The launch of new consoles, whether they are versions of reduced size and cost, more powerful iterations of the current ones or simply generational leaps that make a clean slate, have been the norm in the industry since the days of the first Atari. Although it may not seem like it, time flies and more than two years have passed since the launch of the Xbox Series. So it’s time to talk about how Microsoft’s next bet will be.
A new Xbox Series on the way?
In the last few hours, images of the Microsoft stand at the video game developer conference, the GDC, have been leaked. Where you can see an informative montage of all Xbox models to date and what is surprising is the fact that this does not end with the Xbox Series, but it seems that there is a model beyond. While we have to assume there will be more consoles in the future, the fact that Microsoft is acknowledging their existence is significant. What’s more, those from Redmond already in the past presented their new consoles a year in advance with names like Project Scorpio, Xbox One X, and Project Scarlett, Xbox Series X.
In the image, the fact that the Xbox Series S does not appear is striking, although it is not the flagship console, this makes us think that the next iteration will be the most powerful console that Microsoft has launched to date. At the same time, AMD’s technology since they finished their current console has evolved enough to consider an improved version of the current system that is compatible with all games on the platform.
Ryzen 7040 APUs as blueprint for the new Xbox chip
Much of the technology used in Xbox Series X came from AMD’s Ryzen 4000 PC chips, at least for the CPU part and core processor communication. Other things are unique to the console, such as a large integrated GPU and GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus.
Obviously, they are not going to develop these elements again when they already have them made for PC and they can use them perfectly on Xbox.
- The core chip of the new Xbox could be built on TSMC’s 4nm node, the same one used by AMD laptop processors and the NVIDIA RTX 40. This would allow Microsoft to use certain elements unchanged in the new Xbox Series.
- The two clusters of 4 cores each with Zen 2 architecture would become one under Zen 4 architecture with the same configuration in number of cores.
- The central part of the chip and in charge of communication will be that of Ryzen 6000 onwards, which will reduce the average consumption of the chip and achieve higher clock speeds or achieve the same by generating less heat. We have already seen this change in the Oberon Plus chips of the latest PS5 models.
We do not know if Microsoft will cut the size of the chip this time, so far it has remained at 360 mm², but the cost per mm² of the chips has been increasing and it is possible that it is profitable for Microsoft to reduce the size of the chip. .
With specialized hardware in AI and RDNA 3
The Ryzen AI block, which is a small NPU that allows the CPU and GPU to offload certain light tasks designed for Deep Learning and Machine Learning, could be included in the new Xbox. This block would go completely apart from the changes that AMD would have made to the GPU and that would be the product of the use of the RDNA 3 architecture.
We do not know the number of GPU cores that we are going to see in the next Xbox, if it is a much better console than the current Xbox Series X it must have a figure equal to or greater than 52 cores. Of course, the use of RDNA 3 architecture will allow you to reach 24 TFLOPS of power in 32-bit floating pointin the event that it maintains cores and speeds, but especially it will give it the ability to execute WMMA-type instructions that are essential for Deep Learning algorithms.
Better capabilities for Ray Tracing
At the same time, RDNA 3 will give the console improved ray tracing capabilities by embracing improvements in that aspect of the new architecture into the new console, but this will force developers to create specialized patches for the new architecture. In any case, the impact on the frame rate per second of Ray Tracing will be much less on the new Xbox Series.
Another of the improvements that we can see in this regard is a greater amount of RAM, the Xbox Series X could perfectly have 20 GB of RAM, but it has 16 GB due to the fact that it combines 1 and 2 GB memory chips. We do not know the VRAM densities that will be available by 2024, we do not believe that it will use GDDR7 due to the fact that by 2024 it will be saved for top-of-the-range graphics cards that can support its initial cost. In any case, having extra memory to store the BVH tree that is necessary for Ray Tracing we see as an addition that will not cost Microsoft anything.
