The battle of the best between Xbox Series X vs. PS5 is heating up. When we compare the Xbox Series X vs. PS5 consoles there is a lot of information to digest. We know more than ever about the game libraries, design, and specs of Sony and Microsoft’s next big releases due to deep dives and game releases but the gaps in our knowledge regarding the prices and exact release dates need to be filled. It’s time to gear up as the next chapter of the ‘console wars’ is almost upon us.
Xbox Series X vs. PS5 System Specs
PS5 has a processor of 8-core 3.5 GHz AMD Zen 2 whereas Xbox Series X has a processor of 8-core, 3.8 GHz AMD Zen 2. Xbox Series X has a slightly powerful processor than the PS5. PS5 will have custom super-fast 825GB SSD and this storage can be expanded via NVME whereas the Xbox Series X will have a custom 1TB SSD running on NVME technology, with support for proprietary expansion cards.
Both PS5 and Xbox Series X will have Real-time ray tracing. It is a new light rendering technique that requires a huge amount of power to produce without tanking performance and is present only on high-end gaming PCs at the moment. 3D audio effects that Sony has also boasted about the 3D audio effects produced by this technology whereas Microsoft has made no such audio-related claims.
Xbox Series X vs. PS5 Design
These two consoles are opposites of each other in terms of design as the Xbox Series X has a subtle design of a boxy black tower while PS5 has extravagant design, predominantly slender, curvy, and white body coating a small black core.
Xbox Series X vs. PS5 Controller
Microsoft hasn’t deviated much from its tried and tested controller design. The process of capturing videos and screenshots has become so much easier with a much-needed share button in Xbox Series X. The new controller is slightly smaller than the Xbox One controller, has backward compatibility, updated hybrid D-Pad, and improved latency.
In PS5 a new level of haptic feedback is offered by the redesigned shoulder buttons, the Share button is replaced with Create, around the sides of the new look touchpad lightbar is included and for chatting with friends without the need for a headset a new microphone array is added.
Xbox Series X vs. PS5 Exclusive Games
In PlayStation first-party games are once again a priority with exclusives such as Drift Apart, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, Demon’s Souls Remake, Gran Turismo 7 and Ratchet, and Clank. More densely-packed worlds will be created by developers as Sony has invested a lot of money into its SSD.
With Xbox Series X, users will potentially be seeing superior frame rates as Microsoft seems to be going for pure GPU grunt. Microsoft has a limited library of titles and has confirmed big exclusives such as Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga and Halo Infinite on the launch date. Microsoft will also heavily lean on third-party games and Xbox Series X has a potentially astonishing library waiting in the wings.
Xbox Series X vs. PS5 Graphics
Both PS5 and Xbox Series X are equipped with the most powerful and latest hardware with trivial differences. Xbox Series X has a little faster CPU than PS5. Xbox Series X seems a little starker with its 12 teraflops GPU processing power as compared to the 10.3 teraflops for the PS5. Even an insignificant difference of 1.7 teraflops could signify a major difference in graphics. Game performance is also highly impacted by SSDs. Games would load much faster than before as both consoles will come with built-in SSDs. Till now only Sony has given the concrete details about how swiftly its SSD could load games. This metric like the teraflops also varies from game to game.
Xbox Series X vs. PS5 Backward compatibility
Xbox Series X is backward compatible and every Xbox One game will be compatible with it. Moreover, Microsoft has an upper hand on Sony due to its Smart Delivery as Sony has yet to adopt a similar system for its platform. With this feature players who already own Xbox One or Windows 10 will be able to access free next-gen versions of specific games. This is a mighty feature in Microsoft’s cap and includes confirmed games like Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Cyberpunk 2077. PS5 has backward compatibility with roughly all of the top 100 PS4 games. With several cross-generational releases, a slow-transition will be experienced by the console.
Xbox Series X vs. PS5 Virtual Reality
PlayStation VR will be compatible with PS5 according to Sony. For the PS5, there may also be a new PSVR headset in the making. Virtual reality has not been a priority area for Microsoft consoles and conversely to the PS5, Xbox One X does not support VR.
Xbox Series X vs. PS5 Subscriptions
A selection of PS2, PS3, and PS4 hits, such as the much-loved exclusives like God of War can be streamed from Sony’s game-streaming service called PlayStation Now. Although PS Now doesn’t work with smartphones, smart TVs, or streaming players you can easily stream games to a PC. Project xCloud is a more promising and ambitious technology used by Microsoft. Users can stream a variety of Xbox games to their Android or iOS devices with this platform. More than 200 games can be downloaded by users to their Xbox One consoles with the Xbox Game Pass program.