Xbox One Gets Last Minute CPU Boost

[Caiphus]

It'd be interesting, just to get an idea of operations on this scope, to see when this decision was made, how long it took them to make it, and why it was made.

I mean, when you likely have to ship a million of these things to multiple countries in two months, after building them, getting the parts sourced, loading software onto them etc. I can't imagine that the decision was made in the last week? Surely not.

 

[Denamic]

Still not interested. For the first time I will purchase a Playstation and give it to myself two months used for Christmas.

I do not know why but just remembered I used to play a game on my cousin's original Playstation where you drove a tank in first person on alien worlds and constructed bases and units that you could take over like an RTS. Man, the nostalgia!!!

Back on track, there is nothing Microsoft can do at this point to win me over.

This console generation sure is off to an interesting start:

consumer: "If Microsoft takes away DRM I'll probably get one."
MS: "We have taken away our DRM policies"
consumer: "still not buying, they shouldn't have done it in the first place."

consumer: "If Microsoft changed their indie policy I would probably buy one"
MS: "we have changed our indie policy and all consoles will be dev kits"
consumer: "Still not buying, i don't even like indie games"

consumer: "if they included a headset i would probably buy one"
MS: "We will be including a free headset with the xbox one"

consumer: "Still not buying, PS4 is more powerful"
MS: "We amped up the performance of the xbox one"

consumer: "Oh well, still not buying. I've hated them for so long I might as well hate them some more!"

It's not if "they'd remove this, then I'd buy." It's "I'm not buying it because they did this." The problem is that they lost trust. The fact that they changed their minds doesn't change that they did it in the first place. Status quo is not restored because of backpedaling.

Also, even if they went through the extremely difficult task of changing clockspeeds in the BIOS, the Xbone is still way behind in power.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

why do they need to up the CPU power when they have the cloud?
they already have enough clouds to make it like 4 XBones in one.
cloud

 

[Griffolion]

Nope, in fact it's done the opposite. It's doubtful MS have made any engineering changes to the physical machine, meaning that the cooling system could have supported this clock "boost" in the first place. Chances are they were saving the boost for a revised model 18 months down the line as a means to market it. So they've deliberately held back their best effort.

Regardless of MS yet again proving their contempt for the consumer, 53MHz is not enough to sway me to them. I've always been with Sony, but I'm not one to stick around. I was genuinely interested in the XB1 to see if it could sway me, but they have only galvanised me further to PS4.

extremely difficult task of changing clockspeeds in the BIOS

That's sarcasm, right? I can't tell.

 

[MysticSlayer]

This console generation sure is off to an interesting start:

consumer: "If Microsoft takes away DRM I'll probably get one."
MS: "We have taken away our DRM policies"
consumer: "still not buying, they shouldn't have done it in the first place."

consumer: "If Microsoft changed their indie policy I would probably buy one"
MS: "we have changed our indie policy and all consoles will be dev kits"
consumer: "Still not buying, i don't even like indie games"

consumer: "if they included a headset i would probably buy one"
MS: "We will be including a free headset with the xbox one"

consumer: "Still not buying, PS4 is more powerful"
MS: "We amped up the performance of the xbox one"

consumer: "Oh well, still not buying. I've hated them for so long I might as well hate them some more!"

At this point, Microsoft is really just seeing how true "trust is hard to build but easy to break" really is. The issue for them is that they basically laid out their vision for the future of gaming, and it was far from what any of us wanted it to be. Even though they went back on some of what we had issues with, it wasn't because it was in line with a change in vision, as "heartbroken" Microsoft employees made pretty obvious. It was because of low pre-order sales and the fact that they were having issues on the stock market after their announcement. Still, we saw what they want, and Microsoft has an uphill battle in proving to us that they don't plan on ever going back to what they were planning.

Not to mention, there are other reasons to avoid the Xbox One. The Kinect and the extra $100 price tag compared to the PS4 are just two of them.

 

[Vivi22]

while PS4's shater

Slight typo.

Is this last minute performance update enough to sway you over to Microsoft's side, or are you worried that they are still tweaking the console considering it will be on store shelves in two months?

If anyone is swayed by a .15GHz and .53MHz bump respectively then they're easily impressed and probably don't know much about computer hardware. Sure, it's nice to get all the power you can, but the consumer is never going to notice the difference realistically.

 

[Vanbael]

Something just screams to me hardware failure because of this last minute change. Anyways, when I get the money, PS4 all the way. XBOne can also suck my fine ass PC as well.

 

[rob_simple]

Snip

That's some real Battered Wife Syndrome you've got going on, there, buddy.

"Microsoft has repeatedly and consistently showed me that they don't care about me as a consumer, but I think they can change!"

And yet, by your logic, simply because they removed all of these shitty policies that we didn't want, we should reconsider buying from Microsoft even though they were originally telling us a load of bold-faced lies.

And let's not forget that, in more recent interviews, Microsoft have hinted that those same shitty policies aren't necessarily gone forever, and may very well make a comeback once they have an 'established consumer base,' i.e. people who have already given us their money so fuck them.

Just because Microsoft have wiped the blood off the knife doesn't mean we should all assume they aren't still waiting for the next chance to stab us in the back.

 

[ssgt splatter]

1.6 GHz to 1.75 GHz
800 MHz clock speed to 853 MHz clock speed
1.33 TeraFLOPS/s

All interesting sounding numbers. Now if someone could please explain to me what it all means in detail, I'd be more excited about it. Thank you.

I'm giving both consoles a couple months before I get either one but right now I'm still leaning Xbox one.

 

[Aggieknight]

It's not if "they'd remove this, then I'd buy." It's "I'm not buying it because they did this." The problem is that they lost trust. The fact that they changed their minds doesn't change that they did it in the first place. Status quo is not restored because of backpedaling.

Also, even if they went through the extremely difficult task of changing clockspeeds in the BIOS, the Xbone is still way behind in power.

Bingo.

Consumers didn't say 'M$ pls change this feature and I'll buy one', we said 'f-you M$, we aren't buying your crap', to which they responded 'I fixed this, what about now?'.

Having seen both consoles in action at PAX (and played them), I'm convinced the PS4 is the right purchase aside from the drm and kinnect crap, making it an easy choice for me.

 

[deadish]

LOL. 9%

From my point of view, whole thing comes off as desperation. Desperation to match their competitor in performance - not that I know what the performance level of the PS4 is; just that it LOOKS that way.

Overall minor speed ups like that won't gain you much of an edge against the competition as multi-platform programmers will just target the lowest common denominator hardware - for this reason, things like the Kinect are a waste of money - so as long as you are within the performance ballpark of your competitors such that you don't cause developers trouble in porting, you are fine.

Secondly, I don't see how this is good for reliability (something MS has had a lot of trouble with current gen), not to mention the impact on yields and cost.

 

[Ukomba]

1.75 GHZ !?!?! All is forgiven Microsoft, take my money. e_e

 

[Something Amyss]

Okay so they boost the CPU clock speed.

How does it change performance? Thats a pretty small boost in speed.

It's bigger.


Everyone knows bigger numbers means better performance.

 

[The White Hunter]

Okay so they boost the CPU clock speed.

How does it change performance? Thats a pretty small boost in speed.

It's bigger.


Everyone knows bigger numbers means better performance.

I wonder if it affects the thermals of the thing. Probably, it's not like Microsoft are known for having a well cooled device at this point.

 

[masticina]

I remember the big fight between DDR and RDRAM, RDRAM was quicker but only came with a 128bits memory bus. DDR was cheaper, easier to make and came with a 256bits memory bus.

A situation alike now counts for these consoles. Yes GDDR5 is slightly more complex then DDR3. BUT .. has a wider memory buss and a shitload more bandwidth due to that. Guess what you can up the speed of your CPU and GPU but those only have a small effect.

The Ati 9700 had 256bits memory access, the nvidia 5800 had 128bits. Guess who lost out, even clocked higher it never could reach the ati 9700. Why? Simpel better memory, bigger memory busses tend to lead to much higher bandwidth.

The Xbox One isn't that far off the PS4 but still it can't beat the technical superiority of it. Even if it is overclocked to breaking point!

In the end does it matter? Not really that much because lets be fair the games is where you feel the difference. How many will really use all that power the PS4 can push out.

 

[Something Amyss]

I wonder if it affects the thermals of the thing. Probably, it's not like Microsoft are known for having a well cooled device at this point.

In fairness, 50% of the surface of the box is vents or something like that. I can only assume that gives it a 50-50 shot of staying cool.

 

[The White Hunter]

I wonder if it affects the thermals of the thing. Probably, it's not like Microsoft are known for having a well cooled device at this point.

In fairness, 50% of the surface of the box is vents or something like that. I can only assume that gives it a 50-50 shot of staying cool.

Perhaps so, we'll know soon enough. It's kind of an intersting box for some applications if I'm honest but it really does cost a bit much for me to care at this point. It'd made a nice potential media hub.