Microsoft has been busy touting the smaller footprint and sleeker look of the Xbox One S. But when it comes to performance, the company was adamant. It’s largely the same as the original Xbox One. One Microsoft executive even said the Xbox One S’s newer hardware would have “literally no impact” on games. Literally nothing.
They were wrong: the Xbox One S is a smidgen faster.
The excellent team over at Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry has found that the clock speed of GPU in the Xbox One S runs at 914MHz. That’s not a massive bump from the 853MHz that the GPU in the original Xbox One, but it’s a noticeable difference nonetheless that also translates to a slight performance bump for various games.
How much, you ask? According to the video below, it’s about a 7% improvement across the board. But something else worth noting is that the Xbox One S features less graphical tearing and frame rate drops at high load. Even games like Batman: Arkham Knight, which suffer from a high degree of tearing, stuttering and performance drops, are improved with the Xbox One S.
So the question remains: why didn’t Microsoft make a bigger deal of this? The answer is pretty simple: there’s no guarantee on how much improvement there will be, and it’s likely that most wouldn’t notice the performance bump. Does it mean games that couldn’t run at 1080p on the Xbox One before will be able to now? I strongly doubt it. But more and more developers are hitting that 1080p target today comfortably, as was seen with Rise of the Tomb Raider and Overwatch.
Still, interesting food for thought. For those who were on the fence about an Xbox One S, does this change your thinking at all?
Comments
45 responses to “The Xbox One S Is Marginally Faster Than The Original Xbox One”
Microsoft/Xbox team are quiet because it is gearing up for a new console I’d have thought, when is Scorpio due?
The games that are mentioned like Arkham Knight and Tomb Raider are invariably years apart, not to say multiple franchises in the same genre cannot be released at once, but ‘the next’ iterations of these games will obviously benefit from these higher benchmarks.
Has the wind changed? The games that release later in a console’s lifespan are arguably the best in class, or at least that’s how I always understood it. This seems more of a shift towards the developers/publishers dictating the terms to the platform holders. I can’t recommend a PS4 or Xbox One to a friend or family member right here and now, because of this nonsense, but I sure as hell can recommend a PS3 or 360. Obligatory mention of the Wii U as well.
Exactly my thoughts! I think MS want this to be a quiet little upgrade, few new features to sway casual gamers, adds a new price point into the ecosystem, but undersells the performance upgrades so that hardcore console gamers wait until Scorpio.
I’d love to know how many of these things MS thinks they’re going to sell given the Scorpio is on the way.
Or if both Sony and MS have done any real modelling of sales lost as a result of wait times between the announcement (official or otherwise) and release of these iterative hardware upgrades.
I’d guess there’s probably an 80% chance that I would have bought a PS4 by now if I hadn’t known a significantly improved version was coming a year or so ago. Hell, that’ll probably jump to 90%+ next week if No Mans Sky is great.
It won’t be happening until the new hardware hits though, and while I think I’ll buy one then I don’t know that I will. All this waiting is still taking time out of the PS4’s lifecycle (and overall value) and as long as I’m NOT buying their products the chances that I won’t ever can only increase.
Well said, I’m in the same boat. I would have bought at PS4 for the exclusives like Uncharted 4 but I may as well wait until they get their act together about an updated version.
I dunno. I’m finally considering moving to this generation and I don’t give a crap about 4K resolution. The S is smaller and doesn’t require the ridiculous power brick, so for me it’s a better option than the older xbone or the more expensive Scorpio.
Going forward I expect there will be enough people like me who are perfectly happy with 1080p that this will see a few sales.
I thought the big issue with the Xbone was that it struggled with 1080p and most of its games are upscaled 720/900p running at 30fps.
Just shelled out for a high end pc with a 1070 card… so not likely. But nice to see this for people who are about to jump in on the console market. Could be a better investment for them.
My advice to those seeking consoles is to wait until the new models come out.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my PS4 but can’t wait for the PS 4.5 (or whatever it’s name is now).
In terms of Nintendo and XBox, I’ve given up on them. Not get the NX nor anything new from MS console wise.
Nintendo has simply lost its way in terms of gaming and Microsoft are just too invasive with their DRM.
I think it’s time to let go of the “Xbox has DRM” thing.
MS had a plan to have an always-online system in May 2013 that would have necessitated being online regularly…. that didn’t happen. It’s time to let it go.
For the record, I’ve downloaded all but four of my 140+ Xbone games, so my Xbox DOES need to be online regularly.
Shockingly, it operates the same as all my other consoles because it’s not the early 90’s anymore and I have the internet in my house.
(That doesn’t mean you should buy an Xbone, the PS4 is still the better machine with the better exclusives. It also has a backwards compatibility system that unnecessarily forces you to pay against the clock to play laggy, streamed games you already own- if you want to whinge about internet requirements or anti-consumer business practices).
Edit: Also agree 100% that everyone should wait for the new hardware.
Why? It’s an issue with their own product that will continue to harm the brand the longer it stays.
In the very least, MS should let people put whatever hard drive they like and not lock it down with their own custom firmware.
Yes, and when the general public refused to accept the Orwellian tactics used they wound that back as well as the new features that could have been implemented without the invasive DRM but took them away too in a spoilt move.
I don’t have to let go; it’s a problem that is not going to go away with time and will only go away with change.
And just a heads up, I have a Forza LE XBone and I even like the charm of it “revving the engine” when I switch it on.
What I don’t like is when I have to download multi-gigabyte updates, the unrealistically slow install times due to the 5400RPM drive used and the UI being ad-centric first rather than entertainment centric.
I know I’m being overly anal in my objectivity and MS’s unrealistic expectations on what the consumer should hand over to their whims but that is just me.
Am I crazy? They DID change it. It’s gone. Better, IT NEVER EVEN HAPPENED. Even the IDEA THAT IT MIGHT HAPPEN has gone away with time, since it was 3 years ago.
I don’t know what you think DRM is if you think it’s different on the Xbone to the PS anything.
Plus, you CAN plug any HDD (over a certain size and speed) into your Xbone you have been able to since about the 6 month period (before which it was almost impossible to FILL the standard hard dive due to the lack of content).
You can’t pull the old one and physically replace it…. But that’s not exactly standard practice either.
You also can’t pull the graphics card or any other component out of the system and replace it….
As for their plans being “Orwellian”…. “ORWELLIAN”! Oh man, that’s the best.
How many things in your house require an internet connection to work properly? How many things in your life require an internet connection to work properly?!?
Your phone knows where you are 24/7, your car (if its newish) sends and receives internet data, your TV is probably connected to the net, your kitchen appliances, your stereo, maybe even your watch!
Far be it for a HOME-BASED ENTERTAINMENT MACHINE that, let’s face it- you want it to be connected to the internet no matter what, would ask you to be online once a day so that it can check that you own the games you’re playing! Even if that happened (reminder that it didn’t) its significantly worse than the PS with which almost every game requires the same constant internet for updates and online features how?
Have you actually read the User Agreement that came with your Playstation or any other electronic device (Xbone included)? The requirement to connect occasionally is the least of your worries!
People who got upset back in 2013 were being hysterical morons. I know because I’ve lived the “always on” future for the past 3 years and it’s business as usual for anyone with devices that connect to the internet, which is 95% of the western world and probably 99%+ of the market for people who buy current gen consoles.
Wrong; the whole installation to the hard disk is still a hold over from MS expecting one to tie the game to their live account. Different to the install feature on the 360 which was just taking something akin to an image of the disk.
Digital Rights Management; or as it’s become in practice, Draconian Restriction Management. As someone who is in IT I know what DRM is and how there are more wrong examples than there are good one.
I can with the PS4 which easily trumps over the USB3 connectivity of the XBone.
Very little because I make the effort to ensure my appliance operate properly under my terms and not that of a third party that sees me as a commodity.
My phone does not; my telco does. That is because I don’t stay signed into either iCloud or Google.
I also turn the GPS off when not using any map app to conserve the battery.
My car is new (2013 Mazda) but has no Internet connectivity.
My TV has actually been manually configured to my own local DNS resolver so LG doesn’t make it an Orwellian Telescreen. And I’ve got hold of the IP addresses to block it as well.
And no, I don’t have Internet enabled kitchen appliances; such things do not need an Internet connection and if they do they are more trouble than they are worth.
No, I choose if it’s connected to the Internet or not. If I want movies, I still prefer physical media over the likes of Netflix etc because content outside of their creation is bound to the life of distribution licenses.
Pretty clear I have; why else would I be locking down their connectivity to my terms?
Well, excuse me for being moronic in exercising my right to not be a commodity to a third party and locking down my Internet access (a service I pay for) to be used on my terms and not Microsoft or Sony or Company X.
Discussion over. You are defending the undefinable and your vitriolic responses are not going to change the fact there are boundaries myself and others are entitle to protect and are not morons for enforcing said boundaries.
Minimum offence intended, but you sound like a health nut who spends hours at the supermarket checking labels for non-organic ingredients, rips on McDonalds because it’s full of shit and then eats Hungry Jacks five times a week just because you think it’s delicious.
I mean sure, if you want to be a tin-foil hat person about it then you can go to ridiculous lengths to minimise (by a tiny amount) the amount of data you share, but it seems a bit silly to go to all that effort (and it does sound like you go to a lot) when your own security is constantly compromised by you because you enjoy connected electronic entertainment in the form of a Playstation (and a bunch of other things).
I love you to explain the security difference between a system that loads the whole game onto the HDD and then uses the disc for security and a system that plays from a required disc with the option to copy to a HDD?
You DO realise that they only included the ability to install games on the 360 because games load faster off a HDD right? Same as lots of PS3 games?
It’s not a relic from an ‘always-on’ environment, its simply an acknowledgement that loading data off a f*cking enormous disc (as they are on all systems these days) isn’t conducive to good performance. I could be wrong, but I think a HDD also uses less power than a constantly spinning disc, so that’s also more likely to be a factor than some conspiracy by MS to make your games live on a HDD.
Offence taken because it is plan wrong.
So it has been degraded to this? Senseless name calling? How is controlling access to a utility I pay for and have obligations to the utility provider in any way like a ‘tin-foil’ hat?
It isn’t, it’s called common sense.
Yes, past posts imply as such.
Depends on the drive, the fragmentation induced from the OS and file system, the caching in the drive, any extra organisation with the on drive controller, etc.
Anyhow, this digress has gone far enough. Just because I chose to monitor and control who does and doesn’t access a utility of which I am responsible for as the account holder does not mean I’m of the ‘tin-foil hat’ camp.
It means I am proactive and responsible. I am not a moron if I choose to limit what access the Internet service I pay for, period.
This discussions is well and truely beyond over. I have made valid objective claims and do not deserve to be deemed moronic nor paranoid for wanting to control what helps itself to a utility I pay for.
I think you are wasting your time buddy. Looks like he took MS’s original plans and ran with it.
Hell, he brought up not liking multi-gb updates as an issue with the xb1. Glad you don’t get them on PS4 or PC!
Haven’t gotten one yet on my PS4 but that I’ll chalk up to my choice in games. And for PC? I’m pretty sure I raised my ire over the PC version of DOOM having only a dual layer DVD instead of being sensible and putting the game on a cheap dual layer bluray.
And I’m not running with MS’s original plan. I have kept current and the current state still bares the scars from their original plan.
If someone is happy to be online all the time that is their choice. I should not be deemed a moron for being proactive in keeping myself an individual and not a commodity that is a constant source of direct marketing data.
Are you sure you’re in IT? I didn’t think I’d ever see the day where someone with an IT background complains about games needing updates and being online regularly.
That last part was nice and condescending, Cheers for that. I guess we can’t all be a proactive individual like yourself.
Kotaku sure does have it’s gems.
@allgravynolackin
I didn’t complain about games needing updates, that is your rhetoric. I am complaining about the size and unacceptable delivery methods.
Don’t know why you are thanking me for a description of your own post that I didn’t make but it’s a free world so do as you please.
EDIT: And now I’m moderated again; is anyone ever going to work on that loop hole and prevent these hijackings?!
@wisehacker guess what buddy, as games get larger, so will updates! That may come as a shock to you, I’ll give you time to sit down and reconnect your devices to the internet.
Seriously though, “Unacceptable delivery methods”? Do you want them to send you a thumb drive each time an update is out? Not really sure what you’re expecting.
I was thanking you for being condescending, which is evident in the majority of your comments, Mr ‘WiseHacker’. You are also providing entertainment worthy of thanks, I didn’t know such views could be held by someone in IT.
You mention in a few comments how you shouldn’t be labelled a moron. No one has mentioned that word besides you. Quite funny actually 🙂
I look forward to hearing more of your opinions when we inevitably become even more internet oriented and downloads become even larger. Oh, the horror!
@allgravynolackin
Unless it’s for new maps then the patch should not be measurable in the gigabytes.
If I buy a game physically, the whole thing should be in the box. Basic common sense. I should have to download the remaining two third or more when I get home.
If Microsoft and others cannot afford a dual or even tri layer disk or to put a second disk in the box due to the economy of single layer disks then there is something seriously wrong on their end.
Transference didn’t work for others so it won’t work for you. None of my posts have been as such.
Yours on the other hand are crossing the line between general description to outright definition.
Your comment also shows that you have no idea what my online handle is short for. Maybe instead of running with your myopic assumptions you should try asking.
They can be because they are realistic. A lot of what your are implying is coming from your own skewed view and not from me.
A quote from @foggy
I was one of the many who voice rejection of Microsoft’s Orwellian approach. Ergo, I was called a moron.
Yet more proof of the transference raised. You don’t have anything constructive to provide so you act in a condescending, snarky manner then write otherwise.
Doesn’t work for toddlers so don’t expect it to work for you.
If my objective opinion is so psychologically unnerving to you you have to resort to such behaviour then why are you even responding?
It’s only out of sheer curiosity I continue this sorry sage but no more. You clearly cannot help yourself so there conversation (and I am being generous with the term as you are bordering on abusive) has long outlived any beneficial use.
Rant all you want. Just don’t whine about me being objective and holding a firm founded view on how Internet based delivery of content should be done and how it should not be done.
@WiseHacker ha yeah mate, I’m definitely the one ranting here.
Stay classy mr Wise. You must be a joy to be around in person.
Sounds weird. None of those things have internet for me, save for my phone when I turn data on maybe two or three times a month. But yeah, telco correction as per WiseHacker in that case. Can’t imagine what the rest would need internet for. Even in terms of consoles the only thing I’ve really needed internet connection for was Splatoon because that’s just how that game works.
I think you’re a rare bird there, Gooky. Especially for a gamer. Most of us are so acclimatised to being online it’s taken as a given.
Every PC I’ve used since cable became a thing at home or work has been automatically online and that’s something we all use for serious stuff like banking and business.
I don’t understand people being concerned about online consoles at all. Unless you’re a Nintendo gamer (you are) then you need the internet to get even single player games to work well. For multiplayer it’s required.
Its 2016. If you’re a gamer internet connectivity should be categorised with death and taxes. You can waste your whole life getting mad about it can’t be avoided.
The concern is that there’s no reason for you to be unable to play games that don’t utilise online connectivity as part of their core gameplay (as in the case of an online multiplayer title – or even your banking or business, not that it’s necessarily “gameplay”). With all the rain lately I can’t seem to hold an internet connection for more than a couple of minutes before it craps out again, I would absolutely be infuriated if I weren’t able to play anything just because the weather’s bad.
The fact is that despite it being the year that it is right now, internet is neither ubiquitous nor reliable like electricity is. We can rely on the latter to be there to power our games 99% of the time. That isn’t true of internet, so we should in no way be treating it as such.
DRM is pretty much par for the course with consoles now. There’s really no two ways about it. Games can’t be played on console without major patch downloads, so just playing ‘off disc’ simply doesn’t happen and pretty much an internet connection is needed these days anyhow. So they’ve hit that ‘eh’ point where you’re damned if you don’t.
That being said, Scorpio and PS4.5 both sit in some weird middle ground. Neither are actually ‘new’ consoles, both have to run the previous consoles games, neither will have ‘specifically new games’ made for them as such. Both are just ‘very updated’ versions of the current hardware. So it’s bizarre, feels like 32X all over again lol
I know this much, I’m not buying an XBox One S to replace my XBox One, I probably won’t by the 4k version either since I don’t have a 4k TV. And evaluate the next Generation when the time comes.
These new consoles could work out well for those who plan to keep the old one and not upgrade.
The original xbox was discontinued after 5 years and never received an updated model?
The xbox 360 had many different versions and lasted 11 years.
As long as you can still play every game fully, the more xbone consoles they release, the longer the life of the original version.
I don’t see that claim lasting for much longer. They’ll backflip down the track if it means making an extra dollar in sales.
In fact, for these revised models to survive they will have to. But that is just me going by the old medicine where a console is defined not by its capabilities but in what well the resources were milked and demonstrated via exclusives.
Saddens me that everything is now a multi-port from the get go now; nothing is a PC-port or a console-port anymore.
Oh yeah they’ll most definitely backflip, it’s a given. It’ll absolutely happen. You don’t release a ‘more powerful’ platform then neuter it in that sense.
+1, can’t up vote right now as the moderation system has been falsely tripped again.
“That being said, Scorpio and PS4.5 both sit in some weird middle ground. Neither are actually ‘new’ consoles, both have to run the previous consoles games, neither will have ‘specifically new games’ made for them as such. Both are just ‘very updated’ versions of the current hardware. So it’s bizarre, feels like 32X all over again lol”
See, but that’s not like the 32X at all. I see this argument being brought up time and again. As far as we know, there will be no exclusive games for the Scorpio/PS4.5. The 32X had exclusive games. And if the new iterations do indeed boost performance and up-res Xbox One/PS4 titles, then again, that’s not like the 32X either. The 32X didn’t boost games performance of Mega Drive games, increase colour counts in Mega Drive games or make Mega Drive games run better.
The 32X was an add-on. And it wasn’t the only one. The PC-Engine CD add-on sold well in JPN. The Mega CD did alright over there, but was held back by the fact that SEGA was a distant third in the console race, behind Nintendo and NEC. They were add-on’s, these new consoles aren’t – they’re suped-up models more akin to a phone revision than anything remotely 32X like.
It’s like the 32x in that it exists in this weird middle ground that people don’t seem to have clarity on. The 32x ultimately failed because it wasn’t understood if you do need a megadrive? If you didn’t need a megadrive? Can you run 32x games on a normal megadrive? Why can’t you etc. Too many questions left unanswered. The new consoles are still existing in the same space the current ones are and are being restrained into that space, not allowed to transgress (at this point mind you) out of it. It’s a bizarre step both companies are taking to be honest. Then again one could easily argue the Xbox One, PS4 and Xbox One S are the ‘early consoles’ and these incoming ones are the true representation of this generation.
I’m not defending them, but I think, at least in Microsoft’s case, the clarity is there though. All Xbox One games will work on all Xbox One variants. Some will get a better experience, some will have the basic experience, but no one really loses out on any games. All they’ve done is really announce the thing so far, I’m sure more details will emerge in the coming year. But I think it’s pretty clear that it’ll be a more powerful model of the Xbox One. The 32X message wasn’t clear, because it was a rash decision with next to no marketing, from a company that itself couldn’t agree on whether it should even exist or not. It was definitely in this weird middle-ground, but then, so was the SEGA/Mega CD in Europe and the West. I just don’t think the parallels are there. Add-on’s were their own thing – the Scorpio/4.5 are something new entirely in the console space. There’ll be next to no fragmentation if the same software runs on all systems, no one will be locked out of a particular game. That’s something the Mega CD did right out of the gate. Then the 32X did the same thing, and fragmented it again, twice over. Not only were there now Mega CD titles you couldn’t play on your Mega Drive without the unit, there were 32X only titles, and 32X/CD games on top of that.
I honestly think that Sony and Microsoft are making the right decisions in regards to the Scorpio/4.5, even though I’m not super thrilled about mobile-market like revisions. The industry has changed a lot in the last 10 years, let alone the last 20, and the 20 before that.
I get what you’re trying to say, I do. I just don’t think the 32X comparison holds any weight, because it’s really nothing like what’s happening now.
I already have two Xbox One consoles so I’m not making the jump here, not with another hardware iteration already on the way. But if I needed a second console, I’d be tempted.
Why do you need two?
Because my wife and I spent a year playing Destiny together, and will probably continue to do so in the future with upcoming expansions and other co-op/multiplayer games like Titanfall 2 etc.
That is absolutely awesome!
I think we’re at a point where telling someone to hold off for the next one, is like saying wait for the next iPhone. You want a console now, buy one, or you’ll be holding of forever waiting the next best thing.
I traded my XBONE for a the slim version. Was sick of staring at that eye sore that couldnt fit in my shelf.
If you have reached August and the new iPhone comes out in September you would be an idiot to buy the old one.
Yeah sure but there’s no new xbox for over a year. I agree with you on your point.
Grabbed a One S and love it!
4k upscaling is fantastic and the dash seems just as speedy as my Elit with SSD Hybrid.
If you have a 4k TV I think it’s worth it if you can sell your old box.
Ms fucked this up, I was considering a xbone until they announced this, I’m waiting
Bought one yesterday for 4k player and 4k netflix. Problem now is, i bought that piece of shit 4k jvc tv from dick smith, which only outputs 30Hz making it totally useless. Yes its a 4k screen that doesnt output actual 4k content. Its a very expensive door stop now.
They should have included the hybrid ssd from the elite in the new console.