Eighth generation consoles side-by-side
With the Xbox One being announced this week, we’ve finally rounded out the list of eighth generation consoles. Here’s a side by side comparison of specs for the Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One.
Updated June 19th, 2013
| Xbox One | Playstation 4 | Wii U | |
| CPU | AMD “Jaguar” 8-core APU, x86-64 | AMD “Jaguar” 8-core APU, x86-64 | IBM Espresso, tri-core at 1.24ghz, PowerPC based |
| Graphics | Custom AMD GPU, 1.23 TFLOPS peak performance, 768 GPU cores | AMD Radeon APU capable of 1.84 TFLOPS peak performance, 1152 GPU cores | AMD Latte, 550mhz, based on AMD Radeon HD 4000 series* |
| Memory | 8GB DDR3-2133 with 5GB available to games 63GB/s bandwidth on 256-bit bus / 32mb eSRAM 102GB/s | 8GB GDDR5 at 5500mhz, 176GB/s bandwidth on 256-bit bus | 2GB DDR3-1600, 12.8GB/s Bandwidth, 1gb reserved for OS |
| Disc Drive | Blu-ray | Blu-ray | Proprietary Wii U Optical Disc, 25GB capacity |
| Internal Storage | 500GB, non upgradable | 500 GB, upgradable | 8GB / 32GB Flash |
| External storage | External USB drives | Unknown | SD card or external USB hard drive |
| Connectivity | USB 3.0, built in WiFi | Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, USB 3.0, Bluetooth 2.1 | 802.11n WiFi, USB 2.0, sensor bar port |
| AV Outputs | HDMI; supports up to 1080p and 4K | HDMI, Optical; supports up to 1080p for games and 4K for video | HDMI, analogue AV Multi Out; supports up to 1080p |
| Operating System | Xbox OS, modified Windows 8 Kernel | Playstation 4 OS | HOME |
| Controller | Xbox One Controller, 1080p Kinect | DualShock 4, Playstation 4 Eye, Playstation Move, PS Vita | Wii U GamePad with touch screen, Pro Controller, Wii Remote, Balance Board, Classic Controller, 3DS |
| Backwards Compatibility | No | Partially. PS3 games will be streamed via Gaikai. | Yes, can play Wii games |
| Online and Entertainment Services | Xbox Live, Live TV, Cloud. Xbox Live Gold required for online play | Playstation Network, Gaikai cloud service, Netflix, Hulu, RedBox Instant. Playstation Plus required for online play. | Nintendo Network, eShop, Miiverse, Tvii, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon |
| Requires Internet Connection | One time, for initial setup of console | No | No |
| Supports pre-owned games | Yes, no restrictions | Yes, no restrictions | Yes, no restrictions |
| Supports save states, instant on, background downloads and updates | Yes | Yes | No |
| Launch Price | $499 | $399 | $299 and $349 |
*Unconfirmed/Rumoured. These specs are only rumoured but will most likely be part of the final design.
For comparison purposes, here’s last generation’s specs.
| Xbox 360 | Playstation 3 | Wii | |
| CPU | 3.2GHz IBM Xenon tri-core, based on Power PC 970 | 3.2Ghz IBM Cell Broadband Engine Processor, 1 PPE, 6 SPE cores | IBM Broadway 32-bit, 729mhz single core. 2.9GFLOPS peak performance |
| Graphics | AMD Xenos 500mhz, based on AMD Radeon X1800 series | nVidia RSX 550mhz based on GeForce 7800 series | AMD Hollywood, 243mhz |
| Memory | 512mb GDDR3 clocked at 700mhz, shared between CPU and GPU | 512MB XDRAM clocked at 3.2ghz, split into two separate 256mb blocks for system and graphics | 88MB GDDR3 shared between system and graphics |
| Disc Drive | DVD | Blu-ray | Proprietary Wii Optical Disc 8.54GB capacity, GameCube Disc |
| Internal Storage | None to 320GB, hard drive or flash, user upgradable with proprietary hard drive modules | 20GB – 500GB 2.5 inch hard drive, user upgradable | 512MB internal Flash |
| External storage | Supports external USB flash and hard drives | Flash cards (early models), external USB drives, limits on ability to store games | SD Card, GameCube Memory Card |
| Connectivity | 10/100 Ethernet, USB 2.0, IR receiver. 802.11n WiFi can be added via a USB dongle, WiFi built in to later S models | 802.11G WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 | 802.11G WiFi, USB 2.0, Bluetooth |
| AV Outputs | Analogue output, optical audio, HDMI added to later models; supports up to 1080p, most games 720p | HDMI, Optical, analogue AV output; supports up to 1080p, most games 720p | Analogue AV Multi Out; supports up to 480p |
| Operating System | Xbox 360 Dashboard | XrossMedia Bar | Wii Menu |
| Controller | Wired Xbox 360 Controller, Wireless controller, racing wheel, Kinect | SixAxis, DualShock 3, Playstation Move, Playstation Eye | Wii Remote and nunchuck, Balance Board, GameCube Controller, Classic Controller, Nintendo DS |
| Backwards Compatibility | Partial, supports some but not all original Xbox games | Yes, Playstation, PS2 supported only on early models | Yes, GameCube |
| Online Services | Xbox Live | Playstation Network | Nintendo Wi-Fii Connection, WiiConnect24, Wii Shop Channel |
| Requires Internet Connection | No | No | No |
| Supports pre-owned games | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Launch Price | $300 Core / $400 20Gb Premium | $499 20GB / $599 60GB | $250 US |
Sources: Wikipedia, Xbox, Sony, IGN, Kotaku, Anandtech
