[Update: Processor and Internal Assembly] Xbox Project Scorpio Revealed - Mid cycle 4K console revolution?

[randomhkkid]

18 minutes ago, AG1233 said:

The price would be the main factor that makes or break this console.

 

I also hope they step up the amount of first party games because IMO current Xbox exclusives are lacklustre in comparsaion to what PS4 offers.

 

 

Just updated the OP, Richard from DF says speculates in another article that it'll cost ~$499

[Misanthrope]

20 minutes ago, malon said:

Instead of dooing mid cycle revisions they should start making completly new consoles every 5 to 7 years like in the old days, if they plan to keep the current (and mid gen refresh)  for 5 more years it will be what the ps3 and xbox360 all over again, were at the end of their usable lifespan any new AAAgame ran like crap and only hurt the consumer who bought those games.

That just wouldnt happen: The entire point is that its running at a higher resolution, 4k, the mere fact that the older consoles can still run them at 900p means the experience for the older consoles is the same but the newer one just improves on it.

 

They went with PC hardware this time precisely to just do incremental upgrades, no more of this one console for 8 years nonsense games can progress faster and older consoles can still play newer games at the detail level they always could handle, user decides when to upgrade instead of being a huge effort and investment from companies to get you to throw away your huge collection for a new console that is not backwards compatible plus you can actually stop wasting so much money subsidizing the price of new consoles to convince you to upgrade: much like a PC I can still play any game on moderate settings on my 950 I choosen to upgrade to a 1070 but no game really demanded it.

 

What they're doing is actually a very good compromise between console simplicity and PC modularity.

[Majestic_Koala]

 

 

Outside Xbox interviews one of the people behind Digital Foundry, who are one of the few to have seen this console, thoughts? 

 

I personally am taking this with a pinch of salt, since this is an xbox pro channel and could be biased 

[AG1233]

1 minute ago, randomhkkid said:

Just updated the OP, Richard from DF says in another article that it'll cost ~$499

Thanks for that bit.

 

I am surprised they announced the price this early if its true.

If it really is 500$ I think i might consider replacing my original Xbox One,but that would again depend on whether they announce some new interesting first party titles.

[Doobeedoo]

Well more or less expected specs though interesting overall. GPU seems to be very good and they did optimizations on hardware software side along.

[Valentyn]

9 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

I was hoping for Zen but whatevs. At least it's 2.3 ghz now.

 

Interesting that the GPU has 2560 shaders and a 384 bit bus though.

Aye, it's Polaris soc with 40 CU's compared to the RX 480's 36.
It's also only clocked a smidge less than the 480's max reference boost clock as well.

Actually looks rather decent, although it's a shame Ryzen isn't in there, then again I can see why they'd stick with a modified FinFet Jaguar to save costs.

Although that sexy +52% IPC gain from Ryzen would have been fantastic, even if they had to drop to 6 cores, instead of 8 Jaguar.

[YamiYukiSenpai]

6 minutes ago, randomhkkid said:

Just updated the OP, Richard from DF says in another article that it'll cost ~$499

The quote in the article says otherwise:

Quote

All of these add cumulatively to the bill of materials and if I had to guess - and I'll stress that this isn't based on anything I might have heard on my visit - Project Scorpio is going to cost in the region of $499.

That price is merely a speculation.

[PaperLuigi]

So the GPU is like a custom RX 480

[Wan70]

honestly

 

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, PaperLuigi said:

So the GPU is like a custom RX 480

looks like an APU with an RX480 basically, but just really custom, at least that's what it looks like, probably more to it. 

[randomhkkid]

3 minutes ago, YamiYukiSenpai said:

The quote in the article says otherwise:

That price is merely a speculation.

Noted, changed.

[Majestic_Koala]

Just now, Lord Nicoll said:

looks like an APU with an RX480 basically, but just really custom, at least that's what it looks like, probably more to it. 

The person being interviewed said that microsoft went on their xbox ones and examined their silicon for the ones, then adjusted the bottlenecks on a molecular level, that is impressive 

[Misanthrope]

2 minutes ago, Valentyn said:

Aye, it's Polaris soc with 40 CU's compared to the RX 480's 36.
It's also only clocked a smidge less than the 480's max reference boost clock as well.

Actually looks rather decent, although it's a shame Ryzen isn't in there, then again I can see why they'd stick with a modified FinFet Jaguar to save costs.

Although that sexy +52% IPC gain from Ryzen would have been fantastic, even if they had to drop to 6 cores, instead of 8 Jaguar.

But they need 2 cores for some of the TV and media stuff iirc, the drop would have been to 4 cores vs 6 and that's kinda tough even with the aforementioned IPC improvements of ryzen

[randomhkkid]

1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

But they need 2 cores for some of the TV and media stuff iirc, the drop would have been to 4 cores vs 6 and that's kinda tough even with the aforementioned IPC improvements of ryzen

I guess the SMT may have helped with that, assuming the workload on those cores isn't super heavy Ryzen's virtual cores would make it 8 vs 6 or 12 vs 6.

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, Majestic_Koala said:

The person being interviewed said that microsoft went on their xbox ones and examined their silicon for the ones, then adjusted the bottlenecks on a molecular level, that is impressive 

No it isn't, that's marketing wank, the bottleneck isn't the silicon die, it't the 6 year old design etched into and the shitty components used, the molecular make up of the silicon doesn't effect the integrated circuit, it can affect what IC's you can etch into it, but unless they're using really shitty impure silicon that isn't an issue either.

[Valentyn]

1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

But they need 2 cores for some of the TV and media stuff iirc, the drop would have been to 4 cores vs 6 and that's kinda tough even with the aforementioned IPC improvements of ryzen

I don't think so, being over 50% faster per core would easily have made that possible. Even more so if SMT was included on the SoC as well.

I would be surprised if the next XBOX didn't feature a Ryzen SoC though, by then then GloFo would be in 7nm FinFet s well. So an 8 core should be possible, especially if they're going to run it at around 2.1-2.5Ghz.

[Majestic_Koala]

Just now, Lord Nicoll said:

No it isn't, that's marketing wank, the bottleneck isn't the silicon die, it't the 6 year old design etched into and the shitty components used, the molecular make up of the silicon doesn't effect the integrated circuit, it can affect what IC's you can etch into it, but unless they're using really shitty impure silicon that isn't an issue either.

 

Ah so it's their way of making it sound impressive than it is? Damn sorry my bad

[79wjd]

16 minutes ago, randomhkkid said:

speculates in another article that it'll cost ~$499

Because that worked out so well for Microsoft with the original Xbox one launch.

[Lord Nicoll]

3 minutes ago, Majestic_Koala said:

Ah so it's their way of making it sound impressive than it is? Damn sorry my bad

they could have been referring to the NPN doping process, which is laymans terms means the laying of positive and negative ions to make the actual semiconductors, which could be their way of saying 16nm and 14nm, commonly refereed to a lithography, but I doubt it, I'd say they've a more refined process for the doping, but that's global foundries job. 

*edit* yeah I know FET use only one layer, it was for explaination purposes before anyone gets their screws loose.

[Notional]

Wait, it supports Freesync? Sweet!

[ThreePinkApples]

1 hour ago, randomhkkid said:

 

12GB GDDR5 384-bit - Up from 8GB+32MB DDR3+ESRAM (PS4 Pro 8GB DDR5)

The PS4 Pro has GDDR5, not DDR5

[randomhkkid]

6 minutes ago, Notional said:

Wait, it supports Freesync? Sweet!

Sweet! Added

5 minutes ago, aerandir92 said:

The PS4 Pro has GDDR5, not DDR5

Corrected

[Valentyn]

7 minutes ago, Notional said:

Wait, it supports Freesync? Sweet!

Oh YES! Just need TV's to start supporting it, and now with FreeSync 2 actually forcing manufactures to comply with AMD's quality standard and support I hope it means TV's and Monitors all start coming out with awesome FreeSync support.

Until then a FreeSync Gaming monitor paired with it will be a great experience for many.

 

It's a fantastic move by AMD, they supply the hardware, and their name is seen on Monitor's and TVs as well. Can help spread the brand name.

[ashypanda]

that's going to be a pretty decent set-top box, for netflix, plex, and blu-rays, but only way microsoft is going to get me to buy an xbox is if they allow streaming from a desktop to the console.

[YamiYukiSenpai]

Quote

Regardless, Microsoft duly obliged, showing us a ForzaTech demonstration with the Xbox One engine operating at native 4K, at a locked 60fps. As you can see in the screenshot above, GPU utilisation is remarkably low at just 60-70 per cent - but we should stress that this is basically an Xbox One port, not representative of the full quality we’ll see in final software.

Quote

From what I’ve seen so far, there is some evidence that Scorpio’s true 4K performance could pose a challenge to the likes of Nvidia’s GTX 1070 and AMD’s Fury X-class hardware. I’ve seen Microsoft’s new console running a Forza Motorsport 6-level experience locked to 4K60 on the equivalent to PC’s ultra settings - cranking up the quality presets to obscene levels was one of the first things developer Turn 10 did when confronted with the sheer amount of headroom it had left after a straight Xbox One port. Out of interest, we tested Forza 6 Apex with similar settings at 4K on GTX 1060, 1070 and 1080. Frames were dropped on GTX 1060 (and a lot of them when wet weather conditions kicked in), while GTX 1070 held firm with only the most intense wet weather conditions causing performance dips. Only GTX 1080 held completely solid in all test cases. It’s only one data point, and the extent to which the code is comparable at all is debatable, but it certainly doesn’t harm Scorpio’s credentials: Forza 6 Apex received plenty of praise for the quality of its PC port.

The situation with Project Scorpio reminds me of why iPhones tend to perform better than Android phones. Developers don’t need to make games while considering different hardware combinations and variations, unlike the PC. This is one area where consoles will always shine. I’m really glad these developers are fully taking advantage of Scorpio’s capabilities. It’d be a waste if they don’t.