Topic: PS5 Digital vs. XSS

Obviously local VAT has an impact as well. Because $499.99 does not equate to £449.99 in straight currency conversion. So at my guesstimate prices I can see the PS5 SE hitting £399.99 and the PS5 DE hitting £299.99. That's not any insider info or leaks, just my own uneducated guesstimation.

I’d say it’s more likely to be £450 PS5 and £400 PS5 Digital. I just don’t see Sony taking as much of a loss on the console when they won’t be banking as heavily on subscription based models.

Dear @SirAngry
Is there an easier way to be in contact with you?

I really don't see any scenario in which the PS5 (either version) would be cheaper than either Xbox. The digital version and the small xbox are not direct competitors and therefore I expect the digital PS5 to be about £100 more expensive (£350) and then it would make sense for the standard editon to be another £100 again, so £450 - £500 would make sense.

Also seems nailed on that the PS5 will release within a week of the Xbox so 5 days either side of November 10th i imagine.

@nessisonett yeah I can see that too. I guess we'll have to wait and see. However, Microsoft came in exactly where I thought they would on price. I just never saw either of these consoles being more than $499.99 still don't. I also don't think either of them were waiting for the other to go first. They know what their business plan / model says they can go too. I would argue though, that given Game Pass is a loss leader for Microsoft, they're less likely to eat a loss on the cost of the console than Sony who are going the razorblade route again. Although at those prices I do think Microsoft are taking a slight hit on the XSX, not so sure about the XSS though, they might be close to breaking even on that system. However, the ball is firmly in Sony's court now. Microsoft have shown what they've got, we know what the Xbox Series consoles are about, Sony really haven't shown anywhere near as much as Microsoft.

If anyone can get those resolutions and frame rates down on the next generation of consoles it’s Remedy. I’d rather not play the next generation of their games on the Series S. @SirAngry

@Ryall I played Control on a PS4 Pro and it was a bit of a mess. Remedy games have never been the most polished but I expect the PS5 version to be a lot better.

@Ryall technically Remedy do like to push the boat out, but I think I get where that Tweet was coming from. Geometry, physics, AI and many more functions do not scale down at the same rate as resolution does. My AI is still my AI whether at 1080p or 4K, other things like geometry did scale down, but not in a linear way. I might require less triangles to make an image / scene look good at 1080p compared to 4K, but let's say I'm drawing a big open scene off into the distance, I still need the geometry in there, and the XSX will have that grunt even at 4K that maybe the XSS doesn't so that might just mean more aggressive use of billboarding, but it's not all a linear turning down of the juice, and there might be things you have to drop, or work around because of that. System engineers always like to tell software people how easy they've made our jobs, 9 times out of 10 they solve one problem but create 3 more. lol.

Here’s the specs for the Xbox consoles.

@AlisonPentouseus no there isn't a way to contact me because I don't want to be contacted. I'm happy engaging on sites like this one under aliases because I get a lot out of talking to gamers and understanding expectations / trends. I don't want to strike up pen pal status with any one, my inboxes are already full enough as it is.

@nessisonett nice! So it didn't need to delete my comment after all.

@SirAngry Yeah, it’s about what I expected, powerful enough to warrant a new box and definitely a good choice for casual gamers. It’ll play the new sports games, COD and Fortnite at a relatively good price point and without a huge dip, while still positioning Series X as the better option for those people who play a lot of games.

@SirAngry Alright brother. I totally understand and respect that. Can you just tell me if XSX is noticeably more powerful than PS5 in terms of gpu performance?
That's all I'm ever gonna ask.

@AlisonPentouseus Just from the look of these specs, it’s not that simple a question. Xbox does some things ‘better’ and PS5 does some things ‘better’. Sony has the edge with data streaming, making noticeable differences in load times, moving around a map quickly etc. I think Xbox has the edge in terms of raw computation but that will depend on how it’s utilised by devs. You’d probably only see major differences in exclusives, correct me if I’m wrong @SirAngry but I would expect to see largely similar builds from multiplat games unless Sony/MS specifically bankroll an ‘enhanced’ version taking advantage of the features that set apart each console.

@AlisonPentouseus it's not a straightforward question to answer this generation at all. It's also slightly meaningless without taking everything else into consideration. In terms of what you will see on the screen for both from multiplatform games? I think we'll start to see both PS5 and XSX games develop a "system look" but in terms of what you will notice? I doubt they'll be much difference. Both have strengths and both have weaknesses. The question as to which is better will depend very much on you render pipeline. If developers take advantage of one systems strengths over the other we could see differences, but I generally think developers will work to both systems strengths to some degree. If you'd have asked me two years ago I would have said I preferred Microsoft's massively parallel brute force approach, mainly because I'm lazy and don't want to have to work too hard. However, the speed of the PS5 is winning me round to its charms, the scrubbers and memory management priority levels are sweet as. Conversely I also like the CPU priority and higher CPU clocks on the XSX. The texture management stuff I'm told on the XSX and the geometry culling is also nice for current pipeline paradigms, but that's not my area or field and it bores me. If you want to know what I'd change in both? Well I'd prefer slightly more bandwidth on the PS5's pool of RAM. I'd also like the XSX not to have a split RAM pool. On the CPU side I'm pretty happy with both, we have more access to more CPU cores on the PS5, which offsets somewhat its lower clocks, but not entirely. I'd welcome a clock boost there, but on the XSX I wouldn't change a thing on the CPU. On the GPU front you could cut 6 CUs on the XSX if you have me a clock speed of 2.1 GHz, conversely on the PS5 a few more cores, 4 maybe, would've been nice. However, I think all consoles are an engineering compromise, and the changes I have suggested would probably have massive cost implications for both companies. I think they've both done a nice job.

@nessisonett pretty much spot on. I expect third party games will use higher quality assets on the PS5 and there to be lower LoD pop in on the PS5 because of how it handles geometry. However, do I think people will notice? Not really. The XSX might hold more stable frame rates, and have an edge in certain forms of ray tracing.

@nessisonett @SirAngry Thank you both for spending precious time to give me more info.
Technical jargon aside, I always wondered if the increased number of CUs on XSX would make a noticeable difference fps-and-resolution-wise.

@SirAngry Interesting topic. I can see how people might not notice some of the benefits of the PS5, but on the topic of ray tracing; how noticeable do you think those differences will be between consoles.

@AlisonPentouseus look, resolution and frame rate are both functions of compute, you lower your compute spend at one point, means you can increase it somewhere else. Both the XSX and PS5 are more than capable of 4k 60fps Games. It's all a compromise. Nothing you do is for "free" on any hardware, some hardware is better than others because of how they are configured. Truth is I have my thoughts based on 3 multiplatform projects about what I think will happen this generation, but it's still a guess. My advice is buy whatever system tickles your fancy in games or value for money. I'll be sticking with PC, PS5 and Switch, I don't need an Xbox to access Microsoft's games, nor their services, which from a consumer perspective are great. Not everyone is in my position though.

@Kidfried depends on a scene by scene game by game basis. BVH calculations though like being done at higher clocks, so for want of a better analogy is bouncing 36 rays 2.235 times better than bouncing 52 rays 1.825 tines? I have no idea, but I can see why both might have advantages. That's a really really crude way of putting it, and both the XSX and PS5 deal with RT slightly differently, I also believe, but can't verify because it's not my thing, that the PS5 has it's RT acceleration decoupled from the CU TMU, that has some massive advantages if true, but might also prove a draw back in other ways. I think though both systems will see selective ray tracing for certain objects and materials, and use a mixture of RT, various maps that emulate real lighting and real time global illumination. To what extent the differences will be noticeable, god only knows.