Sony finally removed the covers of the specifications of its next-gen console, The PS5 on Wednesday. This move was preceded by Xbox allowing reviewers to get a hands-on on the actual device with actual gameplay demos. Both the consoles are scheduled for an end of year launch. So how do these stack up? Let’s find out.
Performance
Both the consoles are powered by eight AMD based Zen 2 Cores but vary in clock speed. The PS5 has its cores clocked at 3.5GHz whereas the Xbox Series X has its cores clocked at a 3.8GHz giving the Xbox a slight EDGE over the PS5 in terms of CPU performance.
In terms of graphics, Sony has opted for a custom AMD RDNA 2-based GPU inside the PS5, which provides 10.28 teraflops of power with 36 compute units running at 2.23GHz each. Microsoft has picked a custom AMD RDNA 2-based GPU for the Xbox Series X, but it can hit 12 teraflops of power with 52 compute units at 1.825GHz each. The GPU on the PS5 is smaller hence has better thermals whereas the Xbox Series X has a more powerful GPU.
Sony has decided to use variable frequencies on both its GPU and CPU. The power budget is tied to the thermal limits of the system. This means that the performance will depend on how hard its being pushed and that it does no overheat unnecessarily ensuring better thermal performance. The Xbox Series X runs at a constant Frequency and has no such power budgeting.
Storage
There is a stark difference between the storage technology used by Microsoft and Sony. Sony has created a custom SSD solution that provides 825GB of Storage and speed of 5.5GB/s. The Xbox Series X is equipped with a custom 1TB NVME SSD, but its raw throughput is 2.4GB/s which is less than half of the PS5.
Both the consoles will allow you to expand your memory externally using the expansion slot on the consoles. The PS5, however, uses a PCIe 4.0 NVME drive for expansion whereas the Xbox Series X plans on using a Proprietary expansion card format which is developed in partnership with Seagate who will produce 1TB expansion cards for launch.
Both the consoles support 4K HDR and 8K along with real-time ray tracing which is huge for console gaming. Both the consoles are backwards compatible with games launched on their previous generation models.More information regarding the PS5 is yet to be revealed including game selection, OS, and the physical form factor. Based on current information, the Xbox Series X has a slight performance advantage due to the presence of more horsepower underhood but the PS5 has faster storage, better expandability and a better thermal management system in mind