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LTTP: Xbox Series S after two years of PS5

I don't understand all the hate. Depending on your current situation each console will serve a purpose. I have pretty much all of them and have jumped back and forth. I started with the Series S and for the price point it's a great value. Yes you do not get all the features of the Series X or PS5 but for most "everyday" people it works just fine. I used mine for about 1.5-2 yrs b/f I upgraded to the Series X. It was super nice taking it on vacation or over to a friends place b/c of its size. Most of my friends only have a 1080p tv so it didn't matter. Both of my older daughters have used it in their bedrooms. They don't care if it's 1080p or 4k or whatever. As long as there is a fun game on it then it's all good.
 

rofif

Banned
Brilliant.




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Confused Liam Neeson GIF
 

rofif

Banned
Why not? Would probably do the same. No Discs means no need to touch the console at any time. Some people want a clean wall. Or do you have your cables in plain sight like a filthy animal? ;)
ah sure. Makes some sense.
I just don't think it's that ugly to hide it :p And it got a fan there
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
I've looked at Series S offering - but putting price aside for a moment - 6800U handhelds basically replace everything Series S does, but kinda better (even performance wise).
I've suggested many times before launch MS should explore a portable XBox alternative and I'd find that a lot more interesting than a Series S - but now we have PC alternatives that do exactly that.

Really the only missing bit is mature XBox emulation that MS refuses to bring to PC - (but both homebrew emulators are now becoming useable on PCs of that spec as well - so it may resolve itself before long). Well that - and bringing price down to Steam Deck levels - but that may yet happen in 23...

Admittedly it's not all perfect - stutter struggle is more than a little annoying. I'm still baffled how badly The Ascent runs in DX12 (like - the framerate is 60 - but it looks like... I dunno - 25?, with uneven frame-pacing). Sure some of these have viable workarounds (use DX11 in this case) but that's where consoles really shine compared to PC - you just don't have all this fiddling problems to deal with.
Except - the handhelds are firmly stuck in PS3 era hardware land still - and who knows if Nintendo will do more than duck-tape two Switches together for next generation...
 

twilo99

Member
What’s the metal under desk mount called? Do you have a link please?

 

FireFly

Member
I've looked at Series S offering - but putting price aside for a moment - 6800U handhelds basically replace everything Series S does, but kinda better (even performance wise).
I've suggested many times before launch MS should explore a portable XBox alternative and I'd find that a lot more interesting than a Series S - but now we have PC alternatives that do exactly that.
Well, the TDP for the 6800U handhelds is like 28W right? And the peak power consumption for the S is about 80W. So I would be surprised if they were competitive in performance. To me an "S alternative" would be a laptop with a 35W GPU like the 3050 Ti.
 

twilo99

Member
Well, the TDP for the 6800U handhelds is like 28W right? And the peak power consumption for the S is about 80W. So I would be surprised if they were competitive in performance. To me an "S alternative" would be a laptop with a 35W GPU like the 3050 Ti.

Gaming laptops are really cool, but the problem is the price, especially when it comes to price... what xss offers for the price is impossible to beat at the moment.
 
S is a brilliant machine, really my favourite console. So small but games run great on it. I have an x and decent gaming pc 3700x with 3060ti, but still play on the S mostly.
PC and series x are in the office so I tend to play on the S whiich is in the living room.
Graphics you can see the difference but gameplay wise it's all the same.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Well, the TDP for the 6800U handhelds is like 28W right? And the peak power consumption for the S is about 80W. So I would be surprised if they were competitive in performance. To me an "S alternative" would be a laptop with a 35W GPU like the 3050 Ti.
Well - at 28W the GPU clocks up to 2+Ghz reaching 3.4TFlops. So it's fairly competitive I'd say (I know - on these boards we treat these TFlops gaps as 'yuuuge' - but they really aren't as pronounced in average case. Especially since the CPU is newer/faster too so there's some cases it will pull ahead).
As for the TDP comparison - the consoles chips are 2 years old now - it's not exactly apples to apples in terms of silicon used. Anyway - it's not about getting exact parity with the console - but it's a chipset capable of running current gen games 'in the same performance ballpark' - except handheld. Of course - at like 3x the price - but that's a different problem.

Although speaking of which - it's quite peculiar that even just stacking 4 6800Us can computationally outperform a SeriesX at like half the TDP, not to mention you'd end up with 32 CPU cores that way :p And yes there's software challenges with that, it's not some free lunch to increase TFlops - but it's precisely the type of trade-offs consoles used to do *all* the time to eek out better performance, and now they're playing it so safe...
 
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While I have a ps5, I decided to pick one of these up and it will arrive next week. My whole reasoning behind the purchase will be to use gamepass exclusively and to check out first party releases. The ability to stream games before downloading all of them is also a nice side bonus. If I do end up wanting to collect physical for MS exclusives I'll consider getting a SeriesX downstream in a few years when the price hopefully comes down a bit - this will allow me to get in for half the price now so to speak.
 

twilo99

Member
It still amazes me that the this thing only pulls ~80W and performs as well as it does.. that just really is good engineering no matter how you flip it.

While I have a ps5, I decided to pick one of these up and it will arrive next week. My whole reasoning behind the purchase will be to use gamepass exclusively and to check out first party releases. The ability to stream games before downloading all of them is also a nice side bonus. If I do end up wanting to collect physical for MS exclusives I'll consider getting a SeriesX downstream in a few years when the price hopefully comes down a bit - this will allow me to get in for half the price now so to speak.

Since you already have a PS5, I doubt you will need the series x ... the s is plenty for what you are after I think
 
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Deerock71

Member
It still amazes me that the this thing only pulls ~80W and performs as well as it does.. that just really is good engineering no matter how you flip it.
That's honestly my take on it, too. Honeymoon phase long over, and still playing the shit out of it. The only people that don't appreciate this system and what it's capable of (at 80w, as stated) are those that don't own and play one.
 
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