Former Sony Game Designer: Difference in Xbox Series X and PS5 Power is 'Quite Staggering' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 06 October 2020 / 8,040 Views
Last week Microsoft and Sony revealed the specs for their next generation consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. The Xbox Series X edges out the PS5 when it comes to CPU and GPU, however, the PS5 has a faster SSD.
Former Sony game designer Chris Grannell via Twitter said "power difference is quite staggering" between the two consoles, however, that power isn't everything when it comes to the consoles. He previously worked on Killzone 2, Wipeout, and F1.
"I’ve chatted to a few devs and they have confirmed the power difference is quite staggering," said Grannell. "However they have said it doesn’t mean you can’t make good games on the PS5. These fanboys clearly don’t care about that and are massively rattled."
The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 will launch in Holiday 2020.
You can read our breakdown of the specs for the two consoles here.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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If people just wanted a powerful console, nobody would buy nintendo's consoles.
@Jweincom If the Nintendo's first party output is what made the console sell so well then every Nintendo console would sell that well. It has nothing to do with nintendos first party output and everything to do with the switch itself. I bought a switch and it had nothing to do with Nintendo games in fact not even a huge fan of the Nintendos IP's they aren't my cup of tea to many kiddie games IMO. It was the option to go from console to mobile on the fly.
@Method114 No, first party output wouldn't ensure every Nintendo's consoles sold the same. First of all, because I never said that first party software is the only factor in success. Obviously, the Switch's hybrid factor was more appealing to gamers than the 3DS' glasses free 3D was (yeah Wii U's the more obvious example, but it's enough of a punching bag).
More importantly though, the software output isn't the same across generations either in quantity or quality. So sales are going to fluctuate, partially based on that.
Regardless of your personal taste in games though, 19 out of the 20 best selling Switch games are published by Nintendo, and the only one that isn't is Mario/Rabbids. Seems like Nintendo's first party exclusive games are a huge factor to the Switch's success. In contrast only 5 of the PS4's top 20 are exclusives, and 4 for XBox One. So, for those consoles which are selling based on third party games, power's going to be a much more significant factor.
Developers said PS5 is so weak that it must be portable like Switch.
Can we just accept that on paper, XSX is more powerful? That's what I see most people arguing about and it's not necessarily an argument. These are both insanely powerful home consoles be happy with whatever your choice is and enjoy the games that come to it. Why is this still a thing in 2020? Acting like kids on the playground during the 16 bit era, Christ.
Ikr.
I think most were expecting 12Tflops vs 9.3, with Series X being more expensive. But after the whole SSD talk, I'm not sure anymore. Is it just marketing BS or is it really going to be a game changer? Sony build their whole console around it, so they seem to be pretty confident that it is. Who knows, but until we see the games it's apples and oranges at this time.
So is it just edged out or quite staggering.
Differnce between the XB1 and PS4 (base models) was around 41%. Back then alot of Xbox userse, were saying it didnt matter much, and you couldnt tell the differnce in resolutions. Differnce between Playstation 5 and Xbox series X, are TINY compaired to that of base PS4 vs XB1 this gen.
From what I've heard it's a pretty big difference. Disappointing but the PS5 is still very powerful. I think this is the first gen though where I don't care about graphics that much I care more about FPS. I was just playing Days Gone yesterday and it looks amazing I don't really need more than this.
To piggyback off of shikamaru317's reply, there are a few other things to consider as well. Ray-tracing will, by and large, likely be better on Series X. This is due to AMD's ray-tracing acceleration solution, as it is CU dependent and the Series X has over 40% of the CU's that PS5 has.
There is also speculation about "dedicated Ray-tracing hardware" vs "hardware accelerated" as Cerny never confirmed it and MS did, but this could be chalked up to just semantics tbh.
Also, something to note, the power difference between PS4 and Xbox One was only 40% on the GPU side. The Xbox One had a faster CPU, but was really hindered by the RAM it used. It did have more available RAM to use for games, and really working with the ESRAM makes the difference between PS4 and Xbox One negligible, but it has to be very optimized and that can be an issue.
It is staggering that it just edge out despise the number indicating the gap should be bigger =p
So a 40% difference this gen didn't mean anything to some. Now, all of a sudden a 18% difference is massive to those same people?
It doesn’t mean anything to casuals. People like us know the difference
Just wanna add if you referring to base Xbox one vs PS4....everybody noticed. Xbox fans just tried to downplay it. Just like Sony fans now. Console war never changes
It is more 30% tho... Not sure why you use that 18% number when it is explained everywhere that the 18/20% is only in very specific circumstance that will most like not be the case for the majority of the time (boost mode in short).
But I agree with you anyway, like someone else said, I believe people did the same when the Xbox One vs Play Station Four specs were out there... I think it does not really matter at the end if you want to play on one system, as long as the games are coming on it and are good enough :) Or playable.
And I'm not arguing about that :)
Yes, the Xbox One versus Play Station Four difference was bigger and yes people were probably downplaying it like crazy when this came out.
But my point is that there is still a difference between this "18%" in boost mode and what will really the difference in reality which should be up to 30% but very likely in between the two... Won't you agree?
It does not change the fact that both consoles are going to good enough at the end or that the Play Station Five will still be as successful as the Play Station Four and probably market lead. But the difference between the two is more than what some are implying.
By "not arguing", I'm talking about your last comment which is to say that the Play Station Four vs Xbox One difference was bigger. I never said anything about it or even implied it was not :)
But you are right that I am arguing about the 18% number which is based on numbers you will get (from the GPU standpoint at least) by running at overclocked speed (to simplify it) which is very unlikely to be the case for the majority of the time. Even you are coming up with something higher. Yes, at the end, it won't make a difference at all on the overall game quality etc, but the difference is there and then it is purely subjective of how "staggering" or "not significant" or whatever adjective we want to use. This will still be a visible difference in some case imo.
I still do not understand how you made it to moderator with that kind of response you just gave me (as always, you seem to have some issues with me anyway). You are arguing/replying as much as anyone but just always ended up talks like you are some sort of entitled or know better or your opinion is right and definitive. Whatever, those are not theoretical numbers but if you want to force people not to talk about it, then let's not. Enjoy the rest of your day
See, that's the point. We are talking about NUMBERS... not gameplay or quality of games or anything; this will come and I'm 100% sure like the Xbox One today compared to the Play Station Four, games will be looking as similar. But there is no such thing as "theoretical" in that case. We know, for sure, what are the numbers, the specs, the speed, the CUs, There is nothing really secret or magical about it etc... Everything is out there. So why is it wrong to point that out? How I am the one offtopic when you talk about exclusive and gameplay... my reply and this whole discussion is about that.. The 40% (old gen) vs 18% (new gen) claim the OP did (comment).
Fine.
And here iam playing on my ps2..
This mean a cheaper PS5 at launch and a PS5 Pro mid-gen upgrade.
so wait for PS5 pro?
Good, people should wait for Pro then
How is the difference "quite staggering" when a tech analysis has yet to emerge to confirm the alleged huge gap? If it is as clear as day as he thinks it is it wouldn't be hard to unravel. PS4 40% more power, the X1X 30%, now down to under 20% with unconventional hardware configuration. I doubt there will be much of a difference in graphics and FPS.
The difference is going to be similar to xb X and ps4 pro. Insignificant.
I think this is a bit more complex than just a TF number. If you compare PS4Pro and One X actual games tech analysis in Digital Foundry (despite the fact that DF is leaning on MS because they get exclusivity pre reviews), the the story goes like this: X has higher resolution but has issues with frame rates, and PS4Pro has lower resolution but hits the framerate target well. Like the DOOM review just recently, and I must hand it to John that he concluded the PS4Pro to be his choice. On the paper is not the same as in practise.
Just wait until you see the difference in price...
On paper the specs look similar to me. We will have to wait and see the games analyzed to confirm if there truly is a significant difference.
One Developer ??? but you forget that many developer said the opposites especially EX - Crytek programer and other third party developer also said it's not big and not different at all. And also Tim DOg is SONY hatters and should be ban from social media and Internet.
lol
They are quite staggering in terms of spec differences so 3rd party games will have differences even though many claim them to look identical.
Power all depends on how its used. Ryse and The Order are two games that showed power isnt everything.
Seems quite different than the reports of other devs, and for this case in special he is using hearsay instead of first hand experience.
If power was the only selling point, why is PS4 still the only console in history to outsell it’s direct competitor(s) with a power advantage? I mean, a few months ago a 6 TFLOP console was considered an absolute beast; now a 10.3 TFLOP console (with all its other advantages) is being regarded as “weak”. By what standard, dare I ask?
Well, they will need to have the slightly more powerfull box as no 3rd party will spend time optimizing for a dead system. Amiright? :-D Il show myself out :-(
Is this the first developer comment we've seen that wasn't coordinated with Sony's reveal conference? Or have there been others?
Yes let's make blanket accusations to all devs that have talk good about PS5, they must be bought, this one enlighted one since he talked bad is credible.
Several devs were already giving impressions before the presentation. And from what is written as former employee and not even developing any games on PS5 "he heard some devs saying...."
And he didn't give a single name of these allegeadly devs that think the difference is staggering.
Interesting a former Sony dev said this. Someone who isn’t bound by bias to prop up their corporation.
But he’s true, games will still be amazing. But all this damage control is becoming less interesting by the day and is now just a little sad they can’t let it go.
Your basis for no bias is he being ex-Sony? He could very well hate Sony ever since he left or even while there and working just for the money.
Yup just like they can make good games on the XSX
