Later this year both Microsoft and Sony have announced their new consoles to release, Xbox Series X and Playstation 5. The wait has been long, almost 7 years since the last Xbox One and Playstation 4 was released.
They both announces the release at holiday season 2020.
Hardware
At first glance its seems the two consoles have the same specs, but with some minor differences. It looks like Xbox is winning the hardware war by an inch, but in real life, it’s hard to predict which one is going to be the best console.
The processors in both Xbox and Playstation will have an AMD Zen 2 core with 7-nanometer technology, but with different speed. The new Xbox will have 3,8 GHz while Nintendo has gone for 3,5 GHz, both with 8 cores.
AMD is also delivering the graphics cards for Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 and is position themself closer to the market leader Nvidia.
The Xbox is coming with a 12.0 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 and Playstation with 10.3 teraflop AMD RDNA 2. Both will support up to 8k resolution and 120 fps, but not at the same time.
Ray tracing is also implemented in both consoles and will give the games better graphics and realism.
Storage
Xbox Series X has gone for 1 TB custom NVMe SSD which is 175 GB more than the Playstation 5 that comes with 825 GB custom SSD.
The implementation of external drives is a bit different as the Xbox goes for a 1 GB external card which is inserted into the console. Playstation goes for a free choice variant as long as it has NVMe PCIe 4.0 and has the same speed or higher than the Playstation original drive.
The game loading times will be reduced to a minimum compared to the last consoles. It seemed like an eternity loading in a game before, now the time has come to finally change out the old drives with an SSD to make the wait less.
Xbox Series X vs PS5 Specs
Xbox Series X
Playstation 5
| Price | TBD | TBD |
| Release Date | Holiday 2020 | Holiday 2020 |
| Backwards Compatibility | All Xbox One games / Select Xbox 360 and original Xbox games | Almost all PS4 games, including optimized PS4 Pro titles |
| CPU | 8-core, 3.8 GHz AMD Zen 2 | 8-core 3.5 GHz AMD Zen 2 |
| GPU | 12.0 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 | 10.3 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 |
| RAM | 16 GB GDDR6 | 16 GB GDDR6 |
| Storage | 1 TB custom NVMe SSD | 825 GB custom SSD |
| Resolution | Up to 8K | Up to 8K |
| Frame Rate | Up to 120 fps | Up to 120 fps |
| Optical Disc Drive | 4K UHD Blu-ray | 4K UHD Blu-ray |
| Games | Halo Infinite, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 | Horizon II: Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7 |
Games
Both Microsoft and Sony have announced backward compatibility for their new consoles but it seems like Microsoft will have the better deal as they promise that all Xbox One games will be compatible with the new Xbox.
Don’t worry PlayStation fans, the new PS will have plenty of old games compatible as well.
Exclusive launch titles:
Xbox Series X
- Everwild
- Halo Infinite
- Hellblade 2
- Scorn
- The Medium
Playstation 5
- Astro’s Playroom
- Demon’s Souls
- Destruction All Stars
- Gran Turismo 7
- Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
- Returnal
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure
The wait is soon over and we are eager to finally try them out. Let’s hope they will be worth the money.
