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Microsoft unveils full Xbox Series X specs with 1TB expansion cards
- warrenmiller 7y agoYeah but can you Hackintosh it?
- magnat 7y agoSerious question: what's the reasoning behind naming scheme of Xboxes? Only serious, non-ranting explanation I've found [1] is that they're rebranding it back to just "Xbox", which somehow makes even less sense. [1] https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/microsoft-only-using-xbox-name-going-forward-2019-12 https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/microsoft-only-using-xbox-...
- syspec 7y agoDirect-X box
- Koshkin 7y agoI was hoping for X Window...
- Tsiklon 7y agoI suspect they want to diminish the concept of console generations altogether and push towards an "xbox as a service" type idea. Looking at how they've mentioned that owners of their new first party titles on xbox one will have an upgraded/enhanced release available at no cost on their new console - I suspect this is to blur the lines between the two series.
- BitwiseFool 7y agoI heard that Steve Ballmer pushed the idea of the Xbox 360's successor being named "Xbox One". He was hoping people would start calling it 'The One' because it was supposed to be a unifying home media device. Also, this was around the time Microsoft got sued by Sky and had to change the name of SkyDrive to OneDrive. So there was definately a 'One' branding scheme going on. You also google his 'One Microsoft' reorganization plan and see a clear theme.
- bitwize 7y agoAnd instead we got a passel of XBone jokes. Good job, Ballmer.
- skohan 7y agoI remember there was a director's commentary on a Simpson's episode where they remarked that they tried several times too inject a word into the American lexicon, and it failed miserably every time. Apparently it's extremely unpredictable what people will latch on to.
- trianglem 7y agoAt least one of the cromulent attempts was successful.
- skohan 7y agoI know you're joking but as I remember they said they did it unintentionally several times but when they tried to do it on purpose it never worked.
- bitwize 7y agoThe Portal writers apparently tried to get a hoop from the final scene of the game made into a meme. It didn't go over at all, but "the cake is a lie" -- memed instantly.
- dx87 7y agoIt sounds like they're moving to the same naming scheme as cars, where a "Toyota Corolla" is basically the same, but has additional features or performance if you buy a new year model. Supposedly the new Xboxes are no different than consumer computers, so I could see games having a "runs best on Xbox 2021 or newer" label. Also, I remember that the "XBox 360" got its name because they didn't want "XBox 2" to be competing with "Playstation 3".
- s_dev 7y agoSo consoles have entirely given up on the market and just become branded PCs?
- Analemma_ 7y agoBasically, yes. The PS5 is also going to be just an x86 Ryzen machine with the same AMD GPUs you'd get in a PC. This is sort of disappointing from a technology nerdery perspective, but after years of game developers struggling with bespoke weirdness like the PS3 Cell chip, I imagine they're welcoming the change. It also makes it much easier to handle backwards-compatibility, which most gamers treat as non-negotiable these days.
- vernie 7y agoThis change already happened in the last generation as both the PS4 and Xbox One used Jaguar APUs with GCN GPUs.
- skohan 7y agoBut there are some meaningful differences right? Like it's an SOC with shared CPU/GPU memory. Theoretically this could give better performance for things like loading assets, which have to go from storage -> main memory -> graphics memory on PC.
- ericflo 7y agoOne difference is the large amounts of GDDR6 on the APUs in these upcoming consoles, which is not something PC CPUs typically have access to. (It'll have to share that memory for both graphics and compute though, so not a pure win.) I think that just that memory architecture difference alone could lead to some interesting performance characteristics compared to contemporary PCs.
- redm 7y agoI'm guessing it has something to do with game compatibility improvements. Consoles used to only support games from that generation, i.e. Nintendo and Super Nintendo are not compatible. I think the model is more like an iPhone, most apps are compatible with multiple platforms and versions of the OS, to a point. So my guess is that its a play to change the way people think about console generations.
- Someone1234 7y agoIf games consoles supported Mouse & Keyboard, I'd legitimately switch to them as my main gaming machine. The hardware and value propositions are definitely "there." Obviously controllers work extremely well for certain game types, I even use them on PC when the game calls for it, but I won't be convinced first person shooter-like games (with or without integrated "aim assist") are a good controller experience.
- snazz 7y agoMouse and keyboard works in games that support it today: https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/Hardware-Network/accessories/mouse-keyboard https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/Hardware-Network/accessor...
- moooo99 7y agoBoth Xbox One[1] and Playstation 4 [2] support keyboard an mouse input. However, irrc the games have to choose to support it, so there does not appear that there'd default mappings for the keyboard (which kind of makes sense). I think there are some games on both platforms giving you the option to use keyboard and mouse, most don't. But with the arrival of the new generation, maybe more developers decide to implent this feature. [1] https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/Hardware-Network/accessories/mouse-keyboard https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/Hardware-Network/accessor... [2] https://support.playstation.com/s/article/Use-Keyboard-and-Mouse-with-PS4?language=en_US https://support.playstation.com/s/article/Use-Keyboard-and-M...
- excursionist 7y agoThe problem is that this completely ruins any competitive FPS on console. The keyboard/mouse players have a huge advantage.
- pests 7y agoGames like fortnite (used to?) puts you in lobbies based on input type not platform. Switch was lumped into mobile IIRC.
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- swalsh 7y agoWould these specs be good enough to support some kind of VR system similar to the index in the future?
- mastax 7y agoYes, though Microsoft has downplayed the idea.
- mrguyorama 7y agoSomething like the PSVR or original Vive would work, but the Valve Index requires much more pixel pushing power
- intsunny 7y ago> Developers will be using the overall 16GB of memory in two ways: there’s 10GB for fast GPU optimal memory, 3.5GB for standard memory, and 2.5GB reserved by the OS. 2.5GB for the OS? Can someone explain why an OS needs that much?
- SaltySolomon 7y agoA good deal is probably for future proofing and for auxillary applications that run parrallel to games like voice and social stuff.
- mastax 7y agoThe OS needs to handle downloading updates in the background while streaming or recording the game, running Spotify and Xbox live party voice chat, and the dashboard. It could probably make do with less but you can't change (e: increase) the memory allocation later.
- coldpie 7y ago> Can someone explain why an OS needs that much? Because modern software development is a joke.
- derision 7y agoMisplaced aggression. Consoles are still one of the most heavily optimized platform. The OS is doing a lot more these days those - voice chat, playing music, background downloads, etc etc
- sudosysgen 7y agoThat honestly doesn't need 2.5GB. On my Linux machine I can run a web browser, KDE, Telegram and Pacman on barely over 800MB.
- close04 7y agoBut can you do voice chat, play music, background downloads, live streaming and game streaming (to another device), etc.? Because a console has to do it all real-time, without crapping out, and without any future possibility of upgrading the RAM. Your comparison is like saying you can do a 305Km F1 race in a Fiesta with less fuel than an F1 car. I ran everything you listed (short of Telegram but how much can that need?) on 64MB of RAM 20 years ago. And to be fair, I can do it now in well under 500MB. But it won't run Xbox loads properly.
- exdsq 7y ago8k at 120fps is an exciting prospect. I just looked and you can buy Samsung TVs that are 8k for £2000. By Christmas these might even hit an affordable price amount.
- crehn 7y agoI'm still waiting for console games to be 1080p @ 60 FPS.
- Koshkin 7y agoI still wish I didn’t see polygons instead of circles.
- corysama 7y ago8k AND 120fps. I think the proposal is 8K@60, 4K@120.
- exdsq 7y agoAh... still, 8k@60 is exciting.
- skohan 7y agoHow big does a display have to be for 8k to be meaningful? It seems like you hit a point of diminishing returns with resolution: in terms of resource requirements (GPU, VRAM etc.) the cost goes up parabolically, and beyond a certain point it seems really hard to tell the difference.
- saberience 7y agoIt has to be huge... From: http://carltonbale.com/does-4k-resolution-matter/ http://carltonbale.com/does-4k-resolution-matter/ "What the chart shows is that, for a 84-inch screen, 4k resolution isn’t fully apparent until you are at least 5.5 feet or closer to the screen. For a “tiny” 55-inch screen, you’ll need to be 3.5 feet or closer. Needless to say, most consumers aren’t going to sit close enough to see any of extra resolution 4k offers, much less 8k."
- gok 7y agoI'm surprised how little RAM they're giving it. The amount available to the game is only increasing by 50% over the Xbox One X. I think developers are going to struggle to squeeze the proposed visual improvements. If Sony gives a more meaningful RAM boost in the PS5, developers are just going to ship their cross platform games at lower quality on Xbox Series X.
- mikewhy 7y agoThey may have something in mind for that? This is from the article on xbox.com: > Enter Xbox Velocity Architecture, which features tight integration between hardware and software and is a revolutionary new architecture optimized for streaming of in game assets. This will unlock new capabilities that have never been seen before in console development, allowing 100 GB of game assets to be instantly accessible by the developer. https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/03/16/xbox-series-x-tech/ https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/03/16/xbox-series-x-tech/
- rasz 7y agobetter known as swapping to disk
- tenebrisalietum 7y agoEvery console since game consoles were invented in the 70's has had too little RAM compared to computers of the day.
- aliswe 7y agoI agree - care to elaborate?
- tenebrisalietum 7y agoAtari 2600 had 128 bytes of RAM, even the KIM-1 onboard 6502 had a eight times that - a full 1K--the Apple I had 4K of RAM. NES had 2K of work RAM + 2K of video RAM, compare to the C64 at the time that had a full 64K, or the newer 16-bit computers at the time like Amiga, Atari ST, etc. that were 128K, 256K or more. SNES had 128K of work RAM + 64K of sound RAM. In 1991 I think typical computer memories were starting to get in the 2-4MB range. Playstation 1 had 2MB of RAM and 1MB of video RAM. By 1995 you were firmly in the 8MB range or higher for PCs. Playstation 2 had 32MB of RAM. My PC at that time had 256MB of RAM and that was somewhat low. So the trend of consoles having far less RAM than PCs is well established.
- deltron3030 7y agoThey should support Win10 on it, given the graphics power and X86 hardware it could be a nice little workstation for gamers who also do some 3D stuff.
- Koshkin 7y agoAll they want you to do is (apart from giving away your privacy) to buy $59.99 games.
- machiaweliczny 7y agoProps for full backwards compatibility. Are they simply using VM?