Now that we finally have some concrete specs, it's pretty easy to see what Xbox Scorpio is bringing to the table when compared to the PS4 Pro. In essence, it's exactly what many of us suspected: Scorprio -> PS4 Pro what PS4 -> Xbox One. In other words, Scorpio is built on the same core architecture but with faster and beefier components compared to PS4 Pro. Even the math checks out: overall compute was ~40% faster on PS4 vs Xbox One & Scorpio is ~43% faster than PS4 pro.
The CPU is essentially an overclocked Jaguar with some tweaks just like PS4 Pro. Scorpio's CPU runs at ~10% higher clock speed which is roughly the same CPU advantage the Xbox One had over the PS4 BTW. The GPU from a design standpoint is not nearly as interesting as we once thought (No Vega). It is basically the same design and architecture of PS4 Pro (AMD Polaris based) but with 4 more Compute Units and a large clock speed increase of ~30% over PS4 Pro's clock speed.
Simply put, Xbox Scorpio just took the place of the OG PS4 in direct spec comparisons with the Xbox One and the difference in multiplatform titles between Scorpio and PS4 Pro will be very similar to what we've seen with PS4 and XB1. Namely, the games on both platform used the same core design with the same quality settings, art assets, and feature sets but generally ran at higher resolution with better performance on PS4. We will see the same thing here with Scorpio and PS4 Pro: games generally look the same but run at higher resolution with slightly better performance on Scorpio (some Scorpio games may have higher quality assets with extra memory). I say slightly better performance because we now know that the CPU is pretty close to the PS4 pro, just slightly faster. That 10% clock speed improvement won't remove many of the CPU bottlenecks we see on a lot of titles and definitely won't be enough to have a 30fps on PS4 pro suddenly run at 60fps on Scorpio. What we really learned today is that Scorpio architecturally is not a radical departure from any of the current console, just a beefier version of them. So don't expect any radical differences with the games.
The real difference with Scorpio on a technical level will come from the boost in memory and memory bandwidth. Scorpio has about 45% more available memory and 50% more memory bandwidth than even PS4 pro. That will allow for many more games to hit native 4K WITH higher quality assets as well. The net result will be much higher fidelity on Scorpio.
The other major difference with Scorpio has little to do with the hardware itself and more to do with the policies and system design as a whole. For example, the benefits of improved image quality (screen tearing, texture filtering), load times, and performance affecting ALL Xbox family titles (XB1 and X360) games is huge, especially for 1080p TV owners. This is something that PS4 Pro could easily do on a technical level but the lack of standardization with Sony's policies leaves PS4 Pro feeling half baked in comparison. Furthermore, decisions like allowing for 4K capture and 4K Bluray playback is more about economics than technical limitations.
Overall, I think Scorpio will be a great thing for Microsoft and the game industry at large. It will go a long way in terms of them winning back developers and will put those new 4K HDR TVs to great use. Price will be higher than PS4 Pro's $399 and as Microsoft has said numerous times, it will be a premium product for a specific type of gamer that is not the majority of the console audience. In other words, you shouldn't expect Scorpio to set the world on fire with it's sales because Microsoft doesn't. It won't do much to shift the overall market share story between Microsoft and Sony. For them Scorpio is a passion and statement product and in that sense I think it will be successful. Ultimately as much as Microsoft craves a "fresh start" Scorpio is still tied to the Xbox One platform. This generation is nearly 4 years old, with developers favoring their engines and their marketing dollars with Sony. There are over 2x the number of gamers playing on Playstation platforms than Xbox currently with nearly 40% more titles available on PS4 platforms. Even if a percentage of PS4 owners buy Scorpio to get the best tech, they still own a PS4 which means Microsoft isn't really "taking anything back" from Sony. Furthermore, having beefier hardware gives you bragging rights but Sony still has a TREMENDOUS lineup of games coming this year and next. The talk of all of the Q1 games is overdone but Sony still has huge exclusives like Gran Turismo, Uncharted Lost Legacy, Spiderman, classic remasters like Wipeout and Crash Bandicoot, and HUGE 3rd party partnerships with Red Dead 2, Destiny 2, Star War Battlefront 2, and Call of Duty this fall. No amount of pixels will trump the sheer quality and quantity of games Sony has in the pipeline. At the end of the day, let's not forget the games are what matter most!
