Xbox One X's raw power has finally closed the gap with PC gaming

Now that they hype train is finally pulling into the station, we can all sit down and enjoy just how powerful Xbox One X really is. Make no mistake, its arrival marks a watershed moment for consoles. By unlocking 4K and including high-end hardware under its hood, the imposing chasm that stood between consoles and the PC gaming market has finally shrunk.

[Gazondaily]

Obviously it's not as potent as some of the crazy gaming rigs out there but what it's doing, for that pricepoint, is very very impressive.

[CP_Company]

it does not matter how you spin it, 30fps is not impressive.

[Lennoxb63]

If all games were 60 fps on console next gen then the graphics jump wouldn't be big enough. And graphics sell games not frame rate. It's not worth it. Especially for single player games that aren't focused on skill and twitch fast inputs.

[kevnb]

Call of duty proves that frame rate is actually more important than graphics.

[aconnellan]

I'll tell Driveclub's 30fps that you said that.

On topic, 30fps has its place - largely when devs are prioritising other elements in the game that they want to improve (not just straight resolution, but things like particle effects, players on screen, etc)

Of course I'd take 60fps 9 times out of 10, but when it's 30 it just mean something there's other stuff happening in the game that devs thought was more important

[bluefox755]

@Lennox From a marketing standpoint, you are right. From a gamer's standpoint, it's a terrible idea. Every gaming experience benefits from 60fps, the game literally plays smoother. A resolution boost does not make the game play better. Graphics are pretty, but unless you're just looking at the game and not playing it, it's not a good tradeoff.

[zb1ftw777]

Exactly.

$2500 for a barely 4k 30fps PC gaming rig is indeed a waste of money.

You should get an XB1X for a fifth of the price instead.

[LastCenturyRob]

Well, its a good thing many games are 60 fps....also, if a game is running at native 4k with graphics and effects turned up to ultra and running at 30 fps locked that is actually pretty impressive...Even from a higher end pc point of view.

[Sirk7x]

Until console developers have more resources than they know what to do with, they're almost always going to choose to max out graphics and run 30FPS, because shiny graphics are a higher selling point than smooth gameplay.

[Prem8tuaProcrastin8a]

Wtf are you talking about? If it's not impressive to be able to run games in 4k at the same frame rate as the x1s, why don't all consoles do it? Or why don't ALL gaming rigs do it? Oh yeah, it's because a tiny fraction of steam survey p.cs can even run games in 4k at all, and it takes large amounts of power to run in 4k/30. Ms said from the start that they would build a console that could run games in 4k without sacrificing existing frame rates, they have delivered. People said it wouldn't be able to do 4k at ANY frame rate, it does. People said if it could do 4k it would be 700+dollars, it doesn't. Now you're claiming that 4k/30 isn't impressive, IT IS. Your comments reek of jealousy. Go buy some taco bell, maybe you'll win yourself an X.

[Unspoken]

Uh yeah, the 1080 Ti hits 30-40 fps in Origins and Shadow of War.

[Father__Merrin]

nothing wrong withg 30fps, you make it out as if this is somehow unplayable or sluggish it plays perfectly fine depending on game type, 30fps done correctly plays very smooth on a tv setup. on a pc minitor it looks more jagi for some reson but on tv its fine

[The_KELRaTH]

The gaming industry should just kill off 30fps as it doesn't sync with any current screen technology.

I recently installed GT Sport and it turns out that the menus don't run at 60fps. Now you would think this rather unimportant as after all it's just the menus.
Unfortunately PD chose to use side scrolling (ticker tape) text at the bottom of the screen and because it's not in sync with the TV (or my PC monitor) all you see is a unreadable rubber band effect.

It reminds me that for all the CPU & GPU power, in some areas of technology we've gone completely backwards as this type of side scrolling was completely smooth as far back as on Atari / Commodore 8 bit home computer hardware as the hardware speed was locked to the raster TV display so devs couldn't choose to slow things down.

[AAWELLS09]

Right and every PC out there cant run every game at 60FPS "only the top end" and not everyone that owns a PC owns the top end of tech. No matter how many claim they have the best of the best. PC owners can just say they have whatever and cant really prove it.

[That_Guy244]

@zb1ftw777
Problem is my 2500$ pc will do much more than just gaming. I can do gaming,streaming,editing, us it as a media hub, and us it for work and alot of that at the same time. So yea will keep my pc when there is an xbox than can do everything my pc can do at the same lvl cheaper I will buy one till then I have zero interest in one no mater how cheap it is.

As far as the 30fps stuff I will never play another game in 30fps. Its just terrible and unplayable for me even 60fps is not that great once you play at 120+fps for so long. So if i had to choose 1080p@144hz or 4k@30/60hz I would pick the 1080p@144 every time.

[lelo2play]

The CPU my friend... the CPU is holding back the Xbox One X.

Xbox One X is still a good console... but it could have been better. 30FPS on the most demanding games isn't great.

[Bigpappy]

An you would be here writing the $699.99 price is too much. I mean they could have gone with an i7 and a 1080ti. But how many people would buy it.
You guys kill me when you sit there and act like you know something that the engineers at M$ don't. Pompous!

[lelo2play]

@Bigpappy
The only thing that Microsoft engineers worried about were teraflops... nothing more. As long as the XB1X had more teraflops then the PS4 Pro, Microsoft was happy.

Instead of 6TF, why not a 5TF console but with a better AMD CPU and keep the 500€ price tag?... Ryzen CPU perhaps? ... Ryzen are good AMD CPU's, not very expensive. Ever heard of them?

[bluefox755]

@Big They could have gone a step down with the GPU, and a step up with the CPU and kept the price. Don't pretend like you need an i7 and a 1080ti to run 60fps, those run circles around x1x.

[LastCenturyRob]

I have to disagree with you. Had they brought in a new CPU it would have increased the price of the console. Even with all you get with the X anything over a $500 price point would have been suicide on the retail front. That being said, yeah the enhanced CPU they are using is no prize pig but it isn't awful either. The GPU is pretty darn good and the amount of ram is unprecedented for a console. Overall, MS delivered the goods big-time this time around!

[Kyizen]

Yeah if they some how got the Ryzen in there it would be a beast but they missed that and it is launching out of date

[arbi]

it's very sad to see you getting downovoted buy saying the obvious..... its says a lot about the community here and the fanboysm that exist.

[FyBy]

Yeah for the pricepoint its very good. I cant imagine build pc with 4K capable for that price and size. And thats it. Everything has its pricepoint. MS could do for 600USD XOX with much bettter CPU (Zen family). Also there were speculations Sony considered ZEN for Pro which would be 100 USD higher. But everything is about price. As we could see in case of PS3, which was for 599 USD and that was big problem for many.

But XOX should be high end premium device. I think , that if there was a way to incorporate better CPU for 100 USD higher....that would be much better. But also next 100% gen.

[ABizzel1]

The real issue is the CPU really. Everything else is fine. They could have waited and gained another 2 GFLOPS of GPU power by launching a new console in 2018 instead of a mid-gen upgrade, but the CPU is the only thing keeping it from a constant 60fps and truly rivaling PC.

[Gazondaily]

I guess it would have raised the price of the console a bit too much. Some people already think the price is rather steep; any higher and it would really become even more niche of a product

[ABizzel1]

For the XBO-X for sure, for a 2018 console possibly not. The hardware pricing is based on what AMD has to offer currently so we know on the GPU side it's based off the RX 480 / RX 580 line, so waiting a year could have gave them a RX 680 for a similar price GPU wise which should have some hints of Vega architecture in it, and there they could have popped another $30 - $40 towards the CPU.

They would have took a loss early on, but they would have got ahead of next-gen and it would have hopefully gave them the restart they needed just like the Switch.

[ScreamingMeat]

Made ground? Yes. And as Septic says, amazing for the price point. Closed the gap? No. Sorry. When it's running Ultra-equivalent settings in 4K native at 60fps... THEN it's closed the gap. 30fps, medium-high with resolution scaling means there is still a big gap.

[Cartman55125]

Gamers in general (not just Xbox fanboys) should be celebrating. This will raise the bar for what consumers can expect of consoles.

[iNcRiMiNaTi]

I did an Assassin's Creed Origins test at 4k with an i7 8700k, gtx 1080Ti + 32gb ram on ultra high settings and the lowest I've seen the game dip is around 40fps. If the 1x manages to keep a consistent 4k 30fps then I'd say it's not that bad seeing how it's cheaper than my gpu

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[AspiringProGenji]

It may be closed to a mid range PC in power but it still doesn’t offer the full benefits that a PC do. Even steam machines offered more benefits yet they failed... I believe to close the gap to PC you need more than power. This will sure please a lot of people that want more power or have been anxious to have the better version of games, but a PC is still the better investment plus MS is putting their exclusives there too. This is only the beggining for MS to make more iterative consoles to keep the power crown, so I wonder how much people will be able to spend to keep up when they can build a PC now and be 3 generations ahead and still beat the next Xbox X