Xbox Series X [XBSX] [Release November 10 2020]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...-series-x-power-consumption-and-heat-analysis

Xbox Series X thermal and power analysis: how efficient is next-gen?
Good news - not just for Microsoft but for AMD too.

When the Xbox Series X form factor was first revealed at The Game Awards in December 2019, the size and shape of the unit was something of a surprise. In delivering what it believes to be the most powerful console of the next generation, Microsoft rewrote the rule book, producing a mini-tower like design aimed at maximising both performance and cooling. Has this decision paid off? With press units in the hands of journalists, stories began to appear suggesting that the console could get very hot. So, just how hot does it get and how much electricity does Series X draw from the mains? The answers are surprising - in a positive way!

With the final preview embargo up, I can share some more of my overall thoughts about the machine. I've already talked about the excellent backwards compatibility features, and what kind of storage solution is best for running your old Xbox titles on Series X, but now I can share more. Starting with the industrial design, there is a quiet revolution in design here, with the emphasis on the word 'quiet'. Series X is quiet to the point where breaking out the noise meter is a pointless exercise because the console's acoustics merge into the background noise of my living room and office. It's essentially on par with Xbox One X - and perhaps even better - which I'd rate as the current gold standard in console design. Series X is more power-hungry, but the revised form factor ensures that noise is simply not an issue.

The size and shape of the box is quite different, but still very console-like. It's basically the same height as One X, but somewhat portlier in certain dimensions. You can rest the machine vertically or horizontally and in terms of footprint, I think vertical is the way to go. Hot air rises by its very nature, so there may well be a slight cooling advantage in doing so too. In an entirely unscientific way, it certainly 'looks' baetter, in my opinion.

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Looks like Gears 5 (assuming that's the ver @ PC Ultra 4K settings with the 60 FPS SP/120 FPS MP option) was hitting around 200 - 210 watts at peaks. Might be safe to assume this could be the upper peak limit for power consumption on Series X. Gears 5 might be a current-gen game but it's one of the best-looking games out there and a pretty technically demanding one at that, especially with the aforementioned settings.

Overall that's really good power consumption at that level of performance. Assuming this would still fall within the 62 degree Celsius upper limit of temperature reported on last week, too.

EDIT: Also forgot that these back-compat games are in Compatibility Mode; like Rich said that would mean they aren't using the full RDNA2 featureset and are just replicating GCN. Dunno if that applies with Gears 5 or not but if it does, it means a recompiled version designed with the RDNA2 featureset explicitly should have even lower power consumption than in the vid, at similar performance levels.

Really good get with them having Gears 5 as an optimized title at launch btw; it'd of been even better if some new DLC content were paired with such.

 

I thought Gears 5 had a “two week port” done to it, so it should be leveraging the hardware, even if no optimization has been done. We could see peak power go higher, but the title is probably close to being GPU limited in its current form.

 

That was months ago and not the situation today 6 to 8 months later. So I'd expect today's version of Gears 5 on SeriesX to push things further than even the "two week port".

I think iroboto posted in the DF thread that at around the 10 minute mark of the video it's said that Gears 5 is using RDNA 2 features like VRS.

 

It is possible! Even many TV's built-in sharpening does a good job "scaling" up text and glyph. I think it's just not their top priority right now.

 

These new Xbox consoles are true engineering marvels.

 

I'm no expert on this so I might be wrong, but I don't know how you'd create a 4K image out of a 1080p one considering you're simply quadrupling the pixels from an original 2D element. There's no N-1 image to iterate from, so there's no temporal information either. I guess the text and curves can be antialiased but that's about it.

Also, I don't know how credible the excuse of "leaving more performance to the games" is, for not using a 4K UI. The performance impact from a bunch of 2D tiles should be minimal.
More likely, both the SeriesX and SeriesS will have a 4K UI in the future and performance won't be impacted by it, at all.

 

wish i could buy a Xbox X to run windows 10 on it as a PC. thing is awesome.

even if it meant having like a gamepass subscription ( to offset the loss leading etc)

 

Richard mentions standby power draw in the video and the article, but it didn’t make the table: “I also noted that in instant resume 'standby' mode, the Series X still draws around 29W - enough for me to turn my machine off completely.”

He didn’t mention if that was measured minutes or hours in, in case the system drops to progressively lower sleep states (pretty sure PS4 can drop to a deeper sleep after a configurable 1-3hrs), and because it’s not allowed to draw that much in Europe. I don’t know if he has an early or later review unit, or if that matters.

 

Is standby S3 state? Why would it use 29W in S3 state? Unless 16GB of GDDR6 consumes way more than 16GB of DDR4.

 

That’s what I consider standby, so this is confusing considering the X1X (12GB GDDR5) abides by the EU rule and draws 10W.

Maybe it’s just Richard’s unit, if he’s got an earlier model? He’s got a point that S3 is kind of moot if the system cold boots faster than your TV and Quick Resume hibernates games (actually writes to the SSD, so survives a reboot).

 

29w is more than many laptops. I think it was one of the guys on the giant beastcast podcast noted his Series X ran warm when in standby and that his external 1Tb drive was hot to the touch. I wonder if there are a lot of software/firmware updates downloading in the background currently which are keeping the preview units more active than they will be a few months after launch when everybody has settled down.

 

Interesting. That could explain the unexpectedly high performance compared with the PC version at the same settings.

 

Wait, still no 4k UI? That is disappointing if true.

 

At the time VRS wasn't added.
I wouldn't take him mentioning VRS to mean he knows its been implemented either, sounded like a throw away comment as an example of an RDNA2 feature.

Don't think they implemented anything that would be lot more performant than the PC equivalent at the time either.
So I wouldn't say it explains performance.
I expect we was just seeing a well performing architecture given what we know of RDNA2.

I also find it disappointing if it releases like that.
Although I do agree in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal, but it's little touches like that that says quality.

Also lacking usb c, gen 2, wifi 6, makes it feel like it wasn't built for the future.
I'm not saying it will or won't have long lasting impact, but just an overall shame.

All these things I wouldn't have even thought to question, as I saw them as basic things to have on console releasing this year.

 

The standby mode power consumption (30W) is extremely disappointing. On PS4 with a game suspended it's my favorite mode.

 

I reckon that usage is when it's doing updates or something.
I don't see it releasing like that, just don't see that being a possibility.

 

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication...e4799-e4bd-11e9-9c4e-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

Interesting document here from 2019 looking at power usage in consoles class hardware (it even addresses Steam machines) it notes that the PS4 was the only console to comply with the new EU energy regulations for network connected equipment of a maximum 2W draw on Standby. How the fuck MS thinks they're going to be allowed get away with 30W I do not know, that is disgracefully high "standby" power consumption. This is like most EU reports long and detailed to a fault but has the most detailed power consumption figures I've ever seen (including for multiple CUH revisions).

 

I'm thoroughly confused by this conversation. Rich said standby power (Power Off) was 0-2W.

 

For full power off, for "connected standby" (ie auto updates , uploads, etc) it consumes 30W.