Xbox One S/X and PlayStation 4/Pro end-of-life

king_thenorth · December 23, 2020

I have had multiple Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles: both original, slim, and pro/x models. As these consoles go EOL and show up in more numbers used or broken on sites like eBay, there are some things that can be done to keep them running and usable, and ways they can still get use.

The PS4 has had one of the best library's for exclusives, and even in the next year or so, lots of games including horizons: far west will be coming to the current gen console. These consoles still make good devices for younger siblings, cousins, grandchildren to use to play games, especially with the large amount of used games and large back catalog. A lot of games can be had for cheap. Also, since all the PS4 consoles have a disc drive, if you live in rural areas with poor or very data capped internet, then the discs could be very useful to you. If you go the PS4 route, try for the pro if you plan to use it for gaming. I also recommend replacing the thermal paste in the system. Every time I buy one of these last gen consoles, I always replace the thermal paste first thing, then usually replace the HDD, since I mostly buy ones with bricked drives. I also usually put in a 1-2tb SSD. Even a QVO or other lower end SSD will do wonders, mainly in the upgraded consoles, but even in the base versions there can be big load time improvements and texture stream in improvements. IO performance from the HDD in these systems can actually hurt performance in such a way that this upgrade helps a lot: I have experienced this with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 on both PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. Textures load in way faster, the frame rate is far more stable, as you move around maps there is no more hitching as the drive seeks the next part of the map. If you really want to game, PS4 and PS4 Pro are phenomenal choices still, especially with the back catalog of exclusives, and even once the new consoles come down in price, the old games will be able to move forward with better performance, hopefully, to the new console.

The Xbox is a different matter. I would not buy the OG VCR Xbox One, leave that one be. If you want to play games, always go for the One X. Again, thermal paste change and a drive switch are very helpful, and the One X actually can have better performance due to the higher CPU clocks and more ram than the PS4 Pro in cross platform games when moved to an SSD. The One S is a different thing all together. While I would not want to game on them, both the One S and One X are far better media machines than the PS4. They both support 4k blu-rays, support Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and support Dolby vision and hdr10. Having this wide range of capability makes them actually good streaming and media playback boxes. I got my parents a One S, and they love it. I has all the streaming apps, will play their old DVD's, and I even got a VCR/DVD combo that a HDMI translator so they can play tapes using the HDMI passthrough on the console. The One X is a gaming beast, especially with an SSD to have less IO bottle necks in games, but both consoles are some of the best media machines there are, especially if you have a nice home theater setup. The Xbox Series S/X maintains this support, with the Series X being the only one to play 4k Blu-ray, and is one area that the current and next gen consoles from Microsoft are leaps and bounds ahead of Sony. Xbox game pass is also a thing to think about, if you have good internet, as having over 300 games ready to go, just download them to the machine is a very nice thing to have available.

I know a lot of people do not think about replacing the thermal paste, but most people on here use pc's, and so may be more inclined to change thermal paste more regularly. I use kryonaut in all my builds, and once yearly when I do loop maintenance on my main pc, I also repaste and clean out the dust on all my consoles. Even if you use something like MX4 though, there is performance gains to be had, and repasting would not need to be yearly. The consoles though do have room for improvement in the thermal paste department, especially if they are used when you buy them. I have found I need to use a little more than I would on a pc, due to the way both consoles mount their cooling solutions, and after I have changed the paste, the fans do not spin up near as high, and there for not as loud, and there is a noticeable and measurable increase in the temperature of the air exiting the systems. Measure on the same system before and after, I went from 49 C exit temp on the One X to 58 C exit temp, and the ambient temp was ~20 C. The PS4 Pro was more dramatic, with an increase from 51 C to 65 C exit temp with ambient temp again ~20 C. These are just my consoles I have used, and as another note, before the thermal past change on the One X, it would crash after ~2 hours of gaming, and would not boot till it cooled and rested for ~1 hour. After the thermal paste change, it has been able to play for over 13 hours straight with no problems or slow downs. As for the SSD, internal is nice to have, especially for boot up, switching between apps, texture streaming, and slightly reduced power consumption and noise, as there are no moving parts. Making your own external SSD will get most of the benefits, the startup and switching apps will be slightly slower, but it would be easier to move the games to the new consoles when or if you get one. Even still, to get a little more performance from the system, an internal SSD can help a lot. Digital foundry has done many looks into the load time, but one thing to also think about is texture streaming and in level loading. Watching their Xbox One X coverage of Jedi Fallen Order, their gameplay was noticeably at a lower average framerate and more laggy in levels when loads, lots of enemies, or big texture streams came in, with large dips in framerates when fighting enemies or loading more of the level. I did not experience any of the on my One X with an internal SSD, there were no loading hangs, slowdowns due to enemy and terrain stream in, and way less loading time. This was in 4k, and it was pretty locked at 30fps, but even in performance mode, it stuck closer to 502sh according to my monitors built in frame counter.

These are just my thoughts, and what I have done and experienced over the last generation. I do not think that these will fix issues in games like Cyberpunk, it could make them a little less bad, but honestly I do not think it will be that helpful, as that game has horrible optimization for these consoles. I think these areas are being overlooked, and as more of the newer consoles come out, picking up the older consoles for cheap for extra gaming systems for family members, old school system link on the Xbox's for lan parties after covid, media playing machines for guest rooms or home theater setups, and maybe even just to have and tinker with could be something to look into. I have bought lots of One X's and PS4 Pro's that have had HDD or HDMI failures. HDD failures are easier to fix, as long as the drive is not dead, it can be reformatted to be reflashed as it would in the factory, or if replaced with an SSD, then can be put in a pc or plex server or the like as extra storage. Just something to think about as the old consoles flood the second hand market.

We Didnt_t start_the_fire · December 23, 2020

Nice thread. Had some great moment from my S. Unfortunately the loading screen was too long and thus after an couple of games I stopped paying on them. I have to say, Console are more immersive just for the fact that you don't need to open the computer and go direct to games. Greanted I used stream to PC so I can play remotely to keep my space not clunky and with tsome lag though still great. Just that fucking endless wait.