author: Bart Swiatek
Crytek Engineer: PS5 is Much Better Than Xbox Series X
Ali Saheli, a graphic engineer employed by Crytek, gave an interview to the Iranian website Vigiato. Saheli believes PlayStation 5 will be a better platform than the next Xbox in many ways.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- A developer from Crytek believes that the PS5 will be a much better console than the Xbox Series X;
- Reching maximum performance on Sony's platform is expected to be much easier than with Microsoft's hardware - as a result, the 12 TFLOPS of XSX are rather theoretical;
- The creator also praises the software and design of the Japanese console - the PS5 is supposed to be much simpler to program and offer more freedom.
Ali Saheli, a graphic engineer at Crytek, was recently interviewed by Iranian website Vigiato. The topic of the interview was the next generation of consoles. The developer thinks that in the end the PS5 will be a better platform - mainly because working with Sony's device is extremely simple and it's easy to get the most out of it. The conversation was translated by one of the Twitter users.
PS5 - developer's dream?
"The developers are saying PS5 is the easiest console they have ever coded on to reach its peak performance. Software wise, coding for PS5 is extremely simple and has so many abilties that make the devs so free. In total I can say PS5 is a better console."
According to Ali Saheli, the loud 12 teraflops of the Xbox Series X is rather a theoretical value that can only be observed in an ideal situation. In practice, developers will not have access to such power, because there is a lot of so-called bottlenecks between the components.
"A good example about Xbox Series X hardware is its RAM. Microsoft has made the RAM two parts. The same mistake they made with Xbox One. One part of RAM has high bandwidth and the other is low. And definitely coding for this could be a little challenging. Because the total amount of things we want to put in the fast part is so much that it may cause problems. And if we want to support 4k it will be another whole story.So there will be somethings that will hold the gpu off," we read.
According to the developer, the eventual result will be that the Xbox Series X will in most cases offer less than its maximum performance, while the PS5, on the contrary, will generally be able to deliver the announced 10.28 teraflops. In addition, it will require much less work from programmers. To a large extent, this is due to the increase clocks instead of an increase in the number of computing units.
"Raising the clock speed has some benefits like in memory, rasterizer, and every other part of the gpu that its efficiency depends on clock speed, things that's not related to CU count or Tflops, will work faster too. So the remaining parts of the GPU will work better," says Saheli.
The developer compares this situation to the operation of processors in PC games - above a certain level, the number of cores is losing its importance and the high clock is what matters most. The same is true for the large number of CUs (computing units) in the graphics card - it only matters if the developers are able to find a job for them. In general, in many respects, fewer units that are clocked higher are doing a better job.
Another difference is the OS and API
Another big difference between the PS5 and XSX will be their operating systems and programming interface - the so-called API. Xbox will use modified Windows and a new version of DirectX, and the PS5 will receive its own solutions, prepared from scratch for the new console. Saheli stresses that Sony has already offered better tools to developers for previous generations and it looks like the situation will not change with the arrival of PlayStation 5 and the new Xbox.
"The thing we saw in PCs, was DX12 and Vulkan. Without change in hardware, with change in the architecture of the software you can use the hardware better. This is applicable to the consoles too. Sony runs PS5 on its own OS but Microsoft uses a custom version of Windows for Xbox Series X. The two are so different. Since Sony has made a software particularly for PS5 It'll obviously give more capabilities to devs than Microsoft which basically brings PC DX to its console," we read.
The developer believes that the differences in the APIs of both consoles will also mean that, contrary to the concerns of some gamers, the PS5 will have no problems at the end of generation.
"Usually Playstations API generally gives you more freedom. That's why at the end of each gen you see more mind-blowing results from Sony's consoles. For example in 7th gen, in the beginning common games ran so bad on PS3 but in the end Uncharted 3 or TLOU were coming out of it," says Crytek's engineer, adding that XSX may have an advantage in terms of resolution alone.
When asked directly which device he thinks is better, Saheli points to PlayStation 5 without hesitation.
"Without a doubt, definitely PS5. As a programmer I'm saying that PS5 is much better, and I don't think you can find a programmer who will name at least one advantage XSX has over PS5," sums up the developer.