Next-gen Silicon Rumble: PS4 'Orbis' v Xbox 720 'Durango'

[outRider]

So, apparently enough details about both have emerged to give a decent picture and make some comparisons. Eurogamer has a couple of write ups on both, with the PS4 info being more extensive and better vetted than the Xbox info. Yes there are threads here for each, but this is more about comparing them in one place rather than filling one or both threads with hardware talk that not everyone cares about.

• Orbis unmasked: what to expect from the next-gen PlayStation
• Next-gen Xbox specs leak
• AMD’s next-gen Bobcat APU could win big in notebooks and tablets – if it launches on time
• AMD's Graphics Core Next Preview: AMD's New GPU, Architected For Compute

	PS4 "Orbis"	Xbox 720 "Durango"	Comments
CPU:	AMD Jaguar-derived, 8 core, 1.6Ghz	AMD (probably Jaguar-derived), 8 core, 1.6Ghz	Looks like a wash. I will say I'm surprised both moved away from PPC, and both moved to x86, and both went with AMD rather than Intel. I can only guess that AMD bent over backwards to get these deals. AMD has been behind both Intel on the CPU front and Nvidia on the GPU front, but they do have an advantage over all of them: they're the only ones that can provide a (potentially) competitive, balanced CPU/GPU combo, especially on a single chip. Last I heard AMD's last APU (CPU/GPU combo) Bobcat, had a pretty poor CPU, so Jaguar better be much better if they're gonna realize that potential. And I guess no one was biting on Intel's very lopsided CPU/GPU combos, especially since game consoles tend to favour stronger graphics hardware over CPUs and Intel's GPUs are a generation or two behind.
GPU:	AMD (possibly 7970M-based), 18 core, 800Mhz, 1.84 TFlops	AMD (possibly pre-7970M), 12 core, 800Mhz, 1.23 TFlops	Looks like MS isn't being aggressive on the GPU this time around. They had the better GPUs both of the last two rounds. Hmm.. not too much to write here, I wrote most of it up top in the CPU section. Maybe the days of separate CPU and GPU chips are over on the console, in which case it might be AMD's get out of jail card. I will say that last I heard Nvidia had some real trouble with their last gen (or was it this gen?) chips, so maybe they couldn't deliver anything this round and both consoles going with an AMD APU isn't a trend.
Other PUs:	Compute	- Data Move - Video Codec - Audio Codec (includes echo cancellation) - Crypto	I think this one is telling, if accurate. Gives you a hint about what MS and Sony think is important enough to dedicate HW to. GPUs basically defined "compute" as we know it, so it's odd to see a separate PU in the Sony box. AMD's "Graphics Core Next," which the 7970M is based on, was designed with compute in mind, so does Sony have something really customized up their sleeve? Sony has arguably had the most customized/exotic silicon every single generation, they always seem to be willing to go the extra mile there, for better or worse. On the Xbox side, again, GPUs have done video decoding in HW for ages, and ATI was always very strong there, and audio decoding doesn't usually need dedicated HW, so what's the deal with the dedicated units? My guess is encoding and transcoding. Also, Data Move is interesting. Sounds like an asynchronous DMA thing. GPUs also tend to have these included, and graphical data is by far the type of data that gets pushed around, so it seems unlikely it's intended for games.
RAM:	4G GDDR5, shared by all PUs, 512M OS reserved	- 8G DDR3, shared by all PUs, 3G OS reserved - 32M ESRAM shared by all PUs, GPU has a dedicated bus	Orbis RAM is much faster and you have around 3.5G to play with. Durango RAM is slower, and a big fat chunk seems to be just for the OS, but effectively you have 1.5G more for games. The ESRAM for the GPU makes it interesting, but I think it's a little too small to really shine, plus the GPU itself seems conservative. Not sure why it's also available to the rest of the system, maybe for faster CPU<->GPU communication, but again, it's awfully small to make up for the rest of the slower DDR3. It seems to the thing dictating MS's choice here is the 3G reserved, forcing them to go with more RAM overall to compensate, which in turn is probably forcing them to stick to DDR3 to keep cost down. But, they can't very well let the GPU only chew on that, so they have to add ESRAM, which is pretty expensive. But, at only 32M, the GPU will likely have to read most of it's data from the DDR3 and only render to the ESRAM.
Notable others:	Unknown	Kinect-in, HDMI 1.4a-in, USB3, 500G HDD	This one is also telling. HDMI-in? USB3? Big HDD? HDMI-in obviously has nothing to do with games, and I can't imagine anything gaming-related needing that kind of bandwidth on USB of all things. Dedicated Kinect port? Guess that's not going away any time soon.

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Overall it looks like Sony has a traditional game focused box with a little custom flair, as I've come to expect from them, mainly due to that Compute processor, though both are fairly conservative as far as custom hardware goes. I'm not surprised, CELL was a dead-end and gave them very little advantage over the 360, relative to the cost and effort they put into it, so it's not surprising they've toned it down this time.

As far as Durango goes, it looks byzantine, for lack of a better word. Dedicated audio/video codecs? A dedicated DMA unit unrelated to the GPU, unlikely to be used by games? Crypto? USB3? 3G just for the OS? It may very well be a gaming/HTPC/DVR/the-only-one-your-living-room-needs wonder-box. Maybe it runs a Win8/WinRT variant. Hard to believe they'd run WinRT, but 3G reserved is a lot, which means they'll be doing a lot in the background, which means they'll need more of an OS than the bare-bones OSes we've seen thus far on consoles. I can't imagine they'd simultaneously work on WinRT and the Durango system software and have them be completely separate, unrelated codebases. Personally, I think the Durango specs may not be final, or perhaps inaccurate... either that or MS is willing to sacrifice the hardcore specs-whore gaming crowd for a bit more of everything else.

[Diff-chan]

Personally, I think the Durango specs may not be final, or perhaps inaccurate... either that or MS is willing to sacrifice the hardcore specs-whore gaming crowd for a bit more of everything else.

MS has been doing that since 2009, so it doesn't surprise me.

[EvilMog]

Too much speculation and not enough fact. Thread sucks.

[Razor Ramon]

Which one plays Marvel with no frame drops?

[Changeling]

Nobody cares about the horsepower this time around. Its all about the games and services.


PC will win in the end.

[outRider]

MS has been doing that since 2009, so it doesn't surprise me.

Me neither, just surprised that they'd go this all-out on the hardware side, if the leaked info is accurate. I guess if you're more casual an HD DVR/HTPC/kitchen-sink box might make you go for the Xbox, same way many people went for a Bluray player that just happened to be a game console.

[GohanX]

Which one plays Marvel with no frame drops?

Dreamcast

[Josh]

Will either of these systems play CVS2 online? That's the only question that matters this generation.

[Opaque]

The gap between PC and consoles is getting too large when systems coming out two years from now don't even have top of the line hardware for two years ago.

[Joust Williams]

I'm a PC gamer now (again), but I am more interested in the Xbox in terms of services.