Microsoft has finally taken the lid off the Xbox One X — formerly known as Project Scorpio — and the company isn't shy about calling its new game machine “the world’s most powerful console.”
The One X is packing some serious firepower, with a custom eight-core AMD processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, and a 6-teraflop GPU with 40 compute units. Microsoft is proudly pointing out how the One X can support 4K HDR gameplay. (While Microsoft is tossing around the phrase “true 4K” a lot, apparently only some games will actually run in true native 4K, as opposed to checkerboard rendering.)
So how does Xbox One X compare to its biggest competitor: Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro, which will be a year old by the time One X hits shelves?
When it comes to hard specifications, Microsoft has Sony soundly beaten here. The Xbox One X has a faster processor, a more powerful GPU, and more memory than even the PlayStation 4 Pro. Specifically, the Xbox One X has 6 teraflops (which, in very basic terms, is how many calculations it can perform per second), compared to 4.2 teraflops on the PlayStation 4 Pro. And the extra boost in RAM — 12GB vs. 8GB — is also pretty significant, at least on paper.
When it comes to hard specifications, Microsoft has Sony soundly beaten
But without some direct comparison of games on the two consoles, it’s hard to say how much the extra speed and power will really translate to meaningful improvement in performance. At the end of the day, both consoles claim to be able to offer 4K HDR gaming. Based on that criterion, Sony has a $100 price advantage over the One X with the $399 Pro, which isn’t exactly chump change.
Additionally, it’s worth considering a final piece of the equation: games. Microsoft showed off variety of new Xbox One exclusives at E3 this year, including Crackdown 3, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Forza Motorsport 7, and a passel of smaller indie titles. But compared to Sony’s upcoming slate of God of War 4, The Last of Us II, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Death Stranding, Detroit: Become Human, Days Gone, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man game, there’s still a long way to go before there’s a compelling lineup of games that you’ll need an Xbox to play.
To help you make your decision, here’s how Microsoft and Sony’s latest hardware fare when put head-to-head, along with the how powerful they are relative to the original hardware. (Just for fun, the Nintendo Switch is also thrown into the mix, and it’s unsurprisingly almost comically underpowered in comparison.)
Xbox One X spec comparison
Categories | Xbox One X | Xbox One S | PlayStation 4 Pro | PlayStation 4 Slim | Nintendo Switch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Price | $499.00 | $249.00 | $399.00 | $249.99 | $299.99 |
Processor | AMD Jaguar (2.3GHz, 8-core) | AMD Jaguar (1.75GHz, 8-core) | AMD Jaguar (2.1GHz, 8-core) | AMD Jaguar (1.6GHz, 8-core) | ARM Cortex A57 (1.02GHz, quad-core) |
GPU | Integrated AMD (6 teraflops, 40CU) | Integrated AMD Radeon (1.4 teraflops, 12CU) | Integrated AMD Radeon Polaris (4.2 teraflops, 36CU) | Integrated AMD Radeon (1.84 teraflops, 18CU) | Nvidia Maxwell (0.5 teraflops, unofficially) |
Memory | 12GB GDDR5 | 8GB DDR3 | 8GB GDDR5, 1GB DDR3 | 8GB GDDR5 | 4GB LPDDR4 |
Storage | 1TB | 500GB, 1TB, 2TB | 1TB | 500GB, 1TB | 32GB |
Optical drive | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray | Blu-ray | Blu-ray | N/A |
4K support | Yes | Yes (video only) | Yes | No | No |
HDR support | HDR10 | HDR10 | HDR10 | HDR10 | No |
Ports | Three USB 3.0, HDMI (in), HDMI (out), IR, optical audio | Three USB 3.0, HDMI (in), HDMI (out), IR, optical audio | Three USB 3.1, one Aux, HDMI (out), optical audio | Two USB 3.1, one Aux, HDMI (out) | USB-C, microSD, 3.5mm headphone |
Weight | 8.4 pounds | 6.4 pounds | 7.2 pounds | 4.6 pounds | 0.88 pounds |
Dimensions (in.) | 11.8 x 9.4 x 2.4 | 11.6 x 9.1 x 2.5 | 12.8 x 11.6 x 2.1 | 11.3 x 10.4 x 1.54 | 9.4 x 4 x 0.55 |