Digital Foundry Microsoft Xbox Scorpio Reveal [2017: 04-06, 04-11, 04-15, 04-16]

[Deleted member 11852]

Yeah.The DF article reads like a PR panflet with little substance.

DF were open about Microsoft paying for travel and accommodation. Clearly Microsoft thought it was good for them (although I still don't get it) and it was clicks for DF and we all got some information that otherwise wouldn't be released for a couple more months under normal circumstances.

Everybody is a winner!!!

 

[BadTB25]

But worse as it seems GPU tech is inferior to PS4 Pro's.

How do you come to that conclusion?

From DF's speculation, that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[BRiT]

But worse as it seems GPU tech is inferior to PS4 Pro's

Nope. Try reading the articles and watching the videos.

 

[Love_In_Rio]

DF were open about Microsoft paying for travel and accommodation. Clearly Microsoft thought it was good for them (although I still don't get it) and it was clicks for DF and we all got some information that otherwise wouldn't be released for a couple more months under normal circumstances.

Everybody is a winner!!!

But Richard seems a Misterxmedia fanboy in some paragraphs.It could end up being negative for the DF image...

 

[3dilettante]

They say they doubled the render back-ends, so 16 -> 32.

What I don't know is where did ToTTenTranz get confirmation of Polaris architecture.

One of the videos had a term like "Polaris technology" or "features", but that might not be the complete picture any more than having "Vega features" made the PS4 Pro's GPU a Vega GPU.

I think it would be neat if a DX12-specific microcode package could be done with Vega or maybe even GCN2 or GCN3. I'm not sure if additional customizations are needed to make that possible for Scorpio, if it's less practical outside of the fixed platform, or if this is something Microsoft has ownership over. Having that for other APIs like Vulcan would be interesting as well, again subject to the more chaotic PC realm.

 

[Love_In_Rio]

Nope. Try reading the articles and watching the videos.

Nothing about vega scheduler, fp16x2, tile rendering...so, nothing from Vega.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

But Richard seems a Misterxmedia fanboy in some paragraphs.It could end up being negative for the DF image...

He did come across as a bit hyperbolic in places but I think that was just excitement/enthusiasm. It's cool when you get to speak to the folks who design stuff you're interested in under usual circumstances but when you're among the first outsiders to see it?

 

[MrFox]

But Richard seems a Misterxmedia fanboy in some paragraphs.It could end up being negative for the DF image...

Did Richard make shit up and lie his ass off? No.

This was PR-controlled journalism with only the information MS wanted to tell, but it is the correct information. Just ignore the subjective stuff...

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Where are you seeing the 32ROPs?

Eurogamer's article has the following quote from XBox Core Program Director Kevin Gammill:

We doubled the number of render back-ends, which has the effect of increasing our fill-rate by 2.7x.

2*16 = 32

What I don't know is where did ToTTenTranz get confirmation of Polaris architecture.

I said all GPU lower-level snippets they mentioned so far are pointing towards Polaris: 2MB L2 cache, Delta Color Compression.
There's no mention of Vega's Rapid Packed Math, or just PS4 Pro's 2*FP16 throughput, or ROPs feeding on L2 cache (very unlikely since L2 cache didn't increase).

If they were using Digital Foundry to do the hardware reveal, it would have been the perfect place to mention these details.
The fact that they're not in the articles raises the chance of said capabilities not being present, but it's too early to speak of "confirmation" yet.

Yeah.The DF article reads like a PR panflet with little substance.

There is substance alright. There's specific CU/ALU amount, clocks, ROP amount, CPU architecture, etc.
It's infinitely more than what you'd ever see from Nintendo.

Though there are some cringe-worthy parts in the article, like:

Scorpio is set to receive support for Dolby Atmos for gaming, Dolby Atmos for headphones plus a Microsoft proprietary format called HRTF, developed by the Hololens team.

So Richard Leadbetter thinks Head-Related Transfer Functions are a "Microsoft proprietary format", "developed by the Hololens team"?
And here I thought the term related to Transfer Functions, which have been available for decades.

 

[scently]

They say they doubled the render back-ends, so 16 -> 32.

What I don't know is where did ToTTenTranz get confirmation of Polaris architecture.

True, But the more important information is that the fillrate is 2.7x.

 

[phoenix_chipset]

As someone who had no intention of ever picking up the xbox one, I think i'll have to get this. Seems 10x more thought out than the ps4 pro.

 

[Liandry]

I have some questions. Just in theory.
1) Is it possible what all Xbox One games could run 4K 60fps on Scorpio? I don't say will, I just ask if they could.
2) Did all games released after Scorpio release will be 4K 60fps?
3) There's a lot more power in Scorpio. Does it mean what games released after Scorpio will be not only 4K 60fps but also with improved graphics (polygon count, effects, particles count etc.)?

 

[function]

So Richard Leadbetter thinks Head-Related Transfer Functions are a "Microsoft proprietary format", "developed by the Hololens team"?
And here I thought the term related to Transfer Functions, which have been available for decades.

There's a proprietary MS HRTF spatialiser, iirc, that has been developed by the Hololense team. Think it might be available as a Unity plugin, actually. It's supposed to be very good.

Perhaps that's what he was trying to communicate.

 

[eastmen]

The new Lord of the Rings game is supposed to have a Scorpio version, so there must be companies working on it already.

I would hope a lot of the 1st and "2nd" party games get upgrades. I'd love to see an upgraded Quantum Break. I'm not sure how many multi-platform games will get patched. Assuming it'll be a mix, probably the some of the same ones that got PS4 Pro patches.

no doubt but if scorpio hits in Nov of 2017 and gets a scorpio edtion its still the same.

I am sure MS is running all their first / second party titles through the upgrade process. Some games with dynamic resolution may not really need anything

 

[Scott_Arm]

...
So Richard Leadbetter thinks Head-Related Transfer Functions are a "Microsoft proprietary format", "developed by the Hololens team"?
And here I thought the term related to Transfer Functions, which have been available for decades.

The format was literally named Microsoft HRTF, though I have seen a new name come in as a substitute in the OS preview. Can't remember what they've changed the name to.

 

[Esrever]

Pretty much exactly as I expected. I still expect the GPU to have more Vega related features to be announced. If they could do half precision on ps4 pro, I don't see why they couldn't/wouldn't do the same for the Scorpio.

Also based on the high GPU clock speeds, it just lines up too well with the predicted Vega clocks. It makes sense that the same optimizations are in play to get the clocks of a console this high would allow for more clock speed in Vega.

 

[mrcorbo]

There's a proprietary MS HRTF spatialiser, iirc, that has been developed by the Hololense team. Think it might be available as a Unity plugin, actually. It's supposed to be very good.

Perhaps that's what he was trying to communicate.

It's called "Windows Sonic for Headphones". It's in the Win 10 Creator's Update, too (along with the Atmos stuff, though that wasn't available yet last I checked). I haven't messed with it yet, though. Good to see SHAPE being carried forward and utilized for something more gamers will be able to appreciate.

 

[shredenvain]

Yes, we have confirmation it has the minimum in the power speculation range speculated.But worse as it seems GPU tech is inferior to PS4 Pro's.And they want to sell the message about a super gpu with the directx embebed thing(that could be a Polaris standard thing as techreport's journalist says).Is the cloud computing all over again.Why did Spencer say they were a year later than Sony to get better tech?.

OK you are inferring a lot from the article that just isn't there. You are also saying the GPU tech is inferior to Ps4pro without any real facts to back that up.
How in anyway do you except inferior GPU performance from a machine that clearly has an advantage in CUs and clock speed compared to the pro. That really sounds like a case of bias to me.

The Scorpio is clearly a more powerful box than the pro in every way possible. The Scorpio will more likely hit native 4k much more often than the Pro because of its advantage in memory bandwidth alone. Now factor in 40% + GPU advantage as well as the CPU clock advantage and it becomes pretty obvious that the Scorpio is in no way inferior to the ps4pro.

 

[Jay]

I'd been looking for a reason to spring for an "S". I'm glad I didn't find one in the end as I'm sold on this.

their moving away from media stuff put me off the "S", i was convinced that Scorpio wouldn't have HDMI in, and with their no HDMI in PiP in current dash just put me off Xbox totally, the fact it does makes me reconsider picking it up now, maybe media isn't totally dead on there moving forward.

unlike most (for obvious reasons) I'm not all about the games, far from it in fact.

 

[Ike Turner]

The format was literally named Microsoft HRTF, though I have seen a new name come in as a substitute in the OS preview. Can't remember what they've changed the name to.

Windows Sonic IIRC