EA Exec: Xbox One and PS4 Are "A Generation Ahead" Of PC

[Evil Smurf]

That's cute. I think they build super computers still. Yes they do.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

> EA says Xbox One Console is ahead of PC
> Xbox One uses paywall for used games and other questionably legal practices

...Does anyone get the feeling EA is basically one of those Syndicate-style Mega Corporations, but way less competent (and subtle) at what they do?

 

[Gaijud]

Man, first I read the article and was like what the hell? Then I actually read the article. Glad to see the escapist isn't above the occasional pandering and sensationalism.

Eh. Whichever you slice this, it's still condescending of EA. It's condescending and it's a little useless. It's been said a hundred times before - yes, the Xbone is one step ahead. *Right now*. It won't be in a year or two. All this is is EA and Microsoft trying to give each other a leg-up in marketing.

Give it a while and I guarantee we'll start hearing about the frustrating proclivities of the Xbone, and of how the indie scene is desperately struggling to have any sort of presence on that platform.

Is it condescending? I guess. "A generation ahead" is misleading I agree, but in this context it just mean newer, not faster. Absolutely nowhere did it say anything about him claiming consoles were faster than high-end PCs, and yet that's what everyone seems intent on burning this guy at the stake for. It's become so trendy to hate on EA people hardly seem to actually need a reason anymore and I guess I was just kind of bothered by that.

 

[AlwaysPractical]

Pretty much this. Going by pure numbers on there, it then seems to be somewhere in the area of an AMD 8350 and a 7850 for the PS4 and a 7770/7790 for the Xbone... that's a decent midrange/low-end set-up but nowhere near a high-end PC.

 

[Grabehn]

Oh look at the guy trying to get attention, I'm surprized he didn't talk about the Wii U to lick their boots too since they said they were not going to develop for that platform and now they do. What's funnier is how I could also play games, chat with people and watch TV on my computer over 10 years ago, and I didn't have to pay a fee to use any of those.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Yes... it's true.... I had to admit it...looking from that mighty fine chart, and looking at the average gaming PCs out there... Xbone and PS4 IS GOING TO BE ONE GENERATION ahead of the current PCs.. The way it's made, and how the hardware is dedicated to BEAT YOUR TV, and web browsers (maybe still few generations behind firefox though..) Their hardware capacities EXCEEDS my own PC by far...So... yes Mr. spoksperson is "wright", Xbone is NOT fossil, and PS4 means one up the PCs(AND TVs); They ARE ONE GENERATION ahead...

but PC advances a generation EVERY 6 MONTH!(TAKE THAT)

the price for Xbone and PS4 to beat high end PC's would make it too pricy for Joe public.

one of the more recent high end graphics card the Titan by Nvidia costs £800. add to that everything else that needed to make a console/pc run we're looking £1000+

i doubt very much PS4 and Xbone are going to compete with that

on a side note, i dont think they need to, theres more to gaming than graphics

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

There are different standard standards for high-end. I consider my ATI 7750 to be fairly high-end and the 7770 to be a really really good card. A lot of people would see it as low end. As far as Pakistan and India are concerned, the 660 and 7770 are very high end. I know Rajat is an American-Indian but his countrymen are still running those cards and are proud of them.

 

[blackrave]

Sure.
Today.
But what about tomorrow?
I'm not even talking about day after tomorrow.

 

[Tubzbuster]

I hope EA aren't being serious.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Dear EA Execs, everyone knows you're full of it. Don't even bother talking.

Of course they're saying good things about consoles, they're investing in them. And Microsoft is handing them DRM on a silver platter. The XBOX One is everything they want and love.

Right now, these consoles have at most a $200 price advantage. One that is quickly going to disappear.

 

[Aikayai]

That's a bold statement and Taneja offers no details to back it up, but I have to wonder how either the Xbone or the PS4 would stack up against a PC built around, say, a 4.5 Ghz quad-core CPU and three Nvidia Titans - since we are, after all, talking about the "highest-end PCs" available. Or is he referring to mass-market machines, the sort of off-the-rack (but still relatively "high-end") Dell rig your mom might buy to send emails and play hidden object games? That's a different scenario entirely, and one in which this comparison fits far more easily - but that's also a demographic that's far less likely to be interested in what Rajat Taneja thinks about the coming generation of consoles.

Having a 8-core CPU overclocked at 4.6Ghz and 1 Titan would still have about 3 times the power of a Xbone. I get that he means that there's a lot more they can do with consoles since they have a fixed spec, but they're still a generation behind. Hell, 32Gb of ram is really common in high end PC's, Dev's aught to get on board with that by next year.

 

[gorfias]

Mircosoft: "Oh dear. I dropped a few grand into your wallet. Silly Me!"

They need to get out of this mentality that all PC Gamers have some gray desktop from 1999.

All? Most? I wonder what their assumptions are?

In my salad days, I spent about $600 on desktop computers. New consoles appeared to be about twice as good (more like a $1,200 desktop of the times).

Now I am able to afford a $1,200 system. I'm hoping the PS4 can kick it's butt anyway but doubt it. But are the vast majority of gamers still in their salad days? Still at $600 desktops and laptops? I don't doubt the PS4 will, again, act like that $1,200 desktop.

I've heard a ridiculous portion of PC users are still using Windows XP. My nephew has a newer laptop that is probably less powerful than a current Xbox 360. (He just got a steam account and is just getting into PC gaming but I cautioned him to check system requirements before buying anything). I don't doubt the Xbox 1 will perform well more than double his laptop's capabilities.

If they're saying that Gen 8 will look twice as good as an I7-3770K with GTX Titan? My sides would hurt laughing. But most gamer PCs? It's possible.

EDIT: Drool Not double this, though, this isn't something virtually anyone can afford!!!

 

[sagitel]

so EA is being EA?

anyway as many others said before (and i didnt understand a word from their specs and technical things) the Xbone and PS4 are ahead in design but that wont last long. even if it would the pcs are still more powerful and faster. so whats the point?


i was wondering the the Xbone would use IE for browsing?

 

[Lightknight]

Pretty much this. Going by pure numbers on there, it then seems to be somewhere in the area of an AMD 8350 and a 7850 for the PS4 and a 7770/7790 for the Xbone... that's a decent midrange/low-end set-up but nowhere near a high-end PC.

Those numbers are making some significant assumptions that haven't been established it.

It also fails to account for GPU differences as well as significant optimizations of consoles that allow the dev kits and software to run closer to the metal, so to speak. This is how the ps3 and 360 can handle playing a game like Skyrim that in turn had minimum requirements well above the 6-7 year old machine specs. It isn't magic. It's that consoles function a little differently than pcs do because all the components are custom fit and optimized for eachother. Some parts are even customized and we don't yet know what that means. I'd say we're looking at midrange to mid-high. I would be surprised if it was high-end. I would be amazed if it somehow turned into a generation ahead. However, what is the average pc right now? This is the only reason I can think for the statement being said, that the ps4 is ahead of the average pc ownership cycle by a generation. I can stomach that.

In any event, the specs you show do shed some pretty amazing light on just how much better these consoles are than their predecessors. There's a lot to be hopeful about. Depending on the price, if it stays below $600 then we're looking at a great deal with $/performance.

The 15-20% number is based off my own tests with a setup similar to what has been mentioned. That was a 9500M GS and a 2GHz C2D in my case, which match up, roughly, to what's in a 360 on raw performance - it was an old lappy - i do actually still have some youtube videos hanging around from ages ago when i first had it and was all excitable (if you want the links i can message them you, but they're pretty awful seeing as they're from 2009 AND i was a nub at creating videos back then), but they're not all that useful for gauging performance because, well FRAPs noms the CPU.

Some games, like CoD, tend to run a bit worse than consoles at the same settings, some games, like a good number of UE3 games such as mirrors edge, run a bit better. Source games, not entirely unsurprisingly, simply run vastly better on a PC. It's a bit all over the shop, but for the most part when a game isn't simply an obvious bad port, the deficit is around 15-20% at the same settings. I honestly don't know anything from games more recent than skyrim though, since i no longer have it (i gave it to a family member) but it was a nice experiment into the claims of optimization while i did have it.

Now, since i'm not writing on an established tech site (hey, if anyone here runs one, give me some time, and i'll get a nice article written up!), i don't expect you to have to believe me. But i do implore you to have a look yourself if you get a chance so you can verify it yourself, since that's the best evidence you'll get

Hmm, It looks like your experiment, if done correctly, would be showing the 360 as having been 15-20% better than its equivalent hardware specs inside a pc tower rather than a broad comment about all consoles. Considering that consoles have moved towards an x86 format (VERY smart of them to do), I don't think we'll see consoles ever beat the pc market again. But I do think that the consoles are significantly better than their exact counterparts like you noted. 15-20% sure isn't 400%, but that's a nice improvement and I don't know how much better they'd have gotten at that over the past decade. PCs can't optimize because the pc is an idea of a collection of seperate hardware more than any one object. It's faceless without any standard. You can have a nigh infinite combinations of cpu's, motherboards, RAM, HDD/SSD/Hybrid, and video cards and so custom bridges aren't being made in between them. Even alienware just puts the things together, they don't customize the optimize anything else. You can have a great combination of hardware but one piece of crap component that brings everything down. You can have minor compatibility issues between components that slow stuff down.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I'm a console gamer and even I know that's BS. They're... not doing so well with the marketing for the next gen.