Xbox One vs. PS4: Which Console is More Powerful? Developers Weigh In

Xbox One vs PS4

Gamers (well, fanboys actually) have engaged in an epic war that hasn’t been seen since the “Sega does what Nintendon’t” days.

Microsoft’s Xbox One is going head to head with Sony’s PS4 and the gaming public has spoken. Some reason that the Xbox One’S specs tower over the PS4, while other gamers have supported the notion that the PS4 is much more powerful than its competition.

Some of the more interesting responses to the question of which console is more powerful has yielded some interesting responses, most notable from game developers. A NeoGaf user compiled some of the more noteworthy comments.

PS4 vs Xbox One

A few of the quotes below maintain that the PS4 is more powerful:

Linus Blomberg from Just Cause Studios told Edge that the PS4 wins (for now):

It’s difficult to say, as it’s still early days when it comes to drivers. With each new driver release, performance increases dramatically in some areas. The PlayStation 4 environment is definitely more mature currently, so Microsoft has some catching up to do. But I’m not too concerned about that as they traditionally have been very good in that area. The specs on paper would favor the PS4 over the Xbox One in terms of raw power, but there are many other factors involved so we’ll just have to wait and see a bit longer before making that judgment.

An Xbox One developer even sided with the PS4 during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session:

The facts are on paper, the PS4 has better specs and the most you can debate is by how much. What I can tell you is I have played Forza, Killer instinct, and Ryse on the Xbox One. They look as good as the games I play on a high end PC. Ryse reminded me of Darksiders II.

PS4 vs Xbox One

Albert Penello, Microsoft’s Director of Product Planning, took to NeoGaf and stated that the Xbox One’s specs are much more powerful than the PS4:

– 18 CU’s vs. 12 CU’s =/= 50% more performance. Multi-core processors have inherent inefficiency with more CU’s, so it’s simply incorrect to say 50% more GPU.
– Adding to that, each of our CU’s is running 6% faster. It’s not simply a 6% clock speed increase overall.
– We have more memory bandwidth. 176gb/sec is peak on paper for GDDR5. Our peak on paper is 272gb/sec. (68gb/sec DDR3 + 204gb/sec on ESRAM). ESRAM can do read/write cycles simultaneously so I see this number mis-quoted.
– We have at least 10% more CPU. Not only a faster processor, but a better audio chip also offloading CPU cycles.
– We understand GPGPU and its importance very well. Microsoft invented Direct Compute, and have been using GPGPU in a shipping product since 2010 – it’s called Kinect.
– Speaking of GPGPU – we have 3X the coherent bandwidth for GPGPU at 30gb/sec which significantly improves our ability for the CPU to efficiently read data generated by the GPU.

For any tech heads out there who want to get a glimpse at both consoles’s most important tech specs, check those out below:

Xbox One
RAM – 8GB DDR3
CPU – 8 Core Microsoft custom CPU
GPU – 853 MHz AMD Radeon GPU w/ 768 shaders
Peak GPU Shader Throughput – Currently estimated at 1.31 TeraFLOPS/s

PS4
RAM – 8GB GDDR5
CPU – Single-chip x86 AMD “Jaguar” processor, 8 cores
GPU – AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next engine w/ 1152 shaders
Peak GPU Shader Throughput – 1.84 TeraFLOPS/s

So, developers have given their thoughts on the superiority of either next-gen console. Did any of these comments sway you in the opposite direction or did you grow enraged. Time will tell as both the Xbox One and PS4 will be fighting a long, epic battle.

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