The prelude to the launch of a new console generation is always one of the most exciting parts of being a video game enthusiast. New hardware generations always bring massive advancements in visual fidelity and immersion, as well as new gameplay possibilities. Both Microsoft and Sony are expected to launch their ninth-generation console sometime near the end of this year and both companies have now begun offering official statements on the technical specifications of these new machines. Every console manufacturer likes to brag that it will offer the most advanced product on the market, but history has shown us that having the most horsepower under the hood is no guarantee of success, otherwise, the Nintendo Wii would not be the clear winner of the seventh console generation with over 100 million units sold.

Much like the eighth-generation consoles, the Xbox Series X and PS5 will make use of hardware that is very similar in design, each with their own custom tweaks to processor operating speeds, thermal management, and development software interfaces. The Xbox One and PS4 made use of AMD APUs based on its Jaguar core architecture. These chips were originally designed for low-power operation, leading to a smaller generational leap in power over the preceding Xbox 360 and PS3, but developers still managed to get fantastic results from game software. This time around, both Sony and Microsoft are shooting for the stars, with each company planning massively powerful boxes capable of a visual fidelity leap that could be as significant as we saw during the birth of 3D games.

Xbox Series X and PS5: What’s inside the box?

When Microsoft and Sony designed the eighth-generation consoles, a shift to the x86 computer architecture was made. This type of architecture has been the standard in PCs for more than 30 years and was largely the result of each company using a customized version of AMD’s Jaguar APU chips. For the ninth generation, AMD has once again been tapped to provide CPU and graphics power for the consoles, but this time around, the company’s newest Ryzen CPU design and RDNA 2 GPU design will be handling the heavy lifting. 

Unlike the old Jaguar APU, these chips are built with cutting-edge performance as the primary motivator over cost and power savings. They also use x86 architecture, which will make backward compatibility much easier for software developers. Microsoft has already committed to making backward compatibility one of the core pillars of the Xbox Series X experience. While Sony has not spoken at length about their own backward compatibility plans, it is expected that lots of the PS4 library will work well with the PS5 hardware.

Microsoft Xbox Series X specs

Here’s a detailed look at the basic specs on the Xbox Series X.

Sony PS5 specs

Now, use the table below to compare it to the basic specs of the PlayStation 5.

What do the differences in CPU and GPU frequencies mean?

When Microsoft took the wraps off the Xbox Series X last week, they made a specific point to hammer home the fact that the new console would operate at a fixed frequency on both the CPU and GPU. This is typically how most console hardware has operated in the past, so the extra focus seemed a bit odd at the time. After the Sony PS5 presentation from Mark Cerny on March 18, the Microsoft sales presentation made much more sense. 

While the PS5 essentially uses the same CPU as the Xbox Series X, Sony indicated that the chip would run at variable frequencies that will be regulated by the console itself and are directly tied into total system power use. The PS5 GPU will also have a variable frequency operation, with the ability to run at a higher frequency than the Xbox Series X in certain situations and as long as the console did not exceed its defined power limit. This will allow the PS5’s GPU to compete with the Series X GPU despite having sixteen less compute units. 

Compute units in the GPU are analogous to CPU cores and contain shader processors and other components that do the heavy lifting on the graphics side of things. All other things being equal, a console with more compute units would be faster, so the PS5’s GPU splits the difference by having its compute units potentially run much faster than the Series X. 

As mentioned above, variable frequencies are not exactly the norm for console hardware, as one of a console’s touted benefits over non-fixed platforms like PC is that developers will know exactly what hardware is on-hand and at what speeds it will be operating. Variable frequency CPUs and GPUs are common in the PC world and are often directly regulated by thermal limits. This is where terms like CPU and GPU boost come from. Sony says that the PS5 will dynamically alter CPU and GPU frequency on-the-fly without the need for developer worry, but this approach could possibly introduce additional complexity to the development process versus the Xbox Series X. It is not surprising that Microsoft made it a point to boast about its fixed frequencies as a potential easing of pain for studios.

Ultimately, the Series X and PS5 still share the same basic CPU and GPU architecture, so there will likely be minimal differences in power available to developers when it comes to multiplatform games. Like every console generation, first-party studios always seem to wrangle every last drop of juice out of the hardware’s respective designs, so it would not be surprising to see Naughty Dog or Insomniac obtain gains with the variable frequencies of the PS5 that multi-platform development teams are unable to realize.

NVMe storage: Microsoft and Sony bet the farm on super-fast drives

Anyone who has been following the official ninth-generation console reveals will have noticed the heavy focus on the storage technology from both Sony and Microsoft. While solid-state drives (SSDs) have been common for PCs for more than a decade now, console users have yet to experience the benefits provided by the impressive leap in performance that such storage technology offers over the conventional spinning drives found in the last two generations of consoles. While load time improvement is the obvious benefit, the speedy new storage solutions for the PS5 and Xbox Series X are potentially capable of ushering in new types of gameplay or presentation that would have been impossible to realize on conventional spinning disks.

The PS4 and Xbox One each launched with conventional hard drives that made use of magnetic spinning platters. These drives are still widely used in PCs, DVRs, and other applications for a variety of reasons, cost per gigabyte being chief among those. Designing new consoles always requires a series of compromises to meet performance, thermal, and cost targets. While newer, solid-state solutions were on the market at the time the PS4 and Xbox One were being designed, the additional cost of SSDs eventually outweighed the potential benefit to developers and gamers. As Sony realized with the launch of the PS3, getting the general public to buy a console that costs more than $500 is tough and became one of the big reasons Microsoft’s Xbox 360 amassed such a dedicated player base.

Fast forward to 2020 and the technology behind SSDs has continued to evolve while overall prices have come down. A few years back, a new type of storage interface hit the PC market. Known as NVMe, this interface allowed for even more bandwidth and faster transfer speeds between drives and PCs. Most of these drives connect to the CPU via PCI-E slots or new m.2 slots on motherboards, as the previous SATA interface (which was used on the PS4 and Xbox One) was not capable of handling the speed of the newer drive technology.

Both the Xbox Series X and PS5 will be launching with NVMe SSDs. Unlike the previous generation, which used an older SATA interface (the primary reason that adding an SSD to the PS4 did not dramatically improve load times), these new consoles are being designed with the future in mind. The storage interfaces on these new machines are as capable or better than what is currently on the market for PCs and this will allow game developers to push the medium in ways never before seen.

This is not just a massive improvement in load times (though early tests using PS4/Xbox One games have shown improvements of 400-500% in loading time), but will also drastically improve suspend/resume functions on the consoles. While game suspension has been possible since the last generation (and on Nintendo Switch), the new consoles are capable of suspending multiple titles at once, with even faster resume speeds.

Anyone who has used a PC with a conventional spinning drive and then upgraded to SSD can tell you how much better the entire experience of using the machine is — not just game or operating system loading times. Apps are smoother, web browsing becomes exponentially more snappy, and swapping between tasks is a breeze. The ninth-generation consoles will have new operating systems that are built from the ground up with these super-speed NVMe drives in mind. Using front-end functions, video streaming apps, messaging, voice chat, and more will all be faster and potentially improved in ways we haven’t thought of.

For games, near-instant access to files stored on the NVMe drives will allow for bigger, more detailed worlds with imperceptible loading times and with no texture pop-in. Both Sony and Microsoft have new software that allows massive amounts of data to move between the drives and system components with little overhead. Previous console designs required additional CPU power as storage bandwidth and transfer needs increased. As the new consoles will be moving exponentially more data than in the past, older interfaces would eat up precious CPU power that would be better spent on things like A.I. or sound processing. On the Xbox Series X, DirectStorage, a new addition to the DirectX API that works as a middleman between software and hardware, allows for next-generation bandwidth and data transfer with little to no CPU overhead, freeing up as many as two of the Zen CPU cores for other tasks.

Sony’s storage solution for the PS5 promises to take things even further thanks to fully-custom storage hardware that can theoretically move data at twice the rate of the Xbox Series X. It was mentioned during the PS5 reveal that the console can load 2GB of data from the drive to system memory in a quarter of a second. Both consoles have such fast storage that developers will likely be able to use some of the available space as if it were additional system memory. While both consoles will ship with 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, these custom NVMe solutions can potentially give developers even more headroom to address additional tasks and workloads that might have otherwise been put on the chopping block due to conventional memory restraints.

Both companies have committed to supporting adding storage add-ons for the new consoles. This is a good thing as game installation sizes are rapidly exceeding 100GB in size for AAA titles full of 4K (or higher) resolution textures and high-res sound. Microsoft will be selling proprietary 1TB expansion cards for the Xbox Series X to facilitate the installation of more games and software. Sony’s approach is slightly different but is also just as likely to be pricey. The PS5 will have an industry-standard m.2 port for its NVMe expansion, though the built-in storage of the console is so fast that m.2 drives fast enough to work with the console have not yet hit the consumer market. The potential expansion drives will require a PCI-E 4.0 interface at a bare minimum and, as of this writing, only AMD’s newest X570 motherboards even have limited support for it in the PC space.

HDMI 2.1 and bringing high-end PC tech to your living room

Virtually all consumer media devices connect to displays or other devices using the HDMI interface. It allows for both video and sound data transfer over a single cable and helps content producers add copy protection to their content. While the physical cable connector has not changed since its inception, the capabilities of the interface have been updated several times over the last fifteen years. Nearly a decade ago, HDMI 2.0 was introduced, allowing for the first 4K video signals and technologies like ARC, which let audio be sent both ways on the cable between displays and soundbars or surround receivers.

Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will ship with full compatibility for the HDMI 2.1 specification. What does this mean for gamers? These machines will have the ability to output 4K video at high refresh rates (up to 144Hz). Previously, this was impossible due to the lack of a cable specification that could handle the high amount of bandwidth required and the lack of capable displays. 120Hz and 144Hz gaming is incredible, but has mainly been limited to PC gaming and has only been possible at lower resolutions like 1080p and 1440p. If developers choose, the new consoles can potentially offer 120Hz gameplay for consumers who have compatible displays, allowing for smoother motion, better image quality, and lower input for more responsive controls.

HDMI 2.1 also incorporates support for variable refresh rates (or VRR). Technologies like G-Sync and FreeSync have received much-deserved accolades in the PC gaming world and are the most commonly-known forms of variable refresh rate implementation. When both a console (or PC) and display support VRR, the display can dynamically change its refresh rate to match the source output. When a 60Hz display drops down to 54Hz at the same exact time a PC does, the visual result is virtually identical to a smooth 60Hz output. 

On a fixed-refresh display, variable frame rates or performance hiccups can introduce screen tearing and stuttering, which negatively affects the experience. Most developers will lock their games down to 30Hz to prevent stutters and tearing, even if the console is capable of producing 45-50 frames per second. VRR opens the door to better gaming experiences with higher frame rates. Many new televisions, including all of LG’s 2019-2020 OLED models and much of Samsung’s 2019-2020 lineup support VRR over HDMI 2.1.

While it was first introduced in the middle of the current console generation, HDR output will continue to be a big deal for gamers. It allows for more colors and more shades of grey in addition to offering brighter highlights and revealing details in sark areas. Depending on the game, it can have a transformative effect on the visual presentation. In some titles, it is used to simply brighten highlights and, in others, it can give characters and environments a lifelike appearance. HDMI 2.1 offers full support for the various HDR standards and allows for its implementation at the highest resolutions and refresh rates. HDR output makes use of 10-bit color, as opposed to the 8-bit output of regular content, thus requiring more bandwidth from the cable. HDMI 2.1 is up to the task and will help facilitate 4K/120Hz gaming with HDR color and variable refresh rates.

While this has not been an exhaustive look at everything the new consoles are bringing to the table for the ninth generation, it does cover some of the most important. These developers have not had access to this much power before. Not only are Sony and Microsoft putting out beefy hardware onto the market, but they are also ensuring that the new consoles have robust, efficient tools for development. Problem areas from the current generation hardware are being addressed directly and barriers to creativity are being removed where possible. 

It would be fair to say that I am extremely excited to see what the world’s best developers can wring out of these new machines. I have not been this optimistic over new console hardware since the days of the Dreamcast and PS2. We have been in a golden era of gaming over the course of the current generation and the best may be yet to come, microtransactions and card packs aside. What do you think of the new console specs? Have you already sided with the PS5 or Xbox Series X? Are there additions you feel the design teams missed out on? Hit us up in the comments and keep it tuned to Shacknews for more coverage as we inch closer to the launch of the ninth generation.

Source: https://www.shacknews.com/article/117185/ps5-vs-xbox-series-x-specs-and-comparisons-guide