Microsoft revealed through Digital Foundry the tech specs of their upcoming Project Scorpio console, a powerful upgrade to the current Xbox One, similar to the PS4 Pro. They did not reveal a release date or price but said it was aimed at the “premium gamer”.
Project Scorpio Tech Specs
Here are the Scorpio’s specs:
- CPU: Eight custom x86 cores
- GPU: 6 teraflops
- RAM: 12GB GDDR5
- Memory bandwidth: 326GB/s
- Vapour-chamber cooling
- 1TB Hard Drive
The Scorpio is 30% faster and 4x more powerful than the Xbox One. All Xbox One games will be compatible with it without requiring patches, basically allowing the entire library to experience improvements in performance like load times and frame rates, even if you’re not running a 4K TV. New games will be able to take advantage of full 4K at 60 FPS (Forza 6 was the game demo’d at these specs).
Here’s a chart comparing the specs of the present lineup of current gen consoles for those that like the nitty gritty:
| Project Scorpio | Xbox One | PS4 Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Eight custom x86 cores clocked at 2.3GHz | Eight custom Jaguar cores clocked at 1.75GHz | Eight Jaguar cores clocked at 2.1GHz |
| GPU | 40 customised compute units at 1172MHz | 12 GCN compute units at 853MHz (Xbox One S: 914MHz) | 36 improved GCN compute units at 911MHz |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR5 | 8GB DDR3/32MB ESRAM | 8GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 326GB/s | DDR3: 68GB/s, ESRAM at max 204GB/s (Xbox One S: 219GB/s) | 218GB/s |
| Hard Drive | 1TB 2.5-inch | 500GB/1TB/2TB 2.5-inch | 1TB 2.5-inch |
| Optical Drive | 4K UHD Blu-ray | Blu-ray (Xbox One S: 4K UHD) | Blu-ray |
Thoughts on the new hardware? Enough to get you to upgrade or buy a new one when it does release?
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4 responses to “Microsoft Reveals Project Scorpio Specs, Will Be Backwards Compatible With All Xbox One Games”
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I don’t see it, for a number of reasons.
Tflops are *far* from an actual measure of the ability of a GPU, but even if we use that figure, you’re looking at about an RX480 (which stock clocks at like 5.6 or 5.8 or something.) That’s a budget card for mid-range PCs, not even remotely comparable to high end stuff, or even the upper end of mid range. If you’re talking proper 4k gaming machines, it’s not even close, PC is the only option. The GPU is almost irrelevant, even if the PS4 Pro/Scorpio GPU could do 4k/60 for AA or AAA games, the CPU simply couldn’t.
The CPU is almost certainly just an upclocked Jaguar again, which means that it’s a slightly faster really bad CPU that was really bad even back in like 2013 when the systems launched, meaning there is a big CPU bottleneck for more demanding games. (For example it’s the CPU, not the GPU, that’s responsible for the issues with Fallout 4s framerates on consoles, which is why they still have framerate problems on the PS4 pro.) You’d get better performance out of a $50 i5 2500k you bought off ebay.
Every PC gamer I’ve ever talked to would take 1080p or 1440p with settings maxed at 60fps over 4k/30 at medium, because incredibly sharp rendering is of no benefit when the thing being rendered looks bad (doesn’t interact well with lighting, low texture detail, mediocre particle effects, skin that looks like plastic or rubber instead of skin, really bad pop-in ect,) the pharse polishing a turd come to mind. Thus, there’s nothing for a 4k console to compete with in that area. Those same PCs could do 4k/30 if they wanted, but they don’t want because it looks bad and runs poorly, and PC gamers who want to do 4k/30 can already do it (better than the console can because of said CPU) for about 50 USD more than a current console.
As i see it, consoles are competing with eachother, not PC. PC games look and run objectively better at comparable price ranges (unless someone botches a port,) and it’s cheaper once you factor in cheaper games and not having to pay subscription fees, not to mention all the extra crap PCs can do. That’s not a competition consoles are going to win. If that’s what MS and Sony are trying, they’re gonna fail.
Where consoles and PC actually compete is in convinience (where consoles are currently screwing up big time but still have some advantages,) public perception (because people are still convinced it’s more expensive to PC game for… some reason, even when (at least in the US, most of Europe, NZ and Australia) it’s actually not) and being idiot proof (because you’re responsible for your data on PC and you can break it) and the PS4 Pro and Scorpio don’t really have an impact on those factors.
I’d be more impressed if it were Project “Hank” Scorpio
Finally, PC’s have at least some competition. Unless Xbox gives it a price that makes it unworthy of our attention…
I like my Xboxone, it’s a good little machine, but I’m not entirely an upgrade is what it needs, some exclusives would be nice, 360 back compat is the big selling point imo, mainly because there’s a ton of great games that you can pick up for next to nothing used and have a good time with, xbones library is sadly lacking. The question ” do I need this shiny new thing to play near decade old games ?” Springs to mind, they need to fix the core gaming problems instead of trying to outgun the PS4 Pro
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