The specifications of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X won’t diverge all that much according to the latest leak.
This time it comes straight from a post on 4Chan. We’ll be the first to admit that this isn’t the most reputable source by any stretch of the imagination. Consequently, take this with the appropriate level of skepticism.
The source claims they work as a game tester at a third-party studio recipient of both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X developer kit.
The leaker explains they’ve had access to what they call the PS5 dev kit 2 – presumably an updated version featuring hardware changes. According to them, Sony has already shipped a dev kit 3 with further ‘tweaks.’
The source offers a list of the alleged specifications for both Sony and Microsoft’s dev kits. Here they are as they appear in the leak;
PlayStation 5:
12.6 Teraflops RDNA 1.5
AMD ZEN 2 @3.6Ghz
18GB GDDR6+4GB ddr4
[email protected]/S 500GB
Dedicated cores for RT and 3D Audio
Bandwidth 576GB/S
Xbox Series X:
11.8 Teraflops RDNA 1.5
AMD Zen [email protected]
16GB GDDR6+4GB ddr4
[email protected] GB/s 1TB
Dedicated RT cores (<PS5)
Bandwidth 596GB/S
It’s also pointed out that the Xbox Series X specifications are more or less final. The source expects Microsoft to bump up the console to 12.1 Teraflops alongside ‘some changes in RAM,’ but little else should change.
The main take away from the leak is that the specifications of both dev kits aren’t all that dissimilar when it comes to the CPU and graphical power. This shouldn’t surprise too many given that both consoles use AMD Zen 2 CPUs and Navi RDNA GPUs, albeit custom ones.
The specifications do suggest the PlayStation 5 has the upper hand when it comes to SSD speed and Ray Tracing cores. Sony’s console also has a slight advantage in RAM count. Conversely, the Xbox Series X wins out in CPU clock speed and SSD capacity.
While there’s no way to corroborate the leak, it does suggest the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will be comparable in terms of raw performance.
As we’ve speculated before, power is unlikely to dictate towards which console consumers will gravitate at launch. Choices will be made based on brand loyalty, launch titles, and price.