Gamasutra GameDev Breakdown of Microsoft Xbox Scorpio [2017: 04-12, 04-14, 04-17]

Waste of time. Even the Q&A was shit, just empty stretched out answers to the typical pre-approved PR questions. Made me want to poke my eyes out with a fork.

We need leaks.

As others have said, from a business / strategy standpoint, that was one of the better interviews that I have read. This was meant to be an informative piece and not investigative journalism looking for gotchas.

Also the Polaris features note on the GPU is really curious. Is it most Polaris, some Polaris with MS customization, most customized, mostly Vega upgrades to Polaris base, or even some Frankenstein MS chip with pieces from Polaris, Vega, and Navi? Historically speaking, I would have expected Vega with some Navi upgrades so primarily Polaris would be quite puzzling.

Another interesting quote from phil is that the chip couldn't be made in 2016 to their spec? What changed in that year?
 
Another interesting quote from phil is that the chip couldn't be made in 2016 to their spec? What changed in that year?
Could be power related. There have been some hints the Polaris refresh (580) is bringing some improvement there. HDMI2.1 possibly, but that seemed more like a checkbox. Unless some VR headset requirement to delay a release.
 
Could be power related. There have been some hints the Polaris refresh (580) is bringing some improvement there. HDMI2.1 possibly, but that seemed more like a checkbox. Unless some VR headset requirement to delay a release.
Could be a delay for figuring out a way to have 384bits on polaris.
 
It sounds like it was a combination of the chip and the cost that would have been prohibitive in 2016...
 
Could be a delay for figuring out a way to have 384bits on polaris.
384bit should be fairly straightforward though. Just make a bigger crossbar which AMD may have already had for what could have been a 490 that never materialized.

It sounds like it was a combination of the chip and the cost that would have been prohibitive in 2016...
Prohibitive enough to delay the release instead of taking a bit of a loss while prices come down? The die itself would only be a portion of the total unless GDDR5 was viewed as too expensive at the time. I haven't seen any giant technological leaps in the other areas to influence choices. That's why I'm still thinking the perf/watt wasn't there initially as seen with Polaris.
 
1hr05mins of vidcast talking about the visit:


Listening to it now.
So far my impressions are that MS could've/should've chosen a different outlet for this visit.

This just feels dry and doesn't relay any good vibes if that's what MS was going for.
 
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I have to admit I was shocked by how little they appreciate the difference between console hw design and consumer expectations and their PC counterparts.
 
Clearly based on their disclosed timelines with Scorpio kits shipping soon and DF saying the timing of their exclusive was partly to preempt developer leaks; the Scorpio enabled XDK will be in dev hands soon which should provide those additional details everyone is looking for such as presence of rapid packed math, etc. Patience people.

Your first hint should be that the MS design philosophy was to use existing code to determine hw speeds and feeds required to hit 4k. So with that as the backdrop, how much existing code would they have profiled needing high performance FP16 execution?
 
Listening to it now.
So far my impressions are that MS could've/should've chosen a different outlet for this visit.

This just feels dry and doesn't relay any good vibes if that's what MS was going for.

Yeah just finished, it was kinda flat with a bit too much rambling. Article was good with the in-depth Q&A with Spencer.
 
Yeah just finished, it was kinda flat with a bit too much rambling. Article was good with the in-depth Q&A with Spencer.

Should've called the video "Gamasutra disses Scoprio".

The editor in chief in particular appeared to go out of his way to find reasons to downplay Scorpio even arguing that 4K TV sales being niche. Anecdotally, most TVs for sale at stores are likely to be 4K than not----at least in my area.
 
They did their site a disservice.
It's easy to see that he wasn't prepared, he mentions that he didn't read the email properly, so he thought he was just part of a group.
This could've been an even bigger scoop for them.
MS didn't do themselves any favours if they felt the information they wanted to get out, and they wasn't being asked about it. In that case they should've taken the lead and explained those things.

It ended up being a standard piece instead of a targeted piece that their site covers, for the type of readers their site attracts.

Questions that should've been obvious to them to ask.
How does the development tools and tool chain help to develop for both console specs.

Since esram has to still be optimised, how much benefit is there to not having it if games need to work on both platforms anyway, is it more source code branches and maintenance.

If a dev wants to do the bare minimum patch, what can they expect to get out of the system.

If you want to optimize for Scorpio, is it simply about dealing with amount of wavefronts, cache sizes, or are there specific new commands and facilities offered by the hardware.

Your pushing for uwp, where does that stand in the time line and what tools will be available for it.

How has the uptake been for x1 retail machines being turned into dev boxes been like, and what is the expectations for the Scorpio in this regards.

(Edit: VR plans and development process)

These are just a few development type questions that came from top of my head.

More of a shame for the site than MS. MS can still get their information out, gamesutra lost out on putting out good articles that would have generated even more long lasting traffic for them. Now other sites will just take the dev specs and post that.
 
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Well, I would be surprised if MS won't black ball them in the future. It's like listening to hardcore PC gaming fanboys discussing consoles.
 
Well, I would be surprised if MS won't black ball them in the future. It's like listening to hardcore PC gaming fanboys discussing consoles.
I doubt they will, and MS are just as much to blame if they didn't put forward details they wanted to get out.

Their own podcast wasn't even focused on development as they didn't actually get much of that side to discuss it.
Such a shame for them, all that access and they came away with a standard article.
 
oh delays ;)
Considering that scorpio is a year late, on the same process node as Pro - this is worth looking more into.

It´s not that hard to figured it out. If it´s true that they settled for 6TF, that wasn´t possible in a console form factor (be it diesize, power budget) . Polaris topped with 36cu (the same as the pro) at 5.8TF in boost mode, and exceeding the rated power draw.

Next week AMD releases the 5xx series (rebranded Polaris), obviously newer stepping with better clocks.

Ms had the choice of go wider or faster. They ended up in the middle lol, but IMO was a no no in 2016
Well, this is my take on it
 
I doubt they will, and MS are just as much to blame if they didn't put forward details they wanted to get out.

Their own podcast wasn't even focused on development as they didn't actually get much of that side to discuss it.
Such a shame for them, all that access and they came away with a standard article.

From what position do you talk? From their article or this podcast discussion with these 2 guys at https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1977015/
 
It´s not that hard to figured it out. If it´s true that they settled for 6TF, that wasn´t possible in a console form factor (be it diesize, power budget) . Polaris topped with 36cu (the same as the pro) at 5.8TF in boost mode, and exceeding the rated power draw.

Next week AMD releases the 5xx series (rebranded Polaris), obviously newer stepping with better clocks.

Ms had the choice of go wider or faster. They ended up in the middle lol, but IMO was a no no in 2016
Well, this is my take on it
This is not bad. Was thinking more along the lines of just issues, not necessarily technical. So perhaps some rescrapping/going back to the drawing board.

The console started in 2014, it's quite old :)
 
From what position do you talk? From their article or this podcast discussion with these 2 guys at https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1977015/
Sorry, don't understand the question?

I was talking about articles and podcast. They didn't have much development related things to discuss and it seems it's because they didn't make good use of the access they were given.

Doubt MS would black ball them, as that doesn't seem to be the current MS, or Phil's way.
The articles themselves wasn't bad, just not what is expected from a site of that type.
 
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