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MS updating XCloud to 1080p/moving to Series X infrastructure

1080p should be a big improvement and will help a lot with newer mobile devices, but they need to try to move towards 1440p if they really want it to be big on PC and browser,
If you stream your games you don't have much of a gaming setup to begin with, you probably don't care much for a couple more pixels. On the tablets/phones/etc. you don't have to worry about pixel density too much, especially with video compression, there are much more important factors than going above 1080p.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Maybe because Xbone can't stream it above 720p because it is crap as a server blade, same for PS4.
Both can do 1080p streaming even as standalone boxes; but I doubt either service is using the game hardware for the video encoding.

The 720p limitation is not because of the console capabilities.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Yes, it is. If X1 is crap as server blades, then it is crap, same as PS4.
The vanilla Xbox One can stream @1080p... and that's.. on it's own, let alone the blades likely hosted in Azure w/ their own dedicated encoding hardware.

You are wrong, sorry.
 
The vanilla Xbox One can stream @1080p... and that's.. on it's own, let alone the blades likely hosted in Azure w/ their own dedicated encoding hardware.

On it's own, yeah. Like Sony is doing with Remote Play and PS4 from couch. And that's it. Why Xcloud is now testing 1080p streaming with XSX as server blades? Yeah, i'm not wrong.
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
The vanilla Xbox One can stream @1080p... and that's.. on it's own, let alone the blades likely hosted in Azure w/ their own dedicated encoding hardware.

You are wrong, sorry.
There is some added complexity with encoding stream and pulling request from phone, which requires to lower the res of the console. I think it was in one of the vids about SX server blades.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
On it's own, yeah. Like Sony is doing with Remote Play and PS4 from couch. And that's it. Why Xcloud is now testing 1080p streaming with XSX as server blades? Yeah, i'm not wrong.
The article doesn't claim this testing involves XSX server blades.

That's just them also throwing in a rumor.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
There is some added complexity with encoding stream and pulling request from phone, which requires to lower the res of the console. I think it was in one of the vids about SX server blades.
Video encoding speed effects latency.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
Yeah, but publishers are going to have to accept that reality. Thankfully the Stadia experimental might have failed enough to set publishers expectations correctly.

I hope so. GeForce Now is by far the best service in my opinion, but xCloud is great too.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
Welcome to next next gen. Streaming with huge data requirements and tons of latency.
 

FeldMonster

Member
I get the 1080p that seems logic but using series X for its infrastructure seems too early. They can't produce enough consoles compared to the demand.
Fortunately Microsoft considered some of this. There was a recent technical presentation that explained some of their strategy.

The consumer Series X has 52 active compute units out of 56 maximum possible (so that 100% yield isn't required for a chip to be useful). They deactivate up to 4 on purpose.

In contrast, the Series X blades are can operate using either 48 or 50 compute units (at higher frequencies) due to the extra cooling available in a data center. Therefore the Series X blade production will not be competing with the consumer units unless they have the "problem" of higher than expected chip yields.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
Fortunately Microsoft considered some of this. There was a recent technical presentation that explained some of their strategy.

The consumer Series X has 52 active compute units out of 56 maximum possible (so that 100% yield isn't required for a chip to be useful). They deactivate up to 4 on purpose.

In contrast, the Series X blades are can operate using either 48 or 50 compute units (at higher frequencies) due to the extra cooling available in a data center. Therefore the Series X blade production will not be competing with the consumer units unless they have the "problem" of higher than expected chip yields.
That's a really interesting response.But I feel like it is just moving the problem a little, because those factories building xcloud's series X could build consumers xsx and would allow more supplies to stores.
Hence why I think we are too suplly constrained to move xcloud that early to xsx.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
Welcome to next next gen. Streaming with huge data requirements and tons of latency.
you do know it doesn't need "huge data requirements". it's basically just about the same as watching a video on youtube. the difference being you need to send a bit more upload data (your inputs etc).

if you had actually played a streaming service then latency isn't really an issue. it's good enough. sure if you were playing a game on PC with a kb/m then yeah but most people are playing with a controller and a TV jacked up on crap that adds "tons of latency". you'll never notice the difference.

i've used PS now, geforce now, xcloud, stadia, and have had perfectly fine gaming experiences. if internet is the issue then that's on you. you should maybe look into a better ISP.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
you do know it doesn't need "huge data requirements". it's basically just about the same as watching a video on youtube. the difference being you need to send a bit more upload data (your inputs etc).

if you had actually played a streaming service then latency isn't really an issue. it's good enough. sure if you were playing a game on PC with a kb/m then yeah but most people are playing with a controller and a TV jacked up on crap that adds "tons of latency". you'll never notice the difference.

i've used PS now, geforce now, xcloud, stadia, and have had perfectly fine gaming experiences. if internet is the issue then that's on you. you should maybe look into a better ISP.
I do agree that based on your internet speed the experience can work great.
But not everybody has fiber connexions, nor use wired ethernet cable, nor live alone.
About 3 years ago the fiber was not possible where I live (no matter the ISP) and now in my country about 1/3 has access to a fiber connexion.
Then there's the Wifi problem (although it can be solved thanks to wifi6) wifi introduce more lag and less bandwidth.
Then there's the problem of not living alone, a friend of mine has 5 roommates if they are all there then his bandwidth tanks.
I know some of these problems don't affect you like they don't affect me, but they're nonetheless problems that some a experimenting.
And even worse some can't be solved by the user( not being connected with fiber or the ISP only providing a wifi5 internet box or having roommates), some of these problems can be more or less detrimental to the experience but they are detrimental.
The tehcnology works well but those problems need to be solved mostly by ISP and for most ISP if you live in a not crowded enough area won't have a financial gain to provide fiber for example.
 

Andodalf

Banned
Fortunately Microsoft considered some of this. There was a recent technical presentation that explained some of their strategy.

The consumer Series X has 52 active compute units out of 56 maximum possible (so that 100% yield isn't required for a chip to be useful). They deactivate up to 4 on purpose.

In contrast, the Series X blades are can operate using either 48 or 50 compute units (at higher frequencies) due to the extra cooling available in a data center. Therefore the Series X blade production will not be competing with the consumer units unless they have the "problem" of higher than expected chip yields.

Yes, early in a consoles life you have the most Silicon that doesn't make the cut, so it's the perfect time to add those to the Server
 

wolywood

Member
I've been testing the xCloud for PC app this week (it's not officially released yet but there is a way for the general public to try it). Resolution has been bumped up to 1080p and game load times are much quicker than on the Android app.
 
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reksveks

Member
I hope so. GeForce Now is by far the best service in my opinion, but xCloud is great too.

yeah, want the Play Anywhere dream to actually come true.

I've been testing the xCloud for PC app this week (it's not officially released yet but there is a way for the general public to try it). Resolution has been bumped up to 1080p and game load times are much quicker than on the Android app.
Might try it out then, got it on my Surface Laptop as well but just use it on my phone at the moment.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
There are no quotes from Microsoft stating anything like that. But there are quotes stating the reverse. This is like those Microsoft will turn Windows into a subscription and make it cloud only leading to year of Linux desktop conspiracies. Game Pass can never wrap all the thousands game in the store into one subscription.


Well, sure.. Cloud gaming is still early, so he isn't wrong. But it doesn't make sense for Phil to say otherwise as long as they are in the hardware business as well. You would get a different answer if you asked Google about Stadia.
 
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