The Xbox Series S, also known as Xbox Lockhart, could be less powerful than an Xbox One X and could have issues with next-generation games.
That’s what we can extrapolate from a somewhat vague tweet from The Verge journalist Tom Warren, who posted “just got to say 20 UC” on Twitter. This could be a reference to the 20 computing units the Xbox S-Series graphics accelerator might have, given that it has been tweeting about the rumor console for the past few days.
As a primary supporter of Microsoft and its machinations, Warren appears to have insider information on the rough specs of the Xbox Series S, which will be a low-end, all-digital version of the Xbox Series X. This console would be a next-gen machine of level Basic that will cost less than the X Series and will appeal to people who don’t want to shell out $ 400 or more on a new system.
▬▬▬.◙.▬▬▬═▂▄▄▓▄▄▂ ◢◤ █▀▀████▄▄▄▄◢◤ █▄ █ █▄ ███▀▀▀▀▀▀▀╬ ◥█ ████◤══╩══╩═╬═╬╬═╬╬═╬╬═╬ just collapsed to say ╬═╬ ╬═╬ 20 CUs╬═╬ ╬═╬☻ / ╬═╬ / ▌ / July 1, 2020
Taking a deeper look at the 20 CU specification, we can extrapolate that the Xbox Series S could use AMD’s RDNA graphics architecture, which is the basis for the Xbox Series X’s GPU. Those 20 CUs could translate to 1,280 cores. shaded for Xbox Series S GPU.
Such a graphic specification sits around the level of an AMD Radeon RX 5500XT, which has 22 CU. The Radeon RX 5500XT is a very capable graphics card, capable of running games at solid frame rates with Full HD resolutions. But it is not a next generation graphics card.
As such, it is hard to imagine that a GPU with fewer cores than the RX 5500XT will offer better performance than current generation consoles. And it could mean that the Xbox Series S may actually have a hard time running upcoming games at fast frame rates at 1080p.
Since the Xbox One X comes with 40 CU, there is a possibility that the Xbox S Series is slower than Microsoft’s current high-end system. But it’s worth noting that the Xbox One X uses an older AMD graphics architecture, so the CUs on the Lockhart machine could be more efficient and offer better performance.
This has us scratching our heads, as it would be very strange for Microsoft to release a next-gen gaming console that might be less powerful than the Xbox One X and potentially have trouble running future hi-fi games. By context, the Xbox One X could only run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K 30fps and that’s a title from the current generation.
However, the RDNA graphics architecture is much more efficient than the Graphics Core Next architecture that supports the GPUs of both the Xbox One and PS4 consoles. Thus, the Xbox S-Series may have what might seem like a low specification on paper, but offers solid 1080p performance in the real world.
Of course, this is all speculation and extrapolation based on the leaks we’ve seen so far. We’ll likely have to wait at least until August, when the Xbox Series S is set for a reveal before we have a firmer idea of what a second-generation next-gen Xbox might be capable of.
