The wait for new information about the Xbox Series X and the reveal of the Xbox Series S have been a long time coming. Over the past several days, details about Xbox’s next-generation plans first leaked and then were eventually confirmed. And rather than insist fans wait for a later, more organized event for these details, Xbox is unloading everything via social media. That’s why today Xbox made the next step of confirming both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles’ final hardware specifications.
With price points of $299 and $499 for the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X, respectively, one might assume that the two consoles have massively different hardware. This isn’t entirely true. One core component remains largely the same, as both next-gen Xbox consoles use an 8-Core AMD Zen 2 CPU. There is a slight difference in clock speed between the two platforms, however. The Xbox Series S CPU is clocked at 3.6Ghz and the Xbox Series X is clocked at 3.8Ghz, both offering remarkable CPU performance.
The price difference between each console does come from somewhere, however, and the biggest component difference between the consoles is the GPU. The Xbox Series S features an AMD RDNA 2 GPU with 20 Compute Units clocking 1.565GHz. That’s 4 teraflops of calculations in the Xbox Series S. The Xbox Series X is a major step forward. It also features an AMD RDNA 2 GPU, but this one features 52 CUs clocked at 1.825GHz for a total of 12.15 teraflops throughput.
For a more tangible way of thinking about the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X’s GPU, consider their performance targets. The Xbox Series S will be targeting 60fps in games at a resolution of 1440p. Those still gaming on 1080p may be better suited by the Series S. The Xbox Series X, on the other hand, is similarly targeting 60fps but at 4K resolution. The additional resolution on Xbox Series X will require all of that extra GPU power.
There are, of course, other significant differences between the two consoles’ hardware. The Xbox Series S features 10GB of GDDR 6 RAM, with 8GB running at 224GB/s and 2GB running at 56GB/s. The Xbox Series X features 16GB total RAM with 10GB at 560GB/s and 6GB at 336GB/s. As for storage, both consoles feature a Gen 4 NVME SSE that runs at 2.4GB/s uncompressed and 4.8GB/s compressed. The Xbox Series X, however, features twice the storage capacity at 1TB to the Xbox Series S’ 512GB.
Otherwise, the only other notable difference is that the Xbox Series S doesn’t have a disc drive while the Series X does. Both platforms feature HDMI 2.1 output, both allow for the use of Xbox’s 1TB storage expansion cards, and both backward compatibility with Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox game at launch. Xbox One gaming accessories are also backward compatible.
Now it’s just a matter of Xbox fans choosing the best console for their gaming set-up. Pre-orders will be opening on September 22 so there’s still plenty of time to make a decision.
The Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X both launch on November 10.
