Good afternoon everyone. I'm typing this on my phone and I apologize up front for any poor wording / grammar. I see often on here discussion about the PS4 and the XBOX One and statements concerning one units superiority above the other so I wanted to post a discussion concerning what the real difference are. I own both of them and see both pros and cons to both. I am also a computer science major with a bachelors degree, over 20 years of computer/server building experience and I am hoping to bring some in depth understanding to how these to consoles function. In essence, they are more similar than most people think. To begin, I would like to call upon a few websites to reference internal components of each unit. https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/PlayStation+4+Teardown/19493 https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Xbox+One+Teardown/19718 These two sites illustrate detailed disassembly of both units. Scrolling down on them, you find a chip by chip break out of each system board; such as: PS4 SCEI (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.) CXD90026G SoC (includes AMD "Jaguar" Cores and AMD Radeon Graphics GPU) Samsung K4G41325FC-HC03 4 Gb (512 MB) GDDR5 RAM (total of 8 x 512 MB = 4 GB) SCEI CXD90025G Secondary/Low Power Processor for Network Tasks Samsung K4B2G1646E-BCK0 2Gb DDR3 SDRAM Macronix MX25L25635FMI 256Mb Serial Flash Memory Marvell 88EC060-NN82 Ethernet Controller SCEI 1327KM44S Genesys Logic GL3520 USB 3.0 Hub Controller Samsung K4G41325FC-HC03 4 Gb (512 MB) GDDR5 RAM (total of 8 x 512 MB = 4 GB) International Rectifier 35858 N326P IC2X Macronix 25L1006E CMOS Serial Flash Memory 39A207 1328 E1 3F XBOX One X887732-001 DG3001FEG84HR (includes AMD "Jaguar" 8-core CPU + AMD Radeon Graphics GPU) 16x SK Hynix H5TQ4G63AFR 4 Gb (512 MB) DDR3 SDRAM (total of 16 x 512 MB = 8 GB) X861949-005 T6WD5XBG-0003 SK Hynix H26M42003GMR 8 GB eMMC NAND Flash ON Semiconductor NCP4204 GAC1328G Integrated Power Control IC Realtek RTL 8151GNM Ethernet Controller Texas Instruments TPS2590 3-V to 20-V High Current Load Switch Most of these components are simple system level devices that control various functions of each console so I won't delve into them much. What I want to focus on here though is the hearts of each unit; CPU, Graphics, and RAM. I will also provide real details about each item and explain how they not only aid, but also hinder each system. PS4 CPU -- SCEI (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.) CXD90026G SoC (includes AMD "Jaguar" Cores and AMD Radeon Graphics GPU) GRAPHICS MEMORY -- Samsung K4G41325FC-HC03 4 Gb (512 MB) GDDR5 RAM (total of 8 x 512 MB = 4 GB) (FRONT OF PCB) GRAPHICS MEMORY -- Samsung K4G41325FC-HC03 4 Gb (512 MB) GDDR5 RAM (total of 8 x 512 MB = 4 GB) (REAR OF PCB) SYSTEM RAM -- Samsung K4B2G1646E-BCK0 2Gb DDR3 SDRAM XBOX One CPU -- X887732-001 DG3001FEG84HR (includes AMD "Jaguar" 8-core CPU + AMD Radeon Graphics GPU) SHARED SYSTEM / GRAPICS RAM -- 16x SK Hynix H5TQ4G63AFR 4 Gb (512 MB) DDR3 SDRAM (total of 16 x 512 MB = 8 GB) I would like to begin with the CPU of both system but before I do, I want to indicate that I will not venture into CPU speeds and here is why. The speed of a CPU is essentially only internal to the CPU itself and has overall very little to do with system performance. CPU speed is calculated only internally by the CPU using a numerical clock multiplier that is imprinted in the code of the CPU and calculated against the bus speed of the system board. BUS speed of the system board is derived by operating speed of the system ram; not video memory. The is bus speed is usually called FRONT SIDE BUS on PC motherboards. In a nutshell, on the processors run at the advertised speeds and only accounts for the number of calculations per second. Once calculations are made in the processors, the data is formed into a stream and down clocked to the speed of the memory and to facilitate this, the stream needs a place to site until it can be offloaded to the system ram. This place is called L2 and L3 ram and general speaking, the more you have, the less bottle neck you experience. Now, on the system processers. PS4 CPU -- SCEI (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.) CXD90026G SoC (includes AMD "Jaguar" Cores and AMD Radeon Graphics GPU) XBOX One CPU -- X887732-001 DG3001FEG84HR (includes AMD "Jaguar" 8-core CPU + AMD Radeon Graphics GPU) With these two chip, both similarities and emerge. From a basic specification, they are both AMD branded processors with identical Jaguar Integrated Graphics Processors or IGP's. This however is where the similarities end. In the case of the PS4, Sony produced their CPU under license from AMD and modified its internal memory controller to operate at 2 speeds which I will get into later. They also included a slightly higher clock multiplier to help the processor handle the double duty of having to operate at 2 bus speeds. Outside of these minor difference these chips are essentially identical. NEXT UP, GRAPHICS. As shown above, both systems incorporate RADEON graphics. I need clear some air here. People often describe the GRAPHICS CARDS in these consoles and as you can see, neither units boasts a graphics card. What they have though is a tiny set of hardware and code built into the CPU that feeds video to your display. This type of setup is essentially what comes in almost every laptop in some form. You will also find it in "low-end" or budget PC's since actual graphics cards of any gaming quality usually cost $200 plus. Going a little deeper, the Radeon setup in either system is equivalent to a Radeon 5450 which was an entry level gaming card of 3 to 4 years ago. Going into functionality of the IGP in these two consoles, they require an amount of memory to be able to process and render the video stream being fed from the processor. In the PS4, you have a dedicated bank of 4GB DDR5 memory and in the XBOX One you have shared DDR3 memory. For the PS4, this is where I stated above I would discuss later. DDR5 and DDR3 operate at different speeds and DDR5 is normally only used on PC style graphics cards and is not intended for use as system memory. Where the differences lie between DDR3 and DDR5 is operating speed and data pipelines. DDR3 does run at a slower speed but it boasts a wider data pipeline. DDR5 however is the exact opposite. It does run faster, but at the cost of a narrowed data pipeline; hence why it is intended for graphics purposes only. IGP's are a different subject since they simply share system memory to facilitate they processing and rendering needs. Sony, however, wanted to use DDR5 as the graphics memory but into order to do this, it required some modifications. primarily in the CPU itself and essentially, they separated the memory pipelines in use in the CPU into 2 channels (data and video). This drove a need to produce a processor that could operate at both speed of the DDR3 system RAM and the DDR5 graphics memory. In doing so, it produced a bottleneck for data which could cause system slow downs. In order to overcome this, Sony produced an operating system that operates with a much smaller foot print. This ultimately eases the burden on the system as a whole. This is where the PS4 shines. SYSTEM RAM -- Both systems utilize DDR3 to facilitate this function. For the PS4, it has 2 GB of DDR3 and the XBOX One utilizes Shared DDR 3 memory totaling 8gb. This system ram is what the console uses a temp storage and it moves data in/out of the hard drive for processing. As mentioned above, the PS4 with its 2GB of DDR3 system, is fairly limited but is aided by the smaller OS foot print. The XBOX One, as mentioned above uses 8gb of DDR3 shared memory. What this means is that both the system ram and video memory utilize this for function and being that it is shared, both the OS and IGP can utilize as much as needed but I believe the IGP is limited to 6gb max memory to prevent the processor from running to low on system memory. Now to the good stuff. Aside from the minor physical differences, they are far more similar than I am sure most speculated. Where the difference really lie, is in how they do what they do. Both console operating system use a form of Windows CE and the base code. Both console take a game, process it and render it to your display. Both console run at 720p max games and use software to boost select games to 900p. When seen on a screen, if you pay attention though, there is a clear difference between what you see. Sony, in order to keep memory footprint smaller uses what I call focus rendering which is basically putting the highest detail in the middle of the screen and allowing lower detail the further you go out from the middle. Doing so reduces the total amount of texture memory needed which gives a very smooth total performance of the console. XBOX One, does not do this. The IGP in the console, renders the same quality across the entire display and depending on system load can be over burdened. Couple this with a very robust OS system and you have a system operates at near capacity, all the time; hence why people say the XBOX One gets so much hotter than that PS4. So there you have it. The real difference between the two consoles. Very little internally, but the main difference is how the games are rendered. The XBOX One system is intended to be a media center that happens to game very well. The PS4, is a game platform that happens to media center very well. In fact this is a common argument for the PS4 superiority for gaming but is it really a valid argument.