Xbox One vs. PS4: Xbox One a Lesser PC Compared to PS4's Computing Power

By Justin Sarachik, Christian Post Reporter Monday, July 15, 2013

Rumors have been circulating that the Xbox One is just a "boxed" version of Microsoft's Windows 8, allowing for an easier way to port video games on the console while the PS4 may surpass the PC in power.

Timothy Lottes, a console developer who creates algorithms, most notably Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA), wrote about the new consoles on his blog. He made the comparison that the Xbox One is just a low-performance PC.

He said one of his major concerns is the console's memory bandwidth, according to an article in Eurogamer.

"If this GPU is pre-GCN with a serious performance gap to PS4, then this next Xbox will act like a boat anchor, dragging down the min-spec target for cross-platform next-generation games," he said in the magazine. "My guess is that the real reason for 8GB of memory is because this box is a DVR which actually runs 'Windows' (which requires a GB or two or three of 'overhead'), but like Windows RT (Windows on ARM) only exposes a non-desktop UI to the user."

He also spoke about the PS4 and how the console may be able to surpass the level of the PC.

"The real reason to get excited about a PS4 is what Sony as a company does with the OS and system libraries as a platform, and what this enables 1st party studios to do, when they make PS4-only games. If PS4 has a real-time OS, with a libGCM style low level access to the GPU, then the PS4 1st party games will be years ahead of the PC simply because it opens up what is possible on the GPU," he said.

With anticipation of the Playstation 4's coming, it is already being regarded as one of the most powerful gaming devices ever created, which goes lines up with Lottes' perspective.

"The thing I'm most pleased about is the entire design principles about the PS4 are being focused around the gamer first. So how can we create a platform that's great to develop for and easy to develop for, because that unleashes the creatives and if they can create the best experiences that's going to lead to satisfaction for gamers," Fergal Gara, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment U.K. and Ireland, told Tech Radar.

PS4's presales have been phenomenal, and Sony is offering four different bundles compared to Microsoft's one, the Xbox One Day One.

When the PS3 was released in 2006, retailers were concerned by the console's high price tag, but since the PS4 is even cheaper than its predecessor and lower priced than Xbox One, the company is telling people to expect 10 times more units per shipment, reported Daily Game.