Different from the release of PS4 and Xbox One seven years ago, both of them have now changed from the sales strategy of a single model to the introduction of models with different hardware configurations to meet the needs of different consumers. Faced with a series of different host models such as $499, $399, $299, CD-ROM version and digital version, I believe many new players have been puzzled.
In addition, Sony and Microsoft have many differences in game lineup, platform services, compatibility of old platforms, and operating policies, so it is more difficult to choose two generations of consoles in this generation. So this time we will analyze the hardware, game lineup, membership service, purchase recommendation and so on. I believe that both new and old players can have a further understanding after reading it.
Who is the strongest next-generation host on the surface?
Of course, performance is the first choice of hardware. Although there are obvious differences between Microsoft and Sony in hardware configuration stage, in terms of overall performance, at present, Microsoft's flagship model XSX is better than PS5, and it is a well-deserved next-generation host with the strongest performance.
On the CPU side, although both sides adopt 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU architecture, the paper performance is similar to that of Ruilong 3700x listed last year, but the highest working frequency of XSX is slightly better than that of PS5, and the gap is not too big.
In terms of GPU, Xbox series is the only next-generation host that supports the complete functions of RDNA 2 architecture.
Although AMD, the provider of GPU, has previously admitted that two GPUs also adopt RDNA 2.0 architecture, there is a big gap in customization. At the end of 10, when AMD announced RDNA 2 architecture graphics products, Microsoft immediately announced that Xbox Series X/S was the only host that fully supported RDNA 2 functions, including DXR ray tracing, grid shader, sampling feedback and variable rate coloring.
In other words, the GPU used by Sony PS5 can't fully support these functions, which is why Sony has always claimed that its GPU is "based on RDNA 2 architecture". At present, it is certain that PS5 will not support mesh shader, and instead, AMD will publish the primitive shader custom "geometry engine" in the previous generation RDNA architecture.
Of course, if you don't understand these characteristics, a simple paper example can still illustrate the basic problem-XSX's single-precision floating-point operation ability is 12TFlops per second, with 52 control units, while PS5 only has 10.3TFlops, with 36 control units.
Analysis: Is the 8K era really coming?
In addition, both companies claim to support the resolution of 4K or even 8K, and the maximum 120 frames. But the actual machine effect varies from game to game. XSX, which is currently on sale, has been tested, and backward-compatible modern games such as Wolf: Shadow Death Twice and Wizard 3 can reach a fluency level of about 60 frames at 4K resolution. Of course, the specific test will be given after getting the machine. The 8K resolution support of PS5 needs to be obtained through system update later.
Because ray tracing needs to consume a lot of functions, most games will choose to sacrifice the number of frames in order to be compatible with resolution and ray tracing effect on the next generation host. Take The Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition as an example. When ray tracing is turned on, two hosts can only maintain 30 frames with 4K resolution or 60 frames with 1080P resolution. But if you turn off ray tracing, you can run to 60 frames or 120 frames at 4K resolution.
It can be seen that the current next-generation host can not freely accommodate the three requirements of ray tracing, 4K or 8K high resolution and high frame number. Because of the cost and price, players still have to choose between them-after all, the most expensive XSX and PS5, the official price is only $499, which is much cheaper than high-performance PCs.
Storage: Is Sony's SSD really black technology?
In terms of data storage, both of them have been upgraded to 16GB GDDR6 high-speed memory. However, the memory of XSX is 320 bits wide and the asymmetric bandwidth is as high as 560 GB/s ... The memory of PS5 is 256 bits wide and 448GB/s wide.
Faced with the shortcomings of hard disks, the next generation of the two companies abandoned the slower mechanical hard disks and switched to the faster solid-state hard disks. In this part, there is a big gap between the two companies. Since its release, Sony has been emphasizing the performance of PS5 SSD.
XSX has built-in custom SSD with capacity of 1TB, usable capacity of 802GB and uncompressed transmission rate of 2.4 GB/s. With Microsoft's black technology quick recovery function, players can quickly open other games and switch between multiple games without interrupting the current game and maintaining the current game state. After testing, XSX can easily switch from No Man's Land 3 to my world: Dungeon in 10 seconds. Of course, this data will fluctuate from game to game, but it is still a very powerful function.
It should be noted that XSX does not provide a popular extension interface. Players can purchase Microsoft's official 1TB expansion card to increase the capacity of the host. However, this 1TB expansion card customized by Microsoft and Seagate costs as much as $220, which is expensive.
PS5 custom SSD has an amazing uncompressed rate of 5.5GB/s, which is more than twice that of XSX, greatly speeding up the game loading and reading time. Compared with Black Soul 3 on PS4, it takes 10 several 20 seconds to die once. In the future, players can come back as soon as they die after playing Ghost Remastered Edition, which is really gratifying. )。
However, the high speed of PS5 hard disk comes at a price, with a capacity of only 825GB and a usable capacity of only 665GB. In addition to the system occupation, it is expected that the available capacity of the real machine will be less. At the same time, this custom SSD is welded on the motherboard, which is difficult to disassemble and replace, and puts forward higher requirements for the yield and after-sales maintenance of the machine. However, Sony also provides PCIe 4.0 M.2 interface separately, which is convenient for players to purchase SSD expansion capacity by themselves, but it must meet the minimum performance level of PS5.
Previously, Gamespot tested the loading speed of the built-in solid state drives of two next-generation hosts. Surprisingly, although PS5 is supported by a large-throughput SSD, the overall loading speed is still slightly lower than XSX. Because it is testing this generation of games rather than the next generation of games, Sony has previously said that the first-party next-generation games will be specially optimized for this SSD and look forward to the follow-up performance.
The following is a list of the loading speeds of this generation of games that Gamespot has tested:
A handful of dollars 2
PS5 1:04
XSX 1:02
Final fantasy 15
PS5 1: 10
XSX 0:43
Destiny 2
PS5 1:37
XSX 1: 12
Monster hunter world
PS5 0:5 1
XSX 0:29
Batman: Arkham Knight
PS5 1:07:27
XSX 58:48
Compared with this generation of mainframe, both sides have obviously improved the loading speed. No matter which host they choose, the player's experience will be greatly improved. There is no need to sit in front of the monitor for a long time waiting to read the disc, and there is no need for those long tunnels connecting the checkpoint scenes to win the time of material loading.
Heat dissipation: a completely different solution
Powerful functions are inevitably accompanied by the problem of heat dissipation. The XSX side adopts compact vertical air duct cooling design, which has a compact appearance and can be placed vertically or sideways at will. In contrast, PS5 is equipped with liquid metal, which has excellent thermal conductivity, but machines with poor quality control may be scrapped due to leakage. In addition, the heat pipe radiator of PS5 takes up a lot of space, resulting in the volume of the whole machine reaching twice that of PS4 pro and 1.5 times that of XSX. Although the PS5 is huge in size and complex in shape, its side panels can be disassembled freely, and there will definitely be a bunch of magical shell changers in the future to make the mainframe look more attractive. Moreover, PS5 also has a very interesting design, that is, it specially provides a dust collection port for players to use a vacuum cleaner for daily dust removal, which can reduce the dust accumulation caused by long-term use of the host.
I believe many friends have experienced the terrible fan noise of their own PS4 or PS4 PRO when running the last game. One thing is certain, these two next-generation hosts will be quieter. According to the test of Digital Foundry, XSX runs quite quietly, and it doesn't even need to be tested separately with a noise meter. As for the heat dissipation temperature, the surface temperature of the machine is 48-49 degrees when running War Machine 5, and the performance is good.
Version: on-demand selection
It is worth mentioning that at the same time with XSX, Microsoft's lightweight next-generation host: Xbox Series S. Compared with XSX, the biggest feature of XSS is its small size and no optical drive. The on-board hard disk is reduced to 5 12G, and the floating-point computing ability of the graphics card is 1/3 of that of XSX, focusing on 2k resolution and high frame number, which is more suitable for players who do not pursue high resolution. According to the optimization and scale of the game, XSS can also turn on ray tracing in some games. For example, XSS supports ray tracing when running Watchdog: Legion, but it does not support it when running the Special Edition of Devil May Cry 5. This aspect depends on the specific game.
Sony's PS5 is also divided into standard version with Blu-ray drive and digital version without optical drive, but different from XSX and XSS, they are different in performance. The digital version and standard version of PS5 mainly depend on the existence of optical drive, as well as the difference in appearance and weight. Of course, if you buy the digital version, then you can only choose the digital version of the game in the future, and you will miss the second-hand recycling of the more popular physical disk in China. Please also pay attention.
Game lineup: the two poles of exclusive strategy and subscription system
After talking about hardware, let's take a look at the core driving force and game lineup of the host.
At present, both Sony and Microsoft have released their first games, and at the same time, they have clarified the problem that players are most concerned about too many games in the previous generation.
Enjoy sth to oneself
In the main exclusive game. Sony's first exclusive game was a remastered version of Soul of the Devil, and the players in the Soul series were haunted. In addition, Marvel comics Spider-Man: Miles Morales, The Adventure of Hemp Boy and Astro Boy's Game Room were the first exclusive games in PS5, and the original exclusive "Destroy All Stars" was postponed to 202 1.
In addition, several exclusive games, such as Return, GT Racing 7, Ares: Twilight of the Gods and Horizon 2: Forbidden Area in the West, are still under development, and the release date has not yet been announced. At the same time, Bethesda's Death Cycle and Ghost Line: Tokyo will also be monopolized for a period of time after the PS5 is capped.
Compared with Sony's firm monopoly, the "play anywhere" promoted by Microsoft in recent years is a multi-platform interoperability strategy. Phil Spencer, the boss of Xbox, once stressed that Microsoft's goal is that the games purchased by players can not only be played on Xbox Series X and Windows 10 PC, but also be extended to mobile devices with the rise of xCloud.
This means that exclusive Xbox games will also land on the PC at the same time, including Halo: Infinite (although it has been postponed), Brainstorming 2, Fable of Ghosts and Ghosts, forza motorsport, Corrupt Country 3, Obsidian's new work Avowed and When Dusk Comes, etc.
However, since Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's parent company, and its studio in September this year, the games produced by Bethesda and its studio in the future, such as The Elder Scrolls, Radiation and Doomsday Warrior, are likely to be monopolized on Xbox and Windows PC platforms or for a limited time, which is also a great impact on Sony's monopoly strategy. It depends on Microsoft's strategy.
downward compatibility
In addition to exclusive games, both consoles are compatible with the older generation of games. Microsoft's XSX will continue the previous XBOX ONE backward compatibility policy, that is, compatible with XBOX 360 and the original XBOX games, while providing stronger image quality upgrades. This means that players can have a huge lineup of four generations of games under one roof by purchasing only one host. For players who often want to be nostalgic, the selling point of XSX is well worth investing.
PS5 is compatible with 99% of PS4 games, and also provides a higher quality experience based on higher hardware configuration.
Subscription service: Microsoft's XGP is more fragrant
Finally, there is a decisive gap between Microsoft and Sony in subscription services.
Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service is affordable, and new players only need HK$ 65,438+00 (US$ 65,438+0) to try it out for one month. A normal purchase costs about one or two 3A a year, that is, you can enjoy hundreds of new and old selected games in the library. Not only will new games be added to XGP every month, but some exclusive Microsoft games and third-party games will be included as soon as they go online. In addition, XGP will get a 20% discount on games and a 10% discount on DLC9.
Xgp has included EA play to accommodate more games.
Not only that, after Microsoft recently acquired Bethesda, it confirmed to add Bethesda's games to XGP. In the future, heavy works of B-club such as The Elder Scrolls 6, Starry Sky and Radiation can be enjoyed at a low price in XGP subscription service, so it is not necessary to spend sixty or seventy yuan to buy them separately.
On the other hand, Sony has upgraded its traditional PlayStation Plus membership and provided a free game service called PlayStation Plus Collection. As long as you pay to become a member of PS Plus, you can play classic PS4 games on the PS5 console for free, without paying extra fees.
The games listed in PlayStation Plus Collection are as follows.
The first party:
Blood curse
The past no longer exists.
Detroit: Changing People
Fight for love
Notorious: the second son
Ricky and jingle bells
The Last Keepers
The last survivor remake
Straight on Till Morning
Mysterious ocean 4: the end of thieves
Third party:
Batman: Arkham Knight
Battlefield 1
Call of duty: black ops 3 zombie chronicle edition
The Crazy Trilogy of the Young and Dangerous Wolf
Radiation 4
Final Fantasy 15 Royal Edition
Monster Hunter: The World
"Live-action 10"
Unusual record of Goddess 5
Resident Evil 7
Major premise: how to buy a machine
Having said that, maybe everyone is facing a big problem, and they can't buy it or can't afford it.
Referring to the situation that the previous generation mainframe started at a big premium and one machine was hard to find, although we are ready to speculate on the starting price of the new machine, the actual situation is still very exaggerated.
PS5 was fired to nearly 10,000 yuan at a certain price.
The price of the less popular XSX has also reached about 6 thousand
In particular, there is no news of two national banks at present, and it is usually difficult to buy a new generation of hosts at low prices in mainstream e-commerce channels. In addition, it is really troublesome to buy meat abroad during the current epidemic. If there are no friends who just need to buy a machine, it is still recommended to wait and see for a while according to their actual situation.
Considering that in recent years, Microsoft began to push the policy of interoperability between XBOX console and Windows 10 PC, XGP subscription service is gradually covering Windows 10 PC, and more Microsoft games will be added to Windows 10 store in the future.
If you have a high-end computer at hand, you can consider buying XGP service on the PC side until the host price stabilizes.
Nowadays, the popularity of PS4 console is very high in the world, and new games coming out in the future will definitely not be absent from the PS4 platform. If you are a friend with a PS4 and want to change your mobile phone, you can wait a little. You can choose "Assassin's Creed: Hall of the Soul". This game can be upgraded to the next generation version for free, and it is not too late to wait until the price of PS5 comes down.