Vincent Teoh is a YouTuber with a really particular, though by no means niche, interest. As the guy behind HDTVtest, he loves to review modern day televisions.
He shared an interesting shortform video about the PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X, and we’ll just transcribe what he says below:
“Did you know that the PS5 Pro and the Xbox Series X has different HDMI 2.1 bandwidth? This is a TV that can report the HDMI bandwidth of any video source. You can see that the PS5 Pro has an HDMI 2.1 bandwidth of 32 Gbps.
But if we switch to the Xbox Series X and summon the Game Bar again, you can see that the Xbox Series X has an HDMI 2.1 bandwidth of 40 Gbps. 32 is less than 40, which means that the PS5 Pro has worse HDMI 2.1 bandwidth than the Xbox Series X.”
That explanation is simple enough, but still lacks some context. Teoh shared this video on Twitter with this caption:
“Just like the PS5, the PS5 Pro is still limited to 32Gbps HDMI 2.1 bandwidth (4K120 maxes out at YUV422), whereas the Xbox Series X (40Gbps) can do 4K120 at full RGB/444. Tested using a Philips 2024 OLED TV which can accurately report the HDMI bandwidth of connected video source.”
Teoh also made it clear that he tested both consoles on the Philips TB using multiple HDMI 2.1 certified cables and reached the same result, so there’s no confusion here.
Now, some of you may be wondering what YUV422 and RGB/444 means. We’ll share another video explaining that here, but what you need to know is YUV is a standard for color information. In the same way that 32 HDMI 2.1 bandwidth is less than 40, 422 is less than 444 for YUV.
In plain English, while both the PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X can output games at 4K, 120 FPS, the Xbox can display more color information.
Some gamers may react that they don’t care about these differences, for performance metrics they don’t understand or may not even tangibly see. We would like to remind them that these are considerations in purchasing consoles that now come into the asking price of $ 700.
So, if you’re a PlayStation gamer, or you only want a PS5 to play with your friends, this may not dissuade you into getting an Xbox. But it should make you reconsider getting or keeping a base PlayStation 5 instead of a PlayStation 5 Pro. The base PlayStation 5 has had great sales over last Thanksgiving weekend, and many of you are likely to find great deals on it.
But of course, there are also people who may not have been aware that the Xbox Series X, which released four years ago, is very capable to compete with the newer PlayStation 5 Pro. It’s on Sony for not upgrading this functionality. And they may have never intended to, as they could have designed their entire console around it.
So if you’re in a position where your choice between these two consoles could be up in the air, this is good information towards making that choice.
You can watch Teoh’s video on YouTube below.
