The Xbox One - Mini Review & Comparison to Xbox 360/PS4
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 20, 2013 8:00 AM ESTImage Quality - Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4
This is the big one. We’ve already established that the PS4 has more GPU performance under the hood, but how does that delta manifest in games? My guess is we’re going to see two different situations. The first being what we have here today. For the most part I haven’t noticed huge differences in frame rate between Xbox One and PS4 versions of the same game, but I have noticed appreciable differences in resolution/AA. This could very well be the One’s ROP limitations coming into play. Quality per pixel seems roughly equivalent across consoles, the PS4 just has an easier time delivering more of those pixels.
The second situation could be one where an eager developer puts the PS4’s hardware to use and creates a game that doesn’t scale (exclusively) in resolution, but also in other aspects of image quality as well. My guess is the types of titles to fall into this second category will end up being PS4 exclusives (e.g. Uncharted 4) rather than something that’s cross-platform. There’s little motivation for a cross-platform developer to spend a substantial amount of time in optimizing for one console.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Let’s start out with Call of Duty: Ghosts. Here I’m going to focus on two scenes: what we’ve been calling internally Let the Dog Drive, and the aliasing test. Once again I wasn’t able to completely normalize black levels across both consoles in Ghosts for some reason.
In motion both consoles look pretty good. You really start to see the PS4’s resolution/AA advantages at the very end of the sequence though (PS4 image sample, Xbox One image sample). The difference between these two obviously isn’t as great as from the 360 to Xbox One, but there is a definite resolution advantage to the PS4. It’s even more obvious if you look at our aliasing test:
Image quality otherwise looks comparable between the two consoles.
NBA 2K14
NBA 2K14 is one cross platform title where I swear I could sense slight frame rate differences between the two consoles (during high quality replays) but it’s not something I managed to capture on video. Once again we find ourselves in a situation where there is a difference in resolution and/or AA levels between the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game.
Both versions look great. I’m not sure how much of this is the next-gen consoles since the last time I played an NBA 2K game was back when I was in college, but man have console basketball games significantly improved in their realism over the past decade. On a side note, NBA 2K14 does seem to make good use of the impulse triggers on the Xbox One’s controller.
Battlefield 4
I grabbed a couple of scenes from early on in Battlefield 4. Once again the differences here are almost entirely limited to the amount of aliasing in the scene as far as I can tell. The Xbox One version is definitely more distracting. In practice I notice the difference in resolution, but it’s never enough to force me to pick one platform over another. I’m personally more comfortable with the Xbox One’s controller than the PS4’s, which makes for an interesting set of tradeoffs.
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bill5 - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
It doesn't matter if you aren't concerned, the EPA is.Vote against Democrats if you dont like it.
Seriously from what i understand particularly regulations in the EU influenced these boxes, and I'm sure a power hog machine was out of the question due to the general climate of "green" propaganda nonsense.
A5 - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
The 360 got so hot it melted its own solder pads, despite sounding like a damn jet engine.There are plenty of engineering reasons to reduce power consumption.
JDG1980 - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
Exactly how will voting against Democrats in the US stop the European Union from imposing additional energy regulations?blitzninja - Saturday, November 23, 2013 - link
He sounds like he is either A. a retard or B. he is talking out of his ass or C. trolling. Either way, ignore him.The power consumption regulations are there for more than just "green". We currently have a problem of growing energy needs and where we're going to get that power form is a big question.
What people don't realize is that the power grid's infrastructure is designed with a peak load in mind and due to implementation and cost limitations you can't just "build more" as most Americans seem to think about it. 1 millions consoles sold at launch, think about that in terms of power consumption and remember, this legislation doesn't just apply to consoles.
Also, I don't understand why the whole "anti-green" view, I don't see how it's bad, even if you don't think global climate change is real (which it is btw, it's fact in every meaning of the word), do you really think dumping all that exhaust fumes in to the atmosphere is good for you or something? How would you like to weak a gas mask/air filter when you go outside? See whats happening in China right now (smog) because of the massive amounts of coal being burned.
tl;dr Power consumption affects more than "green" it affects infrastructure durability and limitations and a large upgrades are extremely costly and time consuming. So please do some research instead of trying to act like a 'smartass'. Also burning lost of fossil fuels can make you sick, see China smog issue.
blitzninja - Saturday, November 23, 2013 - link
Some typo corrections, typing on my phone:"...going to get that power from and how it's going to be transported are big questions."
"...Also, I don't understand the whole "anti-green" view,..." deleted 'why'
"...you like to wear a gas mask/air filter when you go outside?"
evonitzer - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
I think Anand is covering it more as a curiosity. High power PC's with much better capabilities consume similar amounts at idle, so a specifically designed piece of hardware should be optimized MUCH better. But it isn't, and neither is the PS4. Odd.Da W - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
My only issue is WHY Microsoft DID YOU KILL MEDIA CENTER and throw all your focus on the Xbox??? I would kill to have an HTPC with an HDMI-IN and voice command.althaz - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
If the XBox One had a tuner (or four) and more codec support, it would be an amazing media centre. As it is it's a bit inconsistent.A5 - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
Yeah. Not being able to do DVR stuff on the XBone makes it kind of a deal-killer.andrewaggb - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
I was genuinely surprised they didn't integrate a set top box+pvr in at least one sku of the one and market it to cable providers