In early November, Bill Gates pleased his fans with a new, TOP version of his game console. Project Scorpio promised users an unprecedented performance boost and true 4K resolution. The buzz about next-generation consoles, performance leaps and bounds has many gamers talking about the Xbox One x versus PS4 Pro battle. Engineers took full advantage of the architecture of this generation of consoles.
What does PS4 Pro have to offer?
The console was released on November 10, 2016. The main characteristics of the device have been improved. On board is the same AMD Jaguar, but with an increased frequency from 1.6 GHz to 2.1 GHz. The graphics module has also been improved, now it has 36 computing units, and the speed at which it operates has become 911 MHz.
The amount of graphics memory has also been increased compared to the previous version. Now the GDDR5 module has a capacity of 8 GB, and an additional 1 GB was allocated for video memory.
All of these improvements were made to try out 4K resolution in games. Unfortunately, this height was not overcome. To display a picture in 4K, several technologies are used, which are all included in the concept of upscaling. It’s like "scaling" the frame when we get the resolution we need, but with some reservations. For example, to form a part of the pixels in a certain area, information is taken from the buffer containing the previous frame and neighboring pixels.
Characteristics of the brainchild of Microsoft
The base and architecture of the two competing consoles is the same. During development, chips from AMD became the main components of the devices. The eight-core Jaguar processor is still the main computing component in both gaming devices. Performance has been greatly improved as Microsoft promised console fans unsurpassed performance. According to some indicators, the device from Bill Gates overtakes the Japanese by 4 times.
Watch the Xbox One X unboxing video and first comparison with the competition.
Polaris was chosen as the graphics chip, only the amount of memory was increased to as much as 12 GB. Therefore, after booting the system, there is about 8 GB left directly for games, which is equal to the entire amount of video memory on the PS4 Pro. The central processor was left without updates, Polaris received only an increase in the clock frequency, which became 2.3 GHz.
The old architecture is untwisted to its fullest, now the console has 40 blocks for building graphics on the screen, the frequency of which is 1172 MHz. True, for stability, two of these blocks are not involved in the calculation.
An excellent help was the increase in the capabilities of the ability of graphic memory to transmit information. Now this performance is enough to build a picture in 4K resolution. Thanks to the increase in the frequency of graphics memory and the use of GDDR5, it was possible to achieve data transfer at a speed of 324 GB per second.
Why Xbox One X?
To sum it up, Microsoft has taken over Sony by unlocking the full potential of this generation’s initial console architecture. Especially important is the additional increase in memory, this was the Achilles’ heel of the last release of the console. In the Xbox One X vs Xbox One dispute, the Enhanced Edition is the undisputed winner. X is stronger in almost all positions, but unfortunately, it did not become a breakthrough. All the tricks that the Xbox X engineers used to display the claimed "fair UHD" resolution in games are not enough.
On the other hand, the PC game and component market is also not ready for 4K resolution. All problems are related to the high cost of monitors and sets of cards. For the latest GTX 1080 alone, pulling the highest graphics settings at this resolution is a challenge. Testers report low FPS. Crypto fever has swept the computer components market, miners are buying out the entire top line. In their hands, these devices quickly exhaust their resource and are exhibited at flea markets at bargain prices. Trying to buy the latest GTX or R480 may end up with a non-working board. Mining is killing video processors, and the price of new products and top boards has skyrocketed.
The cost of the console from Microsoft is incomparable with the High offers in the PC market. Only $500 is required to pay to be able to play in UHD resolution. The cost of the set-top box must include a decent TV with support for this resolution. Games for this device are not so expensive, besides, special offers on the general network will help, with access to all currently popular games (subscription).
Bill Gates had a whole year to fix and increase the performance of the set-top box. After all, PS4 Pro came out earlier than the new Xbox One X. Indeed, it was possible to increase performance compared to the Japanese, but the availability of exclusive games is still not enough to fully compete with the PS series. When comparing the graphics of an Xbox One x or PS4 Pro, analysts and gamers alike give the benefits of the new console. However, they also point to the lack of a coherent gaming policy. Sony is investing a lot in this direction, Naughty Dog is completely free in his work, because he can take resources from the entire segment of the console market owned by Sony. This approach allows you to periodically delight fans with such masterpieces as Last of Us, the same Uncharted series.
Consoles now allow you to choose at what FPS and with what quality the game will be played. For example, you can choose 4K and 60fps with reduced effects, or 30fps+, but almost all effects are preserved. Upscaling is inherent in both Sony and Microsoft, it just depends heavily on the capabilities of the consoles, weaker hardware requires more sacrifices in the graphic part.