E3 might not have been the coming out party for VR on Microsoft’s Xbox One X that we were hoping for, but we know that the company’s newly refreshed console does indeed support the technology. What form that support will take is still a mystery, but last week he got the final specs necessary to measure the box up to Sony’s alternative, the PlayStation 4 Pro.
Both Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are upgraded versions of their base consoles. They both run traditional games at higher frame rates and at better resolutions. In PS4 Pro’s case, it also enhances PlayStation VR (PSVR) titles that also run on the standard console. The question is, once VR support comes to Xbox One X, which will be the better device for VR?
Today, we can only answer that from a purely technical comparison. We don’t know how a supposed Xbox VR headset will measure up to PSVR itself just yet, but we do know what’s under the hood of the boxes powering experiences. Let’s take a look.
Power
The main difference between the new consoles and their predecessors is the increased computing power that allows games to look and run better. When it comes to CPU, both PS4 Pro and Xbox One X feature eight cores, but PS4 is clocked at 2.1 GHz, while X is clocked at 2.3 GHz. On the GPU front, both consoles use AMD technology; Sony uses Radeon tech with 4.2 teraflops while Microsoft has customised AMD’s offerings to create its own ‘Scorpio Engine’ with 6 teraflops.
Memory
When it comes to memory for both developers and customers, Microsoft takes the edge. X has 12 GB of GDDR5 RAM compared to 8 GB on PS4 Pro. That should help games perform better on X. Both consoles have 1 TB of internal storage memory, however, so you’ll still be downloading the same amount of games on each.
Release Date and Price
Here’s the real kicker. X might have PS4 Pro beat in terms of tech specs, but its pricing reflects that. The system costs a heart $499, which is a full $100 more than the $399 price tag on the PS4 Pro. For a PSVR user, the all-in price of using a Pro and VR would be about $850 including a camera needed to use the headset. That’s no small amount of money, but it remains to be seen how much the all-in cost of Xbox VR will be.
