Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Xbox 720 vs. PS4 vs. PC: How the hardware specs compare ...

Xbox One/720 hardware

Updated: Microsoft has now confirmed the Xbox 720?s specs (aka, the Xbox One). They seem to be exactly the same as the rumored specs. In addition to the specs listed below, Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox 720 has 8GB of RAM, HDMI in/out, USB 3.0, and a 500GB hard drive. The Xbox 720 (Xbox One) seems to have virtually identical hardware to the PS4.

Microsoft has finally unveiled the Xbox 720. Not only have we found out its real name (the Xbox One), but more importantly we?ve found out how the Xbox 720?s hardware stacks up against the PS4 and gaming PCs. While we don?t know the exact hardware spec ? console makers never give away all their secrets ? all signs point to the Xbox 720 having very, very similar hardware to the PS4, and about on-par with a mid-range gaming PC. This is in stark contrast to the current generation of consoles, which were beastly, noisy, massively expensive machines that blew away all but the highest-end PCs. Merely comparing hardware specs is incredibly naive, though ? to find out why, read on.

For the most accurate Xbox 720 hardware specs, we look towards the games development sector, which has been programming Xbox 720 games since last year. The latest leaks suggest that the Xbox 720 will have an 8-core 64-bit x86 Jaguar AMD CPU @ 1.6GHz, coupled with a GPU that?s very close to the Radeon HD 7790. The PS4, in comparison, has an 8-core Jaguar AMD CPU, with a GPU that?s around the Radeon 7870. In both consoles, the CPU and GPU will be on the same die (an AMD APU). Just as the PS4 has 8GB of high-speed memory that is shared by the CPU and GPU, the Xbox 720 ? by virtue of being based on the same APU heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) ? will probably be the same. In short, while there will undoubtedly be small hardware differences between the consoles, they will ultimately have very similar performance characteristics.

AMD Radeon 7790In comparison to a modern PC, you can probably guess how the Xbox 720 compares. There?s no direct comparison for the 8-core Jaguar CPU ? AMD?s own parts based on the Jaguar core, Kabini and Temash, are quad-core parts destined for ultrathins and tablets. From leaked benchmarks, the Jaguar core is around 10% faster than its predecessor (Bobcat). A dual-core Brazos (Bobcat core) about 10 times slower than the latest Ivy Bridge parts, in a very naive comparison. So, all in all, an 8-core Jaguar might manage about half the performance of a current-gen Core i7. The GPU comparison is easier: The Radeon 7790 is a $150 card.

In short, then, today?s PCs will stomp all over the Xbox 720 (and PS4) in terms of raw computation power.

It?s now how big it is; it?s what you do with it

An awesome Xbox 720 controller conceptAnother way of looking at the Xbox 720 and PS4, though, is their power relative to their predecessors. In terms of raw, synthetic performance, the Xbox 360 could churn out around 300 gigaflops; the PS3 was around 400 gigaflops. The Xbox 720 and PS4, however, should both be above two teraflops ? about six times more powerful than their predecessors. Remember, the output resolution (1920?1080) is unlikely to change ? so, with six times more power, we?re looking at a significant improvement to image quality.

Using teraflops as a stand-in for real-world performance, though, to quote our hardware analyst Joel Hruska, is like ?giving the fuel efficiency of a car going downhill with an 80 mph tailwind on helium-inflated tires.? What it ultimately comes down to is how efficiently developers use the hardware ? and in that regard, we have high hopes. With the shift to x86, and a GPU architecture (AMD?s GCN) that?s well known, developers will be able to hit the ground running. Compare this to the Cell CPUs at the heart of the Xbox 360 and PS3, which took years for developers to fully understand.

PS4 DualShock 4 controller

It?s also important to remember that, in recent years, there has been a fundamental shift away from games that do the bulk of their computation on the CPU, to programs that use the CPU to offload computation to the (much more powerful) GPU. With the Xbox 360 and PS3, both consoles had a monstrous Cell-based CPU and an equally large GPU ? the PS4 and Xbox 720, on the other hand, have wimpy, many-core CPUs and much larger GPUs. With both consoles expected to fill more of a media center/set-top box role, rather than focusing on gaming, we can foresee those cores being dedicated to background tasks, such as downloading updates or listening for voice commands.

Ultimately, with both the Xbox 720 and PS4 having such similar hardware, real-world performance differences will probably come down to how well the consoles make use of those eight CPU cores and GPU offloading. It?s also important to bear in mind that a huge speed-up is available when developing games for a fixed platform, with known performance/latency characteristics. Realistically, we wouldn?t be surprised if games on the Xbox 720 and PS4, just like the current generation, look very similar. Likewise, games will probably look better on consoles for a few years, and then PCs will probably pull back ahead.

Now read:?Nvidia gave AMD the PS4 because console margins are terrible

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/156273-xbox-720-vs-ps4-vs-pc-how-the-hardware-specs-compare

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