Microsoft calls Xbox One and PS4 spec comparisons "meaningless"

Posted on 1 Jul 2013 at 10:32, by Gareth Halfacree

Microsoft has urged gamers to ignore the disparity in specifications between its upcoming Xbox One console and rival Sony PlayStation 4, claiming that comparisons between the two are 'meaningless'.

Unlike their previous generation consoles, both Sony and Microsoft have opted to use semi-custom processors from AMD. As a result, both devices have eight processing cores running at the same speed, using the same x86 instruction set as a modern desktop or laptop PC.

That's not to say that both consoles are identical: Microsoft has opted to use low-latency DDR3 memory in its Xbox One, while Sony's PlayStation 4 uses higher-latency GDDR5 (typically found on graphics cards)to boost the amount of data that can be transferred into and out of memory at any given time.

The big difference between the two consoles, however, is in their graphics hardware. While both consoles use graphics processors integrated into the AMD accelerated processing unit (APU,) the PlayStation 4 has more of them, meaning it should, in theory, have more computational power available for rendering complex scenes. If harnessed by developers, this extra power will either lead to better graphics or smoother rendering with less slowdown when many objects are on screen at the same time.

That comparison paints the Xbox One as being the weaker console. Speaking to Official Xbox Magazine, the company's Xbox product planning head Albert Penello called such comparisons "meaningless".

"The problem is that Sony decided to go out and publish a bunch of numbers, which are in some ways meaningless," claimed Panello. "Because this isn't like 1990, when it was 16-bit versus 32-bit. For me, I'd rather not even have the conversation, because it's not going to matter. The [Xbox One] is going to be awesome. The games are going to be awesome. I heard this exact same argument last generation and it's a pointless argument, because people are debating things which they don't know about."

Both Microsoft and Sony are expected to launch their respective next-generation consoles by the end of the year.

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