Eight-core 3.8 GHz CPU. 12 TFLOPS GPU. 1TB NVME SSD. 16GB RAM. Not a half-decent workstation, it's the new Xbox Microsoft has revealed some more specs for its forthcoming Xbox Series X, the fourth generation of its gaming console. Here’s the tale of the tape: Part Specs CPU 8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.6 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU GPU 12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU Die size 360.45 mm2 Process 7nm Enhanced …
*Nodding enthusiasticly*
Great sounding specs, except for that proprietary memory expansion dingus. Rip that out & replace it with another 16Gb of RAM & a second drive for use as the user file repo, then I'd love to have one...
Just after you give it Linux instead of whatever crapware MSHQ decided to shite all over it.
It's impressive, although a little expected (as who wants just a slightly better console for the next gen?).
The main problem though is that games that come out on both the Xbox and PlayStation aren't exclusive. So these days there really isn't any reason to buy one console over the other. And the worst thing of all is the lack of local multiplayer going in to games for these consoles now. Sure we can do it online but what if you've got your friends around for a drink and you want to cause merry hell locally?
Oh yeah, we've got COVID19 to stop that. I forgot.
Not true at all. I really like the overall aesthetic of the new Xbox, but would I buy one? No. The reason for that is because Horizon Zero Dawn 2 and The Last of Us 2 will be PS4 / PS5 exclusives.
I do agree with you that the underlying hardware these days however is much of a muchness. Give it a couple of years and I think both Playstation and Xbox will just be games optimised PCs.
That's already what they are. There's just a little hardware chippery added to make sure you can't just plonk Windows in it and use it as a PC.
I'm pretty sure the components are mainly off-the-shelf stuff. It's probably just the motherboard and BIOS that are a bit special, in order to enable the OS restriction and prevent tampering.
> The main problem though is that games that come out on both the Xbox and PlayStation aren't exclusive. So these days there really isn't any reason to buy one console over the other.
The PS4 exclusives of this generation sold that console to me. The Xbox exclusives on the other hand.. well, what exclusives?
I think it's a bit premature to announce that, Microsoft. You have no idea how game developers can bog down a top-of-the-line system with the latest titles.
There's a simple rule of thumb actually : a new game will require 180% of the resources your high-power gear has. It's only three years later that that year's high-level gear will be able to run said game properly.
Also, sometimes loading time can actually be used intelligently and be a valid part of the gaming experience.
I strongly suspect that some games (I'm looking at you, Civilisation) deliberately put delays into loading, just to make it a bit more difficult to reload when you fuck it up.
Civ6 seems particularly bad for this. I have plenty of time waiting for loads (from my RAID0 SSDs) to sit there and try to work out how much data is actually being loaded. A few bits per unit, ditto per tile, probably a couple of bytes per city, plus lookup tables and a bit over overhead, all adds up to, er, very little. And I've still got time to wander off and push the button on the coffee machine.
Of course, it may just be really shitty coding and/or data design...
The XCOM reboot ran in unreal iirc. However seemed to use single thread file loading. It took forever to load anything. However pressing shift activated a debug option that seemed to stop dumping resources on rendering a pretty and over the top loading screen and *actually loaded the level*.
Sped things up rather a lot.
Mass Effect elevators.........running on a high end PC made them a LOT faster........
I don't remember system specs ever affecting the elevator travel time. No radio announcement or NPC conversation ever got cut short.
ME2's loading screens were simply a video you had to watch until the video was finished, regardless of the background load state of the game. Replacing those video files with empty ones often dramatically reduced loading times on a capable PC...
Nope. Mass Effect 1 specifically used the elevators to hide the slow loading on the Xbox (was it 360?) version.
PC might differ, due to different PC specs. Also, it was so bad on the Xbox, those conversations finished long before the game actually did load... worse if the DVD skipped. :P
PS, you strawman with Mass Effect 2... like "My dog fetched bons" and you reply "Cats like fish, so you're wrong". Strange manner of conversation. ;)
The only thing strange about mentioning ME2 is that I forgot to begin the sentence with "And". It wasn't meant to "disprove" anything.
Back to ME, I never noticed a speed-up after upgrading to a dramatically faster PC (or upgrading a slow one with an SSD). I assume that means the base storage performance of a contemporary gaming PC was more than sufficient for the game.
I think EA hold the rights to mobile versions only—the Tetris Company can still release on consoles and PC. Puyo Puyo Tetris and Tetris 99 on Switch are pretty good (the latter is by Arika and is actually superb) and Tetris Effect, designed by Tetsuya Miziguchi of Rez fame, is an incredible piece of work on PC.
I really, really like Tetris.
Personally I'm more worried about what happens when the internal SSD starts to reach it's very finite number of writes.
With the use of SSD as additional RAM for the GPU, number of suspend states and constant autosave writes I do have concerns no matter how good the write levelling is (and with the size of games the drives will be sitting pretty close to full most of the time)
At least with a PC you can replace an SSD easily, not so with a console.
It maybe custom, which is a shame and in my mind daft. but the SSD will well outlive the console... Ive had less SSD's fail on me than spinning disks, even had a bunch of consumer ones in a RAID on a production HyperV server, after 2 years they were still 98% health - 4 years later one is still the main drive in my home server.
as for easy to replace a console drive? im not sure about the XBox, but the PS4 is a user replaceable part.... it just slides in the side, no funny screws, seals or firmware.
"At least with a PC you can replace an SSD easily, not so with a console."
Depends on the console. Most modern units that use hard drives rely on a standard design (like 2.5" SATA laptop hard drives) that make for easy service like you see on laptops. You open a door, pull the old drive out, slot the new one in.
NVMe isn't too much different and can still allow for quick and simple service depending on the form factor in use. A U.2 NVMe drive would slot like a SATA one while an M.2 would probably use a trap-door design (the latter would be a bit trickier as it allows for multiple size factors).
Will it run linux?
Well doubtful MS will support this officially, but the more console manufacturers try to lock down their kit to not allow 3rd party code to run, the more the hacker community will try and defeat it.
The PS3 was not jail breaked until after Sony removed the 'Other OS' option possibly because hackers could already run Linux on it and saw less of a challenge to hack it.
> The PS3 was not jail breaked until after Sony removed the 'Other OS' option possibly because hackers could already run Linux on it and saw less of a challenge to hack it.
Sony literally sued one of the guys ("Geohot") who did the jail breaking.
Stopped using my PS3 the day Sony did that, and haven't bought a Sony product since. Nor planning to, ever.
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