Creating the Most Powerful Console out of Scorpio without Too Much Focus on 4k
Scorpio remains a partial enigma due to Microsoft’s silence around the project. At the same time, Xbox executives have no problem hyping the power of their console. So we ask the question: ‘just how powerful is it?’ We’ve been anticipating that answer for this year’s E3, or perhaps an earlier reveal. But thanks to a recently leaked whitepaper, we know a little more beforehand. The recently revealed specs, dating back to July 2016, reveal a processor completely transitioning from usual Xbox hardware. We learned significant details from the whitepaper thanks to Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter.
Xbox One and Xbox One S have relied on ESRAM, a processor used to mitigate some “shortcomings” of Xbox hardware in the transition from 360 to one. And yet there is no mention of ESRAM for Scorpio in the whitepaper. We don’t know what Xbox is planning in order to get current Triple A titles to run noticeably better on their next system, but here’s what the whitepaper had to say:
“ESRAM remains essential to achieving high performance on both Xbox One and Xbox One S. However, Project Scorpio and PC are not provided with ESRAM. Because developers are not allowed to ship a Project Scorpio-only SKU, optimising for ESRAM remains critical to performance on Microsoft platforms.”
But we do know that Scorpio’s processor is as modern as the AMD Polaris line. We could see rendering like current high-end PCs(all speculation). At the very least, the six teraflop GPU is confirmed, and we know this will be a very powerful console.
“The six teraflop GPU is once again confirmed, with the GPU’s compute power rated at around 4.5 times the capabilities of Xbox One. Four times more L2 cache is also confirmed – a new detail that does not tell us that much, except that that the GPU architecture in Scorpio is at least as modern as AMD’s Polaris line.”
Scorpio’s current mission seems to be consistently rendering at 4k. But while it will upscale from 1080p to 4K, the specs suggest alternatives to simply improving resolution. Specifically, delivering extra polish to games that don’t tun at 1080, whether its 900p or 720. Hence, the system must be versatile so that it may cater to game developer needs.
“A 4.5x boost to compute power suggests that 1080p engines will scale nicely to 4K on Scorpio, but the reality is that many Xbox One titles render at a 900p base resolution. The leap to 4K therefore becomes a 5.76x increase in pixel-count and at the same time, developers may not wish to spend GPU power on pixels alone…”
You can read up more on the whitepaper here. Xbox Scorpio is set to release later this year. If nothing else, Xbox will reveal full details at E3 this June. We’ll keep you updated with all other gaming news. Simply stay tuned to COGconnected. Happy gaming.