Microsoft Reveals Final Pricing and Availability of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S

[TheLostSwede]

I would be very surprised if the encode/decode block has a reduced featureset compared to the XSX. The area savings would be far, far too small to justify the cost of not just copying the design wholesale.

Well, it's presumably disabled in software, you know how these things goes...

 

[Valantar]

Well, it's presumably disabled in software, you know how these things goes...

That might be, though given that even the XSS undoubtedly is able to output 4k (upscaled games or streaming - there are no 1440p TVs, after all, and TV scalers really aren't trustworthy for gaming) the decode block needs to be fully enabled. The encode block might of course be partially disabled, but then it would IMO make more sense to capture the native 1440p signal before upscaling than to capture an upscaled signal anyhow. That would also mean smaller file sizes for local recording or easier streaming for anything live, so either way, I don't see a downside if there's no native 4k encoding in the XSS.

 

[Flanker]

Reminds me how the original PlayStation was announced for 299 at E3 in 1995

 

[F-man4]

I don’t know who cares but I don’t care.

1) XBOX game = Windows Store game, no exclusive.

2) RTX3080 overwhelms all consoles.

 

[kayjay010101]

I don’t know who cares but I don’t care.

1) XBOX game = Windows Store game, no exclusive.

2) RTX3080 overwhelms all consoles.

The RTX 3080 is also almost 3x more than the series S and requires a full PC to actually do anything

 

[Luminescent]

Wow, I might end up getting a series X. Right now I've got a 2700x/5700xt build, and I was probably going to upgrade to Zen3 and Big Navi, but I might just get the Xbox Series X and hold off at least 6 months on the PC upgrade until hardware prices come down or there are some discounts, especially considering my PC is good enough for the non-gaming stuff I use it for, plus it's easier to use a console and a television to play games with my niece than it is on PC.

This is exactly the fear Nvidia had and has, they are not competing with Amd anymore but more with consoles and what they bring, cheap hardware and lots of games properly made, it's not like tomorrow or the next month there will be a massive line up of games on PC that needs RTX 3080, people will wait and wait and wait until they will wonder if they will ever need a high end GPU, maybe a cheap 100-200$ GPU is more than enough or not at all if the old one is still running.

 

[TheLostSwede]

That might be, though given that even the XSS undoubtedly is able to output 4k (upscaled games or streaming - there are no 1440p TVs, after all, and TV scalers really aren't trustworthy for gaming) the decode block needs to be fully enabled. The encode block might of course be partially disabled, but then it would IMO make more sense to capture the native 1440p signal before upscaling than to capture an upscaled signal anyhow. That would also mean smaller file sizes for local recording or easier streaming for anything live, so either way, I don't see a downside if there's no native 4k encoding in the XSS.

Apparently a certain group of console gamers have 1440p displays that they game on.

 

[Valantar]

Apparently a certain group of console gamers have 1440p displays that they game on.

Oh, absolutely. But this is first and foremost positioned as a "next-gen console for the masses", not "next-gen console for people with 1440p displays". It will serve them too, and serve them well at that (especially if there's some hitherto unknown FreeSync-over-HDMI 2.0 compatibility included, but even then it will work nicely at up to 120Hz), but given the price and positioning the main audience is people not willing to spend that much money on a console - which is a demographic skewing more towards the average person and less towards the enthusiast gamer.

 

[ValenOne]

The effort for Xbox Series S's Ryzen Zen 2 with RDNA 2 IGP APU could have been allocated for PC market's Zen 2 with RDNA 2 IGP.

 

[mechtech]

I would be very surprised if the encode/decode block has a reduced featureset compared to the XSX. The area savings would be far, far too small to justify the cost of not just copying the design wholesale.

In theory? Sure. It's an X86-based AMD SoC, and the Xbox OS is essentially a fork of Windows 10. But it lacks a PC BIOS, there's no way to get a bootloader on there, there's no way to get it to boot off USB for installing the OS, etc. So in practice? No way, Jose. Never happening. Given how heavily subsidized consoles are, allowing running ordinary Windows on these consoles would essentially tank the PC market - why buy a gaming PC for $1000 or $1500 when you can get a machine essentially as capable, running all the same software, for the price of the GPU in the PC?

I figured as much, just for those reasons you listed. It would be nice though it they put that mobo into a laptop jacket and sold it for $1000 even.............one can dream.

 

[sliderider]

Not excited at all, except that it forces Sony to rethink their pricing structure. I'd rather buy a new video card for my PC, since all the XBox games will also release on PC. There's no point to buying an XBox at all. The Series S isn't even as much of a bargain as it appears, because you lose one of Microsoft's biggest selling points, which is disc based backwards compatibility. If you want to keep playing your old games, you have to keep your old console or repurchase all your old games digitally. It doesn't take many game purchases to eat up the $200 you were trying to save by buying the Series S vs the Series X, and you'll be stuck playing them at 1440p instead of 4K. You can't even argue "What about GamePass?" because PC has GamePass now, too, and xCloud will even let you play on your Android device like you can with Stadia. Why buy an XBox? I just don't know.

 

[F-man4]

The RTX 3080 is also almost 3x more than the series S and requires a full PC to actually do anything

Limited money buys limited resolution & framerate.

 

[Valantar]

Limited money buys limited resolution & framerate.

While that's true, building a properly 1440p-capable PC at $300 is still impossible. So the value proposition of these consoles is nonetheless excellent.

 

[r9]

Give me that Series X all digital for $400 God damn it!