PS5 vs. Xbox Series X

Mark Cerny starred in a peculiar PlayStation 5 technical talk yesterday, Wednesday March 18, with plenty of details about the new Sony console. One of the brains of the company's next-gen hardware ran a digital conference packed with data on hard drives, transfer rates, and backward compatibility that was complemented by the release of technical data from PS5. We already know its characteristics, your CPU, your GPU, your RAM, your SSD hard drive and more, and it's time to see how is the hardware of PS5 compared to that of the titanic Xbox Series X.

A simple comparison so that you can see the differences between both platforms and the strengths and weaknesses of each in front of the other. Powerfully attracts attention how Microsoft has marked the distances with an Xbox Series X that, at the moment, does not seem to have a rival in terms of gross power and performance; although it is also worth noting how it is said about PS5 that its optimization has been calculated in detail to avoid any bottleneck. But let's see what you have come to see: the numbers.

Comparison of SPECS for PlayStation 5 vs Xbox Series X

Let's see the main features of each platform below, we will start listing the full Xbox Series X features, recently revealed by Redmond's. Later, we will go to see what PS5 offers in terms of numbers and we will review the keys that differentiate them in the next-gen race that starts at the end of the year.

Xbox Series X technical features

12 TFLOPSThis is the number that has been repeated as active and passive when talking about the characteristics of the Xbox Series X. The hardware prepared by Microsoft is a real "brown beast" when it comes to consoles. A most powerful and capable machine, which promises to bring us real surprises with the video games that it launches on the market. Its technical characteristics are as follows:

• CPU: AMD Zen 2 Custom with 8 cores at 3.8 GHz (3.6 GHz with SMT).
• GPU: RDNA 2 Custom with 52 CUs at 1,825 GHz. 12 TFLOPS.
• Memory: 16 GB GDDR6 || 10 GB @ 560 GB / s + 6 GB @ 336 GB / s.
• Storage: 1TB NVMe Custom SSD.
• I / O rate: 2.4 GB / s raw, 4.8 GB / s for compressed data.
• Storage expansion: 1 TB expansion cards (custom system).
• External storage: Support for standard HDD by USB 3.2.
• Optical drive: Blu-Ray 4K UHD.

Technical characteristics of PlayStation 5

The figure for the PS5 TFLOPS is 10.28, according to data collected by Digital Foundry. The interior of the Sony console follows steps very similar to those of the XSX, with a difference in capacity for the hard disk of about 175 GB, a lower CPU in speed and a GPU that has fewer Computation Units (CU), but each of them works at a frequency with 400 MHz above those of Xbox. Here are the numbers:

• CPU: AMD Zen 2 Custom with 8 cores at 3.5 GHz (variable frequency).
• GPU: RDNA 2 Custom with 36 CUs at 2.23 GHz. 10.28 TFLOPS.
• Memory: 16 GB GDDR6 with 256-bit bus @ 448 GB / s.
• Storage: 825 GB Custom SSD.
• I / O speed: 5.5 GB / s raw, 8-9 GB / s for compressed data.
• Storage expansion: NVMe SSD port.
• External storage: Support for standard HDD by USB.
• Optical drive: Blu-Ray 4K UHD.

PS5 vs Xbox Series X – Conclusions

Now yes let's go into a little more detail. Looking at both CPU and GPU data, it is more than clear that Xbox Series X is ahead of what the PlayStation 5 hardware offers. The Microsoft console goes with everything in gross power, which more than likely will serve you to work better the visual section and get some really surprising finishes in future video games. However, at Sony they have not wanted to fall too far behind in the performance of their GPU, betting on "Doping" each CU of the graph to give it more power despite having a smaller amount in total. We must remember that a CU is a group of cores of a GPU that is responsible for performing common rendering tasks. The larger the number, the easier it is to work with more complex scenes; the higher the speed, the easier it is to improve performance, although with less visual load.

On the other hand, the memory section is a very particular one, and that forces us to think about an alternative solution in the case of Xbox Series X. Those of Microsoft have opted to divide the graphic memory and work in general with 10 GB at a frequency of 560 GB / s and 6 working at 336 GB / s. Instead, PlayStation 5 has 16 GB also GDDR6, but all of them working at 448 GB / s. Interestingly, this figure is the average of the memory speeds of Xbox Series X, although they should not offer the same performance.

At the time that you have to load large textures in 4K or many more elements into memoryTypically, the computer ends up molding at the lowest memory speed to avoid calculation and data transfer failures. This means that if, for example, XSX needs to draw a scene in which it has to use more than 10 GB of memory, all the data transfer necessary for the GPU to work it will stick to those 336 GB / s, something that would lead the 448 GB / s of PS5. However, Microsoft claims to have worked in a special solution for this, one that we will discover when the launch approaches.

The last point to address is the input and output transfer rate for the storage system. Sony has put a lot of emphasis on the potential of its SSD and the huge transfer speeds of its system, and the data reflects that. Working with raw files (RAW), it achieves rates of 5.5 GB / s, while XSX remains at 2.4 GB / s. This anticipates differences in loading times, although we continue to speak of beastly speeds in both cases. The figures rise even more when we talk about compressed data, making it clear that, here, Sony has wanted to turn completely to take the lead.

Definitely, both PS5 and Xbox Series X bring a total evolution in terms of hardware compared to the current generation. Although, deep down, we all know that the important thing ends up being the combination of catalog and services. Microsoft has a really powerful machine in XSX and well above PS5 in many ways, however Sony has also wanted to balance the scales with a machine that promises to be very efficient. We will see how the next-gen develops; But, above all, we hope that this new hardware will serve to bring outstanding experiences regardless of the platform on which they see the light.