Xbox One NOT 50% Less Powerful Than PS4

Someone else has scrambled the jets at Microsoft to try and continue to fix all that was done earlier in the year, this time discussing about the power of the system.

According to this post on NeoGAF, Microsoft Director of Product Planning Albert Penello wants everyone to know that the way many have calculated the power differential between the two next gen systems is just flat out wrong.

Pennello gives the following information:

• 18 CU's vs. 12 CU's =/= 50% more performance. Multi-core processors have inherent inefficiency with more CU's, so it's simply incorrect to say 50% more GPU.
• Adding to that, each of our CU's is running 6% faster. It's not simply a 6% clock speed increase overall.
• We have more memory bandwidth. 176gb/sec is peak on paper for GDDR5. Our peak on paper is 272gb/sec. (68gb/sec DDR3 + 204gb/sec on ESRAM). ESRAM can do read/write cycles simultaneously so I see this number misquoted.
• We have at least 10% more CPU. Not only a faster processor, but a better audio chip also offloading CPU cycles.
• We understand GPGPU and its importance very well. Microsoft invented Direct Compute, and have been using GPGPU in a shipping product since 2010 - it's called Kinect.
• Speaking of GPGPU - we have 3X the coherent bandwidth for GPGPU at 30gb/sec which significantly improves our ability for the CPU to efficiently read data generated by the GPU.

He prefaced these points by saying he's not trying to disparage Sony or anything they have accomplished but that he needed to explain the way people are calculating the differences wasn't accurate.

As many will continue to believe there is a significant gap, Pennello goes on to say that Microsoft is working with their most senior graphics and silicon engineers to get into more depth on this topic and we will see more details in the future about benchmarking and balancing to the Xbox One that has been done to close the gap.

Is this another instance of Microsoft coming out of the gate with bad communication and trying to fix it too little too late, or does the Xbox One legitimately have more power than we've been led to believe so far?  Only time will tell.

Mike Patuleia, NoobFeed (@Suburban_Hell)