PC vs Console Gaming is always a popular topic among gamers. With the release of the next-gen gaming consoles PS4 and Xbox One and recent announcement of Valve's Steam Machines, it looks like the PC vs Console debate will grow more and won't die down any time soon.
In a recent report by Cinema Blend, The CyberpowerPC Steam Machine looks like it will be a threat to living-room gaming supremacy held by Sony and Microsoft as, by looking at its specs, it is significantly more powerful than the next-gen consoles at almost the same price.
Here's a comparison between the next-gen consoles and the CyberpowerPC Steam Machine
CPU
The Xbox One and PS4 both have Jaguar APU technology provided by AMD. Both systems also house octo-core processors. The PS4's core clock speed is 1.6ghz with a max OC range of 2.75ghz per core. The Xbox One's core processing speed is 1.75ghz according to Microsoft.
By comparison, the CyberpowerPC Steam Machine has an A6-6400K 3.90 GHz CPU from AMD. Compared to the tablet-style Jaguar APUs in the Xbox One and PS4, overclocked, the A6-6400K has more brute-force performance per core, even though the PS4 and Xbox One have more cores. Essentially, this could mean the A6-6400K could be out-classed with games that take advantage of multi-threaded design configurations, but those games are far and few between.
GPU
While the APUs for the Xbox One and PS4 have the CPU and GPU sharing a die, they're still clocked differently enough to stand against the comparison of what will be featured in the OEM Steam Machines. The Xbox One's GPU was upgraded by 53mhz just before going into production, allowing for an 853mhz core clock speed of the GPU with 12 compute units. The PS4 has an 800mhz core clock speed with 18 compute units. The PS4 has some custom design work done on the GPU which allows the GPU to out muscle the Xbox One by a theoretical performance rate of up to 50%.
The CyberpowerPC Steam Machine has a Radeon R9 270 with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM. According to Cinema Blend, The Xbox One's GPU is about equivalent to an underclocked 7770, which by comparison, would mean the R9 270 outdoes the Xbox One in memory bandwidth by about 150% and a pixel rate of more than 100%. With the PS4's GPU capabilities closer to a Radeon HD 7870, that would mean the R9 270 is potentially 17% faster when it comes to memory bandwidth and 11% more powerful when it comes to pixel computations according to Hardware Compare. Of course, the R9 270 can scale with overclocking, enabling it to outperform the PS4 over the long haul with proper cooling.
RAM
Xbox One is using 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and 32MB of ESRAM. The 8GB of DDR3 however is divided with the OS requirements, which takes up 3GB, bringing the usable amount down to 5GB. The PS4 also has 8GB but it shares it's GDDR5 memory between the GPU and CPU on the APU. There is continual debate about the PS4's OS RAM requirements but most suggest it, too, is limited to 5GB of usable RAM.
By comparison, the CyberpowerPC Steam Machine comes with 8GB of DDR3 dual-channel 1600mhz memory with overclocking capabilities. While we don't have a stable footprint on the SteamOS' RAM requirements, it's suggested that you have at least 4GB of RAM installed, which would mean that it's likely to use up about 1GB, similar to Windows 7. In essence, SteamOS has a smaller RAM requirement overhead than the home consoles and has scalable speeds.
Price
The CyberpowerPC Steam Machine is $499. The Xbox One is $499. The PS4 is $399. Even at $100 more than the PS4, the specs of the Steam Machine are obviously more powerful given their scalability; and given the open-source Linux OS, you can add whatever apps you want, for free. There is also no fee for playing online unlike the consoles.
The CyperpowerPC Steam Machine beats the PS4 and Xbox One in specs and price, especially comparing what you're getting in the package for the same price as Microsoft's offering and for $100 more than Sony's offerings.
