Microsoft XBOX Scorpio SoC Powered by "Polaris" and "Zen"

[btarunr]

It looks like Microsoft will overpower Sony in the next round of the console wars, with a more powerful SoC on paper. The new XBOX "Scorpio" 4K Ultra HD game console will feature a custom-design SoC by AMD, which will combine not just a GPU based on the "Polaris" architecture, but also a CPU based on the "Zen" microarchitecture. This is significant because it sees a departure from using 8 smaller "Jaguar" CPU cores, and upshifts to stronger "Zen" ones. The chip could be built on the 14 nm process.

The SoC powering the XBOX Scorpio could feature a CPU component with eight "Zen" CPU cores, with SMT enabling 16 logical CPUs, and a "Polaris" GPU with 6 TFLOP/s of compute power. The combined compute power is expected to be close to 10 TFLOP/s. The Radeon RX 480, for instance features 5.84 TFLOP/s of power at its given clock speed. The CPU and GPU will likely share a common memory interface, belting out a memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s. The silicon muscle of this console should power 4K Ultra HD, 1080p @ 60 Hz HDR, and "good VR" solutions such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Games for the console could leverage DirectX 12.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[AsRock]

Wow we would not of guessed that in a million years.


I just feel real sorry for those who got the the last Xbox\PS, so sad i would of been totally pissed at them. So glad i am not in to the dam things not many games on them that i will play.

I have a PS3 still and only got 4 games for it in it's whole life, now that's a total waste of money . PC gaming or GTFOOH.

 

[EzioAs]

Wow we would not of guessed that in a million years.


I just feel real sorry for those who got the the last Xbox\PS, so sad i would of been totally pissed at them. So glad i am not in to the dam things not many games on them that i will play.

I have a PS3 still and only got 4 games for it in it's whole life, now that's a total waste of money . PC gaming or GTFOOH.

Look here https://news.xbox.com/2016/06/13/phil-spencer-gaming-without-boundaries/?OCID=ANNOUNCEMENTS_SOC_TW_ORGANIC_XBOXE3PS.

Games and accessories will be backwards and forward compatible on Xbox One, Xbox One S and Project Scorpio.

 

[Jism]

Wow we would not of guessed that in a million years.


I just feel real sorry for those who got the the last Xbox\PS, so sad i would of been totally pissed at them. So glad i am not in to the dam things not many games on them that i will play.

I have a PS3 still and only got 4 games for it in it's whole life, now that's a total waste of money . PC gaming or GTFOOH.

Lifespan of last generation consoles is just shorter then the ones you are used to play on, for example the PS3, or PS2 or even the PS1.

It's upshifting so fast these days that within 1 year already your console is already at it's capable limit.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Look here https://news.xbox.com/2016/06/13/phil-spencer-gaming-without-boundaries/?OCID=ANNOUNCEMENTS_SOC_TW_ORGANIC_XBOXE3PS.

Games and accessories will be backwards and forward compatible on Xbox One, Xbox One S and Project Scorpio.

true but why buy a slim when the scorpio will soon be out?
you would have just gotten an inferior product.
I also seriously doubt the dedication of developers post scorpio to put in effort to get the best out of the original xbox one.

 

[silapakorn]

true but why buy a slim when the scorpio will soon be out?
you would have just gotten an inferior product.
I also seriously doubt the dedication of developers post scorpio to put in effort to get the best out of the original xbox one.

I think it will be the other way around. Many devs, especially the lazy ones, will not try to get the best out of the scorpio. For example, they can make their games running at 900p 30fps on all three models, which should be simpler than adding variable framerate features that require extra works.

It's not like they'll get additional profits from games sold on the Scorpio anyway as I suspect that games will be sold at the same price, so why bother?

 

[ZoneDymo]

I think it will be the other way around. Many devs, especially the lazy ones, will not try to get the best out of the scorpio. For example, they can make their games running at 900p 30fps on all three models, which should be simpler than adding variable framerate features that require extra works. It's not like they'll get additional profits from people buying the Scorpio anyway. Since all money goes to Microsoft, so why bother?

Microsoft has never made money of the consoles, in fact they lose money on those.
They make the money of the games.
If MS tells the developers: "get the best graphics out there" (which they will, thats the entire point of Scorpio vs the PS4) then the devs will invest in that.
After that they will just scale the down to hell in res and frame rate for the original xbox one purely to make sure its still compatible.

 

[silapakorn]

Microsoft has never made money of the consoles, in fact they lose money on those.
They make the money of the games.
If MS tells the developers: "get the best graphics out there" (which they will, thats the entire point of Scorpio vs the PS4) then the devs will invest in that.
After that they will just scale the down to hell in res and frame rate for the original xbox one purely to make sure its still compatible.

I have edited my post because I meant to say profit from game, not the console.

 

[Jism]

It's rather making profit on licences for use of Xbox platform, not all games are developped by microsoft. The games store, such be found in the PS3 or PS4 aint for free as well.

 

[TRWOV]

Although it sounds absolutely delicious (specially the Zen part) I think I'll only buy Nintendo consoles from now on. Most of the AAA titles get to the PC after all and I've got enough games on my backlog to last me a lifetime already (damn my PS2 and Wii colections... yes, Wii)

Look here https://news.xbox.com/2016/06/13/phil-spencer-gaming-without-boundaries/?OCID=ANNOUNCEMENTS_SOC_TW_ORGANIC_XBOXE3PS.

Games and accessories will be backwards and forward compatible on Xbox One, Xbox One S and Project Scorpio.

I wonder what will be the baseline for the XB One. 900p@30fps?

 

[esrever]

The source only speculates it's Zen. If it is Zen then it would only be 4 cores 8 threads. A full 8 core Zen plus a 6TF GPU will not fit inside the power envelope of a console while remaining cost effective at all. 8 core zen is 95W, even the lower clocked low power version will probably be 65W, the GPU is easily over 100W. 200W APUs just don't make sense for consoles.

 

[TheGuruStud]

The source only speculates it's Zen. If it is Zen then it would only be 4 cores 8 threads. A full 8 core Zen plus a 6TF GPU will not fit inside the power envelope of a console while remaining cost effective at all. 8 core zen is 95W, even the lower clocked low power version will probably be 65W, the GPU is easily over 100W. 200W APUs just don't make sense for consoles.

Pretty sure it's all FUD. M$ has claimed the exact opposite of this rumor and has only mentioned the Xbox slim. Definitely bingo on power consumption.

Does anyone believe m$ can afford (sales wise) to raise the price of the xbox? Lol

And if any real upgrade is true, then we're talking holiday 2017 release lol.

Just read 4k at 60hz...bwahhahahahahahahhahajajajajjajajaana

What a bunch of LYING clowns. Fire them all.

 

[Novaguy]

Does that image say HBM? Is MS putting HBM2 in the console?

 

[ensabrenoir]

.....ok Amd is in everything. Lets hope the profit margins for the red team run black

 

[Dos101]

Wow we would not of guessed that in a million years.


I just feel real sorry for those who got the the last Xbox\PS, so sad i would of been totally pissed at them. So glad i am not in to the dam things not many games on them that i will play.

I have a PS3 still and only got 4 games for it in it's whole life, now that's a total waste of money . PC gaming or GTFOOH.

Why? I've been playing games on my Xbox since it released in 2013. With your logic I'd be waiting until late next year to play any Xbox games.

 

[AsRock]

Well if you don't mind keep throwing money at them good for you. Incoming another $500+ console.

I just like the mouse keyboard or other shit you can use on a PC than a silly assed controller. Controllers have their place but they just don't cut it for my requirements
.

 

[majevica]

Why? I've been playing games on my Xbox since it released in 2013. With your logic I'd be waiting until late next year to play any Xbox games.

Exactly!
I bought my xbox one Forza 6 1tb special custom console like few months ago and even i am not upset about Scorpio.I finally had some time for gaming wanted to play forza and halo and destiny even i would have to wait for 2 more years to play any of the games.And if any of these rumors are true we are not seeing Scorpio before Christmas 2017.
You buy consoles when you have enough games to play i might even buy ps4 in next few weeks because of uncharted 4 and that beautiful custom console, there is always something better to wait.

 

[Dos101]

Well if you don't mind keep throwing money at them good for you. Incoming another $500+ console.

I just like the mouse keyboard or other shit you can use on a PC than a silly assed controller. Controllers have their place but they just don't cut it for my requirements
.

Why would I need to? My current Xbox One will play games just fine when Project Scorpio comes out. If I want the game to look better I'll just buy it on PC instead.

I'm glad we've established that your opinion is just that

Exactly!
I bought my xbox one Forza 6 1tb special custom console like few months ago and even i am not upset about Scorpio.I finally had some time for gaming wanted to play forza and halo and destiny even i would have to wait for 2 more years to play any of the games.And if any of these rumors are true we are not seeing Scorpio before Christmas 2017.
You buy consoles when you have enough games to play i might even buy ps4 in next few weeks because of uncharted 4 and that beautiful custom console, there is always something better to wait.

Well it's not rumor anymore, Microsoft revealed the rough release date during their E3 conference. Regardless, we'll be enjoying our Xbox games just fine haha. I look at it similarly to the video card market. There's always something better around the corner, but if you don't jump in and buy something you'll be missing out on playing games.

 

[majevica]

Why would I need to? My current Xbox One will play games just fine when Project Scorpio comes out. If I want the game to look better I'll just buy it on PC instead.

I'm glad we've established that your opinion is just that



Well it's not rumor anymore, Microsoft revealed the rough release date during their E3 conference. Regardless, we'll be enjoying our Xbox games just fine haha. I look at it similarly to the video card market. There's always something better around the corner, but if you don't jump in and buy something you'll be missing out on playing games.

Well when i said rumor i meant about zen as far as i know zen is not confirmed , and if it is indeed true than i would be surprised if they can launch it before Christmas 2017 (i cant see them putting APU with 150wats or more in console so i am doubtful about zen but it would be great if they do it) other than that i completely agree with you anyhow this is win for everyone even pc gamers right now.

 

[N3M3515]

4K with a RX 480? hardly...

 

[Dos101]

Well when i said rumor i meant about zen as far as i know zen is not confirmed , and if it is indeed true than i would be surprised if they can launch it before Christmas 2017 (i cant see them putting APU with 150wats or more in console so i am doubtful about zen but it would be great if they do it) other than that i completely agree with you anyhow this is win for everyone even pc gamers right now.

That's fair. Although I would argue that since Jaguar is what, 95w? A Zen SoC that is 150w or less might be doable, but really we won't know until the thing releases. Exciting times though!

 

[RCoon]

4K with a RX 480? hardly...

4K content support, 1080@1080p for gaming.

Basically both MS and Sony are using highly dubious marketing wording - what they actually mean is they'll output 4K when you're watching Netflix, and at long last actually be able to play games above 60FPS on 1080p without weird upscaling from 720/900p.

Basically what we should have got last gen.

 

[Nokiron]

Does that image say HBM? Is MS putting HBM2 in the console?

No, that's just a concept slide filled with rubbish. 320GB/s is far, far from the capacity of HBM2.

 

[Ubersonic]

Does anyone remember when console makers used to tout the fact they needed replacing less than PCs? Lol.

This is a farce, the XB1 is less than three years old, by comparison the Mega Drive, Master System and NES all had new official games coming out over a decade after release.

I have a PS3 still and only got 4 games for it in it's whole life, now that's a total waste of money .

Me too, but when you think that it was the cheapest BR player on the market by a wide margin and was such a good media centre that it still stacks up today, it was worth it IMO.

 

[ppn]

8Core CPU Zen 32G DDR4. And HBM-equipped GPU with Amd Fury-like performance. sounds appealing and modular PC-like. At least memory won't be shared between CPU and GPU