Microsoft XBOX (XBox One X / Project Scorpio) - Prerelease News and Rumours

[Jay]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-06-15-xbox-boss-phil-spencer-the-big-interview

yeah, that's very different than him saying that it's a correct motherboard image.
if anything, that just shows they expected people to do it, so why would they put the correct one out? And not reveal the amount of memory.
it actually sounds more of misdirection than confirmation. Made it a point not to say it's correct

 

[MrFox]

Okay I guess it's not a confirmation. Not exactly.

But why would they have such an intricately designed fake motherboard at the unveiling, then saying they knew perfectly people would assume it's the real motherboard and as part of the press kit images? There's no point.

 

[AlNom]

Okay I guess it's not a confirmation. Not exactly.

But why would they have such an intricately designed fake motherboard at the unveiling, then saying they knew perfectly people would assume it's the real motherboard and as part of the press kit images? There's no point.

Besides that, the material would (hopefully) have to get past PR & Legal.

 

[Jay]

Okay I guess it's not a confirmation. Not exactly.

But why would they have such an intricately designed fake motherboard at the unveiling, then saying they knew perfectly people would assume it's the real motherboard and as part of the press kit images? There's no point.

i would say, why do that and still be coy about memory then?
personally i suspect they have many different renders throughout the development process.(maybe it's actually got 16gb )
could've even been one of couple prototype's that got shelved, no idea.
have you seen images of all the different controllers, and console mockups.

But why would they have such an intricately designed fake

it being a very realistic render doesn't make it the final or correct one. Why not use a good render instead of a cheap looking one?

Besides that, the material would (hopefully) have to get past PR & Legal.

i don't think they would need to worry about being sued for showing a concept render, it happens all the time.
they gave out the specs, problem would be if specs was less than announced, and even then not like they would be sued over that either. As long as the correct specs given prior to it being sold

 

[MrFox]

i would say, why do that and still be coy about memory then?
personally i suspect they have many different renders throughout the development process.(maybe it's actually got 16gb )
could've even been one of couple prototype's that got shelved, no idea.
have you seen images of all the different controllers, and console mockups.
it being a very realistic render doesn't make it the final or correct one


i don't think they would need to worry about being sued for showing a concept render, it happens all the time.
they gave out the specs, problem would be if specs was less than announced, and even then not like they would be sued over that either. As long as the correct specs given prior to it being sold

Spoiler

 

[Jay]

Spoiler

i know it just seems like I'm being pedantic and awkward. Haha

 

[AlNom]

i don't think they would need to worry about being sued for showing a concept render, it happens all the time.
they gave out the specs, problem would be if specs was less than announced, and even then not like they would be sued over that either. As long as the correct specs given prior to it being sold

Eh. Better safe than sorry.

 

[eastmen]

https://technology.ihs.com/582313/i...n?hootPostID=696c493d1b964a7a6a0188df11469361

We essentially saw the cost of BR drives go from $30 to $18 from 2013 to 2016. The UHD drive will probably have a similar progression. A second SKU is certainly possible, but it's a weird move after they doubled down with UHD Bluray on the Slim, where the small cost cutting would have been much more important.

The dGPU hypothesis is becoming quite a stretch at this point. Not impossible but Phil confirmed the motherboard image is correct and done on purpose. I see no place for having a fast bus reaching a separate CPU, 3 sides are busy with the 384bits memory bus, and the remaining quadrant is the power delivery. The heatsink plate they have shown doesn't reach beyond the main SoC and Ram. Unless of course it's further away, and they added a custom chip inbetween, like an address generator chip from MOS Technology , providing much more than just DMA and RAM access arbitration, it could execute copy operations, basic bitmap and boolean ops, and even display-synchronized memory ops.

There are more to costs than just the price of the component. A bluray player requires more power and also takes up a huge amount of space all of which costs money. How much I don't know.

Sony does things differently but look at the Xbox designs since the revision of the 360 they started using a large fan blowing onto the heatsink . Some designs had to get smart to cool what was under the bluray /dvd drive . This can lead to a cheaper lighter heatsink and the removal of the bluray drive makes the system lighter and smaller. So you save on multiple levels .

I would imagine if they want a true leap forward they could go with a small 8 core Zen at 2.4gz or 2.8ghz 20-30w with that. They can put in a large gpu at that point and give that the bulk of the cooling. Giving a lot more tranistors to the gpu would allow them to create a bigger leap over an apu .

 

[Jay]

Spoiler

something i have said in the past though is, if it's got less than 12gb, they should've come out and just said it's a render, don't read too much into it.
as they know what's been going on, and the expectations it's creating.
so i may not subscribe to it having to be the actual board, but i believe it's had side effects that they would've been stupid not to address, instead of being coy the way they have been.

wonder if they can make a small enough box if they used a 3.5" hdd 7200, could probably double the capacity for less than 2.5" cost. 2tb box at $450-500? That would look good.
even then I'd like onboard m.2 ssd cache. Asking too much?
if it can do high quality 4k60 recording, maybe that could help by taking load of hdd io, as it could be streaming in assets.

 

[Rangers]

Elite version 512 GB SDD+2TB mechanical or bust

 

[eastmen]

Elite version 512 GB SDD+2TB mechanical or bust

Do we need that ?

I rather they just put an SSD cache inside and let us bring our own hardrive to the mix. They have had usb hardrive support since the middle of the 360 generation. Ship with a 512GB SSD inside and allow us to supply our own drive if it meets the speed requirement. That way we can go with 3.5 inch drives or multiple ssd drives if we choose. Also the price will be kept down and box size can be kept down

 

[MrFox]

Do we need that ?

I rather they just put an SSD cache inside and let us bring our own hardrive to the mix. They have had usb hardrive support since the middle of the 360 generation. Ship with a 512GB SSD inside and allow us to supply our own drive if it meets the speed requirement. That way we can go with 3.5 inch drives or multiple ssd drives if we choose. Also the price will be kept down and box size can be kept down

He was talking about the Elite version. You can always buy the Peasant version.

 

[eastmen]

He was talking about the Elite version. You can always buy the Peasant version.

the elite version shouldn't be saddled with a mechanical drive !

 

[BRiT]

I want an ultra peasant version where they don't include an internal hard drive, xbox game controller, and headset at all.

 

[eastmen]

I want an ultra peasant version where they don't include an internal hard drive, xbox game controller, and headset at all.

we got all that already anyway !

 

[bunge]

I want a setup that isn't myopically designed for the USA.

 

[eastmen]

I want a setup that isn't myopically designed for the USA.

ah the real peasant console then

 

[Shifty Geezer]

i would say, why do that and still be coy about memory then?

Because it wasn't 100% finalised?

personally i suspect they have many different renders throughout the development process.(maybe it's actually got 16gb )

I doubt it. Renders are only of use for PR - you don't give these 3D fly-throughs to your production partners and say, "here, build this."

have you seen images of all the different controllers, and console mockups.

They're for visualising a design. Unless Scorpio has a see-through case where you see the mobo, there's no point in multiple designs each needing visualisation renders. It's purely utilitarian in design.

I agree that the wording is inconclusive though. Could be that they just wanted a PR thing and whoever put it together chose 'more chips than XB1'. Then the overview committee pointed out the Internet would count the chips and assume the RAM amount, and shrugged and decided it didn't matter, they'd reveal in their own good time.

Ultimately though I say it'd because at the time the RAM amount was undecided. Needs less cloak-and-dagger speculation for that argument to hang together. They're looking at RAM options, costs and benefits, went with 12 chips for now, but didn't finalise on a RAM amount. Just as Sony shocked everyone with 8 GBs, MS could trot out 16 GBs. Which they could just have easily done having announced 12 GBs officially, and then upgraded before release.

 

[goonergaz]

I thought they already said no SSD? Hopefully next gen we will get the option.

 

[Jay]

Ultimately though I say it'd because at the time the RAM amount was undecided. Needs less cloak-and-dagger speculation for that argument to hang together. They're looking at RAM options, costs and benefits, went with 12 chips for now, but didn't finalise on a RAM amount. Just as Sony shocked everyone with 8 GBs, MS could trot out 16 GBs. Which they could just have easily done having announced 12 GBs officially, and then upgraded before release.

Yea I don't disagree with much of what you say.
But as you said, it could not be final, and due to the way they have handled it, I do expect that it will have 12GB+ (although ms have a knack of shooting themselves in the face when it comes to messaging) Maybe they was going to go with 12, then went to 10GB, due to cost. After seeing the cost of the 4pro. haha
Wouldn't it need a board redesign if it had more memory (not like pc where you just drop more in slots), which in itself would make the render not representative. I'm not saying it's a fake render, but just saying you can't take that render to be indicative of the final release or board layout, as it could've been done at any point before finalization.
For me it's not the board render itself that is telling, but their responses to the questions regarding it.

I thought they already said no SSD? Hopefully next gen we will get the option.

I believe your right, but I can't remember for certain. could still have m.2 though.