Xbox One X vs. PS4 Pro vs. $500 PC
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
2,042 words · ~10 min read
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when we first saw the specs of the new xbox one x we were intrigued to say the
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least there's 40 compute units it has native support for 4k 60fps gameplay are
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there asterisks next to these claims are gonna leave us disappointed or are we
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finally looking at a console that achieves both affordability and a pc
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like gameplay experience speaking of not being disappointed
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free go to tunnelbear.com LTT
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so even though it's being touted as the most powerful console ever microsoft's
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latest keeps the familiar xbox one branding rather than adopting a new name
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that would immediately indicate an all-new experience but this makes sense
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on some level although the xbox one x is graphically more capable than last
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year's xbox one s the changes to its internal architecture are evolutionary
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rather than revolutionary you'll be plugging in the same ports and playing
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the same games on the same controller just with prettier pixels so if you
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think about it buying a console has become more like a pc than ever before
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there are now two models of the playstation 4 and 3 of the xbox one
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whose primary differences are form factor power efficiency and graphics
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card configuration just like the gaming computer shelf at a best buy or
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something like that that is not to say though that the specification
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differences between the xbox one x and its predecessors aren't significant on a
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sheet of paper to some people they're just higher numbers the higher clocked
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jaguar CPU is literally just that but
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looking closely at the graphics configuration of this new custom chip
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reveals that its closest desktop pc equivalent is probably a Radeon rx 580
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which is a very capable card so in
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practical terms they make possible the big selling point for the console it's
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support for 4k gaming at 60fps natively
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understandably microsoft hasn't been shy about this hardware investment marketing
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the xbox one x as a premium experience
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now of course that doesn't mean you can expect to find a water cooling system
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and an SSD in it but it is equipped with a beefier vapor chamber heatsink than we
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saw in the xbox one s that kept the hottest part of the system at a
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reasonable 70 degrees under load without getting obnoxiously loud and there's a
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one terabyte hard drive that is advertised as up to 50 percent faster a
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benefit not just to game load times but also when the system needs to stream in
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higher resolution textures as you wander around open environments feature wise
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the one x is state of the art it comes with out of the box support for both
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10 high dynamic range redundant i know you can learn more about it up here
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but basically it amounts to deeper blacks brighter whites and more vibrant
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colors on supported displays along with that there's also dolby atmos a surround
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sound technology that encodes audio as objects instead of individual channels
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for greater positional accuracy and realism with the proper home theater
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hardware atmos is a game changer dolby atmos headphone is also supported with a
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15 add-on purchase but the gears 4 dolby
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headphone experience and even some canned demos they were pretty
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underwhelming so i would hold off on this one at least for now now let's look
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at the visual experience we gathered our competitors and settled on a test suite
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of games that showed off the xbox one x's different ways of rendering 4k
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content let's kick things off with forza 7. this was one of the titles microsoft
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demoed prior to the one x's launch to show off its native 4k60 capabilities
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unsurprisingly the xbox one x absolutely
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shined in this game not only did it give us much better detail than the upscaled
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4k from the 1s it was even a little bit better than our 500 pc which was running
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the game at 4k on the recommended preset
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at around 45 FPS anti-aliasing helped
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our pc a little bit but the xbox one x showed off details we couldn't quite
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make out on the pc even the controls on the dashboard inside our car and it did
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so while running the game noticeably more smooth
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so yeah score one for the one x here though of course this is a microsoft
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exclusive game so the ps4 pro didn't actually get a crack at it so let's move
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right along to shadow of war another native 4k title but one that only runs
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at 30 FPS on the one x this game looked more or less equally nice on the ps4 pro
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and the xbox one x both in terms of frame rate and texture quality and the
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one s again was noticeably less sharp due to the lack of native 4k support the
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system that gave us the worst overall experience at 4k was our
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well our 500 pc which had to turn down
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to the lowest preset to be playable but obviously we are aware that that could
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be due to video memory limitation and should be noted that at 1080p and ultra
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details it kept pace much better now let's look at assassin's creed origins
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which uses checkerboard rendering at 4k
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on both of our flagship consoles this ended up being a very similar story to
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shadow of war with the ps4 pro and xbox one x looking nearly identical the 1s a
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little bit less sharp and the 500 pc was only playable on the low preset until we
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turned down the resolution but you should note that on pc there's a lot of
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performance issues due to some funky drm stuff that's going on a weird aside here
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is that although ubisoft called assassin's creed on the xbox one x the
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definitive version of the game we were very hard-pressed to notice anything
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that made it stand out but microsoft says it isn't all about 4k
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and they claim that the more powerful processor in the xbox one x will like
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we've been doing on our pc during our testing allow the use of higher quality
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assets at 1080p so we turned down the resolution of both our one x and our pc
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to 1080p then cranked our pc presets up to ultra quality on each game and to the
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xbox's credit all three games looked nearly identical with the small caveat
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that we needed to enable the favor quality setting on shadow of war this
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customizability is a fantastic trend that we support and we'd like to see
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continue but if you're going to be gaming on a 1080p display for the
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foreseeable future this doesn't necessarily give the most powerful
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console ever an unequivocal recommendation that's because for us if
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we're going to have a similar gaming experience anyways we'd rather go for a
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more versatile pc that isn't restricted to one specific console ecosystem with
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that said the 4k experience is a bit of
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a different story if you have to build a pc from the ground up for 500
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especially if you're including Windows in that price the xbox one x craps all
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over the 4k gaming experience you'd be having if you want to buy brand new
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hardware from a store with a warranty and all of that and not do the whole
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scrapyard wars thing at this point in time but if you're comparing to a ps4
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pro which is a hundred bucks cheaper and has the same support for technologies
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like HDR and dolby atmos bitstream pass-through along with very similar
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gaming performance in a fair amount of titles
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while that hundred dollar premium gets you the awesome uhd 4k blu-ray playback
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if you're gonna use that and most importantly for the majority of people
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more powerful hardware that should deliver a higher percentage of games at
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crispy 4k60. there's also the awesome benefit of xbox play anywhere which
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allows you to play your games on both xbox and pc with just one purchase which
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is great for both being able to play with your friends despite being on
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potentially a different platform and as an awesome value-add you do have to
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wrestle with the always infuriating Windows store on the pc side but i'll
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take it if it means that i get my game on both platforms without paying twice
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super cool another thing to consider is that if you've already got a pc with a
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4k display and 500 bucks burning a hole in your pocket it might be worth
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upgrading that will likely net you the best 4k gaming experience for your money
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but the xbox one x absolutely has a place in the market if you have or will
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soon obtain a 4k tv HDR for an added
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bonus and if you want a console to take full advantage of it the xbox one x
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absolutely will deliver the best frame rates and the highest resolution for
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consoles and before you scream about it no it's not a replacement for a gtx 1080
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it's not a replacement for vega 64. these things can run 4k at eye popping
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frame rates that's wonderful but it might be enough to stem the tide of
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x-bowed and peasant station jokes at least for a while
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maybe in some corners of the united who am i kidding it's not gonna do anything
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i'm sure there's already a massive war in the comments of this video before we
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even got to this section so whatever at least the console guys got something
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cool i'm happy for them it's it's gonna be good and i can be happy for you too
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see you next time whenever next time miss