PlayStation 5 vs Xbox series, head to head: which one to choose and why?

The table is already set. After eight years of waiting Since the launch of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the new generation starring PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series is now available to users around the world, with few exclusive games so farbut with cool new features to thrill fans.

These two consoles are extremely powerful, capable of playing 4K quality up to 120 frames per second, with support for “Ray Tracing” (“ray tracing” in Spanish, technology responsible for improving the lighting, shadows and reflections of video games) and super fast loading times.

And although both consoles are innovative, advanced and very different in appearance, What is the most suitable for what we are looking for?

As for the internal specifications, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X aren’t too far apartAlthough on paper, Microsoft seems to have the upper hand in processing power.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen both companies try to differentiate their consoles, in particular in terms of design. PlayStation 5 stands as an imposing machine, the largest ever made by Sony, meanwhile Xbox Series X has similarities with a pc for games thanks to its cuboid shape. Regardless of the design, both manage to stay in operation cool and quiet, unlike previous generations.

Therefore, Sony has focused on increasing the feeling of immersion in games with its new DualSense controller and tactile gestures, as well as continuing to deliver exclusive games. On the other hand, Microsoft relies on the pure Xbox Game Pass value proposition to attract users to its ecosystem.

Fortunately for collectors, both systems are backward compatible. But nevertheless, PlayStation 5 only supports PlayStation 4 titles, while Xbox Series X is compatible with games from all generations of Xbox.

And what can we play? From side to side we have seen games like Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales, Gears 5 updates and titles from other companies like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, new installments of call of Dutyand others to come such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Halo Infinite. Importantly, for now, both the eighth and ninth generations share ground, and at least until Christmas 2021 we will be in a transition phase, so will the games compatible on all systems until the exclusives start to arrive.

The above becomes relevant when we consider the prices for accessing a new technology, but for many, still does not justify its price. The reason? Developers take time to get used to and get the most out of the device, which we will see over the years.

Like never before, both Sony and Microsoft have adopted a similar approach in its technical specifications, one more marketing tool in its own way, each company has decided to promote but that it doesn’t stop sounding complex for those who don’t handle these terminologies.

PlayStation 5 It runs on a customized version of the third-generation AMD Ryzen chipset, with eight cores with the company’s new Zen 2 architecture and Navi graphics. Its processor runs at 3.5GHz and its graphics processor offers 36 processing units that run at 2.23GHz and offer 10.28TFLOP. These parts are coupled with 16GB of GDDR6 with 448GB / s bandwidth, which means PS5 can support features like the aforementioned ray tracing, high-performance lighting technique previously reserved for expensive high-end PC graphics cardsand that we now know it will be integrated into the Sony console.

Furthermore, PS5 will support screen resolutions up to 8K, much higher than the 1080p HD standard on most people’s TVs, and much lower than the increasingly popular 4K. It will also work at 120Hz refresh rates, which allows for much smoother movement in games if we have a HDMI 2.1 compatible screen. These are incredibly powerful specs in terms of performance, but we don’t expect a game to meet these standards regularly, like a very expensive TV is required. However, at least the PS5 will make 4K / 60fps more common, which wasn’t the case with the past generation of consoles.

Perhaps the most interesting element of PS5 is the SSD storage. This solid state drive is a custom piece of hardware, offering up to 825GB of storage with an throughput of 5.5GB / s (and up to 9GB / s of compressed data). This is the result exceptionally fast loading times when starting a game, allowing developers to overcome many bottlenecks in transmission and data.

It also supports Sony console immersive 3D audio into your headphones via the so-called Tempest Engine, a technology capable of handling hundreds of sound sources for a more realistic audio environment. Also, it uses the DualSense controller tactile feedback, which replaces the DualShock 4’s vibration technology, being able to simulate all kinds of subtle vibrations in the hand. Tactile feedback allows developers to adjust how players feel, like the feeling of rain or running on a beach.

The control also features adaptive triggers, which allow developers to program the resistance to simulate actions with greater precision. Thus, we can feel the tension of pull back the bowstring, kick a gun or hit a ball in a football match.

However, this does old DualShock 4 controller may not be compatible with new PS5 exclusive games. While it will continue to work with PS4 games, thanks to backward compatibility, we won’t be able to use it with next-generation titles.

Technically, the Xbox Series X also uses custom AMD internals with the same Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architecture as the PS5, making it twice as powerful as Xbox One X. Its graphics card has 12 teraflops of performance, with 3,328 shaders assigned to 52 units. It runs at a locked 1,825 GHz, and unlike most graphics processors, it doesn’t fluctuate between speeds. Instead, it offers the same clock speed regardless of the unit’s temperature or the game you’re playing.

The processor is a custom AMD Zen 2 CPU, with eight cores and 16 threads. Developers can tweak some parameters to reach a maximum speed of 3.8 GHz.

Xbox Series X supports 8K resolution and 120Hz to 4K refresh rate, but again considering an HDMI 2.1 compatible TV. The console also pairs with the PS5 by offering DirectX ray tracing capabilities and is equipped with a super-fast expandable 1TB internal NVMe SSD.

The standard RAM will be of the GDDR6 variety, and the Xbox Series X includes 16GB, a nice improvement over the Xbox One X’s 12GB GDDR5. shows a slight advantage for Xbox Series X over PS5 in terms of raw performance, but so far the gap in real-world performance, by those who have tried it, it was indistinguishable.

Outside of these technical aspects, Microsoft has ensured it Xbox Series X will work with all Xbox controllers in all your gamesand added a content sharing feature much requested by users.

It also has a called function Resume fast, which allows you to pause multiple games at the same time, so you can start with another title and then pick up where you left off the previous game in seconds.

Additionally, Microsoft has added some cool new features like Smart delivery, what will update the game to the “best possible version” when they arrive in the future. So, for example, we can buy a game like Cyberpunk 2077 for Xbox One, with the certainty of being able to play the improved version on Xbox Series X at no additional cost.

The choice of the console, as we mentioned at the beginning, depends on how much we are willing to spend, as well as if we are interested in certain exclusives -the forte of PS5-, or have a catalog to choose from from day one, as with Xbox Game Pass. It should be noted that many games are available on both consoles, so we won’t even be able to lean on that way.

This is when it is worth mentioning the digital editions of consoles, which make a difference compared to their older sisters, technically a lot more couples.

In this case, the Xbox Series S appears as an alternative more accessible, but less powerful in terms of imageIt has no disk drive and is smaller. Sony offers a fully digital version of PS5, technically and in design the same as its disk version, but a little more expensive than its Microsoft counterpart.

One of the reasons the PS4 proved to be the most popular console during the last generation was the fact that launched at a more attractive price than Xbox One. The latter came a year later in markets like Chileand its price has increased to include the popular Kinect motion sensor, removed in later console revisions.

Today as we know the forces are more balanced and both can already be purchased online. In Chile PlayStation 5 costs $ 649,990; and its “digital edition” for $ 499,990. On the other hand, Xbox Series X It is priced at $ 529,990 and Xbox Series S for $ 319,990.

Having said that and leaving the file players More demanding, Xbox Series S seems the most suitable for those don’t be interested in physical games, wishes to have a large catalog of games from previous generations (paid for Xbox Game Pass subscription)and at first you don’t have that much money.

In case you are a fan of the games Play station, his digital edition it’s equally attractive, but adds the power of the image. Even so, it should be remembered that in the latter case, these consoles lose the ability to play 4K Blu-Ray discs.