I don't think we should talk about bottlenecks at this point because at this point all those games basically ports in a sense, that doesn't leverage console power. But it will be rough for XSX if the issues are not resolved somehow.
But I do wonder why MS did not go with Sony's solution. Less performant GPU and split memory pool?
Well, MS wanted the Series X APU to be dual-use: for both a marquee console and in their Azure server blades for Xcloud. They wanted to be able to run four virtualized instances of Xbox One S games on a Series X, the best way to do that was to ensure 4 SAs were in the design with enough horsepower to do it. And they needed to make sure that the clocks were at a point where stability could be maintained in a server environment which would translate to the console implementation, hence 1.825 GHz.
Other things like 320-bit bus would allow them to double up the memory capacities on server (maybe through clamshell? Or with doubled density modules, but 4 GB GDDR6 modules don't exist at the moment AFAIK). The SSD I/O baseline may've been set the way it is in order to ensure something that was performant enough yet low enough on power consumption for Series S, while ensuring parity between that and Series X. Stuff like that, basically.
I agree that trying to make definitive statements on where each system lands from these early launch titles is way too early, but MS created this problem for themselves by A)messaging and marketing off being the "most powerful" console for months and B)not having even a single 1P title ready for launch. They honestly should've just had Ninja Theory polish Bleeding Edge even further and held that off for a cross-gen launch between XBO/Series S/Series X this November. Would've benefited the new consoles AND Bleeding Edge in terms of polish and exposure, especially if they kept it free-to-play.
Seeing though that they let 343i go unchecked as long as they have on Halo Infinite kind of signals to me MS's QA and oversight over at least some of their studios is too loose. They really should've clamped on 343i years ago to get them up to par. The heads at that studio should've been removed well before the July showing if they thought what they had in July would've been satisfactory. I also agree that MS don't have a lot of time to turn around the current issues here; power in and of itself isn't the deciding factor, but it's a major factor in the early phase. MS did so much messaging on having the power narrative and how things are playing out right now, it's kind of brutal. Exacerbated because there's no (new) 1P games available at the time which show what the system can really do. Gears 5 is arguably the closest but it also released last year and the new DLC isn't coming until a bit later this month IIRC.
Something'll have to start changing up for them on that front around early time next year. Either that, or some of these H1 exclusives (The Medium, Scorn, Bright Memory Infinite etc.) hit pretty hard. If they live up to what's been shown so far (especially BMI from the May event), I think they'll be good. Same for Exo-Mecha and The Ascent. MS needs to be giving these games all the engineering support they can get, they need to be showcases for Series X and Series S if their 1P stuff like FS2020 port and Halo Infinite aren't hitting until H2 2021.
I
think they can do it, but we'll have to see.
Not really. Virtualisation of OSes with the necessary hardware has a very low overhead.
Yeah; there was the main OS and two hypervisors. Virtual machines, basically. Nowhere near the same thing as three actual OSes (you'd have to reboot every time you wanted to play a game or watch a movie x3).
