8th Gen side by side

By Mike on 8:26 pm

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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


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