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[ZehDon]

Could very easily make the counter-argument that they've been failing in the portable computing space longer than anyone else. Palm pilots were only popular until blackberry came along. Windows phones are all but dead now, right? (Windows phones make up less than 1% global market share).

I personally don't think Xbox will ever do well in Asian territories (particularly Japan). I don't want to call it anti-Americanism but they just have absolutely no interest in Xbox whatsoever. It's not like Microsoft is doing anything particularly wrong in Japan. Japanese developers are not interested in working with them and therefore Japanese consumers on the whole don't have the time of day for Xbox because their needs are met by Sony/Nintendo. I really doubt releasing a portable is going to do anything at all to change that. Especially since they would be up against the Switch.

I mean, have you checked out the Famitsu sales data for Japan? For the most part people don't give a shit about 3rd party games (at least the ones you and I probably care about).

That's fair - but experience is still experience. Assuming they've learned from their failures, they have just as much chance to succeed here as anyone else.

I think the primary benefit for a "hand held Next Gen Xbox" (not that I think it's going to magically materialise) is that it turns every game into a portable game. Think of all of the PS4 titles that sold well in Asian territories. Monster Hunter World is a good example. It's not too hard to imagine how a hand-held Xbox that could run that game but portable would be an attractive offer to that particular market, where a typical Xbox might not be,

 

[RaySoft]

I did read your post. What I'm asking is does AMD actually have a 5nm node that works? ie how do you know they've moved the IP blocks over to that 5nm node or are you just speculating? It may not even be ready for production (of any yield) yet.

We don't know for sure, I was just speculating around that tweet stating it was on a 5nm node. As with all smaller nodes, it would take time to increase yields, so smaller chips is one way to increase yields before the process is more refined and mature and implemented for their bigger designs as well.

 

[supernova8]

We don't know for sure, I was just speculating around that tweet stating it was on a 5nm node. As with all smaller nodes, it would take time to increase yields, so smaller chips is one way to increase yields before the process is more refined and mature and implemented for their bigger designs as well.

Fair enough. Makes sense! Personally don't think it'll be 5nm at the start because I expect they would rather keep it simple by having everything on 7nm. Besides, there's nothing stopping them from moving everything over to 5nm like 2 or 3 years into the cycle to provide a smaller/quieter system (or an Xbox Series X.... X). That might already be in the custom SoC roadmap for AMD and may be provided to both MS and Sony. Of course I'm talking out of my arse.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Portable would be batshit insane.
I don't believe this (yet).

 

[Xyphie]

It won't be 5nm.
It won't be portable.

Lockhart SoC will have power consumption exceeding 100W. That's a order of magnitude or so higher than what's feasible in something portable.

 

[Jose92]

I think he was being sarcastic and referring to how Tom's journalism is based on hot takes and console warring .

Hence, he is not insinuating that lockhart will be a portable.

 

[UnNamed]

A huge problem would be the CPU, a portable XSX can have a GPU 1/10 the power since graphics is ultra scalable, but CPU has to be similar in performance.

Imagine a game running at 720p or 1080p instead of 4K, with reduced assets, lod, textures, shaders, etc, this would means less draw calls for the CPU, some resource saved but not that much. But you can't save on game logic, it has to be the same or you'll have games at 30fps on Lockhart or less enemies on screen, imagine a racing game with half of cars on Lockhart cause CPU runs at half of the power.

That's why Switch CPU clock doesn't change in docked or un docked, or difference in CPU power from XBO to XBX are minimal.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

GameGear taught me that just because you could put a feature in a handheld, doesn't mean you should.
To put it simply, trying to cram a powerful machine into a small box is disastrous. Smartphones of today already throttle themselves and downclocks to stop setting themselves on fire.

Handhelds had to be practical to use. If they are not, then they are not truly portable. Gamegear has far superior specs than the Gameboy. But it lost to the Gameboy for very good reasons.

 

[martino]

i don't be believe it

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Portable with your phone/tablet as a screen or any other display via an output port or wireless built in would be interesting.

 

[DESTROYA]

A portable device with 4TF GPU would be feasible with the same size of Surface Pro using a Ryzen 4800U with double the core (16 CU).
4800U is the current core of the Surface Laptop.

There is no Surface laptop with 4800u or any 4000 series APU, those are just rumors . Yes it’s the next logical choice but nothing had been announced.

 

[DaGwaphics]

I think there could come a time when this performance profile could make a traditional handheld/tablet variant possible. Today, it seems like that would negate the pricing advantage of the device. If there is a device with a screen and battery, there would also be a traditional console implementation that removes the expense of those items. I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't started selling a mini-console Switch yet.

I can see multiple devices using Lockhart depending on the power profile. A laptop device would be a nice fit, you could even do a dual boot where Xbox mode activates the full processor for gaming but CUs are disabled under Windows to prolong batter life.

All this discussion of Lockhart, and then it will release as a streaming device with local GPU processing/ML.

This and those rumors of MS brass hiding Lockhart like it's a military secret, must have people in the know in stitches.

Oh well, we enjoy the speculation.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Portable with your phone/tablet as a screen or any other display via an output port or wireless built in would be interesting.

That would be very possible. Xbone already supports local network streaming, and these new consoles are said to contain some nice stream tech.