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Xbox Series S (coming 11th November)
- Thread starter the8thark
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Yes, as the TV's I game on are small and across the room so I can actually get away with 720p.
8K/60fps is a bit overkill...
I can game in 1080p/60 as long as the textures are all high mode and there's ray tracing...
Hopefully the Series S will have an optical drive for older games or it will be a deal breaker for me.
8K/60fps is a bit overkill...
I can game in 1080p/60 as long as the textures are all high mode and there's ray tracing...
Hopefully the Series S will have an optical drive for older games or it will be a deal breaker for me.
Very happy with Series S being Digital offering.
I personally can't think why I'de opt for X Series apart from 4K use.
I'll hopefully get an earlier Uk order in for S Series and enjoy a few games 1080 upscale to 4K resolution via Sony t.v.
What I hope to avoid is S series being comparable with previous X box graphics.
I personally can't think why I'de opt for X Series apart from 4K use.
I'll hopefully get an earlier Uk order in for S Series and enjoy a few games 1080 upscale to 4K resolution via Sony t.v.
What I hope to avoid is S series being comparable with previous X box graphics.
It's been officially announced. What do you think about it? Do you think the approximate $299 price will help it sell, putting it squarely in the Nintendo Switch price range. Or do you think the Xbox Series S needs more games to be worth getting.
Also the "optimised for Series X" logos we've been seeing, will this mean sub par performance for them on the Series S or is it justnother standard version console vs pro console (ie just like the XB1/XB1X and PS4/PS4Pro) thing happning here?
I think the idea of different configurations is questionable. One thing I always liked about consoles is that each system has one fixed set of specs that developers are working with. They would optimize their games to run flawlessly on your system, as opposed to you optimizing your system to run their games (i.e. PC gaming).
The Series S will always have a "sub par" performance when compared to the Series X. Or maybe the Series S will have "great" performance, it's just that the Series X will be "even better". It's entirely up you each of us, how we choose to look at it. In all honesty, it's never bothered me that I have a "base" PS4, and not a Pro. I never felt like I was missing out, the games are fantastic.
I do prefer Sony's approach of offering the same system performance with both models, but with or without an optical disc drive. But if they were to offer a PS5 and a PS5 "lite", I would probably be okay with it, too.
The Series S will always have a "sub par" performance when compared to the Series X. Or maybe the Series S will have "great" performance, it's just that the Series X will be "even better". It's entirely up you each of us, how we choose to look at it. In all honesty, it's never bothered me that I have a "base" PS4, and not a Pro. I never felt like I was missing out, the games are fantastic.
I do prefer Sony's approach of offering the same system performance with both models, but with or without an optical disc drive. But if they were to offer a PS5 and a PS5 "lite", I would probably be okay with it, too.
From what I have read, the S is aiming to delivers a 1080p or 1440p gaming experience, while the X is aiming at 4k.
That was 1st reported -todays videos are quoting 4K -maybe it's up scaling from Series S.
I'll give Microsoft one thing though - while they really suck at naming their consoles, they definitely win this generation's console design award! I think both models look incredibly slick!
The PS5 looks like someone wrapped a router in a giant taco...
The PS5 looks like someone wrapped a router in a giant taco...
This is my biggest barrier to buying the PS5. I can't stand the design and colour scheme. It would look like an eyesore in my TV cabinet. Fingers crossed they release a black variant ASAP.
Developers will design for the lowest common denominator. Differences in graphics and FPS between the S and X will likely be minimal in the first 12 months.
This will work in favour of MS as they will prefer to sell a gazillion S and gamepass subscriptions rather than the bulkier and more complex X. Hopefully vloggers will receive review units next month so that we can plan ahead about which next gen console to buy.
My Sony XM3 recently broke and Curry's will give me a £250 giftcard which I will put toward a new console.
Eh, consoles still beat PC in that regard. I'm not worried about modifying .ini files, going through graphics settings one at a time trying to optimize performance, etc. While consoles have definitely trended towards PCs, especially with Microsoft's current push, it's still much more of a fire-and-forget situation, and a more frictionless approach to gaming I enjoy.
Devs will target the base spec and go from there. The biggest performance breakthrough this generation isn't processor or GPU anyhow, it's the NVME SSD, and that's a given on both consoles which means we're going to see a tremendous jump (and hopefully a reduction in file sizes.)
The downside for the Series S for me is the lack of optical drive. I buy almost all my games digitally (I've got a grand total of three this generation that were physical, with two of them being gifts) but I don't have another Blu-Ray player for movies and shows, and I have enough of those that it's of interest to me.
I'm not sure that edge case is going to be enough to push me for the more expensive model, though, given that I can probably subsidize the entire cost of the S with my banked Microsoft Rewards, it's so much smaller, and I currently only have a 1080p panel to hook it up to (and I'm not likely to be upgrading any time soon.)
I would agree that natively the Series S would be 1080 or 1440p natively at the very most because stuff like ray tracing is expensive performance wise. Though I would not be surprised if the Series S used DLSS or other types of ML AI to upacale to 4K.
The other rumour is Microsoft announced this to cut the head off the rumour mill that had already worked out that a Series S was in existance. We already had (un)official confirmation with stuff like mention of the Series S on the controller box and other places.
Do we know for certain that this is the case? Based on the picture MS has shown us here, your assumption seems to be correct but has this been officially confirmed anywhere? If the only "affordable" version of the "series" Xbox console is discles, well you know the conundrum this presents everyone. The physical stores like gamestop don't like digital only consoles for all the obvious reasons, to the point of not even wanting to stock them. I'd be really interested to see the sales split of Series X vs Series S. If enough people buy the Series S and if it is indeed lacking an optical drive, then it might really hard the availability of Xbox Series X discs out there as the physical stores might not see the discs as financially worth it to stock them.
Is MS reading the writing on the wall that physical game stores are RIP? Not RIP today but eventually they will be. The writing is on the wall. As we know developers and the platformer holder get more money via digital sales. So moving into the next lot of consoles, both Sony and MS have a digital only console (assuming the Series S is this). Only Nintendo are without a digital only console. Howeverthe Switch using carts has cero of the drawbacks of optical drives. Optical drives are outdated legacy tech at this point. The kind of performance everyone wants can't be delivered by optical media anymore. Superfast SSD or reading from carts is what everyone wants.
There's a ton of horsepower in the Series X that's solely going not to graphical bells and whistles, but rendering them at 4K or above. A system targeting up to 1440p only has to push a fourth or up to half the pixels, so the step-down in power isn't actually as terrible as it sounds.
Discs are a dying breed. Microsoft was ironically right when they envisioned the Xbox One, they were just a few years too early. Depending on the reports from different games, we've gone from something like 10% digital at the start of the gen to 50–70%. Especially with games needing to be installed instead of streamed and the regular updates, discs just don't have the same utility (hell, you can't even be sure you can immediately go home and play it if you buy it day-one.)
You can resell discs and buy them cheaper than digital, but I don't think that matters for a lot of consumers, especially when you consider the value proposition offered by the subscription services from Microsoft or EA. It's weird to think about having an optical drive becoming, if we were looking at it as Apple, a "pro" feature, but it's definitely becoming niche. The PlayStation 5 being clearly designed not to have one is a pretty good example.
I'm not sure if the optical drive will go away entirely, either this gen or next, but it definitely makes sense it's going to continue being a niche item to drive a bit more revenue from the people who consider it non-negotiable.
There are still many regions in the world, where households generally don't have broadband internet access. For those markets, a digital only console could be a hard proposition.
I buy almost exclusively digital now. If it wasn't backwards compatible, I would likely get the all digital PS5. But I still have a few PS4 games on disc that I will want to play on my PS5, provided there is a performance boost. (I have a base PS4, not a Pro).
I buy almost exclusively digital now. If it wasn't backwards compatible, I would likely get the all digital PS5. But I still have a few PS4 games on disc that I will want to play on my PS5, provided there is a performance boost. (I have a base PS4, not a Pro).
I kind of like the "stormtrooper" white-and-black look Microsoft has done recently. I think the "pro" grey they've used for the One X and Series X doesn't feel like it's in the same family, though. When you put them side-by-side they don't feel like they mesh well.
I waited to get an XB1 until they made the white SKUs, since I've always liked it a bit more than the standard consumer electronics black. Shame it's not available on the high-end model.
MS has done incredibly well at selling the S and making a business case for it - at the expense of the X.
Although the X will be capable of 4K/60fsp, we don’t how often it will run at 4K and when it will use dynamic resolution. Furthermore will 4K be at the expense of frame rate or ray tracing?
Could 1440p be the sweet spot for eye candy and frame rate rate of up to 120fps?
I was initially set on buying the X but now I am strongly considering the S. Hopefully vloggers will get access to review units and publish comparisons by Sep 21st so that I can make up my mind.
For UHD Blu-ray playback I can just buy a seperate players that will be more “wife” friendly and run than a console.
Having watched reviews of the nvidia RTX 3080, 1440p remains a great sweet spot between visual graphics and frame rate. The visual penalty from 4k is smaller than I thought - especially machine learning for textures upscaling is enabled.
The Series S could be a brilliant buy if it's just a Series X running at a lower resolution but with the same the same eye candy. This would be a great match for the 1440p 144hz gaming monitors on the market.
I don't mind playing in 1440p if there eye candy at brilliant frame rates.
However unless MS have provided the media with review units this week, we won't know how different or similar the S and X are.
The Series S could be a brilliant buy if it's just a Series X running at a lower resolution but with the same the same eye candy. This would be a great match for the 1440p 144hz gaming monitors on the market.
I don't mind playing in 1440p if there eye candy at brilliant frame rates.
However unless MS have provided the media with review units this week, we won't know how different or similar the S and X are.
@Macalicious2011
IGN have supposedly confirmed this about the Series S. I agree with you that it could be a really good buy if it's a silky smooth 1080p experience.
As reported by VGC, while the Xbox Series S won't run the Xbox One X Enhanced versions of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, it will still be a step above the Xbox One S with "improved texture filtering, higher and more consistent frame rates, faster load times, and Auto HDR."
IGN have supposedly confirmed this about the Series S. I agree with you that it could be a really good buy if it's a silky smooth 1080p experience.
As reported by VGC, while the Xbox Series S won't run the Xbox One X Enhanced versions of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, it will still be a step above the Xbox One S with "improved texture filtering, higher and more consistent frame rates, faster load times, and Auto HDR."
