The Xbox One - Mini Review & Comparison to Xbox 360/PS4
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 20, 2013 8:00 AM ESTImage Quality - Xbox 360 vs. Xbox One
Before I get to the PS4 comparison, I wanted to start with some videos showcasing the improvement you can expect from launch day titles that are available on both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. I turned to Call of Duty: Ghosts for this comparison as it’s broadly available on all platforms I’m comparing today.
Note that cross platform launch titles, particularly those available on previous generation consoles, end up being the worst examples of what’s possible on a next-generation platform. For the most part they’re optimized for the platform with the larger installed base (i.e. prior-gen hardware), and the visual uplift on new hardware isn’t as much as it could be. I’d say my subjective experience in playing a lot of the launch titles on Xbox One and PS4 mirrors this sentiment. Basic things like not having accurate/realistic cloth physics in games like CoD: Ghosts just screams port and not something that was designed specifically for these next gen systems. Just as we’ve seen in prior generations, it’s likely going to be a good 12 - 24 months before we see great examples of games on this new generation of hardware.
Now that I’ve adequately explained why this is a bad comparison, let’s get to the comparison. I’ve captured HDMI output on both consoles. They were both set to full range (0-255), however I had issues with the Xbox One respecting this setting for some reason. That combined with differences across Ghosts on both platforms left me with black levels that don’t seem equalized between the platforms. If you can ignore that, we can get to the comparison at hand.
All of these videos are encoded at 4K, with two 1080p captures placed side by side. Be sure to select the highest quality playback option YouTube offers.
The first scene is the intro to Ghosts. Here you can see clear differences in lighting, details in the characters, as well as some basic resolution/AA differences as well (Xbox 360 image sample, Xbox One image sample).
The second scene is best described as Call of Duty meets Gravity. Here the scene is going by pretty quickly so you’re going to have to pause the video to get a good feel for any differences in the platforms. What’s most apparent here though is the fact that many present day users can likely get by sticking with older hardware due to the lack of titles that are truly optimized for the Xbox One/PS4.
Now getting to scenes more representative of actual gameplay, we have Riley riding around wanting badly to drive the military vehicle. Here the differences are huge. The Xbox One features more realistic lighting, you can see texture in Riley’s fur, shadows are more detailed and there seems to be a resolution/AA advantage as well. What’s funny is that although the Xbox One appears to have a resolution advantage, the 360 appears to have less aliasing as everything is just so blurry.
Speaking of aliasing, we have our final IQ test which is really the perfect test case for high resolution/AA. Once again we see a completely different scene comparing the Xbox One to Xbox 360. Completely different lighting, much more detail in the environments as well as objects on the ground. The 360 version of Ghosts is just significantly more blurry than what you get on the One, which unfortunately makes aliasing stand out even more on the One.
Even though it’ll be a little while before we get truly optimzed next-gen titles, there’s an appreciable improvement on those games we have today for anyone upgrading from an older console. The difference may be more subtle than in previous generations, but it’s there.
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JDG1980 - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
So, based on the numbers shown here, it looks like the PS4's GPU is roughly on par with a Radeon HD 7850 (more shaders, but slightly lower clock). Meanwhile, the XB1's GPU is considerably weaker, with performance falling somewhere between a 7770 and 7790. Considering that this is a game console we're talking about (notwithstanding Microsoft's attempt to position it as a do-everything set-top box), that's going to hurt the XB1 a lot.I just don't see any real advantage to the *consumer* in Microsoft's design decisions here, regardless of supply chain considerations, and I think Anandtech should have been more pro-active in calling them out on this.
mikeisfly - Thursday, November 21, 2013 - link
The right question to ask is can both cards do 1080p gaming. Remeber these aren't PC where people are running games at much higher resolutions than 1920x180 on multiple monitors.douglord - Thursday, November 21, 2013 - link
Take a 7850 and 7770 and put them next to each other with FOR locked to 60 fps. Sit back 6 feet and play a fps. Tell me which is which. Maybe a 5% difference in visual fidelity.Revdarian - Sunday, November 24, 2013 - link
Lol no, by the way, what will you do if a game is heavy enough to run at 720p 30 on the ps4, at which resolution will you run it on the xb1?... yeap, it will be notoriously different.jeffrey - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
With the PS4 offering-up such a more powerful system, the arguement turned to Xbox One's eSRAM and "cloud power" to equalize things. Even with Microsoft boosting clocks, the Xbox One simply does not deliver game play graphics the way the PS4 has now been demonstrated to do.The PS4 graphics look much better. In COD Ghosts it almost looks like the PS4 is a half-generation ahead of the Xbox One. This actually makes sense with the the PS4 offering 50% more GPU cores and 100% more ROPs.
Considering the PS4 is $100 cheaper and with the bundled Kinect being a non-starter, the decision seems easy.
The troubling piece is that both systems are dropping featues that previous gen systems had, like Blu-ray 3D.
bill5 - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
heh, half generation? Do you have visual problems?Looking at all the Anand evidence, pics and yt's, you're quibbling over a 1% visual difference, seriously. It's shocking how little difference there is in COD for example, and that's a full 720 vs 1080 split! I expect in the future Xone will close that gap to 900 vs 1080 and the like.
I would say even the average *gamer* wont be able to tell much difference, let alone your mom.
Hell, half the time it's hard to spot much different between "current" and "next" gen versions at a glance, let alone between the PS4/Xone versions.
I'd say that, sad as it is, MS won that war. Their box will be perceived as "good enough". I've already seen reviews today touting Forza 5 as the best looking next gen title on any console, and the like.
All you really need is ports. Mult plat devs are already showing all effects and textures will be the same, the only difference might be resolution (even then games like NFS Rivals and NBA 2K are 1080P on Xone).
Then you'll get to exclusives, where PS4 could stretch it's lead if it has one. However these are the vast vast minority of games (and even then I'd argue early exclusives prove nothing)
I hate what Ms did going low power, it was stupid. But they'll probably get away with it because, Sony.
Philthelegend - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
You trolling?You are the visually impaired if you don't see the difference! Just look at the screenshots and if you have a low resolution screen zoom them in and see the difference. The difference is like playing a game on very high settings(ps4) to medium(xbone) on PC.
"MS won that war. Their box will be perceived as "good enough"." hehehehe you're an obvious troll or a blind fanboy, no one says that the loser won a battle because he was good enough
You say the Forza 5 is the best looking next gen title, then you go on talking about ps4 exclusives prove nothing?
The actual graphics are not the top priority, xbone could have the same graphics as the ps4 but the most important thing is to keep the framerates above and atleast 60 at all times.
TEAMSWITCHER - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
You and I must have watched the different videos. There is a pronounced "Shimmering" effect on the Xbox One - caused by weaker anti-aliasing. It's far more distracting than a mere 1%. In every video the PS4 image looks more solid and consistent. I'm less than an average Gamer and I can see the difference immediately.Microsoft simply didn't "Bring It" this time and when your in a tough competitive situation like game consoles you really can't afford not to. I really don't want to buy a "Good Enough" console. Thank you, but no thanks.
Hubb1e - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
I really didn't see much difference between the two. If I tried really hard I could see some more detail in the PS4 and it had a little less "shimmering" effect. In actual use on a standard 50" TV sitting the normal 8-10 feet away I doubt there will be much difference. Shit, most people don't even realize their TV is set to stretch 4:3 content and they have it set to torch mode because the "colors pop" better. It's probably going to come down to price and Kinect and in this case an extra $100 is a lot of extra money to pay. $449 would have a better a better price, but we'll see since there is plenty of time for MS to lower prices for their console after first adopters have paid the premium price.Kurge - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
Fail. All of that has more to do with the developers than the hardware.