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It's been ii years since the Xbox One and PS4 debuted here in the U.S. In that time, they've both earned their keep every bit the bearer of electric current-generation game consoles. Microsoft realized some months after release that it needed a $400, price-competitive version with the PS4 that lacked the Kinect camera, and has since remedied what was one time a bit of a lopsided, apples-and-oranges comparison.

Since then, both the Xbox One and PS4 have sold pretty well, with the edge on Sony'south side — although Jan'due south $50 toll cut for the Kinect-less Xbox One helped Microsoft catch up. Both companies have released various bundles that may throw the price reward in 1 direction or the other depending on whether you want what's in a given bundle. That said, how do the two consoles directly compare with each other? If you lot're thinking about ownership 1 of these two consoles–or just want armament for bragging rights–here'south what you need to know.

One annotation before nosotros get started: Unlike all previous console generations, the PS4 and Xbox Ane are almost identical hardware-wise. With an x86 AMD APU at the heart of each, the Sony and Microsoft consoles are substantially PCs — and their hardware specs, and thus relative performance, tin be compared in the same way you would compare two x86-based laptops or ARM-based Android tablets. Read on for our Xbox One-versus-PS4 hardware specs comparison.

Processor

Xbox One SoC

For the PS4 and Xbox One back in 2013, Microsoft and Sony both opted for a semi-custom AMD APU — a 28nm role fabricated by TSMC that features an 8-cadre Jaguar CPU, paired with a Radeon 7000-series GPU. (We'll discuss the GPU in the next section.) The PS4 and Xbox One CPUs are well-nigh identical, except the Xbox I is clocked at i.75GHz, while the PS4 is at ane.6GHz.

The Jaguar CPU core itself isn't particularly heady. In PCs, Jaguar was used in AMD'south Kabini and Temash parts, which were aimed at older-generation laptops and tablets respectively. If you're looking for a reasonable comparison, CPUs based on the Jaguar cadre are roughly comparable to Intel's Bay Trail Cantlet. With viii cores (every bit opposed to two or four in a regular Kabini-Temash setup), both the PS4 and Xbox Ane take plenty of CPU power on tap, even if neither measures upwardly to what you can go out of a PC. The large core count allows both consoles to excel at multitasking — important for modern living room and media center utilise cases. Ultimately, though, despite the Xbox One having a slightly faster CPU, it makes piffling departure to either console'southward relative game performance.

PS4 innards

Graphics

Again, by virtue of being an AMD APU, the Xbox One and PS4 GPUs are technologically similar — with the simple departure that the PS4 GPU is larger. In PC terms, the Xbox One has a GPU that's similar to the entry-level Bonaire GPU in the older Radeon Hard disk 7790, while the PS4 is outfitted with the midrange Pitcairn that can be establish in the Hard disk 7870. In numerical terms, the Xbox One GPU has 12 compute units (768 shader processors), while the PS4 has eighteen compute units (1,152 shaders). The Xbox One is slightly ahead on GPU clock speed (853MHz vs. 800MHz for the PS4).

In short, the PS4's GPU is — on paper — 50 percent more powerful than the Xbox One. The Xbox I's slightly college GPU clock speed ameliorates some of the difference, but really, the PS4's 50-percent-higher compute unit of measurement count is a serious reward for the Sony camp. Games on the PS4 have considerably more graphics power bachelor, and that shows up in real-world comparisons. Across clock speeds and core counts, though both GPUs are identical. They're both based on the Graphics Cadre Side by side (GCN) architecture, and thus support OpenGL 4.3, OpenCL 1.2, and Direct3D xi.two.

RAM subsystem and bandwidth

In one case we leave the CPU and GPU, the hardware specs of the Xbox Ane and PS4 begin to diverge, with the RAM existence the near notable difference. While both consoles are outfitted with 8GB of RAM, the PS4 opts for 5500MHz GDDR5 RAM, while the Xbox One uses the more PC-similar 2133MHz DDR3 RAM. This leads to a massive bandwidth reward in favor of the PS4. The PS4'south CPU and GPU accept 176GB/south of bandwidth to system RAM, while the Xbox One has just 68.3GB/s.

Xbox One SoC block diagram

Xbox 1 SoC block diagram. The 32MB of ESRAM (four blocks of 8MB) is at the bottom.

In Microsoft'southward favor, the Xbox One has 32MB of super-fast embedded SRAM (about 102GB/sec in each management, for a total of 204GB/sec of bandwidth). When ESRAM is used properly, as a cache, then the huge difference in main system RAM bandwidth can be ameliorated.

Storage

Both the Xbox One and PS4 accept 500GB internal hard disks and Blu-ray optical drives, and you lot can become 1TB drives for each ane as options. The Xbox I'south 1TB drive is really a hybrid, with a solid state portion in improver to a spinning deejay in order to improve access speeds, although real-world tests don't show up every bit big a difference as you would recollect on paper.

Gaming

It's nice to be able to compare hardware specs in a straightforward fashion — especially if yous're a PlayStation fan, as it beats the Xbox Ane on paper. When information technology comes down to it, though, the specs mean little on their own: It's always downward to how game developers actually employ the hardware. To begin with, games on the PS4, with its beefier GPU and simpler memory subsystem, are normally a bit smoother and more attractive. And nosotros've seen this borne out in a variety of titles that show slightly worse performance on the Xbox 1 side, including recent titles like Metal Gear Solid Five and Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Yet, both consoles evangelize stellar graphics, especially if y'all're coming from an older-generation console.

Despite the resolution difference and upscaling, there is visually not every bit much difference between the Xbox Ane and PS4. Past virtue of being based on the aforementioned GPU compages, games on both consoles will look similar — the same lighting, the same textures, the aforementioned smoke, and and so on. If you lot are playing games from a reasonable distance — say, x feet — yous are unlikely to see likewise much difference between the consoles. Nonetheless, purists volition want the PS4 for its more consistent 1080p output and, on occasion, higher frame rates.

Gaming and Online Services

Gamepads Xbox One PS4

The other differences betwixt the two consoles are well known at this signal, such every bit the controller design — the PS4 conspicuously has the edge here — and the available games. The biggest, similar Chiliad Theft Car five, Metallic Gear Solid 5, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, are usually cross platform, just there are exceptions. Both systems have some compelling exclusives. Notable exclusives on the Sony side include Until Dawn, Dragon Quest Heroes, Bloodborne, and Infamous: 2nd Son, while the Xbox One has Halo 5: Guardians, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Forza Horizon 2. The PS4 does much meliorate on the indie game side, though, which is a cardinal advantage.

Both models also do well as full general-purpose amusement devices. The Xbox I remains the better media fix-top box replacement, cheers to its HDMI passthrough and live television capabilities, merely most buyer's don't care for that, and the Ps4 has certainly caught up on the streaming service front. You can go premium Xbox Alive Golden and PS Plus subscriptions for $60 and $50 per twelvemonth, respectively.

Overall, the Sony PlayStation 4 remains our favorite two years later on, thanks to its slight cost advantage and improve controller. Merely the games are the affair: If there's an exclusive or ii that you're just dying to play, information technology's better y'all buy that particular console; the differences in hardware just aren't of import enough hither.

What do y'all recollect? Do yous prefer the PS4 or the Xbox 1? Let united states of america know in the comments below — and please keep things ceremonious. We know things become pretty passionate near these two systems.

Sebastian Anthony wrote the original version of this commodity. Information technology has since been heavily updated with new data.