Xbox One: The Graphics Controversy

Anyone eyeing the PS4 vs Xbox One battle will no doubt have come across the conflict over graphics capabilities.  In our first podcast ever, XOGS tackles a lot of the information and dives a little deeper into the hardware set available in the Xbox One and how it truly compares to the PlayStation 4.

Please forgive the more raw and from-the-cuff format as this is the first of XOGS and for myself I haven’t done any long presentations in a while and there was a lot to cover with very few notes for reference during the recording, hence the occasional bunny trail and over-use of the filler-word “um” :).  But there’s lots of good information here for those really wanting to figure out what all the hoopla is about graphics on these next generation consoles and how the Xbox One specifically works to drive power to graphics, artificial intelligence, physics, and more within the games you play.  Feel free to comment here on via YouTube if you wish to add any information or make any corrections.  All of the reported information was researched and verified, though some of this content in great detail is very technical and requires a mind for hardware architecture and performance and its relation to the software/operating system.  Thus, this first podcast from XOGS will aim to inform those with a less technical background.

If you wish to see/hear more about hardware breakdowns or software breakdowns, or anything else on the Xbox One in future podcasts please comment and we’ll certainly try to put something together.  And we promise the quality will only go up from here!  Enjoy.

A 10% Power Increase For Xbox One In Pipeline (Rumor)

Critics of the Xbox One typically point toward the Xbox One’s inferior DDR3 memory option for graphical and raw power capabilities.  The PlayStation 4 currently sports DDR5, which quite simply runs faster than DDR3.  However you look at it, the fact is the PS4 opted for slightly better hardware this time around than Microsoft did with their Xbox One unit.  The differences are actually quite slim because both consoles sport the same CPU from AMD, known as the Jaguar APU.  Just a couple months before the Xbox One launched Microsoft had apparently made a breakthrough with the type of silicon used on the Xbox One, something that engineers of the console made great boasts about going into the hardware design phase of the console.  This breakthrough resulted in an 88% boost in power, power that wasn’t available during the biggest part of game development for groups like Crytek, DICE, Infinity Ward, and more.  This could of the reasons why certain games opted for a lower native resolution of 720p or 900p instead of a native 1080p that gamers are promised that own the console.  That 88% closed a large gap between the two competing consoles and has both consoles close to parity.  But get this, rumor has it that that gap could basically be eliminated with a future update to the Xbox One.  How interesting, yes?

According to some currently anonymous sources familiar with the Xbox software and hardware development groups, there is a big update for the Xbox One in the pipeline that is due out this year.  In all likelihood, this could be part of the big update that has been recently talked about by Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, known as Larry Hyrb, and other internet sources.  How is it possible to push the power of a console already released?  Simply put, optimization.  There is no secret that Windows 8, Windows Phone, and the Xbox 360 software are very good for performance.  Users that went from Windows 7 to Windows 8 actually experienced better performance out of the same machine because the software was lighter compared to its predecessors.  The launch-day software of the Xbox platform is still largely in production.  There is tons of work to be done, indicated by the fact that the Windows 8.1 team had some members picked to help get the Xbox software ready for launch.  The optimization could be strictly software related.  Microsoft is a software company first and foremost, so the company getting their ducks in a row with the Xbox OS is likely part of the coming power increase.  Xbox software employees have even gone on record to state that they intend to make graphics drivers and other aspects of the software the best anyone can get.  This makes a huge difference when you’re trying to squeeze every ounce of power out of your console, because the more efficient and cleaner the software runs, the better the hardware can perform.  Eliminating bottlenecks is very important, and if you look at the differences between the Xbox 360 day-one OS versus today’s OS, you’d not only see a major change but experience a smoother experience.

So while we await true confirmation on this, the word is that the Xbox One is slated for a 10% power increase.  Whether that’s coming from software improvements or Microsoft just simply figuring out how to push their existing hardware harder while remaining cool and stable is to be determined.  Either way, this bodes well for future multi-platform releases and developers won’t have to take into consideration power differences between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.  This will also pull one more bullet out of the PlayStation 4 fan-boy army’s chamber, something I’m sure Xbox fanatics will be happy to do for them.  Just be warned that there is no precise timeline available on this, but expect something within the first 6 months of the Xbox One’s launch for a big software update to start.  The Xbox team was notorious for a big annual update, so there could be something more sizable coming in the fall of 2014.  Still, something in the realm of March or April wouldn’t be out of the question for a big software update considering big Windows Phone and Windows 8 updates are due out in that time frame as well which is said to bring better unity to all Windows devices.  This large Xbox OS update with a rumored power upgrade could fall in line with those updates as well.