Xbox Series S vs PlayStation 4 Pro - The four teraflop face-off

Digital Foundry : Comparable GPU power but a generation apart - and there's only one winner.

[SullysCigar]

That moment when you compare a 'current gen' console to a last gen... and scrape a win.

And it wasn't even the most powerful last-gen console. Strange flex.

[darthv72]

Even though he addresses your last part in the video, it would have been interesting to see the One X added in. Especially since there have been some Series patches for some of the games now that weren't present at the time they did their initial comparison.

[anubusgold]

@darthv72 Those crap cpus was always the consoles main problem those amd cpus was bad for gaming 10 years ago they was slow as crap and the ones in consoles was made for laptops. The series S is fine Amd cpus was 60+fps slower than intel cpus back then and those was laptop cpus that are even slower so the main problem has been solved with the consoles. And before you console people get salty the benchmarks dont lie even the new Amd 1000 series cpus that launched that brought Amd back from the dead they was still losing in gaming to intel by 40+fps in games and those were the first good amd cpus since the Phenom 2 cpus in 2008. The FX cpus which the consoles were based off of were so bad that the old cpus beat them in benchmarks i remember i sold my new cpu after one day and bought a old one because the old ones was far faster in games than the new ones because FX was a server cpu.

[SullysCigar]

Agreed @darthv72. If you absolutely MUST compare it to last gen - which still seems bonkers at this stage - then you pick the stronger last gen console. That also being part of it's own lineage / evolution.

But even then, they were looking at Cyberpunk 2077. This again is a bit of a stretch towards a preferred outcome, given just how much effort - and over such a lengthy period - the Series S version has had lavished upon it.

[Vits]

Yeah, completely unprecedented...

[crazyCoconuts]

Next up: Xbox One vs. PS3

[Bathyj]

I haven't watched this but I'm sure if you compare stats and numbers then SX will come out in front (as it most definitely should) but if you compare the real world factors that actually matter (you know, the games) I'm willing to bet games like Last of Us II, Ghost of Tsushima, God of war Ragnarok and Horizon forbidden West stack up and surpass anything that runs on Series S, or X for that matter.

Why do we still care about power?
Show me the money.

[PrinceOfAnger]

I wouldn't say that Ghost of Tsushima, God of war Ragnarok surpass anything on series X

Ragnarok was not even on the list in DF 2022 best graphics/tech video but there was
A Plague Tale Requiem and callisto protocol.
In 2020 Microsoft flight sim was ranked above Ghost of Tsushima, demon souls, Last of us 2. but that was pc ver don't know how SX compares but the game run SX.

[darthv72]

Series S is a great little system. Where I feel it needed just a bit more work is the memory. It may have 10gb of really fast and more efficient memory compared to the 12gb in the one X... its that 2gb deficit that holds back certain games from running in One X enhanced mode on the Series S and instead they run in One S mode. Not every dev is willing to go back and make another patch specific for the Series line of consoles. Some have like Cyberpunk and Jedi: Fallen Order but majority will not.

As for this comparison, I get that they wanted to just do stock comparisons but who hasn't upgraded their Pro spinning HDD with a much quieter and quicker SSD? Hell, i even upgraded the HDD in my One X to SSD as well. It really helps with loading and streaming assets.

[crazyCoconuts]

It's all relative to price... At $299 it's only $100 away from a PS5, which is significant better at everything. At $220 I might agree with the great little system comment. It's certainly a great option for those that can't afford better

[GamerRN]

You can often find it for 240$.

It's great for people who don't have 4k TV's and are on a budget

[Crows90]

@gamern

That's a strange concession...considering if you buy all digital you're clearly not on a budget. Digital pricing isn't as low as physical...though there are many deals. Series s also pushes gamepass so that's an additional cost that would be against going on a low budget.

[Hofstaderman]

I’m agree with GamerRN, as a budget machine it makes a lot of sense. That coupled with the fact that you can use it to run emulators makes it enticing. The only thing that stopped me from pulling the trigger is that it will likely become obsolete as this generation progresses and games become more demanding. I would be interested inclined to pick one up if Elder Scrolls 6 is released on it, sooner if Starfield is any good.

[anubusgold]

@Crows90 Are you smoking weed i get one year old games on steam sales for like 10 dollars thats why i have 600 plus games on my steam account. and epic games and amazon gives away like 5 free games every month you are crazy digital is cheap as crap.

[Babadook7]

@Above.

Even steam sales can’t compete with buying discs and reselling them.

[Godmars290]

Thing is Series S shouldn't exist. There shouldn't be a need for it, not at the start of the gen its a part of, aside from MS's need to increase Xbox's market value.

[CBaoth]

bingo. There ya go. MS only wanted to increase marketshare with a low cost entry level console. Without the G how bad would things be right now for MS? Sony has sold 30mil PS5's while Series G/X sits collectively around 20mil. Which means in reality its flagship console has sold less than 10mil. Look at Japan. All those Uncle Phil trips to the Land of the Rising Sun resulted in 100k sales last year there (55% G sales) and a bunch of old games going to GP. Woohoo!

[anubusgold]

It should exist if your tv is 4k and stuck at 60 fps its a waste of time. I rather take 1080P and 1440P at 120 fps any day of the week over 4k. I get higher frame rates and HDR as well 4K is stupid and a waste of power and none of the consoles can run it native so they have to uprez it and it looks blury because of it.

[jznrpg]

Lol nice spin there DF Ms shills

[MadLad]

They're actually about as neutral as you get. They only present actual stats

They're only Microsoft shills the moment the majority of N4G don't like their findings.

[GamerRN]

This site is heavily skewed in one direction...

[Crows90]

I'm sorry but nobody cared about a series s vs PS4 pro...it also makes little sense.

[Asplundh]

How are they wrong?

[darkrider]

Payed publicity. Nothing more. The video should be the way around. How can the pro hold so good with a trash cpu against a 2020 console. That should be the video...

[goldwyncq]

Totally not biased here I see

[HardKnockKid24]

Except it didn’t hold up well, it lost every comparison and most times substantially so…. What are you even talking about

[VariantAEC]

@HardKnockKid24
Digital Foundry alreadly looked at most of these games for all these systems. 5 were compared here, but importantly the recent releases Cyberpunk 2077, The Calisto Protocol and Elden Ring all looked the same on PS4 and Xbox One. Oliver (this video's host/narrator/creator) noted that GTA5 and The Witcher III respective devs stopped doing last gen systems updates a long time ago with CP2077 just launched it's final last-gen update.

With all that in mind, DF knows SSDs improve PS4/Pro loading, asset streaming and sometimes performance, additionally PS4/Pro allow users an easy way to replace the HDD unlike Xbox One/X. Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring could've seen benefits on PS4 Pro by simply using an SSD.

1. Elden Ring on PS4 Pro looked very similar to Xbox Series S and while performance was worse giving Series S a win, Pro was only just a hair worse and Oliver noted VRR saves the day on S.

2. The Witcher III just got a next-gen update and looks and performs noticeably better on Series S this is an objective solid win for S, no arguments here.

3. Cyberpunk 2077 looks about the same on Pro and S, but sufferes from asset streaming issues on Pro likely due to HDD also S has better performance and renders at a higher res. A clear win for S even if the game's visual settings are the same (aside from resolution). It probably shouldn't be this close.

4. GTA5 hasn't been updated to leverage Pro or X last-gen while there have been multiple next-gen patches and newly implemented RT. S doesn't get RT so the game looks the same but runs marginally better at a higher res. A win for S again but again why is it so close? Pro was the weaker of the two enhanced consoles last gen.

5. Finally The Calisto Protocol we know this game released in a rough state looking identical on all last gen consoles meaning we know Pro/X aren't being well utilized and so its no surprise we see a massive gulf in visuals between Pro and S when Xbox One was the barrier for entry last gen.
Oliver ...As I said at the outset of the there's very little distinguish them [XO/S/X and PS4/P] really, they generally do look very similar.
He does go on to explain that Pro and X get better shadows and post process effects specifically motion blur and DoF appear better on Pro/X but no other changes are visible between launch and enhanced last gen machines. He also says Pro and X target 1440p resolution using dynamic scaling though he says Pro gets a clarity lead despite Pro's resolution falling under 1440p in his pixel counts.

All this is explained from 5:50 to 9:00 mark in the video linked below. Performance is touched on later in the video where X takes point but only just so.
https://m.youtube.com/watch...

So out of 5 games tested between next gen S and last gen Pro, S gets slim leads except in The Witcher III and The Calisto Protocol 3. Just 5 titles and the wins really boil down to smoother performance and better resolutions alone in 3 out of the 5 games.

That's not good, but that's just my take.

[HardKnockKid24]

Lol please summarize that wall of text, not reading that Variant

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

The Series S has a more advanced GPU, faster RAM and a much powerful CPU. It should obviously outperform the PS4 Pro.

[darthv72]

Obvious is not so obvious. Especially when people fixate on a number. They think the Pro being 4.2tf is more powerful than the 4tf of the SS. Which is why they have to prove why the numbers arent indicative of what things really are. Just like how some people can't fathom how the 4tf SS can be better than the 6tf one X or even how a 4cyl engine can outperform 6 and even 8cyl.

[darkrider]

This is ridiculous and embarrassing. Df should have done with the one x. They didn't because things would go very badly. Comparing a console from last gen to something with two years says everything we need to know about the s... The only plus for the s it's being cheap. It's vastly underpowered and cross Gen.

[Tacoboto]

They have already done a One X vs Series S video. In fact, it was done one year and one week ago. By the same guy. SSD-enhanced Xbox One X at that - literally in the title of the video.

You people are ridiculous and really have no idea what you're complaining about.

[Orchard]

If you watch the video, they address why they're comparing against PS4 Pro in the first minute.

[Tacoboto]

They address why in the opener of the video's title. He doesn't even have to watch but it's clear his only take away was "Series S, time to troll"

[darkrider]

I don't want to watch the video. It doesn't make any sense any kind of comparison with a console from 2016.... We are at 2023... Embarrassing its the word that come to my mind... Its even worst the diference are minimal and if it wasn't for the trash cpu jaguar..

What df should be saying is how a 2016 console can be sooooo close to the s. Unbelievable.

[darthv72]

No... it wouldnt go 'very badly', quite the opposite actually. They already did a One X vs Series S and at that time it can be understood that many of the games used were not Series patched. So basically it was One X enhanced games against One standard games.Since that time, many games have received proper Series enhancement patches and exceed the levels of the One X as a result.

[darkrider]

Stop lying just go see the flagship title halo. It's just ridiculous. It's runs at lower rez. And that not the only. Again, if it wasn't for the cpu...

The series s is for casual and will always have the worst version of all games by a gen. It's the only console that does 1080p dynamic rez in tons of gsmed. That drops to 720p even to 540p....

[dumahim]

They compared the two as the TF numbers are very close to each other.

[Orchard]

Series S is the little machine that could.

Great machine for kids, casuals, low income folk, emulation or a 2nd room. Smart move given the current economy too.

I still think this will be the first Xbox I buy this generation, especially for emulation.

[BrainSyphoned]

My kids refuse to use it because they know what a game should look and play like and would rather wait to use the X than play the S. Worst money I have ever spent on a system.

[Orchard]

Weird, they must be playing some pretty visually intensive games. And even then, S can play everything that runs on X.

Why didn't you return the console if you didn't like it?

[darkrider]

Totally agree with you.

[Charlieboy333]

As I've commented before....I prefer the 'big' machine that 'does'.

[Godmars290]

The little machine that could against a prior old gen counterpart?

That's a damn low bar.

[Minute Man 721]

The Series S was always a mistake IMHO

[Sonic1881]

I know right

[Orchard]

Hard to call it a mistake if it's selling and the people buying it are enjoying their purchase.

[Minute Man 721]

@ Orchard

It should be just as powerful as the XsX minus the disc drive and $400.

[darkrider]

Selling high and not being a mistake are two different thing. What the series s does is hold back every single game. Because it must run on a console 3 times, again 3 times weaker then the X. The X is an amazing machine. The s is cheap console that plays games

[Orchard]

@MinuteMan I guess they wanted to be in that $200-300 range and considered $400 too high. $100 is a big difference for a lot of people.

@Darkrider "What the series s does is hold back every single game"

Has it though? Games like GoW and HFW are on PS4, which as we can see, even the highest end sku of the PS4 is worse than the S. Are you saying those games looked/ran bad or were held back? I disagree.

[Charlieboy333]

They will live to regret it in 1 - 2 years when the competition is producing brain meltingly awesome games....untethered by a weaker specced shackle.....that will all harness the power of true next gen. Just imagine being able to make games for the future and not having to worry about making sure they aren't TOO grand in scope and ambition, so that they will be able to work on a sub Xbox One X performing "next gen" console. PS is going to leave last gen behind quite soon. Xbox never can with the S being a factor in next gen. Sad but true.

[Orchard]

@Charlie Or those 'brain meltingly awesome games' will just run at a lower resolution and/or framerate on the S.

You know... like developers have been doing for decades on PC, and for around 7 years on console. Multiple SKUs is not anything new.

[Elda]

Agreed.

[BrainSyphoned]

Bought the S and instantly regretted it. Best Buy loan for a X the next week.

[Aloymetal]

Your case just like many more others is the perfect example of what Phil & Co. wanted, it's a genius plan that will help them reach their magical and average per gen number of 50mil units sold.

[Orchard]

That plan sounds great if you ignore the fact that stores take returns...

If I bought a console and didn't like it, I would just return it.

[Elda]

The Series X is way better than the Series S especially if you like your AAA games in higher resolutions than 1080p.

[ARESWARLORD]

Series S is awesome

[darthv72]

I will agree that it is awesome for its size and price. I have an external LCD attached to mine that i like to take on trips.

[Elda]

I traded in my XBSS for the Series X because most AAA games running on the Series S were in resolutions no higher than 1080p. To me, a AAA game that's only 1080p on a 65-inch 4k hdr tv doesn't look sharp & clear. AAA games running on my PS5 & XBSX look great.

[darthv72]

I tend to run all PS5 and Series X games in performance mode, so 1080p doesnt bother me and I use a 55" 4k tv. I did get a 1080p LCD and attached it to my SS and that makes for a great travel system. If you havent seen those before you should check them out.

https://upspecgaming.com/

@charlie, I wish I were. Its fucking awesom and more people with Series S should get one. but the price can be a turn off but in my case I wanted it specifically so i could game while staying in hotels and I didnt want to rely on whatever TV may be in the room. And a switch and steamdeck are considerably smaller screens.

[Charlieboy333]

Dude I swear you are a shareholder or something in this company that does the lcd add-on for the S. I've seen you mention it like a million times 😆

[Elda]

I'm not interested in anything that's on a big screen that displays just a 1080p image except for regular & cable tv which is still 720p to 1080i, which is a damn shame knowing at this present time most TVs are 4k to 8k including the fact that cable tv is so expensive all channels at this present time should be displayed in a resolution of 1440p up to 4k. I tend to play most of my AAA games in quality mode,the 30fps doesn't bother me, I love visuals & eye candy when it comes to these consoles. Anyone I know that asks me about any consoles I always recommend them to get a PS5 & if they're interested in XB I always tell them to get a Series X because of the power & its displaying of 4k resolutions. To me, the Series S is a waste of money. Though I don't blame you for having a Series S for on-the-go when you're traveling because the Series S is a very light console to carry around.

[hiawa23]

Series S in my view is a fine console for what it does. It is performing as an entry level console for this gen at $299. I have a Series X and PS5 and own all previous gen consoles, and I was always baffled why MS would release the X1X last gen which was a beast especially when compared to the orig model, and is one of my favorite consoles and not expand on that this gen for the base model.

My thought process was could they have updated the X1X with this gens CPU GPU, 6 Tflops of power and make that be the base model, instead of the SS. That probably was not cost effective. In this case I would have preferred DF to also compare the S after nearly two years to the X1X at this stage.

[darthv72]

They basically did all that. The SS specs exceed the One X in every department except the amount of memory. 10gb of really fast memory is no match for 12gb of slower. Its not the performance... its the capacity. If the SS had 12gb then it would not even be a question of which is better.

[darkrider]

The bandwidth is also much worse. And the series s doesn't have super fast memory...
It got 8 gigas at 224gb/second and 2gb at 56gb/s

It's less then half of the series x..
The one x got 12gigas and 326gb/s in one pool. Much better set up then the series consoles.

Bandwith and huge lack of ram, beside gpu power are huge problems for the developers....

[Orchard]

@darkrider Pretty much everything you just wrote about the S is incorrect and comes from the school of "bigger numbers must be better, right?"

1. Bandwidth being worse is to be expected. You do not need 560GB/s bandwidth if you're serving up 1080p-1440p frames at a lower visual fidelity and/or at a slower rate than XSX
2. 224gb/s is fine for a 1440p box
3. Yes 10GB of ram would be nicer, but 8GB is workable, as we've seen time and time again
4. In what world does the X1X have a better memory setup than the XSX? You'd rather have 326GB/s bandwidth than 560GB/s? I'd take ultra fast memory for a 4K box any day - that's even higher BW than the PS5.

You say it's a huge problem for developers, yet we've seen games like Forza Horizon 5, COD MW2, Elden Ring etc. show up just fine on Xbox Series S.

It sounds like it's more of a problem for YOU, a non-owner of the console, than it is for both the developers working on it and customers who bought one.

[ocelot07]

So bottom line is........teraflops don't matter. That's really odd as since the One X released and the Series X was released. I was told but a certain few on here that teraflops is more important than games.

[Knushwood Butt]

Ironic that we don't hear about that teraflop argument these days.

[VariantAEC]

Indeed funny how it took the repeated issues in XSX games for DF to finally concede this point as well and it's probably also a big part of the reason why the above video exists as well.

[ChasterMies]

If this is what is comes down to, then Series S must have a really bad image in the market. The future isn’t great for Series S owners.

[shinoff2183]

I think the mistake with the s it went for now not future. I'm on the side of it should've just been digital with the same hardware just no disc drive. Say what you want but in aspects the 360 being dual DVD did hold back that generation compared to Blu ray. I recently played star ocean last hope on ps4 and had looked something up. Some things were for the 360 version and I was reading guys comments talking about inserting ascertain disc when needing to travel to different planets. If you've played the game you would know what a nightmare that must've been. Anyway gamers are so fickle these days do you think a dev will want to do that for just the s if the situation ever arises. So in the end it'll affect the Xbox x and ps5 on multiplatform games in some sort of way in the future

[Knightofelemia]

All the Series S honestly is just an XB1 on steroids you want the proper console just splurge for the Series X.

[gold_drake]

ehm ...
i mean xseries s is supposed to be "current" gen.

its abit weird to compare it a last gen mid console and BARELY have the edge ha.

[Petebloodyonion]

I'm always impressed by the comment section showing that ppl don't even bother to go read or watch the video but need to ask what's the point of this article or It's just the proof that Serie S suck bla bla bla.

Unfortunately for the ppl who love bashing the Serie s and call it a last-gen console, it seems that according to the ppl Digital Foundry that the Serie S is indeed a Current gen console like PS5 and Serie X and it will be able to run the Current gen games but with various results.

If you wonder why choose the Pro vs Xbox1 X well it's basically because they both have 4 Terraflop and similar GPU
(the famous argument of Xbox haters)
DF clearly showed that what was important was actually the main CPU that could allow a more stable frame rate and a reduced load on GPU.
They also point out the shorter load time

In conclusion, Digital does praise the console as a strong baseline for a current-gen machine for the asking price

I'll add this for my own 2 cents.
The awesome Matrix Unreal 5 demo is still one of the best current gent graphical feats and there's no loss of quality on Serie S (aside from resolution) versus Serie X and PS5.

[darkrider]

Df can say whatever it wants. The games, shows it isn't. The diferences are minimal to the upgrades from 2016!!! Df was looking for some kind of victory, but it's a big L. They are the same that told the problem on the graphics of halo were shadows and lightning... That's why this comparison is tottaly ridiculous and really show how incredible weak is the machine. Dynamic 1080p at 2023 is last gen. Beside the fact that Microsoft Lied by selling this as 1440p/60 frames machine. The only reality is that this barely can run better then the upgrades and in many cases worst then one x, with ridiculous drops in rez. Its even worst it's a digital only console with 364 of space... Phones got more space...

It's a machine for kids to play on 720p or 1080p tv

[Destiny1080]

three years on, and there still comparing xbox against last gen consoles

[repsahj]

why not compare to Xbox one x? Oh wait we need a console war article again so ps4 pro is a better comparison. Nice one DF.

[VariantAEC]

It's funny how people point out they already did that comparison... so why not see if things improved for Series S next to One X (as it basically lost several battles when they first did this between One X and Series S last time)?

No one can answer that question.

[S2Killinit]

Wtf.. are they trying to somehow claim victory here?

If anything this tells you the series S is basically a last gen console, released to inflate abysmal sales numbers.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, if these two are comparable, then doesnt this mean that if Sony must abandon last gen, then it follows that MS must abandon Series S? Why the double standard?

[CBaoth]

exactly

[spoonard]

Next up, Xbox Series X vs PlayStation 1!!! Watch Xbox completely DOMINATE Sony in this matchup!!! /s

[kindi_boy]

the difference between the replies on this website and the actual video is staggering.

[S2Killinit]

Pretty much saying the same things.

[MegaLogic]

Lol Sony fans are so bitter they've clinched on to budget and last gens machines to beat their chests on 🤣

[S2Killinit]

Riiiight its Sony fans.

[jonivtec]

For its price...series S is good...my 13 years son cant really the difference of Rocket league on switch and high end pc....si i wont waste my money on x series ;)

[Christopher]

The argument for the article: last generation consoles have held back current generation hardware so let's compare a last generation consoles to a current generation console.

The issue: cross-generation games are coming to an end as companies focus on current generation only. Why would you compare them if people will be forced to upgrade anyway?

The evidence: comparing multiple last generation, third-party games running on smaller market mid-generation machines to their current generation version on the best selling hardware on one platform.

The issue: the comparison is between mostly resolution downsampled games with current generation features and hardware to last generation base games with last generation hardware and features using upscaled resolutions. None of the comparisons included games without current generation native versions on the Series S, only games specifically updated to take advantage of newer hardware. Seems designed to favor one over the other from the outset.

I just don't get this article at all. It shouldn't have been made. It's as logical as comparing a 2022 gaming laptop to a 2017 gaming laptop. Who is asking for these specific comparisons?

Based on the heavy focus on third-party games, this looks like an attempt to praise current generation hardware over last generation hardware and not much else. And I don't think people were thinking that their now being left in the past Pro was going to beat a current generation machine in technology.

To add more weirdness, they mention games leaving current generation behind by mentioning all third-party except for one Sony exclusive (Spider-Man 2) that can't be played on either console without mentioning *any* games coming up that are Xbox only. Why not highlight that fact? Was it too many characters to put in? Did we forget those titles? Was it important to mention a game that only affects Pro owners while remaining impartial otherwise? Why did third-party references suddenly not become enough of a comparison for just one console but not the other?

[redbagvn]

Yeah Yeah, completely unprecedented...
anyway, that's very good

[jwillj2k4]

Yet another paid Xbox ad. If there’s no path to win, create one.