xbox_ps4

xbox one x

When it comes to gaming systems, you’re either a fan of Xbox or you’re a fan of PlayStation. Or so it seems. What’s the big difference between the two? Last year Xbox One S added 4K media support, but it’s the brand new Xbox One X that truly elevates the gaming experience.  It comes with a huge processing boost and the new console delivers native and upscaled 4K gaming.  It also has a level of detail and performance that we haven’t seen on other home consoles.  But Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro has been around for a year now.  It offers a nice step up from the standard PS4 with its own mix of native and upscaled gaming.  Microsoft’s console offers more power, but does that automatically mean that it’s the best choice overall?

Power

The Xbox One is by far the most powerful game console you can currently buy.   The PlayStation 4 Pro uses an upgraded AMD Jaguar/Radeon chip that provides 4.2 teraflops of graphics processing capabilities – a massive leap up from the 1.84 teraflop GPU in the original PS4 (both have 8GB RAM).  The Xbox One, however, has a new GPU that allows for 6 teraflops of graphics output (along with 12GB RAM), it’s a dramatic improvement over the 1.3 teraflops from the original Xbox One. It also has 40 compute units to play with, over the 12 from the original Xbox One.  These numbers are just that – numbers – but you can visibly see the proof.  Forza 7 looks incredible.  Middle-earth: Shadow of War looks way better on Xbox One X.  In terms of raw power, this is a definite win for Microsoft.

Does this mean anything?  Well, both PS4 consoles play the exact same games, but on the PS4 Pro, you have the benefit of running at higher resolutions. Some games, for instance, the new FIFA 18, can output natively at 4K resolution, which packs in four times the pixels of 1080p full HD, while others run somewhere in between those benchmarks and then are upscaled to 4K.

ratchet_and_clank

Games

A lot of games exist for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, mostly thanks to third-party developers.  And it’s not going to stop now.  But when it comes to exclusive games, Microsoft hasn’t had the same winning streak as Sony.  Exclusive games are what define a console.  Which is why Sony is ahead of Microsoft with the following games:

  • Unchartered 4: A Thief’s End
  • Horizon: Zero Dawn
  • Bloodborne
  • The Last of Us Remastered
  • Ratchet and Clank
  • Persona 5

There are more games to come including God of War, Detroit: Become Human, Days Gone, Spider-Man and Shadow of the Colossus. This category will also be driven by personal preference so this category isn’t easy to qualify.  You might love Microsoft’s franchises enough to identify those as your favorites, and that’s acceptable.  But the PS4 is better when it comes to one-of-a-kind experiences.

The Xbox one has some great exclusives – including Forza Horizon 3, Ori and the Blind Forest, Gears of War 4, Forza Motorsport 7 and Killer Instinct.  But they haven’t had the same kind of consistent flow of great games that Sony has put together.  Which is why Sony wins in this category.