Microsoft: We Could Have Used Variable Clocks for Xbox Series X, But We’re Not Interested in “trying to 'hunt' down certain record numbers”

SharpX68K · Jun 28, 2020

In a new interview published on Spanish site Xataka, Director of Program Management for Xbox Series X Jason Ronald said that Microsoft could have easily used the same approach to reach a higher theoretical TFLOPS figure, but that would have made it harder for developers to optimize their games.

We focus on optimizing the developer experience to deliver the best possible experience for players, rather than trying to 'hunt' down certain record numbers. We've always talked about consistent and sustained performance.
We could have used forced clocks, we could have used variable clock rates: the reality is that it makes it harder for developers to optimize their games even though it would have allowed us to boast higher TFLOPS than we already had, for example. But you know, that's not the important thing. The important thing is the gaming experiences that developers can build.

The Microsoft executive also suggested that the mere I/O speed of the Xbox Series X (which is inferior to that of the PlayStation 5, according to the official specifications) doesn't tell the full story.

Things go beyond the numbers that we may or may not share. Sampler Feedback Streaming (SMS) allows us to load textures and makes the SSD drive act as a multiplier of physical memory that adds to the memory that the machine itself has.We also have a new API called Direct Storage that gives us low-level direct access to the NVMe controller so that we can be much more efficient in managing those I / O operations.

www.xataka.com/videojuegos/entrevista-a-jason-ronald-xbox-series-x-no-creo-que-consolas-vayan-a-desaparecer-pronto

www.wccftech.com/microsoft-we-could-have-used-variable-clocks-for-xsx-but-were-not-interested-in-tflops-numbers/

Sounds like Microsoft is being gracious.

Be gracious to me if old.

Dan Thunder · Jun 28, 2020

Sounds like they're saying "if we went the same route as Sony we'd be even further ahead."

Jamrock User · Jun 28, 2020

In the DF video the dude specifically said he was tasked with getting 2 times the graphical power of the One X model. Question mark?

dlauv · Jun 28, 2020

Clickbaity article title but interesting info on the I/O side. I'd say Lockhart would probably give devs extra optimization work if lowering the res simply doesn't do the trick.

Bradbatross · Jun 28, 2020

Odd title. They're saying that they want to make it as easy for devs as possible, and going the variable clock route would make it harder for them.

Convasse · Jun 28, 2020

He's not wrong, but the title is not as tight as it needs to be. Using the PS5's clocks would put the Xbox Series X at 14.8* teraflops.
*(52 x 2 x 64 x 2.23)

Kolx · Jun 28, 2020

Your marketing head would like to disagree with you there

TechnicPuppet · Jun 28, 2020

dlauv said:
Clickbaity thread title but interesting info on the I/O side. I'd say Lockhart would probably give devs extra optimization work if lowering the res simply doesn't do the trick.

The development kit will do it I'm sure.

Sems4arsenal · Jun 28, 2020

Sometimes TFlops matter, sometimes they don't.

Gif · Jun 28, 2020

Kolx said:
Your marketing head would like to disagree with you there

Yeah maybe, but they've still pretty comfortably earned "the most powerful" title.

so doubt he's too upset

SharpX68K · Jun 28, 2020

Sems4arsenal said:
Sometimes TFlops matter, sometimes they don't.

Depends on the rest of the architecture I believe.

rokkerkory · Jun 28, 2020

Imagine the size of XSX console if they did? lol

Theorry · Jun 28, 2020

Ricky Ricardo said:
He's not wrong, but the title is not as tight as it needs to be. Using the PS5's clocks would put the Xbox Series X at 14.8* teraflops.
*(52 x 2 x 64 x 2.23)

Indeed. They looked like the One X at a number they wanted to hit and tried to hit that. Looks like the same with Series X. Size of the console came in factor for sure also.

PopcornMegaphone · Jun 28, 2020

Clickbait thread title.

christocolus · Jun 28, 2020

rokkerkory said:
Imagine the size of XSX console if they did? lol

Lol.

Deleted member 50658 · Jun 28, 2020

I mean we have developers claiming the PS5 is the easiest console ever to develop on (including XsX) so it does not seem devs have a problem with it.

And the last part about the SSD is a software solution and nothing that will bridge the gap since PS5 have much more hardware on top of software.

Skyebaron · Jun 28, 2020

Wasnt the teraflop in front of all the conferences and announcements since the XB1X?

Deleted member 14089 · Jun 28, 2020

Hmmmmm, would this be something they could "unlock" later down the road? (Like Nintendo did with the Switch)

Garrett 2U · Jun 28, 2020

PS4 received much well deserved praise for the simplicity of the design and how developer friendly it was. And the results showed! It seems more and more that the roles are reversed this upcoming generation.

jroc74 · Jun 28, 2020

Ok, so now teraflops dont matter.

Good to know.

ImaginaShawn · Jun 28, 2020

Clickbait title, MS knew they had an advantage so they went with a better architecture instead of boosting their numbers.

tapedeck · Jun 28, 2020

I can only imagine what the XSX Teraflops number would be if it had PS5's high clocks..but then of course the cooling would probably be an issue.

Richardi · Jun 28, 2020

Garrett 2U said:
PS4 received much well deserved praise for the simplicity of the design and how developer friendly it was. And the results showed! It seems more and more that the roles are reversed this upcoming generation.

LOL

DigSCCP · Jun 28, 2020

Garrett 2U said:
PS4 received much well deserved praise for the simplicity of the design and how developer friendly it was. And the results showed! It seems more and more that the roles are reversed this upcoming generation.

I imagine you are taking your own conclusions to say something like that, right ?

xxracerxx · Jun 28, 2020

Garrett 2U said:
PS4 received much well deserved praise for the simplicity of the design and how developer friendly it was. And the results showed! It seems more and more that the roles are reversed this upcoming generation.

Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that both consoles are super developer friendly not just the Series X.

jroc74 · Jun 28, 2020

Kolx said:
Your marketing head would like to disagree with you there

What would he know. Teraflops dont matter, okay?????

Sems4arsenal said:
Sometimes TFlops matter, sometimes they don't.

lmao.

Wereroku · Jun 28, 2020

Garrett 2U said:
PS4 received much well deserved praise for the simplicity of the design and how developer friendly it was. And the results showed! It seems more and more that the roles are reversed this upcoming generation.

I mean you might have a point of we didn't already have devs saying the ps5 is the easiest to develop on.

Adookah · Jun 28, 2020

Next gen is going to be amazing, that is for sure.

Theorry · Jun 28, 2020

Detective · Jun 28, 2020

Garrett 2U said:
PS4 received much well deserved praise for the simplicity of the design and how developer friendly it was. And the results showed! It seems more and more that the roles are reversed this upcoming generation.

jroc74 said:
Ok, so now teraflops dont matter.

Good to know.

Betamaxbandit · Jun 28, 2020

jroc74 said:
Ok, so now teraflops dont matter.

Good to know.

looks like someone read the thread title and not the content.
Clickbate title did its job

ImaginaShawn · Jun 28, 2020

jroc74 said:
What would he know. Teraflops dont matter, okay?????

lmao.

I can see you didn't actually read the article.

Theorry · Jun 28, 2020

Betamaxbandit said:
looks like someone read the thread title and not the content.
Clickbate title did its job

Jup freaking annoying.

Garrett 2U · Jun 28, 2020

I didn't think it would be that controversial. The PS5 has a new paradigm around designing for power consumption. It isn't as simple. Not to say you can't achieve amazing results, but it is new.

Got Danny · Jun 28, 2020

This is confusing, isn't MS the one focusing to tflops?

Nostradamus · Jun 28, 2020

Well if they claim they are the most powerful, they'll be using TF numbers so I'm not buying this.

Nexus2049 · Jun 28, 2020

While I don't plan on getting an XSX, I am very impressed everytime I read about it. Surface team seems to be knocking that shit out of the park.

Deleted member 6539 · Jun 28, 2020

Garrett 2U said:
PS4 received much well deserved praise for the simplicity of the design and how developer friendly it was. And the results showed! It seems more and more that the roles are reversed this upcoming generation.

It only seems that way if you're not paying attention.

Bradbatross · Jun 28, 2020

jroc74 said:
What would he know. Teraflops dont matter, okay?????

lmao.

They have the more powerful console, of course teraflops matter. He's saying they could have pushed the teraflops even more but it would have come with drawbacks. You realize there's more info here than just the title right?

Uzupedro · Jun 28, 2020

I didn't understand this part of the wccftech text:

The Microsoft executive also suggested that the mere I/O speed of the Xbox Series X (which is inferior to that of the PlayStation 5, according to the official specifications) doesn't tell the full story.

Jason (the interviewee) is an important person in the development of XSX, he is praising the device he is working on, and in an area that on both consoles is still a bit nebulous, I do not think that Jason's idea while praising the XSX I/O Solution was to say that "Numbers don't say everything" as this part of wccftech's text suggests.

jroc74 · Jun 28, 2020

xxracerxx said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that both consoles are super developer friendly not just the Series X.

Wereroku said:
I mean you might have a point of we didn't already have devs saying the ps5 is the easiest to develop on.

Well you see, it depends on whose saying it.

The developers that said it about PS5 dont count, for obvious reasons.

That post was wild, lol.

Betamaxbandit said:
looks like someone read the thread title and not the content.
Clickbate title did its job

We could have used forced clocks, we could have used variable clock rates: the reality is that it makes it harder for developers to optimize their games even though it would have allowed us to boast higher TFLOPS than we already had, for example. But you know, that's not the important thing. The important thing is the gaming experiences that developers can build.

I dont see the issue with my post.

Guymelef · Jun 28, 2020

Nostradamus said:
Well if they claim they are the most powerful, they'll be using TF numbers so I'm not buying this.

It's time to sell Lockhart.

Saint of Killers · Jun 28, 2020

It's like Cerny pissed on MS's ~~chips~~ TFLOPS talking about PS5's SSD and the I/O.

Bradbatross · Jun 28, 2020

jroc74 said:
Well you see, it depends on whose saying it.

The developers that said it about PS5 dont count, for obvious reasons.

That post was wild, lol.

I dont see the issue with my post.

Then that's an issue lol.

Lobster Roll · Jun 28, 2020

Correct me if I'm wrong. They're saying that the GPU difference is comparing the typical, expected performance of the XSX in all use cases to the theoretical, best-case, highest-clock speed of the PS5? This sounds like the GPU is slightly more pronounced than that "18%" figure that people throw around. Even with 12+ TF, they're saying that they don't care about TFs and that it was never their goal to inflate that figure.

Jiraiya · Jun 28, 2020

Rumpestump said:
I mean we have developers claiming the PS5 is the easiest console ever to develop on (including XsX) so it does not seem devs have a problem with it.

And the last part about the SSD is a software solution and nothing that will bridge the gap since PS5 have much more hardware on top of software.

They didn't mention bridging any gap. He simply stated the numbers you see don't tell the fully story of their solution. They seem confident their choices will carry them through the generation just fine...even if Sony has what they have.

MiserablePerson · Jun 28, 2020

It's pretty simple - Xbox had a performance level they wanted to hit without things like forced clocks or variable clock rates in order to provide a constant level of performance to make it easier for Devs. TFlops matter in the instance that they had a high number in mind and hit it; if it were purely about TFlops they could have used those other things to boost the number further, but didn't because they were comfortable with the number already.

Karlinel · Jun 28, 2020

Theorry · Jun 28, 2020

MiserablePerson said:
It's pretty simple - Xbox had a performance level they wanted to hit without things like forced clocks or variable clock rates in order to provide a constant level of performance to make it easier for Devs. TFlops matter in the instance that they had a high number in mind and hit it; if it were purely about TFlops they could have used those other things to boost the number further, but didn't because they were comfortable with the number already.

Garrett 2U · Jun 28, 2020

serenade to a tea kettle said:
It only seems that way if you're not paying attention.

Sure, can you tell me another OS that has developers swap between different power profiles based on what resources scenes require? It is a new paradigm.

It will enable some incredible things from first party, but for third party games I think it is going to be just another hoop that devs have to jump through.

Microsoft: We Could Have Used Variable Clocks for Xbox Series X, But We’re Not Interested in “trying to 'hunt' down certain record numbers”

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