We all already know that the Xbox One’s CPU is that much better than the PS4’s.
In spite of supposedly practically identical CPUs, the bumped up frequency of the Xbox One’s core, 1.75 GHz as opposed to the PS4’s 1.6 GHz, has already shown itself in CPU intensive scenarios within games like The Witcher 3, Project CARS and a number of others.
On top of that, while both CPUs technically have 8 cores, both platforms reserve two entire cores for the operation of the OS and other miscellaneous software – or at least that’s how they started.
Not all that long ago, it was discovered that Microsoft has given developers access to 50-80% of the 7th core, a potential reason for the Xbox One’s advantage.
The Xbox One’s SoC.
In spite of this, we’re always looking for more concrete evidence of just what is under the hood of each system, or the exact specifications to be precise.
We’re not at all interested in which console is actually more powerful, get a PC if you want the most powerful platform, but it’s certainly interesting.
According to Jesse Rapczak, founder of Studio Wildcard and developer on open-world, indie dino-romp ARK: Survival Evolved, the Xbox One’s CPU is, in fact, noticeably faster.
Something Rapczak and his team noticed due to ARK: Survival Evolved’s fairly CPU intensive design.
One thing that I will say that is very interesting is that our game is limited by CPU for rendering right now. A lot of people know that the Xbox has a stronger CPU than the PS4. That’s not to say that it runs better on the Xbox or PlayStation, but the PlayStation having a little bit more powerful GPU is offset by the fact that our game requires a lot of CPU to run well. It’s kind of a balance between the two right now for different reasons.”
Of course, the PS4’s superior GPU seems to, more often than not, make up for the difference.
We imagine in more particle heavy scenarios, or where lighting is fairly complex, the PS4 has the advantage.
However, when more AI-driven dinosaurs as well as other characters are present, a CPU intensive situation, the Xbox One will take the lead.
Either way, both consoles are practically maxed out when it comes to what their hardware can push. How well games run will be up to optimisation and well thought out software development.
Uncharted 4 is less about the PS4’s slightly superior GPU and more about the gruelling optimisation Naughty Dog has managed, squeezing what they can out of what is available.
Source: GamingBolt, Feature image courtesy of Wired.
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How interesting. The Xbox One hasn’t fully developed Directx 12. It hasn’t fully realized the eSRAM potential. And still, we are just coming to the very first game – Crackdown 3 – that uses cloud compute for the games destructibility.
Those reading this article may feel as though the Xbox One and the PS4 are similar. Perhaps this is the common narrative so far. But with so many features YET TO ARRIVE on Xbox One (like the ones I mentioned), I am amazed that Sony fans are not a bit more incredulous at their loyalty to the PS4. Are the Sony fanboys not a bit curious?
Looks like the fanboys love when a console fights with one hand behind its back. But when Directx12 and cloud compute come to fruition, watch out.