Next XBox rumours gathering pace ...

DrDamn

https://www.vg247.com/2019/02/22/xbox-lockheart-anaconda-e3-2019-release-date/
Current thinking is PS5 will likely sit between these two, with specs around 8-10TFlops GPU wise.

Xbox Lockhart specs
CPU: Custom 8 Cores – 16 zen threads 2
GPU: Custom NAVI 4+ Teraflops
RAM: 12GB of GDDR6 memory
Storage: 1TB NVMe 1 + GB / s SSD hard drive

Xbox Anaconda specs
CPU: Custom 8 Cores – 16 zen threads 2
GPU: Custom NAVI 12+ Teraflops
RAM: 16GB of GDDR6 memory
Storage: 1TB NVMe 1 + GB / s SSD hard drive

I think the original source may state that only the Storage part is confirmed/verified though.

Gammerz

So is the DVD drive for playing 4K movies or are they saying that 4K games will be too large to download and it's better to ~~play~~ install from a BluRay UHD games dvd?

Aren't SSDs expensive? Especially considering that 1 Tb may not be enough.

PS5 extra processing aimed at 4K gaming, or a more powerful 1080 console (which I'd prefer).

DrDamn

Gammerz we are never going back to playing from DVD/Blu-ray. Everything is installed to HDD current gen, it's not going backwards. SSDs are quite pricey, but they've been coming down quite a lot too so it's viable to go 1TB SSD built in as standard.

Focus of Lockhart seems to be 1080p. PS5 will be targeting 4K, no questions.

BritishBean

DrDamn I’m sorry but if that is the strategy then I’m not interested. Why on earth would I lay out another £400+ for a console that outputs the same resolution capable by the current Xbox One?? Presuming their intention is to move to iterations rather than generations and new games will be playable across all recent Xbox platforms (ex. 360) of course.

Gammerz

Names: Xbox 1080, Xbox 4K?

Alex

1TB SSDs are down to £100, so looking a few years down the line they will be pretty cost effective. The speed of storage on consoles hasn't changed since HDDs were introduced so it's an obvious thing to target.

The GPU specs for Lockhart look a bit lower than the current X, so makes sense it wouldn't be able to target 4K. The interesting thing will be what Sony does.

Gammerz

That's a fair chunk of the cost to spend on loading times. How slow are they on X1X? Maybe money would be better spent on more ram or faster processors. And 1 TB may not be enough.

DrDamn

Gammerz if you can load faster then you can stream faster, it will do a lot for the quality of the game experience.

You can most likely add more storage, like you can today, and that too can be SSD.

Alex

The loading times on consoles are pretty shocking, it's one big thing you notice moving to PC. The Witcher 3 takes a few seconds to load on PC, while on PS4 it takes almost a minute. An SSD will also affect console startup/sleep times, as well as app startup times (edit: not to mention install times).

It's useful to remember that these would just be the launch specs, after a year they'll come out with their smaller revision with more storage and buttons that work properly.

DrDamn

BritishBean the lower spec one is not going to £400. It'll be £300 or less. The really important point is that it has the same CPU as the bigger box - and that is really going to help define the new generation. GPU will give you pretties, but current consoles are ham strung by very low power CPUs. That is the bigger leap with the new console.

Gammerz

I would be interested in the 1080p model if it weren't download only. I wish devs would release DVDs that weren't out of date (with smaller downloads).

Fumanstu

Gammerz You do realise it’s 2019, not 1999 don’t you? 😀

DrDamn

Gammerz releasing games on disc is a costly business without having to re-release with patches.

Alex

Microsoft takes a step towards running Xbox games on Windows.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/02/microsoft-takes-a-big-step-towards-putting-xbox-games-on-windows/

Gammerz

MS! This is the wrong way round!!! Grrrr!! 🙁
As one of the posters writes

The bigger question is will XB Scarlett be capable of running a windows environment and play PC native games...

MS could murder PS5 in its cradle if they play this right...

Alex

I'm not sure it's the wrong way round. Putting Xbox on PC is more interesting than putting PC on Xbox. If Microsoft are committed to cross-play, then it makes sense to add the infrastructure to let Xbox games work on PC. Currently they have to make two versions of every game, but if they are able to merge the technologies then one game can be available on two platforms. This is a big win for developers. The Xbox One and PC have fundamentally the same architecture, they are X86 systems running Windows OS. However, they do not share the same graphics API. So if Microsoft can fix this, by basically porting the Xbox graphics API to Windows, then that will be pretty great.

Gammerz

Console and PC players don't want x-play; they hate each other. Console players want a level playing field and don't want to be pitted against mouse-controller PC players. Both platforms have enough players.

However, console gamers would benefit greatly from having access to the vast PC software library. If not, just making it easier to develop on both platforms (i.e. especially games/sims/wargames that are traditionally PC targetted to run on console). This strategy could defeat the Sony PS competition, whereas x-play will not. Imo.

Brave

Gammerz says who?