XBOX One or PS4?

[Jockdooshbag]

Now both next gen consoles have been revealed and the specs seemt o be circulating the internet, what is the general consensus of the best gaming platform out of these two??

Im an Xbox man currently but have owned PS 1 and 2 in the past so im probably slightly if not a lot biased towards the Xbox.

Seems the PS4 may edge it in hardware, i read somewhere that the PS4 has a slightly fater CPU and fatser ram i.e GDDR5 as opposed to DDR3 or something but then i read that the Xbox has 32mb ESRAM which i have no idea what that is.

The biggest thing for me was that Xbox wil run windows meaning that the vast majority of games will be written on PC and be directly compatible with the Xbox and the PS4 games will then subsequently be a port.

If this is true which, which it kinda makes sense, then the extra power of the PS4 is yet again overkill and wasted. It was my understanding that this is why the current consoles as virtually exactly the same as the xbox is easier to write games for.

My main reason for wanting to stick with Xbox is that my gamerscore etc transfers over but if the PS4 was noticably better for gaming i would buy on eof those instead in a heartbeat.

Im totally not interested in any other features both consoles promise as i have SKY tv and internet available through other mediums as do most people so im only wanting the best gaming machine. Dont say get a PC then as ive been there and done that years ago and i just prefer consoles now.

ANy technology experts out there who can better explain the likely perfromance differences of these two new machines?

[Dr Zoidberg]

PS4 for me.

The hardware specs are very similar except for the GDDR5 RAM on the PS4 which gives it a big advantage, and with the architecture being pretty much identical to a PC on both it's going to be very easy to port games back and forth.

I couldn't care less about gamerscore or trophies - both are utterly irrellevant. I also don't care about all the extra features that MS insist I want.

The ability to watch TV on my TV? Wow, I can do that already and my consoles aren't in the lounge anyway.

Skype, Facebook and the internet? Nope, don't care. I have an iPad for that.

Have a kinect forced upon me? It won't work sat at my desk, so can only make some games unplayable if it's mandatory.

Need a permanent connection to the net, and restrictions on second hand games? Nope, both bad ideas.

I bet you still need to pay a subscription for online gaming too. No thanks.

By contrast the PS4 launch was focussed on games which is all I want from a games console.

There's a hell of a lot of people saying the same kind of things and who are planning a swap from 360 to PS4.

[gadgetman]

Not into gaming, but the new xbox needs a daily Internet connection or it'll stop working, and everything you do is fed back to Redmond - even monitoring you at all times via the kinect bar.

Then there's the fact any games you already own need to be Re bought as won't run on the new machine, and you can't borrow games or buy/sell old games as they become locked to one console.

I think Microsoft have no idea who their customers are. Mostly consoles bought by parents for teens along with any games they need.

Games prices are also going up, with most being near to or over £50

[djswivel]

As it stands? Neither.

I'm a long time gamer and have both the 360 and PS3. Neither new console at the min is pushing the right buttons for me - the Xbox 1 needing the kinect all the time (way to block the hardcore gamer audience MS) and not knowing the PS4 extra capabilities at the min (I use mine as a media streamer as well as a games machine).

As usual, I'll be waiting until the facelifted/revised version of each arrives before considering buying one.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Nothing that the PS4 does will stop you carrying on using the PS3 as a media device though.

I expect I'll have both consoles running side by side for quite a while.

[Titanium_Man]

Neither! I've been gaming since the Spectrum Sinclair and have finally had enough of having to change systems and new games time and time again!

I use my PS3 for watching catch-up TV more than I use it to play games nowadays so wont be "investing" in another gaming platform. Had the PS4 have the ability to play PS3 games, I think I would have probably bought a PS4, once they had gone down in price of course but as I understand it, PS3 games wont work on the PS4, so they can kiss my arse

[David 8]

PC???

Does all of the above and far more ....

[mannyo]

Not played a game on my 360 for what seems like eons, its gets used to stream media and that's about it these days. I don't think I'll be buying either, since the 360 does a decent enough job for what I use it for.

[MartynVRS]

Everyone goes on about backwards compatibility being a problem but it really isn't. I'll be running both consoles parallel for a few months. I'll still be playing new GTA and GT6 by the time it releases. Not much has been said about what the PS4 will look like but it doesn't bother me. For a start the XBOX One is region locked which means people like my cousin in Japan, who often buys games from the UK/US can't play them. He's not going XBOX. PS4 is still looking like the choice for me but won't be day of release. My PC does most of it apart from a few exclusives.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Everyone goes on about backwards compatibility being a problem but it really isn't

I totally agree. A second hand PS3 will have a minimal second hand value when the PS4 is out and I have no intention of getting rid of it.

It's one of those things that I might find occasionally handy but it wouldn't sell me a console or stop me buying one through it's absence.

I'd much rather they focussed on making the new console as good as it can be, without wasting time and money on something that most people won't use.

[Jockdooshbag]

So no-one really knows about the technical aspects of the 2 machines then?? Was hoping to get a fundamental and conclusive opinion on the hardware but i supose the proof of the pudding and all that.

As others have said i just want a pure gaming machine and whichever does this best will win my vote. It does seem a lot of you do use your consoles for other forms of media which surprises me as i though most folk had SKY and PC's and smart TV's and ipads etc.

[sheldon_cz]

So no-one really knows about the technical aspects of the 2 machines then?? Was hoping to get a fundamental and conclusive opinion on the hardware but i supose the proof of the pudding and all that.

The hardware does not matter. The graphics will be comparably good on both the consoles. Both do DVD/Bluray, so you shouldn't care about that either.

What could matter is second hand games, continuous internet connection and/or what DRM will be put into practice. XBox needs Kinect always on, and Microsoft has filed for a patent that describes how the console determines how many people there are in the room when watching a movie and adjust licensing terms to match that. That's enough for me not to touch the console with a ten foot pole. Sony hasn't revealed much in terms of this, so I'd wait. So far, nothing tears me apart from my gaming PC.

[MartynVRS]

I totally agree. A second hand PS3 will have a minimal second hand value when the PS4 is out and I have no intention of getting rid of it.

It's one of those things that I might find occasionally handy but it wouldn't sell me a console or stop me buying one through it's absence.

I'd much rather they focussed on making the new console as good as it can be, without wasting time and money on something that most people won't use.

Exactly. I know some sell the previous console to get help pay for the new one but it's something I'll never do.

[vRS19TD]

I think i'll be sticking to my 360 for now until prices have dropped enough for me to consider getting one of the above and even then i'll keep the 360. I've had PS1 and 2 before switching to the 360 and thought i would probably get the next XBox before i watched the launch and lost interest in them showing how great Kinect/Voice controls are and read the reviews afterwards. With all this voice control and motion sensors, the next thing they'll be doing will be consoles that play the games for you, then what's the point.

As it sounds like neither machine will be backwards compatible, it opens up the market to a lot of people switching their allegiance and i can see the XBox being the loser at the end.

[Scribbler]

1. The first gen models will have heat soak issues and ring of death with be common. Sony typically will have less faults but will probably have a delayed launch because of this extra testing.

2. Unlike a lot of gamers i buy a game play it then sell it. So backward compatibility is not so much of an issue for me but the resale of games will be instrumental in my choice. If your frugal you can generally shop around and with the help of a voucher code etc. buy a new game play it and complete it and sell it on ebay for the same or sometimes more than you paid for it. This is a major error from Microsoft and Sony if they decide to start skimming off the resale of second hand games. If both do it then i will stick with PS3.

3. There will probably be a way around the Kinect issue. i.e. either print off a small picture with a face on it and stick it on the lens or jailbrake hack the console or use a dongle that spoofs the kinect.

4. Xbox Live still puts me off the microsoft offering. Being able to play online for free trumps the fact i can't play halo.

Conclusion very little to choose hardware specs wise between the two although i suspect having repaired Ps3 and 360's that the Sony will be put together with a little more finesse. Its down to personal preference over the games & the controller at the end of the day. Until Sony anounce some stupid microsoft style games resale policy as with microsoft i suspect i will go Sony PS4. (Just to avoid the kids that plague the xbox online game lobbies and paying for the privlege of hearing their attempts at rapping and **** music on in the background whilst scrambling to find the mute all function.)

[MartynVRS]

That's a mistake I made with my PS3. When I was younger almost all my games were preowned and was cheap gaming. Now most things are brand new or new but at reduced price. I sold a few last year but still have well over 50 PS3 games. My total count of Playstation console games is well over 250. Although this year I've only preordered Grid2 then GTA and GT6 will be my last ones this year

[allan1888]

i will end up with both, But i'm getting xbox one on launch the ps4 will wait till they actually show us something other than a controller and games running on a pc. Spec wise the ps4 will be slightly more powerful which is down to its GPU being better and also the ram but the embedded ESRAM of the xbox one makes up most of the difference. The Xbox one has access to Microsofts azure cloud computing network so can offload some processes to the cloud which frees up performance at our end, i think they have said for every xbox one there will be the equivalent of 3 xbox ones in the cloud to assist. Backward compatibility wont be an issue for me as i plan on keeping my 360 and ps3. xbox live is getting boosted to over 300 thousand servers from the 15 thousand + it has at moment. used games wont be an issue for me either as i never buy used and i never trade my games, sony will more than likely go down the same route as Microsoft with regards to this as sony can already do it with the ps3 if they choose to. Sony need the ps4 to be a big success more than MS does with the xbox one. hopefully they will have a console to show at E3 and have games actually running on ps4 hardware. ps4 will more than likely not be out in uk till 2014 as it will launch in japan first then usa then the EU market which sony dont really care about so we get left till the end like every sony console.

[JohnMcL7]

So no-one really knows about the technical aspects of the 2 machines then?? Was hoping to get a fundamental and conclusive opinion on the hardware but i supose the proof of the pudding and all that.

As others have said i just want a pure gaming machine and whichever does this best will win my vote. It does seem a lot of you do use your consoles for other forms of media which surprises me as i though most folk had SKY and PC's and smart TV's and ipads etc.

This is a good write up of the hardware comparing the PS4 and the Xbox one:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6972/xbox-one-hardware-compared-to-playstation-4

Bizarrely both consoles are near identical - they're using the same processor, same graphics card, same amount of memory, both have hard drives and blu-ray drives. Both companies have been very vague about their specs to prevent direct comparisons so at the moment they're not entirely accurate as it will depend on final clock speeds but it looks like the PS4 is going to be more powerful - they've gone for a beefier version of the graphics card and much more memory bandwidth. Microsoft have gone for a less powerful graphics card, cheaper DDR3 ram and instead opted for a small amount of very high speed memory on the graphics card die similar to the Xbox 360 design which should go some way to compensating for the lack of memory bandwidth. Bearing in mind with Xbox One Kinect is now mandatory, I suspect Microsoft had to cut back a bit on some of the components so they could have Kinect in the box while keeping the package a similar price to the PS4.

It's difficult to know how that's going to work out in practice though as frequently developers target the weaker platform and don't really optimise much other more powerful platforms. So developers may target the Xbox one's hardware and port straight to the PS4 wasting its advantage or they may prefer the more convenient memory set up of the PS4 and then strip features down for the Xbox One ports.

Both machines are using an eight core AMD processor with Jaguar cores which are AMD's new low end processor intended for low power applications, essentially AMD's Atom rival. That seems an odd choice for a gaming console as in a desktop PC it would make for a poor gaming machine as few games or applications are well optimised past a couple of cores leaving the market to settle on processors with a few, high performance cores. However in the console market it's very different because it's a single platform that developers will be able to properly optimise.

The biggest thing for me was that Xbox wil run windows meaning that the vast majority of games will be written on PC and be directly compatible with the Xbox and the PS4 games will then subsequently be a port.

Although the Xbox will run a form of Windows, it's not the same as a desktop version (it actually has multiple operating systems, the main two run virtually) what's more crucial is the standard X86 processor and mostly off the shelf graphics card. This could be an advantage for porting if Sony had opted for another custom processor of some sort but this time they're using not just an X86 processor but exactly the same type with the same number of cores. Plus these days most ports are consoles to PC's rather than the other way round.

I don't feel particularly excited about either console at the moment although I think that's mainly down to the laughably poor presentations from both companies, they were clearly desperate to beat other and ended up producing rushed presentations that didn't really show the potential of the consoles. If they'd down some proper games being played that really demonstrated what the consoles could do then that might have created more excitement, I was watching the Nurburgring 24 hour the other weekend with its incredible 175 car line up and thinking how much I'd like to see them use the increased performance available to replicate that sort of experience in a console. But no, we apparently get an in camera view of getting into a car and fastening the seatbelt..and accurately modelled carbon fibre flecks.

I have both a PS3 and 360 but tend to favour the 360 as I prefer its controller, Live and being able to rip all games to the hard drive. However I'm not that keen on the idea of mandatory Kinect nor was I at all fussed about the various multimedia features they were showing as my consoles are intended for gaming. The Azure computing is a concern as well as that means mandatory online gaming which I don't like at all, although I have a constant broadband connection Steam can be a pain in the neck when it's decided it doesn't want to authenticate or there's a brief outage on the connection. The consoles should have plenty performance without needing to rely on any outside system, I can't see the benefit to the consumer aside from to force an online connection.

My main gaming platform for a while now has been the PC, obviously the gap in performance between PC and the consoles is now at its biggest so games on the PC at 1440p obviously look very pretty. I've found over the last couple of years I've had far fewer bugs and driver issues which at one point were so bad drove me off the PC completely and I've been impressed with the now near standard support for the Xbox 360 control pad - not just default configuration but similar in game graphics and tool tips as you'd expect in a native Xbox 360 game. Steam and I have a rocky relationship but quite like their Big Picture mode which I started using once I found it you could access it by holding down the guide button on a controller, it works well the controller as you'd expect. The PC platform already suffers restrictive DRM which it looks like the consoles may follow but there's usually more opportunities to pick games up cheap particularly in the Steam sale so I don't mind the lack of a second hand market so much.

John

[Chronicbint]

Not enough information to decide yet imo. A lot of the Xbox stuff is still up in the air as MS have not finalised it, especially the second hand game stuff. Same for the PS4, information is just too thin on the ground.

The same as this generation there will not be one obviously superior console. Suspect it will just come down to "whatever all your mates own" being the best console for each individual.

[MartynVRS]

I've always been a bit of a black sheep when it came to consoles. All my "mates" went for the 360 and I went PS3. Don't regret it at all

[Chronicbint]

I've always been a bit of a black sheep when it came to consoles. All my "mates" went for the 360 and I went PS3. Don't regret it at all

No real difference either way, just if you are into online gaming it's best with mates.

[Macdemon]

I got an original PS1 YEARS ago one Christmas and it was GREAT.

Somehow, years later it just disappeared and I cannot remember for the life of me what happened to it.

Don't remember lending it to anyone and if I did, they never returned it. :'(

[MartynVRS]

No real difference either way, just if you are into online gaming it's best with mates.

I played Uncharted for hours with mates online and is great fun. The only XBOX thing I miss is Forza. Would have liked to try it properly. Don't miss paying to play online though.

[Jockdooshbag]

This is a good write up of the hardware comparing the PS4 and the Xbox one:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6972/xbox-one-hardware-compared-to-playstation-4

Bizarrely both consoles are near identical - they're using the same processor, same graphics card, same amount of memory, both have hard drives and blu-ray drives. Both companies have been very vague about their specs to prevent direct comparisons so at the moment they're not entirely accurate as it will depend on final clock speeds but it looks like the PS4 is going to be more powerful - they've gone for a beefier version of the graphics card and much more memory bandwidth. Microsoft have gone for a less powerful graphics card, cheaper DDR3 ram and instead opted for a small amount of very high speed memory on the graphics card die similar to the Xbox 360 design which should go some way to compensating for the lack of memory bandwidth. Bearing in mind with Xbox One Kinect is now mandatory, I suspect Microsoft had to cut back a bit on some of the components so they could have Kinect in the box while keeping the package a similar price to the PS4.

It's difficult to know how that's going to work out in practice though as frequently developers target the weaker platform and don't really optimise much other more powerful platforms. So developers may target the Xbox one's hardware and port straight to the PS4 wasting its advantage or they may prefer the more convenient memory set up of the PS4 and then strip features down for the Xbox One ports.

Both machines are using an eight core AMD processor with Jaguar cores which are AMD's new low end processor intended for low power applications, essentially AMD's Atom rival. That seems an odd choice for a gaming console as in a desktop PC it would make for a poor gaming machine as few games or applications are well optimised past a couple of cores leaving the market to settle on processors with a few, high performance cores. However in the console market it's very different because it's a single platform that developers will be able to properly optimise.

[/font][/color]

Although the Xbox will run a form of Windows, it's not the same as a desktop version (it actually has multiple operating systems, the main two run virtually) what's more crucial is the standard X86 processor and mostly off the shelf graphics card. This could be an advantage for porting if Sony had opted for another custom processor of some sort but this time they're using not just an X86 processor but exactly the same type with the same number of cores. Plus these days most ports are consoles to PC's rather than the other way round.

I don't feel particularly excited about either console at the moment although I think that's mainly down to the laughably poor presentations from both companies, they were clearly desperate to beat other and ended up producing rushed presentations that didn't really show the potential of the consoles. If they'd down some proper games being played that really demonstrated what the consoles could do then that might have created more excitement, I was watching the Nurburgring 24 hour the other weekend with its incredible 175 car line up and thinking how much I'd like to see them use the increased performance available to replicate that sort of experience in a console. But no, we apparently get an in camera view of getting into a car and fastening the seatbelt..and accurately modelled carbon fibre flecks.

I have both a PS3 and 360 but tend to favour the 360 as I prefer its controller, Live and being able to rip all games to the hard drive. However I'm not that keen on the idea of mandatory Kinect nor was I at all fussed about the various multimedia features they were showing as my consoles are intended for gaming. The Azure computing is a concern as well as that means mandatory online gaming which I don't like at all, although I have a constant broadband connection Steam can be a pain in the neck when it's decided it doesn't want to authenticate or there's a brief outage on the connection. The consoles should have plenty performance without needing to rely on any outside system, I can't see the benefit to the consumer aside from to force an online connection.

My main gaming platform for a while now has been the PC, obviously the gap in performance between PC and the consoles is now at its biggest so games on the PC at 1440p obviously look very pretty. I've found over the last couple of years I've had far fewer bugs and driver issues which at one point were so bad drove me off the PC completely and I've been impressed with the now near standard support for the Xbox 360 control pad - not just default configuration but similar in game graphics and tool tips as you'd expect in a native Xbox 360 game. Steam and I have a rocky relationship but quite like their Big Picture mode which I started using once I found it you could access it by holding down the guide button on a controller, it works well the controller as you'd expect. The PC platform already suffers restrictive DRM which it looks like the consoles may follow but there's usually more opportunities to pick games up cheap particularly in the Steam sale so I don't mind the lack of a second hand market so much.

John

[Jockdooshbag]

This is a good write up of the hardware comparing the PS4 and the Xbox one:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6972/xbox-one-hardware-compared-to-playstation-4

Bizarrely both consoles are near identical - they're using the same processor, same graphics card, same amount of memory, both have hard drives and blu-ray drives. Both companies have been very vague about their specs to prevent direct comparisons so at the moment they're not entirely accurate as it will depend on final clock speeds but it looks like the PS4 is going to be more powerful - they've gone for a beefier version of the graphics card and much more memory bandwidth. Microsoft have gone for a less powerful graphics card, cheaper DDR3 ram and instead opted for a small amount of very high speed memory on the graphics card die similar to the Xbox 360 design which should go some way to compensating for the lack of memory bandwidth. Bearing in mind with Xbox One Kinect is now mandatory, I suspect Microsoft had to cut back a bit on some of the components so they could have Kinect in the box while keeping the package a similar price to the PS4.

It's difficult to know how that's going to work out in practice though as frequently developers target the weaker platform and don't really optimise much other more powerful platforms. So developers may target the Xbox one's hardware and port straight to the PS4 wasting its advantage or they may prefer the more convenient memory set up of the PS4 and then strip features down for the Xbox One ports.

Both machines are using an eight core AMD processor with Jaguar cores which are AMD's new low end processor intended for low power applications, essentially AMD's Atom rival. That seems an odd choice for a gaming console as in a desktop PC it would make for a poor gaming machine as few games or applications are well optimised past a couple of cores leaving the market to settle on processors with a few, high performance cores. However in the console market it's very different because it's a single platform that developers will be able to properly optimise.

[/font][/color]

Although the Xbox will run a form of Windows, it's not the same as a desktop version (it actually has multiple operating systems, the main two run virtually) what's more crucial is the standard X86 processor and mostly off the shelf graphics card. This could be an advantage for porting if Sony had opted for another custom processor of some sort but this time they're using not just an X86 processor but exactly the same type with the same number of cores. Plus these days most ports are consoles to PC's rather than the other way round.

I don't feel particularly excited about either console at the moment although I think that's mainly down to the laughably poor presentations from both companies, they were clearly desperate to beat other and ended up producing rushed presentations that didn't really show the potential of the consoles. If they'd down some proper games being played that really demonstrated what the consoles could do then that might have created more excitement, I was watching the Nurburgring 24 hour the other weekend with its incredible 175 car line up and thinking how much I'd like to see them use the increased performance available to replicate that sort of experience in a console. But no, we apparently get an in camera view of getting into a car and fastening the seatbelt..and accurately modelled carbon fibre flecks.

I have both a PS3 and 360 but tend to favour the 360 as I prefer its controller, Live and being able to rip all games to the hard drive. However I'm not that keen on the idea of mandatory Kinect nor was I at all fussed about the various multimedia features they were showing as my consoles are intended for gaming. The Azure computing is a concern as well as that means mandatory online gaming which I don't like at all, although I have a constant broadband connection Steam can be a pain in the neck when it's decided it doesn't want to authenticate or there's a brief outage on the connection. The consoles should have plenty performance without needing to rely on any outside system, I can't see the benefit to the consumer aside from to force an online connection.

My main gaming platform for a while now has been the PC, obviously the gap in performance between PC and the consoles is now at its biggest so games on the PC at 1440p obviously look very pretty. I've found over the last couple of years I've had far fewer bugs and driver issues which at one point were so bad drove me off the PC completely and I've been impressed with the now near standard support for the Xbox 360 control pad - not just default configuration but similar in game graphics and tool tips as you'd expect in a native Xbox 360 game. Steam and I have a rocky relationship but quite like their Big Picture mode which I started using once I found it you could access it by holding down the guide button on a controller, it works well the controller as you'd expect. The PC platform already suffers restrictive DRM which it looks like the consoles may follow but there's usually more opportunities to pick games up cheap particularly in the Steam sale so I don't mind the lack of a second hand market so much.

John

Wow

Good post. I kinda suspected the processors in the new consoles wouldnt impress the pc guys but having a standard platform that games are optimised for makes a big difference. When i played on pc it seemed they always optimised the latest game for a processor and gpu just above mine. It got very tedious. I agree though the kinect thing sounds a bit pants. I always felt kinect was fir kids but they seem determined to ram it down our throats.