[Official] Xbox Series X & Series S Discussion

[George P Global Moderator]

 

Here's the Series S box art.  It's smart of them to have them be different colors not to mention the totally different shape.  It's hard to mix them up once you know one is the S and the other is the X.  

[Steven P. Administrators]

Anyone else thinking:

 

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

NAh all over that Series X

[spaceelf]

Yeah the S is fine for 1080p or 1440p I'm sure but I want an actual upgrade from the X, not a sidegrade.

Edited September 15, 2020 by LostCat

[George P Global Moderator]

X all the way, but the S is tempting for those who don't care about 4k at all.   I think the S will do fine, but so will the X, specially with the whole all access financing deals they have going on,  those are pretty tempting IMO.   

[wakjak]

@ $399  for Ps5 Digital, I think they just killed the series S

[George P Global Moderator]

1 hour ago, wakjak said:

@ $399  for Ps5 Digital, I think they just killed the series S

I don't know, I wouldn't say that.  At $100 less it makes a difference to many out there.  Besides, the S is always targeting those who don't care about 4k, they're pretty clear with their wording that it's for 1080p and 1440p and not 4k.    $399 for the digital PS5 is what the majority expected to, didn't catch many by surprise, doubt it did MS.

[wakjak]

13 minutes ago, George P said:

At $100 less it makes a difference to many out there.

But is it worth the performance hit? If you've got an Xbox One X, there's 0 incentive to get a Series S or X at this point in time.

[George P Global Moderator]

Just now, wakjak said:

But is it worth the performance hit? If you've got an Xbox One X, there's 0 incentive to get a Series S or X at this point in time.

What performance hit?  By all accounts it'll run games smoother, load them faster to.  Maybe the 4k vs 1440p graphics difference is what you mean?  If so that just goes back to what I said before, those who are looking to buy one don't have 4k in mind, they'd much rather get the smoother 60fps gameplay than the higher res.  Besides, it can upscale to 4k if you have a 4k TV.

 

If you have a One X then you probably don't have the Series S on your mind to begin with, it's more for OG One or One S owners, in which case it's worth the upgrade without a second thought.   And the One X being a mid-gen upgrade itself, those, like me, who did buy one are always looking for the best and top end experience to start, if the price is right of course.  So I think, like myself, any One X owners are looking to get a Series X in the end.

[spaceelf]

 

1 hour ago, George P said:

I don't know, I wouldn't say that.  At $100 less it makes a difference to many out there.  Besides, the S is always targeting those who don't care about 4k, they're pretty clear with their wording that it's for 1080p and 1440p and not 4k.    $399 for the digital PS5 is what the majority expected to, didn't catch many by surprise, doubt it did MS.

Not to mention Game Pass being an insane value on top of that.

[George P Global Moderator]

Good stuff, no need to rush out and buy new controllers right away.

[George P Global Moderator]

Number of interviews out now that give more info.  Install sizes of games on the Series S can be around 30% smaller, if devs use Smart Delivery and only push out the 1440p game files and not the full 4k ones which take up more space.   Up to them in the end though.

[George P Global Moderator]

 

It's interesting how they're showing off this feature with the Series S, so any arguments about performance can be put to rest.  It's really just the difference between, say a  mid-range GPU and a high end flagship GPU in your PC.  You either run all the graphics at high/ultra or you run some at medium at a lower res.  

 

Being a PC gamer first before I ever got my first console, this idea is nothing new to us.  

[George P Global Moderator]

 

[wakjak]

3 hours ago, George P said:

It's interesting how they're showing off this feature with the Series S, so any arguments about performance can be put to rest.  It's really just the difference between, say a  mid-range GPU and a high end flagship GPU in your PC

Hard to say it like that when it's GPU is literally 1/3 the power.

 

No one said the SSD speeds weren't going to be fast, albeit half as fast as the PS5, just the GPU compared to the X is going to hold games back, Devs are already talking about it on twitter..

 

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/xbox-series-s-release-call-of-duty/

[George P Global Moderator]

4 minutes ago, wakjak said:

Hard to say it like that when it's GPU is literally 1/3 the power.

 

No one said the SSD speeds weren't going to be fast, albeit half as fast as the PS5, just the GPU compared to the X is going to hold games back, Devs are already talking about it on twitter..

 

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/xbox-series-s-release-call-of-duty/

If these are concerns how do these developers manage to make a single PC game?   

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

There's nothing holding anything back, games scale, they scale better than most software out there.   The two key parts of the system that would hold game development back in any meaningful way would be the CPU and the SSD or overall I/O speeds,  RAM would be part of the mix but since you're targeting 1440p tops, you don't need as much VRAM.

 

It's really no different from having a PC with the same CPU but two different types of graphics cards.  You're going to run at minimum (or a little higher) on the S and at recommended on the X.   Hell, the dev kits can switch between X and S profiles on the fly.   I know you've played on the PC, even minor tweaks to things like shadow details, or fog details, or even draw distance, things you actually hardly notice when playing a game normally, can give you a nice boost in FPS.      This is such a non-issue it's almost comical how this thing is even still talked about.

 

The same arguments actually came up with both Sony and MS were going to release the PS4 Pro and One X, oh no how would devs manage to work on two different systems, the horror. 

[spaceelf]

22 minutes ago, wakjak said:

Hard to say it like that when it's GPU is literally 1/3 the power.

 

No one said the SSD speeds weren't going to be fast, albeit half as fast as the PS5, just the GPU compared to the X is going to hold games back, Devs are already talking about it on twitter..

 

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/xbox-series-s-release-call-of-duty/

People seem to not realize 4K is basically exactly four times the content of a 1080p display.  It's literally that much easier on the GPU to do 1080p.  Even the AMD 290/390 and 480/580 vidcards are still great at 1080p and they're much older tech.

 

The GPU will do exactly what it's built for.

[George P Global Moderator]

 

Nifty for those looking to get in right away.  I never jump in day 1 anymore, going to wait at least a month before I buy anything.

[George P Global Moderator]

 

This is pretty cool, now you can get an idea of the size before you buy one.

[George P Global Moderator]

Interesting article about the Series S and how it does backwards compatibility. 

 

Source.

[Skiver Veteran]

I know it's not really the place but...Microsoft just bought ZeniMax Media... AKA Bethesda.

 

 

Quote

Microsoft has announced today that it has acquired ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks. As a result, the likes of DOOM, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and more will now be under ownership of Xbox!

 

Source

 

I've seen reports of this being a $7.m Billion acquisition, one that apparently Sony were in discussion with also.

[Louisifer]

"discussion" was probably as far as it went with Sony, Sony's ecosystem has been a nightmare for them adding things like mod support over the years. Bethesda have always leaned into Microsoft because of how helpful they've been to them over the years. 

[George P Global Moderator]

Looks like pre-orders have started in some parts of the world, anyone manage to snag one yet?

[George P Global Moderator]

 

 

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

Manage to bag one this morning!

 

Bring on Nov!