• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Xbox Series S is pretty dang cool

Riky

$MSFT
Forgive my ignorance, I'm very out of touch with the Xbox ecosystem, if I dig my 360 out of the attic, sign in to my console and stick all my 360 discs in it one by one just to the title screens, my Series S will know so when I buy one and I can download the aforementioned 360 games for free onto my new console?

No, Series S will recognise the backwards compatible games you have a licence for, if that's purchased or through a subscription.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
You guys should check out Psychonauts 2 on both One X and XSS systems. Or Yakuza.

On Series S, You get something like 1620p in Psychonauts 2. At 60fps, no load times and no lag whatsoever. 120hz mode at 1080p as well. On One X, I believe its dynamic 4k ish or 1800p at 30fps and terrible load times.

Yakuza has 1440p/30 on XSS, barely any load times as well. Also a 900p/60 mode which plays briliant. One X, pushes no more than 1080p/30.

What you usually see though is a slightly higher res for One X, but better everything else on XSS. I guess this is on the weaker CPU + more powerful GPU combination. One X also has a bit more RAM which I think factors in as well, I believe its the reason XSS gets One S profiles of legacy games? But legacy games can be upgraded, and thus you can play Prey, DS2 and all at 60fps on S only (next to Series X, which is One X profile + framerate boost ie. best deal).

RE Village caps out at 1080p in 60hz mode on One X. XSS does 1440p in that mode and has an RT mode as well (with a weird 45 ish FPS, while One X offers a checkerboard ish 4k option at 30fps). I believe FH5, according to DF, has higher graphical setting on XSS and brace yourself for the load times on the older systems.
 
Last edited:

Md Ray

Member
One X is designed to play shitty looking Xbox One S games in native 4k.

Series S is designed to play beautiful Series X games at 1080p.
One X is pretty capable of playing beautiful looking current-gen engine Series X games at half the framerate. FH5 is a case in point. The 30fps visuals on One X in that game is broadly equivalent to Series consoles running in their 60fps modes, according to DF.

Let me make it clear that I'm not talking about the overall machines themselves. Series machines are on a whole another level compared to One S/X machines if we take CPU, storage upgrades into account. Rather, I'm talking about the rasterization performance of One X and Series S GPUs. Series S GPU is more advanced for sure, but One X GPU can be a bit more powerful as it's capable of outputting more pixels owing to higher memory bandwidth than Series S GPU... Or more frames if resolution were to be equal between the two as long as the Jaguar CPU doesn't get in the way.
 

kingfey

Banned
One X is pretty capable of playing beautiful looking current-gen engine Series X games at half the framerate. FH5 is a case in point. The 30fps visuals on One X in that game is broadly equivalent to Series consoles running in their 60fps modes, according to DF.

Let me make it clear that I'm not talking about the overall machines themselves. Series machines are on a whole another level compared to One S/X machines if we take CPU, storage upgrades into account. Rather, I'm talking about the rasterization performance of One X and Series S GPUs. Series S GPU is more advanced for sure, but One X GPU can be a bit more powerful as it's capable of outputting more pixels owing to higher memory bandwidth than Series S GPU... Or more frames if resolution were to be equal between the two as long as the Jaguar CPU doesn't get in the way.
The major advantage would be the loading screen. People dont like waiting 2m for loading screen.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
The major advantage would be the loading screen. People dont like waiting 2m for loading screen.

There is no way I would prefer FH5 on One X indeed. It loads during those seasonal openers, mid race, it loads at photo mode, changing cars and probably more. I believe an external SSD does help, but idk by how much.
 
I cant really tell you how impressed I am with the S, I got the Series X first then got the S for the smaller telly, mainly for the kids to use and friends when they come over while i'm on the X.
Ended up playing more on the S simply because its its in the more sociable room but also because games on it look totally fine, and play really well. Even Bf2042 and new CoD are great on the little beast.
Also the tiny size of it means its mega convenient to stick in a bag and take to friends house for LAN.
 

Riky

$MSFT
The major advantage would be the loading screen. People dont like waiting 2m for loading screen.
48xSBTS.jpg


To think there were people here actually advising people to buy a One X over a Series S, hope nobody fell for that obvious troll.
 
You guys should check out Psychonauts 2 on both One X and XSS systems. Or Yakuza.

On Series S, You get something like 1620p in Psychonauts 2. At 60fps, no load times and no lag whatsoever. 120hz mode at 1080p as well. On One X, I believe its dynamic 4k ish or 1800p at 30fps and terrible load times.

Yakuza has 1440p/30 on XSS, barely any load times as well. Also a 900p/60 mode which plays briliant. One X, pushes no more than 1080p/30.

What you usually see though is a slightly higher res for One X, but better everything else on XSS. I guess this is on the weaker CPU + more powerful GPU combination. One X also has a bit more RAM which I think factors in as well, I believe its the reason XSS gets One S profiles of legacy games? But legacy games can be upgraded, and thus you can play Prey, DS2 and all at 60fps on S only (next to Series X, which is One X profile + framerate boost ie. best deal).

RE Village caps out at 1080p in 60hz mode on One X. XSS does 1440p in that mode and has an RT mode as well (with a weird 45 ish FPS, while One X offers a checkerboard ish 4k option at 30fps). I believe FH5, according to DF, has higher graphical setting on XSS and brace yourself for the load times on the older systems.
This is what I love and hate about the Series S. On one hand you get impressive stuff like Psychonauts and Village but then you get 900p shit like Yakuza. I know the Yakuza engine isn't the most optimized but 900p in 2021 is just eh especially at only 60fps.

For me personally (and I know they had reasons for not doing it obviously) a Series S with like 6TF of power would have been perfect. That being said I still think it's a great machine that isn't meant for everybody (and something I've gone back and forth on). That being said I returned mine to get a Series X and I'm happy with it (but goddamn do I love the way the Series S is from a physical design perspective. Easily the best looking console currently).
 

kingfey

Banned
This is what I love and hate about the Series S. On one hand you get impressive stuff like Psychonauts and Village but then you get 900p shit like Yakuza. I know the Yakuza engine isn't the most optimized but 900p in 2021 is just eh especially at only 60fps.

For me personally (and I know they had reasons for not doing it obviously) a Series S with like 6TF of power would have been perfect. That being said I still think it's a great machine that isn't meant for everybody (and something I've gone back and forth on). That being said I returned mine to get a Series X and I'm happy with it (but goddamn do I love the way the Series S is from a physical design perspective. Easily the best looking console currently).
If you prefer 4k output, then xss wouldn't be your choice.

General people want to load a game, and play it.

Watching movies at home isn't the same experience as cinema one. But at least the other you are watching it at your home, with no one to bother you.
 

Hardvlade

Member
I got one for my wife and it is a wonderful system. Another amazing thing, you can download these emulators directly from Gamr13’s GithHub page using the browser on the XSS.


RetroArch (NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, Sega Master, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2 and many more)


DuckStarion (PS1)

PPSSPP (PSP)


and they play pretty well too!
 

Lognor

Banned
For all the people that gave Microsoft shit for making the Series S they are all eating crow now. It's a massive success for Microsoft. They can actually get these in stores, unlike the SXS and PS5. Sony should have done something similar instead of, or in addition to, the all digital PS5. Missed opportunity.
 
If you prefer 4k output, then xss wouldn't be your choice.

General people want to load a game, and play it.

Watching movies at home isn't the same experience as cinema one. But at least the other you are watching it at your home, with no one to bother you.
Xbox as it stands now (anything could change, I'm not married to any certain platform even if historically I've mainly stuck to one) is my secondary console so a $300 box with 6 versus 4 would have been perfect and a no brainer for me. Also would have gotten rid of some of these sub-1080p resolutions on games. That being said, I fully understand the reasons why Microsoft went the route they did.

Plus I'm terrible at buying games/not playing them much/regretting purchase so weirdly I've gone back to purchasing primarily physical games.
 
Last edited:

scalman

Member
it is cool. for its price as used console sure. its allready here about 250-280 used... when xsx used still 800 and ps5 800.. what ?
i thought they should be like 400 new.
Tom-Cruise-confused-GIF.gif


guess i should just
5f0.jpg


that would just solve all probs in the world..
 
Last edited:

kingfey

Banned
Plus I'm terrible at buying games/not playing them much/regretting purchase so weirdly I've gone back to purchasing primarily physical games.
Gamepass and cheap sales would be your option. I am also bad at buying games. I just buy anything that is cheap now, and test my luck with it.
 
Gamepass and cheap sales would be your option. I am also bad at buying games. I just buy anything that is cheap now, and test my luck with it.
Yeah, part of the issue is my depression honestly. I'll buy a game and love it and play the entire night, but then never feel the urge to go back to it even if I know that if I just play it that I will enjoy it which results in a lot of $60 games played for 2-6 hours and dropped. At least with physical I can recoup some of that initial cost. I've even thought about going back to GameFly a couple times.

GamePass is hit or miss for me. My favorite part of it is just getting the Day 1 releases, but on average I don't find the library that enticing (to my personal tastes combined with some dumbass mental block where certain franchises I have to play on certain platforms).
 

kingfey

Banned
Yeah, part of the issue is my depression honestly. I'll buy a game and love it and play the entire night, but then never feel the urge to go back to it even if I know that if I just play it that I will enjoy it which results in a lot of $60 games played for 2-6 hours and dropped. At least with physical I can recoup some of that initial cost. I've even thought about going back to GameFly a couple times.

GamePass is hit or miss for me. My favorite part of it is just getting the Day 1 releases, but on average I don't find the library that enticing (to my personal tastes combined with some dumbass mental block where certain franchises I have to play on certain platforms).
try to mix other activities. visit old games. not every game will suit our taste. Even good games, will be hard to do half of the gameplay.
 

cHaOs667

Member
I was actually thinking to trade in my old D1 X1 to get an XSS for business travel reasons - my son would then receive my X1X and the XSX would stay in the living room. I love how small the XSS and as most hotels have shitty Wi-Fi, cloud gaming is not really an option.
 
Forgive my ignorance, I'm very out of touch with the Xbox ecosystem, if I dig my 360 out of the attic, sign in to my console and stick all my 360 discs in it one by one just to the title screens, my Series S will know so when I buy one and I can download the aforementioned 360 games for free onto my new console?
No you have to have owned it digitally first. My disc 360 games can't be digitally downloaded unless I pay for that version, but you can still put the disc in the XSX and play them if they're BC. With the XSS you're disc 360 games are useless on it.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Everyone would have laughed if Microsoft launched the series s to directly compete with the PS5 I think it has glimpses of next gen.

072P10DdUKKYYMKUWbFPDPN-3.fit_lim.size_1050x.jpg
 

SkylineRKR

Member
This is what I love and hate about the Series S. On one hand you get impressive stuff like Psychonauts and Village but then you get 900p shit like Yakuza. I know the Yakuza engine isn't the most optimized but 900p in 2021 is just eh especially at only 60fps.

For me personally (and I know they had reasons for not doing it obviously) a Series S with like 6TF of power would have been perfect. That being said I still think it's a great machine that isn't meant for everybody (and something I've gone back and forth on). That being said I returned mine to get a Series X and I'm happy with it (but goddamn do I love the way the Series S is from a physical design perspective. Easily the best looking console currently).

Yeah but Yakuza makes sense. Its 30fps mode is still pushing a lot more than the Pro and One X since its at 1440p. On PS5 and SX Yakuza is only 1440p in 60hz mode as well. This would naturally mean the SS would drop to the 1080p range. I've read Lost Judgment is 1080p/60 on SS though, so perhaps Y7 could've been a bit better in this mode. The games likely perform as well as they can and the SS at least has a 60fps option, contrary to Pro and One X.

It was my first game on the SS at launch day, and I was rather impressed I could fast travel in about 3 seconds or so after playing so many of them on PS4 and Pro. And that I could play a Dragon Engine game at 60fps on console at all. At the time I was very happy with the fact I didn't buy it on Pro, as a PS5 and a game version for it weren't in sight.
 
For all the people that gave Microsoft shit for making the Series S they are all eating crow now. It's a massive success for Microsoft. They can actually get these in stores, unlike the SXS and PS5. Sony should have done something similar instead of, or in addition to, the all digital PS5. Missed opportunity.
I knew instantly it would work. Most people after Xbox One were extremely hesitant to jump into the Xbox ecosystem again. Most people would need a ton of incentive to spend $500 twice to get both systems. Almost the only chance they had was to come in as people's 2nd or 3rd system, and manage to justify that co-existence instead of trying to go head to head and replace Sony.

That's exactly what they did with the S, and exactly why I got one. Similar strategy to Nintendo in a way, who also is most people's 2nd or 3rd system.
 
It's pretty obvious that most of X1X's GPU resources are spent on higher rendering resolution. Bring the res down to Series S levels and you can add these higher quality draw distance to One X as well, and it will most likely have slightly more stable framerate than Series S too (if it's not bound by the Jaguar CPU).
What do you need to do to enable hardware raytracing on the X1X? It is more 'powerful' than the XSS right?
 

dcmk7

Banned
What do you need to do to enable hardware raytracing on the X1X? It is more 'powerful' than the XSS right?

We have barely seen raytracing on XSS tbf.

Seems to get stripped out when compared to the XSX version, must be due to the technical limitations since even first party studios can't get parity.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Whats cool about the SeriesS is that even though its 8gb may seem small, people jave to remember that it has the velocity architecture SSD as the SeriesX and because the Ram is smaller it can be filled faster the entire RAM can be filled in 1.6seconds of compressed data @4.8GB/s.

While the other systems have 13.5gb of RAM they are aiming for 1440 - 2160p resolutions, the xbox 1X had 9Gb of RAM so the PS5 + XSX does not seem a huge improvement over there last gen equivalent.
 
Whats cool about the SeriesS is that even though its 8gb may seem small, people jave to remember that it has the velocity architecture SSD as the SeriesX and because the Ram is smaller it can be filled faster the entire RAM can be filled in 1.6seconds of compressed data @4.8GB/s.

While the other systems have 13.5gb of RAM they are aiming for 1440 - 2160p resolutions, the xbox 1X had 9Gb of RAM so the PS5 + XSX does not seem a huge improvement over there last gen equivalent.
Great point and the full feature set of the XSS hasn't been utilized yet. It is crazy to base cross gen game performance to judge what the XSS is capable of.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
SFS and Mesh Shaders are going to give a nice multiplier on memory, going to see interesting results when we start seeing engines containing those two features.

Yes, current gen exclusives should scale a lot better.

The Ps4/x1 could do bioshock infinite at 1080p 60fps, but doom looks a lot better @ 1080p 60fps because while it may require the same compute power as bioshock infinite as doom, doom looks a lot better because it uses new hardware features, same will hapen this gen.
 

Editaur

Member
Just... How?
Sorry I should of been more specific. I think you can get the most out of the S and is an easier to recommend.

I say this after recently getting an X and having a 65" OLED that can take all of its advantages.
 

DragonNCM

Member
It's a shame they didn't design it to have the chassis swappable in different colors or at least to release it in white and black at the same time. I try to keep my electronics same color if I can, same with my other appliances.

This is what I love and hate about the Series S. On one hand you get impressive stuff like Psychonauts and Village but then you get 900p shit like Yakuza. I know the Yakuza engine isn't the most optimized but 900p in 2021 is just eh especially at only 60fps.

For me personally (and I know they had reasons for not doing it obviously) a Series S with like 6TF of power would have been perfect. That being said I still think it's a great machine that isn't meant for everybody (and something I've gone back and forth on). That being said I returned mine to get a Series X and I'm happy with it (but goddamn do I love the way the Series S is from a physical design perspective. Easily the best looking console currentlgin

Yeah, part of the issue is my depression honestly. I'll buy a game and love it and play the entire night, but then never feel the urge to go back to it even if I know that if I just play it that I will enjoy it which results in a lot of $60 games played for 2-6 hours and dropped. At least with physical I can recoup some of that initial cost. I've even thought about going back to GameFly a couple times.

GamePass is hit or miss for me. My favorite part of it is just getting the Day 1 releases, but on average I don't find the library that enticing (to my personal tastes combined with some dumbass mental block where certain franchises I have to play on certain platforms).
Hmm......how old are you if I may ask ?
 

Hestar69

Member
Love the console. only thing I hate is it's all digital obviously and I missed out on some great BF sales. Guardians was 25 everywhere..............38 on xbox..

But yeah,The series S and game pass is an amazing combo!. Now to save up for a ps5 one day and be set.
 
Didn't know Elden Ring had ray tracing.
I didn't mention a specific game at all. You said the X1X is more powerful than the XSS. I asked what games on X1X support hardware raytracing. I can name games the 'weaker' XSS has that supports hardware raytracing. I'll start to help you out. Watch Dogs Legion has raytracing on XSS. How about on X1X, the more powerful console in your eyes?
 

elliot5

Member
Love the console. only thing I hate is it's all digital obviously and I missed out on some great BF sales. Guardians was 25 everywhere..............38 on xbox..

But yeah,The series S and game pass is an amazing combo!. Now to save up for a ps5 one day and be set.
Walmart had GOTG digital for $25
 

Md Ray

Member
I didn't mention a specific game at all. You said the X1X is more powerful than the XSS. I asked what games on X1X support hardware raytracing. I can name games the 'weaker' XSS has that supports hardware raytracing. I'll start to help you out. Watch Dogs Legion has raytracing on XSS. How about on X1X, the more powerful console in your eyes?
It is. Look at X1X GPU memory bandwidth compared to Series S GPU. Devs are consistently able to target higher rendering res on One X than Series S. Halo Infinite in Perf mode on Series S is 1080p WITH VRS enabled, whereas it's 1440p on the One X as per VGTech. Even the lowest res bound is higher on the One X. This tells you that X1X's GPU is more potent when it comes to rasterization.
 

ElRenoRaven

Gold Member
Love mine. I don't have a 4k tv. I don't play many other games but Halo, Gears, etc so it's exactly what I need. For me it's cheaper then building a new PC since my old assed X51 apparently struggles a bit with Gears 5 and now Infinite. Still plays almost every other game I play just fine though. lol

It does what I need it to do.
 

Grechy34

Member
I have a PS5 already, but when I couldn't get Halo Infinite running on my son's reasonably good PC, I impulse bought an Xbox Series S just to play it. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. Halo runs great at 60fps, and it looks fine on a 4k tv. I was surprised to find that I could play Halo Infinite with friends online with voice chat and everything, without having a subscription to Xbox Live. That is definitely a bonus. Another pleasant surprise was that there was a list of all the Xbox 360 games I had played years ago, and I can just download the digital version, and it works. I thought that you needed the original disc to play old games that you owned on disc (which wouldn't work on the S), but it appears if you played a game 10 years ago on disc, it just lets you download it and play.

I got a 3 month gamerpass sub for $10 with my console, so I'll activate that when Halo campaign is released and probably download Forza and Flight Simulator. The cool thing is, every time a big Microsoft exclusive like Fable or Elder Scrolls 6 comes out in the future, I can just get another temporary gamepass subscription to play them. Otherwise, this will primarily be a Halo multiplayer box.

Like most people, I wrote this console off as under-powered and a waste, but I am impressed. Solid frame rate, good graphics, fast loading, free muliplayer with voice chat (on Halo anyway), and all my old 360 games, makes this thing an outstanding value. It seemed like Microsoft made a mistake making a lower powered console instead of just going disc and disc-less like PS5. The Covid chip shortage ended up making Microsoft's gamble pay off big time, as the S is the only console available this xmas. Fortunately, I imagine a lot of people are going to be pleasantly surprised by how competent this little console is.

I had one for a little while before I got the Series X and sold it off. It's a great little console. Easily the best bang for buck on the market right now. When you think about how costly PC's and even the PS5/XSX is right now the value you get is incredible.
 
It is. Look at X1X GPU memory bandwidth compared to Series S GPU. Devs are consistently able to target higher rendering res on One X than Series S. Halo Infinite in Perf mode on Series S is 1080p WITH VRS enabled, whereas it's 1440p on the One X as per VGTech. Even the lowest res bound is higher on the One X. This tells you that X1X's GPU is more potent when it comes to rasterization.
I'm sorry. I missed when you named the games on X1X that support hardware raytracing. You pointing out that the X1X runs games at higher resolution was a point I made several posts ago. I'll remind you:

Nothing wrong with wanting the X1X for playing last gen games at higher resolutions and Blu-ray playback though. The XSS is just better for playing games overall.

The X1X is good for playing old games at higher resolutions, at mostly lower frame rates and blu-ray playback. It is much weaker at actually running modern games. Plenty of games like the aforementioned Watch Dog Legion, Outriders, The Ascent and Forza Horizon 5 are better on XSS. The X1X version of MS Flight Simulator runs so badly it doesn't exist.

Of course you can feel free to actually show the X1X outperforming the XSS at what really matters, modern day games using modern day graphical features. This is all from the system that is the update to the X1S. I'm hoping you don't think that system is more powerful than XSS too.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom