Gathered some of the best written reviews of the Xbox One X.
BEWARE: Reading these reviews made me actually want to buy an Xbox One X but my practical self won me over, perhaps next Christmas :evil:
These two go in depth into the hardware if that's your thing.
AnandTech Review
https://www.anandtech.com/show/11992/the-xbox-one-x-review
Here are some highlights since this review is 10 pages long.
The heart of the Xbox One X is a GPU that's roughly based on AMD’s GCN 4 (Polaris) architecture. It offers 40 compute units, 2560 stream processors, and 32 ROPs. For comparison, an AMD Radeon RX 480 offers 36 CUs, so the Xbox One X offers 11% more compute hardware than the RX 480. Compared to the PlayStation 4 Pro, the Xbox One X offers about 43% more shader throughput.
There’s a lot of performance packed into the new Xbox One X. Microsoft was too conservative with the original Xbox One, and they seem to be out to prove that they won’t make that mistake again. This is a console designed to target 4K right from the start. As to how successful they will be, that will depend on the developers, and the ever-evolving trade-off between more complex scenes, and higher resolution, but with a GPU that is almost five times more powerful than the original Xbox One, coupled with 12 GB of 384-bit GDDR5, and a faster CPU, the aim looks like its on target.
AnandTech: How important was it to include the PSU inside the console, when you already knew you were going to be dealing with a lot of thermal load with the CPU/GPU? Was this an easy decision based on the Xbox One S, or was an external PSU debated to free up thermals and space?
KG: There were always these set table stakes that we had to hit when we started to plan out Xbox One X. We were thrilled to put the power supply inside the console with Xbox One S, and there was never a plan to remove it. The power supply inside the console was a must, that decision was made early and from there, it was all about precise development and fine tuning to complete the console. That’s exactly what we have at the end of the day, the most fine-tuned console we’ve ever made. I couldn’t be prouder of the craftsmanship that’s gone into Xbox One X.
*
AnandTech: Can you provide efficiency ratings for the PSU?
KG: 80 Plus Gold.
With 6 TFLOPS of peak shader throughput, the Xbox One X truly can, and does, game at 4K. But, that doesn’t mean every Xbox One X Enhanced title is going to target 4K. There’s a lot you can do with the extra shader performance to increase visuals, and Microsoft has left it up to the developers to decide how they want to use the extra performance. From the Xbox side, their goal was to provide the same tools, which are already well known to developers, but with more performance available.
But even if you don’t own a 4K TV, the Xbox One X is going to provide much better visuals than the S, even though both will output at 1080p, thanks to the downscaling of higher resolution graphics on the X.
Arstechnica Review
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/xbox-one-x-review-an-exclamation-point-for-hardware-a-question-mark-for-software/
We’ve already crowed here about Gears of War 4, because the game's 4K performance is absolutely comparable to max settings on a Windows 10 PC equipped with a GTX 1070 and a quad-core i7 chip. That also means important GoW4 elements like shadow detail and texture quality have been cranked up to make the most of the boosted resolution—you’re not just getting the Xbox One version with more pixels and a grimy suite of dated visual niggles.
As one major point of differentiation compared to the PS4 Pro, Microsoft has also gone back into its catalog to add explicit visual enhancements to a very small set of Xbox 360 games: Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout 3, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion thus far. We had two of these games handy to test their Xbox One X updates, and in both cases, we got what we were promised: a 9x bump in resolution from the Xbox 360 games’ 720p default to a full-fat 2160p resolution.
In some ways, Microsoft doesn’t leave much room for us to complain about the Xbox One X’s sales proposition without sounding whiny. The cost-to-performance ratio is off the charts, and enhanced games make the console’s brute-force pixel-pushing potential abundantly clear. The system’s general design and profile follows the handsome Xbox One S to make for an understated, elegant addition to any home entertainment system. It’s not a blustering, whiny, loud thing. It’s cool. We like the Xbox One X.
BEWARE: Reading these reviews made me actually want to buy an Xbox One X but my practical self won me over, perhaps next Christmas :evil:
These two go in depth into the hardware if that's your thing.
AnandTech Review
https://www.anandtech.com/show/11992/the-xbox-one-x-review
Here are some highlights since this review is 10 pages long.
The heart of the Xbox One X is a GPU that's roughly based on AMD’s GCN 4 (Polaris) architecture. It offers 40 compute units, 2560 stream processors, and 32 ROPs. For comparison, an AMD Radeon RX 480 offers 36 CUs, so the Xbox One X offers 11% more compute hardware than the RX 480. Compared to the PlayStation 4 Pro, the Xbox One X offers about 43% more shader throughput.
There’s a lot of performance packed into the new Xbox One X. Microsoft was too conservative with the original Xbox One, and they seem to be out to prove that they won’t make that mistake again. This is a console designed to target 4K right from the start. As to how successful they will be, that will depend on the developers, and the ever-evolving trade-off between more complex scenes, and higher resolution, but with a GPU that is almost five times more powerful than the original Xbox One, coupled with 12 GB of 384-bit GDDR5, and a faster CPU, the aim looks like its on target.
AnandTech: How important was it to include the PSU inside the console, when you already knew you were going to be dealing with a lot of thermal load with the CPU/GPU? Was this an easy decision based on the Xbox One S, or was an external PSU debated to free up thermals and space?
KG: There were always these set table stakes that we had to hit when we started to plan out Xbox One X. We were thrilled to put the power supply inside the console with Xbox One S, and there was never a plan to remove it. The power supply inside the console was a must, that decision was made early and from there, it was all about precise development and fine tuning to complete the console. That’s exactly what we have at the end of the day, the most fine-tuned console we’ve ever made. I couldn’t be prouder of the craftsmanship that’s gone into Xbox One X.
*
AnandTech: Can you provide efficiency ratings for the PSU?
KG: 80 Plus Gold.
With 6 TFLOPS of peak shader throughput, the Xbox One X truly can, and does, game at 4K. But, that doesn’t mean every Xbox One X Enhanced title is going to target 4K. There’s a lot you can do with the extra shader performance to increase visuals, and Microsoft has left it up to the developers to decide how they want to use the extra performance. From the Xbox side, their goal was to provide the same tools, which are already well known to developers, but with more performance available.
But even if you don’t own a 4K TV, the Xbox One X is going to provide much better visuals than the S, even though both will output at 1080p, thanks to the downscaling of higher resolution graphics on the X.
Arstechnica Review
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/xbox-one-x-review-an-exclamation-point-for-hardware-a-question-mark-for-software/
We’ve already crowed here about Gears of War 4, because the game's 4K performance is absolutely comparable to max settings on a Windows 10 PC equipped with a GTX 1070 and a quad-core i7 chip. That also means important GoW4 elements like shadow detail and texture quality have been cranked up to make the most of the boosted resolution—you’re not just getting the Xbox One version with more pixels and a grimy suite of dated visual niggles.
As one major point of differentiation compared to the PS4 Pro, Microsoft has also gone back into its catalog to add explicit visual enhancements to a very small set of Xbox 360 games: Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout 3, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion thus far. We had two of these games handy to test their Xbox One X updates, and in both cases, we got what we were promised: a 9x bump in resolution from the Xbox 360 games’ 720p default to a full-fat 2160p resolution.
In some ways, Microsoft doesn’t leave much room for us to complain about the Xbox One X’s sales proposition without sounding whiny. The cost-to-performance ratio is off the charts, and enhanced games make the console’s brute-force pixel-pushing potential abundantly clear. The system’s general design and profile follows the handsome Xbox One S to make for an understated, elegant addition to any home entertainment system. It’s not a blustering, whiny, loud thing. It’s cool. We like the Xbox One X.
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