When it comes to console gaming, all our eyes are set on the next-gen consoles; Sony’s PlayStation5 and Microsoft’s Xbox X Series on the other side. While there are shortages on the market, I’m lucky to have sampled both of them, which I had pre ordered. A month down the line, I have shaped up my opinion about both consoles. Herein, find what I think about the PlayStation5 and the Xbox Series X.
Price Comparison
To start, let’s look at each console’s price to find out which one of the two is best for budget buyers. One thing about these two consoles is that there’s a shortage of supply, and that’s why many retailers are listing them at exorbitant prices.
Price
The normal price for the PlayStation5 is $500 for the standard edition and $400 for the digital edition. However, most retailers have put markups on these prices to take advantage of the situation. Luckily for me, I got the two consoles at preorder prices.
Availability
In terms of availability, both models are hard to come across right now, but if money is not a problem, gamers shouldn’t find a problem ordering either of them.
Performance
Microsoft and Sony have been in an intense battle of supremacy. The big question is, what’s the most powerful console between the two? Well, this was an interesting area during my analysis.
Backward Compatibility
One thing we gamers want is backward compatibility. For starters, backward compatibility refers to the ability of old games to be played on new consoles. A good example of backward compatibility is playing a game meant for PS4 on the new PS5 console.
Both consoles excel in terms of backward compatibility. Almost all games, including PS4 Pro titles, are backward compatible with the PS5. When it comes to Xbox, Xbox One, select Xbox 360, and original Xbox games are backward compatible with the next-gen Xbox console, Xbox Series X. It’s a great thing that we can still play some of our PS4 and Xbox titles using these next-gen consoles.
Graphics and Display
With the coming of state-of-the-art technologies, for example, Ray Tracing and the rest, the graphics and display of these two consoles are of interest.
The PS5 comes with a 10.3 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 GPU that guarantees resolutions of up to 8K and frame rates of up to 120 fps. The optical disk drive, on the other hand, supports up to 4K UHD Blu-ray. The Xbox Series X comes with a 12.0 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 GPU that delivers resolutions of up to 8K and frame rates of up to 120 fps, the same as the PS5. I couldn’t do thorough tests of the two consoles, but I can attest that they can run AAA titles in 4K at 60 frames per second without a problem.
While the specs for display are almost the same across the board, Sony has the edge when it comes to VR gaming. I really like the fact that the current PSVR is backward compatible with the PS5.
Loading Times
One area where these two consoles battled it out is the loading times. We are glad that both manufacturers embraced SSD technology, which is known to improve loading times. However, I have some reservations that may be contrary to what the manufacturers suggest.
The PS5 comes with an 825 GB custom SSD that guarantees fast loading times. A game like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, for example, loaded from the main menu to the game in less than 10 seconds. Fast travel is also impressively fast, taking just 10 seconds from point to point. On the other hand, the Xbox took longer to load the game, but fast travel performance equaled PS5. This is contrary to what Microsoft promised.
Verdict
That’s the end of this PS5 vs. Xbox Series X comparison review. While the two consoles might have some differences, the performance is at par as they both have an 8-core 3.5 GHz AMD Zen 2 and 16 GB GDDR6.
Regarding the issue of which of the two offers the best performance, there is no clear answer. The PS5 and Xbox Series X both have almost the same hardware, and thus the performance is almost the same. What I can say is that if Xbox fans have everything to love the Series X for. As for the PlayStation fans, the PS5 doesn’t disappoint.
