Anandtech takes a quick look at Subor Z+ Games Console with AMD Firefight APU featuring Vega Graphics with Up To 4 Tflops of Performance

[AlTech]

Anandtech has done a quick look at the new Subor Z+ games console featuring an AMD APU with Radeon Vega, 4 Zen cores with SMT and 8GB GDDR5 VRAM.

 

The Subor Z+ uses the AMD APU known as codename Firefight.

 

It contains 24 Vega CUs clocked at 1.3GHz and 8GB GDDR5 VRAM.

 

These are the full specs:

Quote

• Four Ryzen Cores at 3.0 GHz, with Simultaneous Multi Threading
• 24 CUs of Radeon Vega, at 1.3 GHz, for 4 TFLOPs compute
• 8GB of GDDR5 at 256 GB/s
• OS Option 1 (PC Mode): Windows 10
• OS Option 2 (Console Mode): Windows 10 with Z+ Custom Interface
• Low Power Modes supported, with 30W 'background download' power
• 4.9 liter body, built-power supply, 'excellent' heat dissipation design
• 'Ultra-Mute' 33 dB at full horsepower
• Customizable appearance for unique designs
• 802.11ac WiFi, BlueTooth 4.1 (WiFi Module unknown)
• Storage is supplied through a 128GB M.2 SSD and optional 1TB HDD
• Audio stack supports SPDIF
• HDMI 2.0 is supported, as well as VR, 4K60, and HDCP 1.4
• System has four USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports

 

The console itself is a rather sizeable box and looks to be similar to the Xbox One X.

 

Anandtech is asking for help determining what this would be fair to compare against since Kaby Lake G features HBM2.0 and uses Polaris CUs with some Vega architecture additions.

 

We don't know if this SOC uses an identical GPU to that found within Kaby Lake G or not.

 

Definitely an interesting SOC although I'm not too impressed with the console itself so far.

 

In theory this should perform somewhere in between an RX 560 (16 CUs) and an RX470D (28 CUs).

 

Source:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13381/subor-z-console-pc-hybrid-fireflight

[PlayStation 2]

DigitalFoundry did a video on it, and it's around the ballpark of an RX 470, from what I remember.

[GoodBytes]

Yup, and this "console" is just a Windows powered PC. They didn't even do a menu system or even run Steam at startup or anything.

[AlTech]

24 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Yup, and this "console" is just a Windows powered PC. They didn't even do a menu system or even run Steam at startup or anything.

Actually FYI: You can boot it into Windows but using their menu/launcher thing

[The Benjamins]

25 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Yup, and this "console" is just a Windows powered PC. They didn't even do a menu system or even run Steam at startup or anything.

Their are 2 versions, the PC one releases first and a console version comes out later. both use the same hardware, but the OS is different.

[Doobeedoo]

It's a neat little machine, nice to see something like this in console form factor. But a regular Windows PC though. Reminded me a bit of Steam machine/box idea and all. 

What would be amazin to so is a higher end model, like a 4GHz CPU 16GB RAM and GPU with 32-40 CUs

[maartendc]

So how is this different from something like a Ryzen 2400G again? Isnt that also a quad core Ryzen based CPU with Vega graphics CU's on board?

 

[AlTech]

15 minutes ago, maartendc said:

So how is this different from something like a Ryzen 2400G again? Isnt that also a quad core Ryzen based CPU with Vega graphics CU's on board?

 

This has over 2x more Compute Units and has GDDR5 VRAM.

[Tech Enthusiast]

So it is a small PC that gets called console.

4 TFlops are not impressive at all, even for a console. The XBox one X has more than 6 TFlops I think.

 

So, why would anyone care about this, apart from avid team red fans that are starved for a new product?

What makes this different from any other small form factor PC that gets [insert random custom distro of random OS][insert later time frame] and gets called [insert fancy name]?

[AlTech]

Just now, Tech Enthusiast said:

So it is a small PC that gets called console.

4 TFlops are not impressive at all, even for a console. The XBox one X has more than 6 TFlops I think.

4 Tflops beats out 8th Gen consoles but still slower than Gen8.5 Consoles.

Just now, Tech Enthusiast said:

So, why would anyone care about this, apart from avid team red fans that are starved for a new product?

What makes this different from any other small form factor PC that gets [insert random custom distro of random OS][insert later time frame] and gets called [insert fancy name]?

This does have a fancy SOC which could be attractive to some.

[Stefan Payne]

12 hours ago, Tech Enthusiast said:

So it is a small PC that gets called console.

4 TFlops are not impressive at all, even for a console. The XBox one X has more than 6 TFlops I think.

Xbox one X doesn't have an open Windows on it, only the closed off shit, that takes 1 minute or so to boot.

And, as you correctly stated, this is a device that runs a pretty normalish WIndows Version...

12 hours ago, Tech Enthusiast said:

So, why would anyone care about this, apart from avid team red fans that are starved for a new product?

Because its affordable, small - real Console Sized, not such ITX wannabe shit like RVZ-01 and others in that area...

Why downplay this wonderful piece of Hardware?!

 

12 hours ago, Tech Enthusiast said:

What makes this different from any other small form factor PC that gets [insert random custom distro of random OS][insert later time frame] and gets called [insert fancy name]?

two Drive bays, gamable, really Console Sized, decent Performance, decent Price and you can use Windows with standard Windows Apps with it - wich you can't with the one X and PS4.

[Tech Enthusiast]

It is still just a weak PC. Why are you making it sound like more than it really is? 4 TFlops is abysmal, even for something called a console. There are so many mini ITX builds on the web that double that performance, install stock windows and still only go for a few bucks more, but are actually really decent for what they are.

 

This just seems like something China does to plan ahead for the console bans. You know, when social media is not enough censorship anymore. ;-)

[AlTech]

3 minutes ago, Tech Enthusiast said:

It is still just a weak PC. Why are you making it sound like more than it really is? 4 TFlops is abysmal, even for something called a console.

To give you some perspective this would be just over 2x faster than Xbox One S and PS4 Slim.

 

Both of which are still highly popular and relevant in 2018.

[paddy-stone]

Depends on price of course, and actual performance, but can see this being a winner if it delivers. I mean what;s not to like? you can use it as a console AND a PC, something that the PS3 was supposed to do, but then they pulled the ability to do so... I had one and was mightily pissed off when they pulled it.

If they can price this around the £300-400 mark then I can see SOME people going for instead of a console, if it's priced higher than that then it'll be in the realms of a low budget PC anyway, so IMO it'd be better to just get a PC. Without the price it's a crap shoot as to whether it's worth it or not, but I like the idea.. especially useful for those with less space or people with kids that might want them to be able to game AND use as a normal PC for school work  and such.

[Stefan Payne]

2 hours ago, Tech Enthusiast said:

It is still just a weak PC.

Are you mistaking it for a Celeron or Pentium based machine?!
The only thing you can criticize is the memory -> 8GiB with a APU is a bit on the lower side.

 

2 hours ago, Tech Enthusiast said:

Why are you making it sound like more than it really is? 4 TFlops is abysmal, even for something called a console.

Its a normal mid range PC.

Why are you trying to make it sound like its less than it is?!

Its in the same ballpark as a 1060, why is that bad?!

 

2 hours ago, Tech Enthusiast said:

There are so many mini ITX builds on the web that double that performance, install stock windows and still only go for a few bucks more, but are actually really decent for what they are.

Did you read what I said?!
Didn't seem like it.

 

I already told you that a small form factor case like a Raven Z01 is more than double, more like tripple the size of a console in every aspect. And even some smaller ones (like the Node 202) are still huge, compared to a standard PS4 PRO or XBox One X.

 

Here a Picture with the old PS4 ontop of a Fractal Node 202:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/6n34mt/new_1600x_node_202_build/

 

See how huge the PC Build is in comperisation with a Console?!

 

In the Digital Foundry Video, at around 6:06min you see the Comperisation with the PS4 PRO:

https://youtu.be/x0KSJg2sqJM?t=366

 

And they are both around the same size...

 

So why the hype?
because its the first truly console sized PC that doesn't cost like 2000€...

[S w a t s o n]

I want to see AMD unleash these console grade APUs on the open market. The APUs they have right now are too anemic even with the vega upgrade. They need the high CU count ones.

 

https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-7-2800h

This is the fastest one so far and it's not even released, only 11CU's, 2400G is the same but with a faster CPU

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 9/21/2018 at 12:32 PM, AluminiumTech said:

Anandtech is asking for help determining what this would be fair to compare against

A similarly priced console, of course. Maybe also a similarly priced PC, if it's actually possible to use it as a general purpose computer.

We don't even need any test to already know that we can get more by paying more, and pay less by getting less (not just in terms of gaming performance, but also game compatibility, portability, noise, etc), so the question is whether it fills a particular spot in the market.