Monday, June 13th 2016
Microsoft XBOX Scorpio SoC Powered by "Polaris" and "Zen"
It looks like Microsoft will overpower Sony in the next round of the console wars, with a more powerful SoC on paper. The new XBOX "Scorpio" 4K Ultra HD game console will feature a custom-design SoC by AMD, which will combine not just a GPU based on the "Polaris" architecture, but also a CPU based on the "Zen" microarchitecture. This is significant because it sees a departure from using 8 smaller "Jaguar" CPU cores, and upshifts to stronger "Zen" ones. The chip could be built on the 14 nm process.
The SoC powering the XBOX Scorpio could feature a CPU component with eight "Zen" CPU cores, with SMT enabling 16 logical CPUs, and a "Polaris" GPU with 6 TFLOP/s of compute power. The combined compute power is expected to be close to 10 TFLOP/s. The Radeon RX 480, for instance features 5.84 TFLOP/s of power at its given clock speed. The CPU and GPU will likely share a common memory interface, belting out a memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s. The silicon muscle of this console should power 4K Ultra HD, 1080p @ 60 Hz HDR, and "good VR" solutions such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Games for the console could leverage DirectX 12.
Source:
TweakTown
The SoC powering the XBOX Scorpio could feature a CPU component with eight "Zen" CPU cores, with SMT enabling 16 logical CPUs, and a "Polaris" GPU with 6 TFLOP/s of compute power. The combined compute power is expected to be close to 10 TFLOP/s. The Radeon RX 480, for instance features 5.84 TFLOP/s of power at its given clock speed. The CPU and GPU will likely share a common memory interface, belting out a memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s. The silicon muscle of this console should power 4K Ultra HD, 1080p @ 60 Hz HDR, and "good VR" solutions such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Games for the console could leverage DirectX 12.
78 Comments on Microsoft XBOX Scorpio SoC Powered by "Polaris" and "Zen"
Laptop version for 8 core ZEN would fit within the TDP envelope.
The ps2 had games coming out years after the ps3 released. The ps3 didnt to such an extent, but it was 7 years old when the ps4 came out. It had a good run.
Also, since when were consoles touted as being replaced less often? PCs are upgraded, yes, but people hang onto PCs for more then 5 years. My old gaming rig is 10 years old, still works fine. my 2600xt was used from 2006 to 2012, a year longer then most console lifespans. consoles have been touted as more covenient, which they are, and more power efficient, which they are, but replaced less often isnt something theyve been sold on, ever.
The cheapest thing on the market at the time was a WD player, which I also had since 2008.
It had a jumpy HD playback, and cost $150 without a hard drive (it had a special slot for 2.5" WD Passport). The coolest thing was that it ran on Linux, and you could install BusyBox, FTP, SSH and even a headless BitTorrent client (but the total space for OS and packages was very-very limited).
Not as this really matters anyways as IMO they just not worth it.
Remember this console doesn't have to run all the other stuff a PC does. And while Xbox is now running Windows 10 it is a tweaked version for Xbox that doesn't require the same resources because it isn't running all the other stuff a PC running Win 10 does.
www.polygon.com/2016/6/10/11902000/ps4-neo-confirmed-sony-4k
wccftech.com/sony-ps-neo-polaris-gpu-4-19-tflops/
At least now consoles won't be so far behind and finally we'll start to see less of those shitty dx9 games xD
Basically, they both just made media PCs for the home for everybody.
Hell, why bother with consoles then?
M.S. plan to make an entity of sorts so Xbox will be linked to PC, which in turn will be joined to the web etc, supposedly to improve the users experience and usability, but it also increases M.S's database of knowledge on everything the users are doing and where.
I could see it pushing 4K @ 60Hz with some precooked code and a few less pretties, or 1080P and upscaled with better textures. We keep forgetting about the 10-20% improvement in performance due to less overhead and more direct to metal coding, plus the ability to set a hardware standard and the optimizations that come from that.
Regardless I don't think Jaguar is up to the job to do what the Scorpio is going to do.
Reminds me of the Sega Mega CD (and 32x) and Amiga CD32
I like the fact all this is going on as it is helping revive PC gaming:)
Also, this isn't a reflection on consoles overall including PS4, as much as an admission by MSFT that the XB1 was underpowered. They tried to market the XB1 being as fast as PS4 and close to current PCs, but anyone who played a PS4 and XB1 could easily tell the XB1 was a good 20% slower. And current XB1 really isn't feasible at all for VR, which is why we saw almost nothing-VR related in E3 from Microsoft and tons from Sony. Sony's got loads of VR games (over 50) coming this fall, so they'll have a massive head start on Microsoft. I still think the PS4 is just borderline for VR whereas XB1 couldn't do it at all, so it's a big gamble by Sony that people will prefer entry-level VR now for $399 vs. probably much better but more expensive and a year or two behind VR with Xbox and Scorpio, or dropping $1000+ on PC VR rig components between the video card and headset. Some will, but the masses won't be able to afford PC VR imo for a couple years until the prices get more sane. $400 for PS VR this xmas then starts to look a lot more appealing.