Does anyone know anything about the "Hovis method" they reference for fine tuning the power profile for each chip? I'm having a tough time understanding how tweaking the voltage rails from board to board can improve power consumption/heat dissipation without impacting CPU performance.
Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
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Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#12Note: Eurogamer has the official exclusive for this information. The tech is incrementally better than the PS4 Pro, but the price is unknown and could be problematic if released at $499 compared to the PS4 Pro's $399. And whether developers will take full advantage of that power.
On paper it's incrementally better--significantly higher clocks, more RAM and much more memory bandwidth. But the bigger news is that all existing Xbox One games get 16x anisotropic filtering, framerate boosts, v-sync, and resolution bumps (if the game supports dynamic resolution). Not to mention system-wide downsampling for 1080p TV's. Should be a pretty big bump in image quality for Xbox One games. They demoed Forz…
Not sure why but some of your previous comments are showing up [dead] in the threads.
Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#13Maybe I am completely off the marks here, and I'm sorry if this is off topic, but as someone who follows very closely what Apple is (or isn't?) doing in their Pro machines I am very curious how those specs compare to what everyone is asking for from Apple. The RAM is obviously low, fine, but it sounds like the CPU and GPU are significantly more capable than anything that Apple is shipping right now, and Microsoft will sell this thing at a fraction of the price that Apple will sell any pro hardware. What am I missing? Where is the big gap in component cost? How is something like an Xbox so different, and so much cheaper, than a pro level desktop?
Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#14If you own a PS4 or an X1 and the money to buy a PS4 Pro or Scorpio, it seems like the best move is to buy the upgrade of the platform you don't have. Then you've got access to both platforms' exclusives, and at least one new-spec machine for the games that aren't exclusive. I think the most interesting thing is going to see how compatibility works out long-term for Scorpio. What will the cross-compat story be for th…
> If you own a PS4 or an X1 and the money to buy a PS4 Pro or Scorpio, it seems like the best move is to buy the upgrade of the platform you don't have. Then you've got access to both platforms' exclusives, and at least one new-spec machine for the games that aren't exclusive.
As someone who owns both consoles, after seeing the lack of enthusiasm at the PS4 Pro launch event I decided to hold off until Scorpio specs became known - I much prefer the Xbox "experience" but outside of exclusives it never gets much use since my "high-fidelity" gaming goes on my PC, and "console exclusives" usually are better on the PS4 (looking at Final Fantasy XV in particular here).
I'm glad I waited, there are games I want to play that are console exclusives but not tied to one platform or the other (Kingdom Hearts 3) - it looks like Microsoft hit this one out of the park. Seeing as the HDD in my OG Xbox One is going to fail soon (man is it noisy) the Scorpio looks like a good upgrade path.
> I think the most interesting thing is going to see how compatibility works out long-term for Scorpio. What will the cross-compat story be for the next console, and the one after that? Will they re-platform and lose compatibility again (and bring it back via emulation) or keep re-spec'ing the current platform? When will we see games that will play on Scorpio but not X1?
I believe the intent is that we are entering an era of smartphone-esque spec bumps to consoles, and getting rid of the full generational gap that has historically existed.
From here on out, expect new hardware every couple years that will be compatible with your existing library - after existing hardware is X generations old it will stop receiving software support and you'll have to upgrade. Likely, when the Scorpio+1/2 is out you'll see the original Xbox One and Xbox One S losing support for some newer titles (but they'll likely continue receiving support from indie developers and less intense games along with system software updates for a while after that).
Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#15Maybe I am completely off the marks here, and I'm sorry if this is off topic, but as someone who follows very closely what Apple is (or isn't?) doing in their Pro machines I am very curious how those specs compare to what everyone is asking for from Apple. The RAM is obviously low, fine, but it sounds like the CPU and GPU are significantly more capable than anything that Apple is shipping right now, and Microsoft wil…
AMD vs Intel components is one part of the equation.
Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
On paper it's incrementally better--significantly higher clocks, more RAM and much more memory bandwidth. But the bigger news is that all existing Xbox One games get 16x anisotropic filtering, framerate boosts, v-sync, and resolution bumps (if the game supports dynamic resolution). Not to mention system-wide downsampling for 1080p TV's. Should be a pretty big bump in image quality for Xbox One games. They demoed Forz…
Not sure why but some of your previous comments are showing up [dead] in the threads.
He's prolly one of those disgusting trolls!
Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#17Maybe I am completely off the marks here, and I'm sorry if this is off topic, but as someone who follows very closely what Apple is (or isn't?) doing in their Pro machines I am very curious how those specs compare to what everyone is asking for from Apple. The RAM is obviously low, fine, but it sounds like the CPU and GPU are significantly more capable than anything that Apple is shipping right now, and Microsoft wil…
I've never seen anything in an apple desktop that suggests they aren't ludicrously overpriced. You can piece together a monster of a desktop for 2k, so I don't get it either.
Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#18This should provide some amazing graphics on a 4K screen! The console programmers do some incredible feats with the resources they have available.
This 4k screenshot is really impressive, and as the benchmarks at the top show, there's lots of headroom: https://cdn.gamer-network.net/2017/screenshots/Forza-Tech-Sc... Takes a minute to load, I think their cdn is a little overloaded currently.
Great shot, 17 years ago I predicted that within 10 years you would not be able to tell the real from the computer generated. This is the first screen shot that qualifies IMHO, because this comes damn close to looking real.
Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#19Maybe I am completely off the marks here, and I'm sorry if this is off topic, but as someone who follows very closely what Apple is (or isn't?) doing in their Pro machines I am very curious how those specs compare to what everyone is asking for from Apple. The RAM is obviously low, fine, but it sounds like the CPU and GPU are significantly more capable than anything that Apple is shipping right now, and Microsoft wil…
Traditionally consoles are sold at a loss at first and the as components come down in price it evens out. Last gen though xbone and ps4 were essentially sold at cost. Most likely this is sold at cost and then they make money off of games. Apple needs to cover costs of OS and make a profit off of the computer alone and people are willing to pay a premium for Apple.
Re: Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed
#20Does anyone know anything about the "Hovis method" they reference for fine tuning the power profile for each chip? I'm having a tough time understanding how tweaking the voltage rails from board to board can improve power consumption/heat dissipation without impacting CPU performance.
Normally, yes. Due to process variations each chip has a slightly different maximum frequency for a given voltage. Usually chip makers test each chip, sort them by how fast they can go at a standardized voltage, and sell the faster ones for more money under a different model number - sometimes also fusing off features like multi threading.
It sounds like what Microsoft is doing is standardizing on frequency and giving different chips as much voltage as they need to hit their performance targets. So everybody buying one of these consoles gets the same performance but some people will have more power hungry consoles than others. Possibly those people will get better heat sinks?