renders it, but the gap is much narrower than in previous generations."

Can't argue with that.

[KimoNoir]

1280x720 vs 1600x900 and 1920x1080 is a larger gap in performance capability.

But unfortunately for most, you havent experienced this type of gaming unless you have a capable Gaming machine (pc).

Once you experience this generation in higher resolutions, youll cry once you go from 1920x1080 to 1280x720.

[denawayne]

Cyco-you do realize the X1 is being upscaled, right?

[C-Thunder]

Wonder how long after these are out before these sites drop the niceties and start calling it strait?

[RandomDude655]

Never dat Microsoft money will keep them dishonest.

[first1NFANTRY]

Especially in Muricaaaa. The patriotism of some of these sites is frightening.

[stuna1]

You can bet it'll be real quick! Probably somewhere around Christmas.

[nmeyers]

After the consoles come out, I am done looking at news/rumor/crap sites :D It is just keeping me busy for now.

Edit: I realized most of this is not news....

[lonz358]

A tech site downplaying the hardware and saying it's more about the software and services lol

Edit:

http://i.imgur.com/sNgltsP....

"The short version of that story is that the newest Battlefield is running at 1280×720 on the Xbox One but 1600×900 resolution on the PS4. Both versions are running at 60 frames per second and look mostly similar from a normal viewing distance of eight-to-10 feet"

[C-Thunder]

Lol, yeah. My couch is about that far from my tv and I can sure tell a difference in resolutions. When I play games though, I usually sit about four to five feet away. Probably not good for my eyes, just the way I've played since I was a child, setting in front of the tv. Looks like my xbox will only be for exclusives this gen.

[H0RSE]

I'm sure many people can tell the difference between 1080p and 720p, but that isn't really the case here. The case here is 1080p native vs 1080p unscaled - now the gap is closed substantially. I'm not saying people still can't see the difference, I'm saying that at this point, it's largely negligible.

Resolution likely won't be the differences people see, it will be the details, like draw distance and AA. One version very well may/will look better than the other, but there won't be a clear winner, and instead each version will be trading blows with one another. It's to the point where anyone claiming that one version looks substantially better than the other, should be taken with a grain of salt.

[KingTrash]

It'd true though! We know the PS4 is more powerful but if you look at uncompressed 1080p video of both the X1 and PS4 versions of BF4, you can not see any difference! I actually think the X1 version looks a bit better at points but I guess we'll see. That being said, if you weren't comparing them and looking as hard as possible, you'd never know the difference. It will come down to exclusives and services. I'll end up with both just like this gen. I'll have the xbox for the multiplatforms and the PS4 for the must have exclusives. I will definitely be playing anything Naughty Dog makes.

[n4rc]

Nobody plays games side by side and frame by frame... No users will actually notice much difference, if any..

[Ju]

I don't recall those sites did all this evaluation, stats and diagrams to justify that 720p are still the better choice when 1080p TVs became the norm. Weird how that goes. Now it seems everybody goes out of their way to proof it doesn't matter. Gonna sell icebergs to the Eskimos I guess.

And above. You serious? You're getting both and deliberately playing the gimped versions on the One - you know the games cost the same, right? I mean, I get it. If you are a fan of the Xbox and you have it, don't bother. It's good enough. But if you both???

[yewles1]

"Microsoft and Sony will bend over backwards to tell you how different one console (their console) is from the competition, but in the end the boxes are very, very similar, even if they're not identical. 'If early games are any indication, the PS4's beefier GPU will give it the performance edge in the long term, but this console war is one that will be fought primarily with software and services, not with silicon'."

YOU'RE A 'TECH' SITE!!!

[Godmars290]

Who gets ad money from MS.

There's also the chance that the XB1 might go against established habit and see some honest, good and diverse 1st party support which explores and exploits the hardware.

[RandomDude655]

"diverse 1st party support"

lol lol lol

[H0RSE]

The fact that they are a tech site is irrelevant. They can still speak their mind, even if it doesn't coincide with their forte. Just because they are tech-based, doesn't mean that they have to believe that tech/hardware is going to be the key factors in the "console war."

Franky, I believe they are right - the brunt of the war will be fought with software and services, "software" as in "games," and "services" as is well, the multitude of apps each console is offering. Despite PS4 being more powerful, if you remove things like PS+ and their renowned exclusives, what are you left with?

[Sci0n]

hes biased and doesn't want to speak the truth. Its a shame how the industry is today. He tells you about the stats but kinda downplays them and downplays the power gap between the two.

[cyhm3112]

He lost all his credibilities when he claimed the difference between ps3 and xbox360 is bigger than ps4 and xo.

[Jeedai Infidel]

"In any case, we certainly aren't looking at the kind of difference in graphical quality you see in some cross-platform games from earlier in the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, where graphical details could differ significantly between platforms"

He was clearly talking about the difficulty developers had with the PS3 in the early years.

[Ju]

"where graphical details could differ significantly between platforms"

He clearly talks about "features" which is simply not true. There is no difference in features in current gen titles - some games have better lighting in the PS3 version; better alpha/AA support in 360. If anything there is a much bigger gap in next gen consoles. The difference will (and is) in the details, indeed. Additional CPU compute can (and I guess it will) make a difference along the way.

[DanielGearSolid]

I really wish I could jump into an alternate reality where the Xbox is more powerful and $100 cheaper. Just to see how resolutiongate would play out

[creatchee]

That would be an alternate universe where the same fanboys would find different excuses for supporting their console and denouncing their rivals.

[SITH]

Ooopppsss, You are getting disagrees. You said something correct.

[n4rc]

Yes indeed.. Sadly

[RandomDude655]

"In any case, we certainly aren't looking at the kind of difference in graphical quality you see in some cross-platform games from earlier in the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, where graphical details could differ significantly between platforms."

Ummmmm.....the gap is already WIDER. Last gen it was about missing a blade of grass or 640 vs 720p.

[lonz358]

He says the PS4's cpu speed isn't confirmed yet but says X1 cpu is clocked higher lol

Page 1 "Sony hasn't stated an official figure for the PS4's CPU speed"

Page 2 "Even though the Xbox One has a slightly faster CPU"

[Xsilver]

Ikr.

[Jeedai Infidel]

He disclaimed that he was going by rumors of the speed.

[Ju]

That's about right. XO has higher DDR bandwidth. 30G/s vs. 20G/s...but it has no impact what so ever with the game so far, quite the opposite. Clockspeed will have a minor impact, bandwidth almost nothing but compute will. That's where it counts and PS4 has the edge there.

[Godhimself_In_3d]

My thoughts exactly

[brosephsmith]

Ya his closing statement(its not all about power but software an blah blah)total xbone payroll guy all day

[Sci0n]

I was going to make a account to call the dude out but after reading threw the comments you can see the other fellow techies calling him out on being biased. A neutral gamer who is not a fanboy would want a honest opinion not some watered down BS opinion. You kinda wish everyone in the gaming journalist field had integrity but unfortunately that's not the case.

[TheKingWilliamV]

The devil isn't in the details the devil is the ESRAM...

[BG11579]

"With time the terraflops of the Xbone will magicly increase to overcome the terraflops of the PS4."
That's what I read...

[GreenRanger]

What's that at the bottom right? Hmm...it would seem that the PS4 also has some "Secret Sauce."

[theRell]

Win.

[FITgamer]

The Norris processor! I always thought it was myth.

[RandomDude655]

The norris processor doesn't process data; it makes data process itself.

[theRell]

Anyone know how many round houses per second it's clocked at?

[Jeedai Infidel]

Give me a chance to swallow my drink before springing that sh*t on me(wipes water from monitor).

[C-Thunder]

I just want to know what's changed from this gen to last? I recall plenty of times when it was a major deal when the 360 had a game running better than the PS4 and none of those times was the gap even close to as big as it is with the way games are running on these new consoles.

I can't imagine everyone at these sites think anything above 720p is some sort of unnecessary luxury or something, surely they have 1080p tvs, surely they bought them because they thought the image quality was better? Otherwise, why pay extra?

It's like they think we're stupid.

[Hicken]

What's changed: Microsoft is on the receiving end of all the crap.

[Bathyj]

The two machines ARE very similar. I dont even care about that.

Sony and Microsoft are poles apart. Thats what I care about. Not specs.

The companies respective attitudes and treatment of gamers, and devs. One company has barely made a wrong step in the last 3 years. One company has barely made a right one.

[EverydayGuy]

Here's an discussion on GDDR5 vs DDR3

http://www.techspot.com/com...

I will be hooking up the PS4/XBone to my monitor, so I will know the difference. To me 1080p provide a more crisp and detail picture over 720p.

[Belking]

The winner will be the one with the better business model. Advantage MS.

[T2]

Based on what exactly ? Their confused and ever changing vision of the kinect mandatory , for casual gamers but expensive , tv features but only in the u.s , cable / game/ media thingy ?

OHhhh .... That business model

[SpitFireAce85]

The games shell speak for what the consoles can do..

[Statix]

"In any case, we certainly aren't looking at the kind of difference in graphical quality you see in some cross-platform games from earlier in the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, where graphical details could differ significantly between platforms."

This isn't really true. If you look at last-generation's technical, objective differences between PS3 and 360, and then compare them to the technical, objective differences between the same franchise on PS4 and Xbox One, you would see that the differences are actually much larger. One such metric that is easily observed and benchmarked is rendering resolution.

For example, Call of Duty: Ghosts on PS3 and 360 run at the same resolution:

PS3: 880x720 = 633,600px
360: 880x720 = 633,600px
Difference in pixels rendered: 0%

Compare that with the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Call of Duty: Ghosts:

PS4: 1920x1080 = 2,073,600px
Xbox One: 1280x720 = 921,600px
Difference in pixels rendered: 125% more on PS4

So that, in itself, is a massive difference in observable, technical differences between the rendering performances of the PS4 and Xbox One versions of a popular franchise. For Battlefield 4, we see a similarly large gap in performance:

PS3: 1280x704 = 901,120px
360:1280x704 = 901,120px
Difference: 0%

PS4: 1600x900 = 1,440,000px
Xbone: 1280x720 = 921,600px
Difference: 56% more on PS4

So, at this early stage in the console generation at least, we're seeing much larger differences in performance between the Xbox One and PS4 than we can observe on like-for-like franchises between the last-gen versions. Will the gap narrow as developers become more familiar with the DDR3+ESRAM architecture of the Xbox One? Will the gap grow wider as developers utilize the greater compute resources available to them on the PS4? These are things we don't know at the moment.

[wishingW3L]

the comment section of arstechnica is much more entertaining to read than the actual article. But seriously, I can't believe ars are downplaying the clear HW advantage of the PS4. It's crazy! You only need basic knowledge to realize that the power gap between the next-gen consoles will be much more bigger than the one between the PS3 and X360 just based on the GPU let alone the memory or the overall set-up for GPGPU which the Xb1 doesn't even have.

[misterbe3]

This gen will all be about software and services, Xbox 360 and PS3 laid the foundations for online gaming and apps.

Both Xbox One and PS4 will improve that, really looking forward to the 22nd, and the 29th.

[ruefrak]

If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that game developers will take the path of least resistance. They didn't want to fine tune everything for the complex cell processor, and now they're not going to want to fine tune everything for esram. Those theoretical maximums will be achieved infrequently.

[supergrobi1]

Time will tell.

The PS4 GPU-advantage is compensated by its weaker CPU. Release games are not particularly well suited for an last valid performance comparison.

[AgitatedOcelot]

If one thing is coming from this console launch. It's that I'm gaining a lot of insight into which journalists I can trust versus which I can't.

So much sugar coating and downplaying going on right now I can't even believe it.

There are a LOT of sites that I used to read that I won't be reading any longer after this nonsense. Ars Technica is one of them.

[jacksjus]

You can't put a Corvette engine in a Ford Fusion and call it a Corvette. I don't care what MS says about the lesser GPU being compensated with a faster CPU. Bottomline they took the cheap route and it came back to bite them.

[DivineAssault]

the ram & reserved GPU power for non game related tasks will differenciate them as the years progress.. we already see it happening with launch titles

[larrysdirtydrawss]

similiar? the resolution difference is massive while keeping the same assets(maybe even slightly better textures going by need for spped) and framerate,,imagine if devs keep multiplate games the same resolution,but use all those extra resources into much larger textures/much higher shader count in fav of the ps4.. the resources are there