So what's up with the Series X underperforming on launch?

[Staffy]

@VanWinkle

Right now, we have no hard evidence of anything other than the SX performing worse than the PS5. That’s all the factual info we have. We can all hope that some magical SDK update or some game pathces come along and save the day, but right now, the world’s most powerful console is the PS5.

Well Phil has mentioned it in interviews before and DF spoke about it as well. I would say it’s good enough. The hardware is there but underperforming compared to what it could and should do. So it definitely all makes sense.

[ForwardPushing]

@Staffy

Well Phil has mentioned it in interviews before and DF spoke about it as well. I would say it’s good enough. The hardware is there but underperforming compared to what it could and should do. So it definitely all makes sense.

Yea, we’ve been hearing for months that GDK was going to be pushed to developers very close to launch. Luckily, the Series X/S have VRR to mostly disguise the inconsistencies in frame rate during 120FPS games. Personally, playing Cold War & Warzone at 120FPS has been an incredible experience on my monitor.

[Zappy5]

@VanWinkle

Right now, we have no hard evidence of anything other than the SX performing worse than the PS5. That’s all the factual info we have. We can all hope that some magical SDK update or some game pathces come along and save the day, but right now, the world’s most powerful console is the PS5.

Nope. Power is not the same as performance. The power of both is quantified and the series X is the most powerful. Whether that translates into performance we will see. But the reality is we all know it will.

[VanWinkle]

@Zappy5

Nope. Power is not the same as performance. The power of both is quantified and the series X is the most powerful. Whether that translates into performance we will see. But the reality is we all know it will.

Sorry, but that makes no sense. We can measure TF, but that does not equate to power. The more power console should be performing better.

[Zappy5]

@VanWinkle

Sorry, but that makes no sense. We can measure TF, but that does not equate to power. The more power console should be performing better.

Yes it does it’s a measure of absolute compute power. The tools being late and API being less performant are the issues. It’s like for example two cars and one having a more powerful engine but being slower because it’s on winter tyres. You can and will change the tyres but you will always be stuck with the less powerful engine.

[MasterChief]

@Staffy

A few dropped frames and a resolution dropping slightly below is not the end of the world (although you don’t want that for the most powerful console) but when games start to miss features like raytracing it’s becoming more of a big deal. Sadly there is nothing we as customers can do about.

Personally I don’t intend to buy Observer soon, if ever. Since I played the original game on Xbox One already. But it definitely is a bummer for the buyers who wanted some of that nice raytracing.

It’s not a big deal, just enjoy your SX, from the games I’ve played there’s nothing wrong with it and you know small things like that will be exaggerated to hell and back because that’s the way it goes with Xbox, things will be much better soon enough but yes MS should’ve made sure everything was working well at launch but that’s just the way it goes sometimes, you don’t have to worry because the SX isn’t an underpowered console so these issues aren’t hardware related.

[Xplainin]

@Swanlee

Media and Fanboy driven narrative to try and paint the Series X as less powerful then the PS5. You’d figure the raw hardware specs would be enough for people to understand which one is more powerful but it seems that is not good enough.

It was naïve for anyone to think the Media and Sony fans would just roll over because the XSX is more powerful, they never hit the acceptance stage in this process and are still trying to create a narrative to push to bring XSX down.

That’s really all it is, devs tools and the entire world being under a global pandemic means nothing to them,

I agree that Sony fanboys are running with this to try and make themselves feel better about the PS5 being less powerful. However, MS should have done a better job getting their revised tools out to devs.

[Zappy5]

@Xplainin

I agree that Sony fanboys are running with this to try and make themselves feel better about the PS5 being less powerful. However, MS should have done a better job getting their revised tools out to devs.

Tuning the API and producing more up to date dev kits takes time. You are looking at years of work to do this even under normal circumstances. Its an iterative thing - you don’t just do it in one go - because you tune and test and tweak…Xbox literally moved heaven and earth to have Ray Tracing in Watch Dogs day one. So I think its obvious they know this is a priority.

As I said pre-launch the likelihood is that Halo Infinite is held back by the API and performance etc…which was why Ray Tracing was post launch - be interesting to see where things stand there now because I’m sure 343i are wanting to have a more performant API and dev tools and surely will be prioritised here.

But yeah its not as simple as just ‘MS should have done a better job’. They waited for the hardware because they wanted to have a full RDNA2 integration and Machine Learning…because this console is for the next 7 years not the next few months. And whilst their tools are a bit behind they will catch up over the next 12 months.

[LucasTaves]

@VanWinkle

Sorry, but that makes no sense. We can measure TF, but that does not equate to power. The more power console should be performing better.

In equal terms yeah. But see how much an api or drivers dictates performance even on the same hardware on Pc.

There was a leak for one of the GDK releases (July) that stated in a lot of areas (RT, decompression, the geometry shader “emulator”) that the performance wasn’t final, and many mentions for apis that are doing some ground work for easier debugging at the cost of performance.

So we don’t know when Ms were able to solve these issues or even if they were able to or it’s still an ongoing effort, and we also don’t know how long the developers even had those tools. SX updates dropping 1 or 2 days before the console launch shows the games came in extremely hot.

[Blast_The_Bass (Justin)]

I believe the gap will widen as time goes on and the developers have more time with the new tools.

[Resist]

Always a new crisis with this forum.

[Xplainin]

@Zappy5

… you tune and test and tweak…Xbox literally moved heaven and earth to have Ray Tracing in Watch Dogs day one. So I think its obvious they know this is a priority. As I said pre-launch the likelihood is that Halo Infinite is held back by the API and performance etc…which was why Ray Tracing was post launch - be interesting to see where things stand there now because I’m sure 343i are wanting to have a more performant API and dev tools and surely will be prioritised here. But yeah its not as simple as just ‘MS should have done a better job’. They waited for the hardware because they wanted to have a full RDNA2 integration and Machine Learning…because this console is for the next 7 years not the next few months. And whilst their tools are a bit behind they will catch up over the next 12 months.

I have no doubt they will catch up, and most likely surpass the PS5, however I think things such as missing RT in XSX versions shows something that is missing. Sony had to make their own RT extensions for the PS5, yet they managed. I think that MS has really put together some powerful extensions such as Direct ML, VRS, Mesh Shaders, XVA and SFS. These will all have a substantial impact moving forward.

[Swanlee]

@Xplainin

I agree that Sony fanboys are running with this to try and make themselves feel better about the PS5 being less powerful. However, MS should have done a better job getting their revised tools out to devs.

I’m glad MS waited for full RDNA 2 and did not settle for a half ass solution like Sony did.

Covid screwed up having full mature tool sets at the start but long term it’s going to be much better to have more advanced hardware.

You can fix the toolset with ease but you can’t make up missing hardware features.

[Swanlee]

@Resist

Always a new crisis with this forum.

Not this forum just with Xbox in general. Always such concern being thrown around as some narrative while Sony could ship users a box of crap instead of a console and people would praise it.

[insane_cobra]

I would imagine it’s a combination of multiple factors:

• devs having to switch to a new SDK
• the said SDK not being fully matured yet
• the need to implement brand new hardware capabilities, some of which are apparently not present on PS5, and are only just arriving to new AMD PC hardware
• having to optimize for two new Xbox consoles with different performance profiles
• devkit rollout allegedly starting some time after the competition

When you combine all of that, and add the limitations of working from home, which only amplify the issues, you end up with launch period software underperforming. Luckily, those are all issues that should be resolved given more time and experience. Yes, all consoles will be improving over time, but it seems that Xbox consoles are slightly behind now, and Xbox Series X has more room for growth.

[LifeForms]

@Resist

Always a new crisis with this forum.

No, not at all, this forum is positive. Why are you trying to frame this place negetivly?

[anon80661078]

Xbox isn’t doing itself any favors by holding back gameplay of its first-party titles. It’s a problem when the most powerful console’s visual showcase is Halo Infinite.

[Louay]

lol this is bad everything the same and series x version is worse in performance and screen tearing

“In fact, at its worst, we noted PS5 delivering a 15 per cent performance advantage over its Microsoft equivalent in identical scenarios.”

LMAO

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: PS5 vs Xbox Series X/ Series S Next-Gen Comparison!

[VanWinkle]

@Louay

lol this is bad everything the same and series x version is worse in performance and screen tearing

“In fact, at its worst, we noted PS5 delivering a 15 per cent performance advantage over its Microsoft equivalent in identical scenarios.”

LMAO

If this trend continues it will be disastrous for the brand. MS needs to do something soon.

[LifeForms]

@Louay

lol this is bad everything the same and series x version is worse in performance and screen tearing

“In fact, at its worst, we noted PS5 delivering a 15 per cent performance advantage over its Microsoft equivalent in identical scenarios.”

LMAO

I dont know why you’re laughing about it, unless you find unoptimized games amusing?