Microsoft Rumored To Release Budget Xbox Series S Console

[Uskompuf]

In a recent report by the Verge, Microsoft is reportedly planning a budget console to go along with the Xbox Series X known as the Xbox Series S. The Xbox Series S will be a successor to the popular Xbox One S, codenamed Lockhart it's set to feature the key next-generation improvements found in the Xbox Series X and provide them at a lower price point.

Sources say that the Xbox Series S will target 1080p 60FPS and 1440p 6̶0̶F̶P̶S̶ 30FPS gaming performance, this will be achieved with roughly 1/3rd of the GPU power at 4 TeraFLOPs, and 10 GB of GDDR6 RAM. The Xbox Series S console is rumored to share the same 7 nm AMD Zen 2 SoC a̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶c̶k̶ and the same ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD. The console may not feature a disc drive like the Xbox One S All Digital Edition. Microsoft is yet to publicly say anything about the console, so take these rumors with a grain of salt.

Update Jun 30th: Sources tell Eurogamer that Microsoft is planning to unveil the console at an event in August.



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[Caring1]

If it's all digital it won't need a disc drive, suckers will be stuck playing online content only unless there's a drive large enough to store all their games.

 

[arbiter]

So lower cost console is only 4 tflops gpu when the one x is a 6. So if current top end console of xbox can't do 60 fps what makes them thing a weaker one is gonna do it?

 

[Chomiq]

So lower cost console is only 4 tflops gpu when the one x is a 6. So if current top end console of xbox can't do 60 fps what makes them thing a weaker one is gonna do it?

Maybe because it will be aiming for 1080p60 and not 4k.

Edit.
This mentions 1440p 60, riiight...

 

[cucker tarlson]

1440/60 with 4tflops yeah good luck with that

 

[Deleted member 185088]

If they keep the same CPU dialing down the resolution and graphics could achieve similar experience at 60fps.
It's a good idea, and gives people a cheap way for next gen without sacrificing a lot.
Hopefully they offer it with and without disk, it doesn't cost a lot anyway.

 

[Naito]

So lower cost console is only 4 tflops gpu when the one x is a 6. So if current top end console of xbox can't do 60 fps what makes them thing a weaker one is gonna do it?

While developers do a good job at masking it, I believe the old Jaguar architecture is a fairly substantial bottleneck. So, even if the Xbox Series S takes a 2TF hit, it may perform very similar to a One X. Having said that, I still think it is strange to target only 4TF. Being only 1/3 of the Series X creates quite a rift in performance. Targeting One X's 6TF or going for 8TF would make a lot more sense.

 

[steve360]

Series X
Series S

Just need a Series E to complete the set.

 

[demian_vi]

Maybe because it will be aiming for 1080p60 and not 4k.

Edit.
This mentions 1440p 60, riiight...

the verge writer has already confirmed that it will have the same CPU frequency and its up to devs to target 1080p@60fps or 1440p@30fps

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1276908421112041472

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1276905852864167936

it should have the same framerates with the big series X but at a lower resolution

 

[dyonoctis]

Maybe because it will be aiming for 1080p60 and not 4k.

Edit.
This mentions 1440p 60, riiight...

As usual that 1440p might be game depended. some games like dmc5 don't need much to reach 60 fps in 1440p.

 

[Nephilim666]

Series X
Series S

Just need a Series E to complete the set.

Someone will have a series E trademark and they'll have to call it the series 3

 

[Uskompuf]

the verge writer has already confirmed that it will have the same CPU frequency and its up to devs to target 1080p@60fps or 1440p@30fps

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1276908421112041472

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1276905852864167936

it should have the same framerates with the big series X but at a lower resolution

Thanks, updated.

 

[B-Real]

So lower cost console is only 4 tflops gpu when the one x is a 6. So if current top end console of xbox can't do 60 fps what makes them thing a weaker one is gonna do it?

1. Vega 64 is nearly 13 TFLOPS, RX 5700 is "only" 8 TFLOPS. Yet the latter is faster by ~5%.
2. According to the reference models, out of the whole Turing family (including the 16XX cards), the 2080Ti has the lowest boost clocks (and the 2080 Super has higher memory transfer rate than the 2080Ti) yet is the fastest card of the lineup.

1 datum doesn't mean anything in itself.

 

[THANATOS]

Yes, we are talking about RDNA1 vs RDNA2 which may end up faster, but this is just lowend GPU performance, even RX 5500 XT has more TFlops than this and even memory is noticeably smaller. I don't think It's worth It to save some money to get this than It's stronger brother, when you can play on It for a couple years to come.

 

[1d10t]

M$ caught in pants down when Sony got two version at launch

 

[THANATOS]

1. Vega 64 is nearly 13 TFLOPS, RX 5700 is "only" 8 TFLOPS. Yet the latter is faster by ~5%.
2. According to the reference models, out of the whole Turing family (including the 16XX cards), the 2080Ti has the lowest boost clocks (and the 2080 Super has higher memory transfer rate than the 2080Ti) yet is the fastest card of the lineup.

1. RDNA1 is 40% faster than Polaris with the same clocks and specs, so this 4TFlops RDNA2 GPU has comparable performance to Xbox One X.
2. 2080Ti is faster than 2080 Super, because It has the highest processing power(TFLOPs) and highest bandwidth(GB/s) of all Turing GPUs and this doesn't depend only on clockspeed and memory transfer rate, that's just part of It.

 

[demian_vi]

M$ caught in pants down when Sony got two version at launch

there are rumors about the small exbox since last year, it's the other way around most likely

1. RDNA1 is 40% faster than Polaris with the same clocks and specs, so this 4TFlops RDNA2 GPU has comparable performance to Xbox One X.
2. 2080Ti is faster than 2080 Super, because It has the highest processing power(TFLOPs) and highest bandwidth(GB/s) of all Turing GPUs and this doesn't depend only on clockspeed and memory transfer rate, that's just part of It.

so the small xbox will have graphics equal to x1x, more powerful cpu, better ram and disk, lower power usage and ray tracing (I assume). and it's targetting 1080p players who want to experience all that without paying for 4k . it does make sense. also polaris-to-rdna comparison could probably be quite different than rdna-to-rdna2 so the small xbox might as well be better in graphics than x1x

 

[Cybrshrk]

1440/60 with 4tflops yeah good luck with that

Most ACTUAL sources say 1080/60 1440/30 which is what I would expect. The 60 fps games on Xbox series x will be 1080p and the 30 fps games may bump up to 1440p or possibly stay at 1080p if the game is REALLY demanding (or poorly optimized).

there are rumors about the small exbox since last year, it's the other way around most likely


so the small xbox will have graphics equal to x1x, more powerful cpu, better ram and disk, lower power usage and ray tracing (I assume). and it's targetting 1080p players who want to experience all that without paying for 4k . it does make sense. also polaris-to-rdna comparison could probably be quite different than rdna-to-rdna2 so the small xbox might as well be better in graphics than x1x

Right GCN tflops are weaker than RDNA2 tflops. It's another reason tflops comparisons are in useful within the same architecture.

The 4tflops of series S should about equal the 6tflops of the one X.

They key differences are -

1. The new series S will have the series X's exact same cpu which is miles ahead of the one in the Xbox one x (and was its weakest part holding the entire console back even though they had enough gpu power)

2. Where the Xbox one x and its 6tflops were always shooting for 4k, the series S will use what is effectively the same gpu power and that much more powerful cpu to truly deliver the same experiences as the series x (just at a PURPOSEFULLY lower resolution of 1080 for 60fps games and possibly 1440 for the ones set to run at 30 fps on the series X).


It makes total sense and because the cpu is the EXACT same it will in no way hold back games as the difference in gpu power required to do 1080p to 4k is 4x less. For games that are stuck at 30 fps on the series X drop to a 1440p bump is still possible and within that 3x lower processing power. Again some games may still need to go 1080p (or something in between via VRS and DRS).

Thanks, updated.

You didn't update the 1440p/30 fps part you left it quoting 1440p/60 and why many are questioning the article still.

While developers do a good job at masking it, I believe the old Jaguar architecture is a fairly substantial bottleneck. So, even if the Xbox Series S takes a 2TF hit, it may perform very similar to a One X. Having said that, I still think it is strange to target only 4TF. Being only 1/3 of the Series X creates quite a rift in performance. Targeting One X's 6TF or going for 8TF would make a lot more sense.

You do know 4k requires roughly 4x the GPU power vs 1080p and 1440(at 30 fps) is within the 3x less power (4/12) that differentiates them.

By keeping the exact same everything else (with reduced memory again because that'd directly tied to resolution) they can offer. Slower cost lower resolution version without compromising the experience of series x owners.

 

[Caring1]

Series X
Series S

Just need a Series E to complete the set.

It only needs U.

 

[Vya Domus]

This is a horrible idea and it will cripple game development across all platforms. Developers will be forced to adhere to the CPU/RAM limits of the weaker consoles, meaning the games will be as complex as the weaker consoles allows. The GPU situation can be dealt with easily but having a lower clocked CPU with less cores potentially and less RAM will ruin progress with this generation.

 

[THANATOS]

so the small xbox will have graphics equal to x1x, more powerful cpu, better ram and disk, lower power usage and ray tracing (I assume). and it's targetting 1080p players who want to experience all that without paying for 4k . it does make sense. also polaris-to-rdna comparison could probably be quite different than rdna-to-rdna2 so the small xbox might as well be better in graphics than x1x

4TFlops * 1.4 = 5.6TFlops
I used 50% for Polaris vs RDNA2.
If It's meant just for 1080p players, then the potential buyers are mainly with older TV, because I hardly can believe many people would buy a new TV with only FullHD resolution when the price difference is not very big.

 

[kayjay010101]

This is a horrible idea and it will cripple game development across all platforms. Developers will be forced to adhere to the CPU/RAM limits of the weaker consoles, meaning the games will be as complex as the weaker consoles allows. The GPU situation can be dealt with easily but having a lower clocked CPU with less cores potentially and less RAM will ruin progress with this generation.

It uses the same CPU...

 

[Vya Domus]

It uses the same CPU...

Even if so it will have less memory.

 

[THANATOS]

If the difference in price will be only $100, then the stronger one is a better one in my opinion. It's more futureproof with much stronger GPU and more RAM.

 

[Valantar]

Even if so it will have less memory.

But these consoles allocate memory dynamically between the CPU and GPU, and the high end concoles will use a lot as VRAM due to their high resolutions. Running at 1080p or 1440p with lower texture quality will easily overcome this, and won't affect development for the higher end consoles whatsoever.

If the difference in price will be only $100, then the stronger one is a better one in my opinion. It's more futureproof with much stronger GPU and more RAM.

There's no way the price difference will be only $100 with a GPU ⅓ the performance and less memory. If this is true it is clearly a value play, likely aiming for $300 or possibly even less.