Microsoft rolls out Xbox April Update with FreeSync Support and 1440p support

[AlTech]

32 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Does it not strike anyone as odd that they couldn't always just output at whatever res you wanted?  I mean I get that most people use them on TVs which are either 1080p or 4K and never in between but if it can do 4K, it can do 1440p so why lock that down?

 

Also, I have to question the benefit of freesync for a few reasons.  For one, doesn't it only kick in at 40 Hz? 

No.

 

It can kick in either at the lower value of a range of refresh rates or at the specific refresh rate of the monitor. In the cases of when it's a range, it is currently 40Hz however I suspect TV manufacturers will limit the range on upcoming TVs from 30Hz to 75Hz or 100Hz.

32 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

If games are running under that (30 fps), it isn't going to do anything. 

Yes, but especially on Xbox One X, many games can run at 1080p 60fps.

32 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Additionally, console games typically strive for very consistent frame times so it's not like it would make a difference anyway.

It could.

[Doobeedoo]

Well FreeSync is something consoles definitely need. Next gen should target 60fps across the board though. 

[pyrojoe34]

21 hours ago, BuckGup said:

So basically consoles are slowly becoming prebuilts with a custom OS on them. Not a horrible thing as you can't build a PC with the same specs in that form factor at the same price. Game optimization is also nice. 

This is a very good thing for PC gamers that I’ve been waiting for for a long time. I was very happy when the latest gen went x86 for the same reason. This means PC ports will suffer much less from being an afterthought on games. This means less work for the devs and builds that are easily ported between all systems with the only major difference being the default settings, not the core code. This also means that backwards compatibility in future systems will not require virtual emulators with heavy overhead since the hardware is all based on the same architecture (x86). The only thing that would keep older games from being compatible on all future consoles is dev decisions, since there will be almost no actual redesign needed to make it work.

 

Sounds like a win for all gamers regardless of which systems you use.

[Trixanity]

1 hour ago, pyrojoe34 said:

Snip

I was under the impression it wasn't as cut and dry when it comes to console gaming. I've heard that even if next gen consoles move to Zen it doesn't guarantee backwards compatibility even though it should be easier. Apparently the new cores being so different can cause timing issues etc that may need to be patched or otherwise emulated in some fashion to maintain consistency. 

But maybe that's just bs to avoid guarantees and to give them and out.