Monday, March 16th 2020
Complete Hardware Specs Sheet of Xbox Series X Revealed
Microsoft just put out of the complete hardware specs-sheet of its next-generation Xbox Series X entertainment system. The list of hardware can go toe to toe with any modern gaming desktop, and even at its production scale, we're not sure if Microsoft can break-even at around $500, possibly counting on game and DLC sales to recover some of the costs and turn a profit. To begin with the semi-custom SoC at the heart of the beast, Microsoft partnered with AMD to deploy its current-generation "Zen 2" x86-64 CPU cores. Microsoft confirmed that the SoC will be built on the 7 nm "enhanced" process (very likely TSMC N7P). Its die-size is 360.45 mm².
The chip packs 8 "Zen 2" cores, with SMT enabling 16 logical processors, a humongous step up from the 8-core "Jaguar enhanced" CPU driving the Xbox One X. CPU clock speeds are somewhat vague. It points to 3.80 GHz nominal and 3.66 GHz with SMT enabled. Perhaps the console can toggle SMT somehow (possibly depending on whether a game requests it). There's no word on the CPU's cache sizes.
The graphics processor is another key component of the SoC given its lofty design goal of being able to game at 4K UHD with real-time ray-tracing. This GPU is based on AMD's upcoming RDNA2 graphics architecture, which is a step up from "Navi" (RDNA), in featuring real-time ray-tracing hardware optimized for DXR 1.1 and support for variable-rate shading (VRS). The GPU features 52 compute units (3,328 stream processors provided each CU has 64 stream processors in RDNA2). The GPU ticks at an engine clock speed of up to 1825 MHz, and has a peak compute throughput of 12 TFLOPs (not counting CPU). The display engine supports resolutions of up to 8K, even though the console's own performance targets at 4K at 60 frames per second, and up to 120 FPS. Variable refresh-rate is supported.
The memory subsystem is similar to what we reported earlier today - a 320-bit GDDR6 memory interface holding 16 GB of memory (mixed chip densities). It's becoming clear that Microsoft isn't implementing a hUMA common memory pool approach. 10 GB of the 16 GB runs at 560 GB/s bandwidth, while 6 GB of it runs at 336 GB/s. Storage is another area that's receiving big hardware uplifts: the Xbox Series X features a 1 TB NVMe SSD with 2400 MB/s peak sequential transfer rate, and an option for an additional 1 TB NVMe storage through an expansion module. External storage devices are supported, too, over 10 Gbps USB 3.2 gen 2. The console is confirmed to feature a Blu-ray drive that supports 4K UHD Blu-ray playback. All these hardware specs combine toward what Microsoft calls the "Xbox Velocity Architecture." Microsoft is also working toward improving the input latency of its game controllers.
The chip packs 8 "Zen 2" cores, with SMT enabling 16 logical processors, a humongous step up from the 8-core "Jaguar enhanced" CPU driving the Xbox One X. CPU clock speeds are somewhat vague. It points to 3.80 GHz nominal and 3.66 GHz with SMT enabled. Perhaps the console can toggle SMT somehow (possibly depending on whether a game requests it). There's no word on the CPU's cache sizes.
The memory subsystem is similar to what we reported earlier today - a 320-bit GDDR6 memory interface holding 16 GB of memory (mixed chip densities). It's becoming clear that Microsoft isn't implementing a hUMA common memory pool approach. 10 GB of the 16 GB runs at 560 GB/s bandwidth, while 6 GB of it runs at 336 GB/s. Storage is another area that's receiving big hardware uplifts: the Xbox Series X features a 1 TB NVMe SSD with 2400 MB/s peak sequential transfer rate, and an option for an additional 1 TB NVMe storage through an expansion module. External storage devices are supported, too, over 10 Gbps USB 3.2 gen 2. The console is confirmed to feature a Blu-ray drive that supports 4K UHD Blu-ray playback. All these hardware specs combine toward what Microsoft calls the "Xbox Velocity Architecture." Microsoft is also working toward improving the input latency of its game controllers.
128 Comments on Complete Hardware Specs Sheet of Xbox Series X Revealed
Games are designed to be photorealistic otherwise we would have stuck at 1990 graphics with 2 polygons max
Something techy after watching videos about the XBOX's APU specs: If that 52CU GPU allows for constant 1.8GHz for less than 150W (simple assumption as with another 50W the APU will reach 200W in total which is a sensible limit) while possibly matching 2080 Super performance, the RDNA2 efficiency will be a great breakthrough in compute efficiency in general. My 5c.
Hell just the shadow improvements alone in the new CoD is enough to keep me interested in where this could go and hope hardware ray tracing becomes a standard.
You need quantum computing for ray-tracing to have real value in reality.
Look at the PS4 Pro vs One X. One vs PS4.
You could run a copy virtualized, but then you're just increasing complexity to nincompoops. It'll be infected by the end of day 1 and lead to angry customers that wouldn't know how to press a reset button if you stapled it to their forehead. And eating storage space, and a hundred dumb things only the general population could conjure.
K.I.S.S.
The console you want would cost $1000-1500 dollars.
At least make the request reasonable.
I mean: if new games work on both Xbox One and Series, there's really no need to replace what they have. They're offering a new model above those existing - with prices shifting over time to make room for another gen.
It's almost exactly what Sony does in cameras (unlike most competition). They launch a top model, but keep making the earlier ones for few years, so eventually they have a full lineup.
We could see more frequent launches as well (a single top model every 2-3 years).Sure, but that would move consoles from cheap "gaming for everybody" to a more high-end market. Less volume, probably less games. Higher margin.
Maybe smartphones are eating into the casual, mass-market gaming - like they did with PCs and cameras. I don't know. But in those markets we've seen the (potentially) exact same reaction: focus on a high-end, high-paying client.You're an engineer. Is that a pick-up line? Hilarious.I don't understand the comparing part. The fact that these consoles are expensive to make leaked a long time ago. It's not official, but it's pretty much as certain as the specs at this point.
BMW: shadow under car, when body illumination suggests that most light comes from the side.
3 cars: front light reflections don't line up with the lamps. This likely means the cars are modeled as boxes for lighting interaction with environment. That's miles away from ray tracing.
But you're right: we don't need RTRT.
And I understand you completely because when 3D games started to become popular I was just as unconvinced as you are now. I kept playing 2D/isometric games. The first time I had fun in 3D was in 2003 when I tried Morrowind.
Frankly, sometime around 2007 I decided I don't need games at all. :DWell, actually Xbox - like Windows 10 Pro and up - runs on Hyper-V. And Windows Store provides you with linux images. So if Microsoft opened access to the hypervisor, that would open some serious possibilities.
Sure, if this was made public, people would start wrecking their Xboxes.
But what if MS created an "Xbox Store" with productivity apps run in containers?
Your Xbox could become a NAS, a database server, a general VM engine.
Think about Synology Store and their VM Manager: www.synology.com/en-global/dsm/feature/virtual_machine_manager
There's absolutely no technical reason why Xbox could offer that. And it's perfectly stable and robust.
But generally speaking - your Xbox could really become a computing backend for multiple scenarios.
This could be nicely packed in the Windows ecosystem and cloud/edge/distributed computing idea that's already taking over.
We already get "Accelerate with cloud" buttons. We could just as well get some "Accelerate using Xbox"
Anyway.
Is there any information about when the PS5 specs are going to be out? I'd like to compare the two and decide which one will be mine :D
Most 3D games aren't fully 3D. Doesn't that bother you? :P