Xbox One a generation ahead of PCs? Not true, says Epic’s Mark Rein

Tuesday, 28th May 2013 08:54 GMT By Dave Cook

Xbox One was praised by EA’s chief technical officer Rajat Teneja as being a generation ahead of high-spec PCs, something Epic Games’ vice president Mark Rein has called out as false.

We reported on Teneja’s comments here, in which he said of next-gen consoles, “These architectures are a generation ahead of the highest end PC on the market. Our benchmarks on just the video and audio performance are 8-10 times superior to the current gen.”

His words prompted this response from Rein on Twitter:

So, what’s your take? Who’s right? Discuss below.

Thanks PCGamesN.



  1. mistermogul

    Of course this is BS.

    Just the hype train speeding things up…

    #1 2 years ago
  2. woe

    Why leave out the PS4? because he was obviously not just talking about the Xbox One.

    #2 2 years ago
  3. silkvg247

    So they’re saying they outperform GF680 or 780′s? A card that costs more than the whole console..

    Sure.. it’s like, magic or something. Graphics Pixies!

    #3 2 years ago
  4. MonsieurPupi

    HA! I love Mark Rein. Hopefully others follow suit and call Microsoft out on all obvious Xbox BS.

    #4 2 years ago
  5. The_Red

    Maybe Dave didn’t one a super long header / title for the article? Seriously, why do you have to be like this when it comes to MS and any and all things reported about it?

    #5 2 years ago
  6. Ireland Michael

    Microsoft is “self obsessed hyperbole” shocker.

    More at 11!

    #6 2 years ago
  7. Kieran

    we all know the ps4 is better than the xbox one in terms of performance !! but does he mean just xbox one or ps4 as well because said ps4 is 50% better than xbox one

    #7 2 years ago
  8. DrDamn

    He didn’t actually say that, he was talking architecturally not performance in the PC comparison, but articles like the one Mark Rein linked didn’t really make that clear.

    #8 2 years ago
  9. Madlink

    @6 I think he has a fair point as the original source story had this headline; ‘Epic Games VP: Next gen consoles being ahead of PC is bullshit’ which was then turned into an obviously negative Xbox One story, which then leads to comments like #5.

    #9 2 years ago
  10. The_Red

    I see. While I do believe that woe is being over protective about MS and to oddly their interests, I can see the point here. In that case, I apologize to woe about direct confrontation / semi-accusation.

    #10 2 years ago
  11. redwood

    Rein might have to eat his words if Ms decides to jump in.

    #11 2 years ago
  12. Atmey

    While gaming console has an advantage of being “exact specs” which allows develops to utilize 100% of it’s power unlike it PC, it is highly doubtful it will surpass high end GPUs, my uneducated guess would be around the power of GTX 660 which is pretty decent for starting point of high end gaming, but nowhere “generation ahead”.

    We can’t know for sure unless we see the actual numbers.

    #12 2 years ago
  13. Francis O

    My Intel i7 GeForce GT is a middle of the line Asus Gaming Labtop and it’s just as strong as the PS4 and Xbox One as far as graphics go.

    My processor destroys the processors on the Xbox One and PS4. EA is just riding MS dick cause of the exclusive partnership.

    And Mark Rein obviously has some business with Sony. He did say the PS4 was the “Perfect PC” which is bullshit as well.

    The perfect PC can run every game in 60 FPS or higher. The PS4 will have many games that run in 30 FPS.

    DmC Devil May Cry on the PC at 60 FPS makes it a much better game. Same goes for Tomb Raider on PC. Much better at 60 FPS over 30 FPS.

    #13 2 years ago
  14. Templar_Dante

    Francis O ” My processor destroys the processors on the Xbox One and PS4.”

    For a second, I distanced my thoughts from gaming, computers and consoles..
    and that one line just sounded so lame..
    “destroys”… does it roughen it up and steal their lunch money? Or maybe take it out in the schoolyard and knock its teeth out?

    yeah buddy… PC gamers and their overcompensation in the eternal battle in the “my penis is bigger than yours” contest.

    #14 2 years ago
  15. Samoan Spider

    @15 As a PC gamer, I can safely say it’s fucking boring reading posts like his. It gets worse with the in-fighting too because of the inherent snobbery involving nVidia and Intel products. Research done by many others suggests that the amount of elitist behaviour is inversely proportional to penis size :)

    #15 2 years ago
  16. ps3fanboy

    of course the xbone is not ahead of pc. xbone is less powerful than a ps4 and the xbone depend on cloud for its powers because its full of drm. but if they have asked the same question about the ps4, then they would get a different answer. because the ps4 is really ahead of pc with its ram and hw. on the ps4 you write code direct to the hw, so the possibilities is endless. just remember the ps3 have 256mb of ram(for games) and a 3.3ghz cpu. just look at the games gow4,uncharted3,kz3,last of us and more its mind blowing, no pc with same specification can do that. the ps4 is a real beast and will out power pc for years to come, there is no doubt about it.

    #16 2 years ago
  17. DrDamn

    Performance is still not the same as Architecture how ever much you willy wave your PC fps.

    Architecture is design, how stuff links up and talks to each other. For example memory shared between GPU and CPU. Architecturally the PS4 (and probably XBox One) are better designed than a current PC PCIe set-up. Not faster than the best PC, but a better architectural design to get the most from the components.

    #17 2 years ago
  18. Mike W

    This argument over PC vs consoles is so pointless. A machine that can be customize on a monthly basis vs ones that cannot, is a pretty pointless argument don’t you think?

    #18 2 years ago
  19. mxmassef

    Ps4 is not even near to be a generation ahead of PC but you wuoldnt get as good pc as ps4 is for 700€ ( at least in my country). If you want to know how powerful ps4 is go and watch gamedebates benchmarks. Ps4 beats easily a pc which is made in 2012 Q4 and it cost 700€.
    But the biggest thing is the optimizing. Ps3 runs games like COD on full hd and 60 fps but pc with similiar specs to it cant even run cod ( like my pc). It is going to be very interesting to see how amazing games are going to look on ps4 :).

    #19 2 years ago
  20. Reddpayn

    When ps4 comes the games on it x1 and on pc will look the same for maybe 2 years and then the developers start to make use of pc and after that the games will start to look better than on consoles. Sure if you want to buy a 3x higher price pc than ps4 and play the same games with little better fps, nothing wont stop you. I would propably do the if i was a millionaire

    #20 2 years ago
  21. DrDamn

    @Francis O
    What GPU is it out of interest?

    #21 2 years ago
  22. Kristian

    #18, the whole 10x thing only makes sense for performance not architecture. The EA guy was saying it has 10x the performance due to the (allegedly) better architecture.

    #22 2 years ago
  23. DrDamn

    The performance comparison is in relation to current gen consoles, not PCs. It makes absolutely no sense as a comparison to PC as what is a current gen PC you could use as the baseline? It only makes sense in relation to current gen consoles and if you look at the full quote rather than the abridged versions floating about that is what it is…

    “Both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have adopted electronics and an integrated systems-on-a -chip (soc) architecture that unleashes magnitudes more compute and graphics power than the current generation of consoles. These architectures are a generation ahead of the highest end PC on the market and their unique design of the hardware, the underlying operating system and the live service layer create one of the most compelling platforms to reimagine game mechanics. Our benchmarks on just the video and audio performance are 8-10 times superior to the current gen.”

    #23 2 years ago
  24. xAKUM3TSUx

    At this point I don’t want to defend MS but the article in reference clearly states nxt gen consoles: PS4 and Xbox One. -_- I’ve read articles and comments on here long enough to notice when I see a fanboy. Especially one that makes it standout obvious he’s a fanboy…Call me dum…..(b)

    #24 2 years ago
  25. Erthazus

    Look at Unreal engine 4 demo for PS4 and PC for example.
    Consoles are already outdated before they even came out.

    PS4 and Xbox One are just a FULL HD Upgrade and that’s it.

    #25 2 years ago
  26. Mjorh

    Obviously neither xboxone nor PS4 can’t be as good as High-End PCs .
    Btw its a bad joke! we never ever gonna see something like this: PC<Consoles !

    #26 2 years ago
  27. Cort

    Nobody is saying the XBox One is more important that any PC can possibly be. That is demonstrably absurd. What they are saying is that devs have an idea of the average gaming PC setup, and that the One (and the PS4) are better than that typical PC. You may disagree even with that, but at least accept that is what they are saying.

    #27 2 years ago
  28. fearmonkey

    I like Mark, he says what he thinks, for good or bad.
    I would trust Mark with this one :)

    The PS4 is comparable to a ATI 7850 and the 360 is comparable to a ATI 7770. The PS4′s GPU is simply better than the Xbox ONE’s, and thats because MS made a bet and lost. They really thought that they would be the only 8GB console, and that PS4 would have only 4GB, so they would have an advantage there. They skimped on the GPU for the memory and ESDRAM and Sony surprised everyone by being able to do 8GB of GDDR5, MS never saw that coming.

    Put simply, the PS4 is not comparable to a High end PC in physics and CPU processing, and Filtering and Antialising performance, but as long as the game is primarily GPU heavy it can be optimized to be as good as a high mid range or lower high end PC. The 7850 GPU is a pretty good GPU actually and currently priced around $179 to $200, the 7770 is currently priced around $120 to $150. The 7770 scores about 3500 in 3Dmark 11, the 7850 scores about 5500, compare both to a GTX580 or Ati 7870 which is about 6600, and the highest end cards go 8000 to 10000,
    So saying the Xbox one with it’s 7770 class GPU is faster than a high end PC is quite a stretch.

    #28 2 years ago
  29. Cipheos

    I run an XFX R7970 DD Black, I’d like to see microsoft top that… I’ll stick to my 360 for a while anyway…

    #29 2 years ago
  30. nollie4545


    If the architecture in Xbox and PS4 was THAT GOOD, it would be in PCs ALREADY.

    WHY did MS and Sony go for an AMD on die solution???


    End of story.

    #30 2 years ago
  31. DrDamn

    PCs are made of components. Hence some of architectural choices aren’t currently possible/considered. Unified memory for example.

    Oh and your superior PC keyboard appears to have developed a shift key problem. ;)

    #31 2 years ago
  32. TheWulf

    The most “Well duh!” comment of the year goes to… !

    I mean, of course they’re going to do that. Look at it this way (and I mean no disrespect to console owners, here): Consoles are beginning to cost as much as a mid-range computer that could outperform them. So someone could get a small desktop for the price of a PS4 and put it in front of their HDTV and use a HDMI cable to connect it, then they could use Steam’s Big Picture mode to browse their games.

    This would also allow consumers access to their files, access to sharing, access to non-always online systems, access to second hand, access to modding, and so on, and so on. It would provide many boons that a console currently can’t, not to mention that the computer remains the best media system of them all.

    So this time, due to the price, they’ve had to actually put together a massive anti-PC spin campaign. This involves having talking heads paid to say ‘Oh, this generation is better than computers!!!!11′ and other such nonsense. Anyone who looks at the specs realises that the PS4 is around a mid-range computer, whereas the XBox One is VERY low-spec by comparison.

    In other words, you’re getting a shit computer for a higher price. It’s essentially like buying an Apple product where you’re paying extra for the name and not for the hardware.

    They know that a mid- to high-range computer is going to do everything better than their consoles. This includes gaming and media, because the PC continues to be the king of hardware and software alike. Plus, the PC is already more in tune with web services, whereas console manufacturers have no idea how to be ‘in line’ with that. On a computer, you can choose your browser, on a console you can’t.

    These limitations are completely fine if the price is much lower than a computer. But this latest generation is charging so much more for their hardware that you may as well get a computer anyway.

    That’s why they have to spin. Because they realise that if console consumers knew the truth, they’d just buy a computer and be done with it.


    Just to drive the point home? I recently bought a friend a computer that could easily outpace the XBox One. The price of that computer? £260. The price Zavvi has an XBox One listed for? £400.

    You do the math. No, seriously… please do. You’re being conned.

    #32 2 years ago
  33. nollie4545

    There is no need for unified memory in PCs.

    There is no need for system on a chip or on die GPUs- both of these designs are compromises due to the need to reduce size, energy use/efficiency and heat. Which is why they are used in phones and tablets and netbooks.

    Currently there is no real performance hit in gaming due much besides pure GPU power.

    RAM speed is of secondary importance. CPU speed is pretty much the same unless you have so much GPU power about the CPU can’t keep up. Bus width or speed is not an issue.

    Lots of us now have PCI-E 3.0 equipped motherboards. Some have CPUs which can work with this. Some have RAM which is clocked at 2000mhz. How many frames per second have we gained? Basically bugger all. Maybe 10% on a good day. Even things like the GTX 680 can’t saturate a PCIE 2.0 bus really.

    The hurdle for gaming PCs is purely down to GPU power. All the CPU is doing is handing over data for the GPU to work on. In most games CPU use across all cores is barely 50%. For your average intel i5 or something thats barely ticking over, the things are designed for flat out computational loadings 24/7 anyway. Gaming is nothing like as demanding.

    The business end of a gaming PC and last port of call for the data before it hits your monitor is the graphics card, which needs fast RAM and plenty of it. Card makers know this.

    There is no advantage for PCs to have this kind of all in one package when it comes to their architecture. Back in the day we had Motherboards with a dedicated sound and graphics chip stuck on. We had on board CPUs where the CPU was soldered on. That stuff died out because it was crap, was actually more complex and did not permit someone to upgrade their rig at all.

    Thank god we don’t have that kind of crap in our systems.

    #33 2 years ago
  34. Richenbaum

    funny thing is with the higher console game prices, in the end you end up paying around the same as if you’d bought a pc anyway.

    #34 2 years ago
  35. DrDamn

    Your whole argument there depends on an unknown. Price.

    #35 2 years ago
  36. TheWulf


    Especially now that the prices of computers are p much cheaper than the consoles anyway, yes. You’re paying a higher price for a console than a computer, and you’re paying royalties on the games where you wouldn’t on the computer.

    Then you’re missing out on things like Steam sales where you can pick up games (including mainstream games) for next to nothing.

    And modding.


    It’s just all one big con. I feel bad for people.

    #36 2 years ago
  37. TheWulf


    Zavvi lists the XBox One for £400. So, no. I was aware of the price, I just didn’t mention it.

    #37 2 years ago
  38. TheWulf

    At the end of the day though… it’s like convincing Apple fans that they’re being conned (because they pay 3-4 times the price for the same hardware that I do). You can’t do it, they’re too overzealous and too committed. So there’s really no point. So I’m going to call this quits.

    The evidence is there and they can look at it if they want to, and I do feel bad for console consumers. I don’t hate console consumers, I never have. I’ve argued vehemently against the ‘master race’ bullshit, I’ve been banned from sites for it.

    I just think that this time it’s a massive con.


    #38 2 years ago
  39. nollie4545

    This is why I ended up buying a gaming PC.

    I went to my friends house several years ago. He had a PC but no consoles.

    Lets me have a go on Modern Warfare. Mouse and keyboard feels a bit weird but ok.

    Suddenly: What are all these maps i’ve never seen? Why are they so big?

    Show me some other games: why have you got more guns/loadouts/uniforms/maps?

    And then the crunch: why do these games look so much better?

    And whats this game Arma, we don’t have that on console?

    Then I realised I am paying MORE for a game but getting LESS gaming experience. The graphics are poorer, the game is more limited, there is fewer FPS.

    Logically consoles are just not worth it any more. Any serious video gamer needs a PC.

    #39 2 years ago
  40. DrDamn

    The price hasn’t been announced. The price Zavvi have is a place holder.

    Did that £260 include a controller or an OS?

    #40 2 years ago
  41. DrDamn

    @42 & @43
    It’s almost like people actually prefer something different to you isn’t it? Craziness. Like there might be games and experiences you can’t get on PC which you can get elsewhere.

    #41 2 years ago
  42. Hcw87

    That’s why i play on every platform, there’s exclusives on every one.

    I also have amassed quite a gamerscore since the 360 came out, which is why i play every multiplat game on there. Only use my PC for MMO’s really.

    Most people also like consoles because of the accessibility. You can just start it up and play, not put up with drivers/installs/updates etc. Not saying i’m against this, but the vast majority prefer consoles because of this.

    #42 2 years ago
  43. Vice

    Of COURSE it’s a bullshit, anyone is naive enough to believe it? Give it a year, less than a year even, and PC will already have more powerful hardware! Hell, my PC is 2 years old (closing to 2 and a half even) and I could play first next gen games like Crysis-3 and Metro Last Light without much problems!
    Fail marketing move aimed at retarded console fags so poor things kept munching on what’s thrown to them.

    #43 2 years ago

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