Wednesday, September 8th 2021

Xbox Series S Refresh Rumored to Feature 6 nm AMD APU with 20+ Compute Units

Microsoft is potentially looking to refresh the Xbox Series S in late 2022 with an upgraded 6 nm AMD APU according to Moore's Law is Dead. The upgraded processor would be manufactured on TSMC's 6N process which boasts higher yields and could allow Microsoft to enable all 24 Compute Units on the APU compared to the 20 they currently enable. This increase in Compute Units and a clock speed boost could potentially increase the console's performance by 50%. This updated model would come in at close to 350 USD representing a 50 USD premium however the existing model would be retained and see a price cut to 189-249 USD. The rumor also claims that Microsoft will refresh the Xbox Series X in 2023 or later.
Source: Moore’s Law is Dead
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18 Comments on Xbox Series S Refresh Rumored to Feature 6 nm AMD APU with 20+ Compute Units

#1
Space Lynx
Astronaut
Honestly, $189-$249 Xbox Series S + $10 a month for xbox game pass... all the games that comes with that... It's really a golden age of gaming, especially if you are poor or just a teen from a lower class.
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#2
oxrufiioxo
Consoles are definitely the new budget tier option for gaming. Previously you could easily outdo a PS4 PRO or Xbox One X for slightly more than what they cost even when they launched but now you need to spend almost 3x to match the series X or PS5 for gaming.... A 6600XT is a 1080p card which might give you a slightly better experience than a Series S for 4-500 usd for a card that should cost $249 max
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#3
Unregistered
It seems RDNA2 scales well, so it could make sense to have 1080p/1440p/1800p/2160p consoles.
#4
londiste
oxrufiioxoA 6600XT is a 1080p card which might give you a slightly better experience than a Series S for 4-500 usd for a card that should cost $249 max
Prices aside, I think you underestimate current-gen GPUs. 6600XT has twice the power of Series S and ~85% the power of Series X.
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#5
The Quim Reaper
Not going to happen.

Smaller manufacturing process, sure, makes sense but more performance? Nope.

MS are not going to want 3 tiers of Xbox performance in the marketplace, 4 if any Xbox Series X upgrade is planned mid life cycle. It all becomes too confusing for potential buyers and too much of a PIA for developers to have yet another console spec to work to.
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#6
R0H1T
The Quim ReaperSmaller manufacturing process, sure, makes sense but more performance? Nope.
Why not? The more performance is wrt Series S isn't it?
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#8
ratirt
The Quim ReaperNot going to happen.

Smaller manufacturing process, sure, makes sense but more performance? Nope.

MS are not going to want 3 tiers of Xbox performance in the marketplace, 4 if any Xbox Series X upgrade is planned mid life cycle. It all becomes too confusing for potential buyers and too much of a PIA for developers to have yet another console spec to work to.
Oh I think it is very possible and absolutely a must especially considering the competition in the console segment. You think only from a perspective of a buyer and that is your problem. You don't think from a corporation perspective and how much money it would give. And yeah, it would give a lot of money and Xbox can be advertised as a better performer than a competing ps5. I'm serious. Your perspective is too narrow and you think only about one thing, yourself as a buyer. You have a premium products in the CPU segment for instance and that probably is ok with you but for consoles, you automatically say it is not possible.
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#9
R0H1T
ZoneDymothis guy again?
You mean his treasure trove of BS guesses & what not? Yeah he's like the WTFtech of YT "journos" :ohwell:
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#10
BluesFanUK
Slightly off topic - I've been playing a second hand PS3 Slim lately after my fat model died and it's silent. Compare that to my jet engine PS4 Pro and I don't want to go back to it.

Is the PS5 loud? Current (lack of) availability has prevented me from getting one, and that'll probably last another year.
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#11
oxrufiioxo
londistePrices aside, I think you underestimate current-gen GPUs. 6600XT has twice the power of Series S and ~85% the power of Series X.
it's a 5700XT great for 1080p and so so for 1440p it's useless for RT as well so really doesn't offer much over what someone could have grabbed 2 years ago for likely cheaper..... But this is a problem with all current gen gpu's the prices they are actually somewhat easy to get for is 250-400 over MSRP. At least with with the 6700XT you get almost 2080 ti like performance for 850 ish which is still less than what that performance level cost last generation for rasterizaion.

I have the same issue with the 3070/3080 Nvidia was super greedy on vram The 3080 should have more vram than the 1080 ti from 2017 and 500+ gpu should come with more vram than mid range cards from 4-5 years ago.
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#12
ZoneDymo
BluesFanUKSlightly off topic - I've been playing a second hand PS3 Slim lately after my fat model died and it's silent. Compare that to my jet engine PS4 Pro and I don't want to go back to it.

Is the PS5 loud? Current (lack of) availability has prevented me from getting one, and that'll probably last another year.
While I dont know, I imagine it will be, as a console maker, knowing your console has to last for years, it makes sense to push the hardware as far as it can go which means heat which means fans spinning hard (loud) to keep it cool enough.

Later upgrades with more advanced hardware can achieve that same performance requiring less power, producing less heat and thus less fast spinning fans thus more quiet.
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#13
Tardian
BluesFanUKSlightly off topic - I've been playing a second hand PS3 Slim lately after my fat model died and it's silent. Compare that to my jet engine PS4 Pro and I don't want to go back to it.

Is the PS5 loud? Current (lack of) availability has prevented me from getting one, and that'll probably last another year.
Me too. I avoided the PS4. I have a PS5 coming soon. I will be happy to report that the fan is quiet. That seems to be the case.

I don't like the X series controller. Others do but I don't.
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#14
mechtech
Can you make that APU an AM4 desktop part so I can make a new HTPC/light gaming pc.

thanks
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#15
Durvelle27
BluesFanUKSlightly off topic - I've been playing a second hand PS3 Slim lately after my fat model died and it's silent. Compare that to my jet engine PS4 Pro and I don't want to go back to it.

Is the PS5 loud? Current (lack of) availability has prevented me from getting one, and that'll probably last another year.
Depends on revision both are loud but the later revision is slightly louder and runs hotter
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#16
oxrufiioxo
BluesFanUKSlightly off topic - I've been playing a second hand PS3 Slim lately after my fat model died and it's silent. Compare that to my jet engine PS4 Pro and I don't want to go back to it.

Is the PS5 loud? Current (lack of) availability has prevented me from getting one, and that'll probably last another year.
Mines relatively quiet.... Much more so than the gen 1 PS4 Pro and gen 1 PS4 was anyway. I'm guessing there is some variance from unit to unit and my ambient is never above 21C typically 18-20c
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#17
Darmok N Jalad
I don’t see why not. Consoles today, especially from MS, can offer performance increases as processes improve. We saw it with the Xbox One S—a small gain in performance was added as the process matured. As long as the base model experience is playable, it’s a good thing.
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#18
Nihilus
The Quim ReaperNot going to happen.

Smaller manufacturing process, sure, makes sense but more performance? Nope.

MS are not going to want 3 tiers of Xbox performance in the marketplace, 4 if any Xbox Series X upgrade is planned mid life cycle. It all becomes too confusing for potential buyers and too much of a PIA for developers to have yet another console spec to work to.
I actually think it would be rather easy to code for. The Series S mostly uses One S graphics settings and runs the game at a faster frame rate and a higher resolution. The Series X does the same thing with the One X settings.

This new console would basically be a Series X at a lower resolution or a One X at double the resolution for most games.

For that to happen though, this new Series SS would surely need at least 12 GB of vRam.

Going forward, I see developers completely dropping One S support and have all consoles at similar graphic settings. The hierarchy (for less heavy titles ) being:
One X: 1440p/30
Series S: 1080p/60
Series Ss: 1440p/60 or 1080p/120 or 60 w/rtx
Series X: 4k/60 or 1440p/120 or 60 w/rtx

Demanding titles will simply crank down resolution as needed while the One X will likely struggle to hit 30 fps regardless of resolution with its older cpu.
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