Shortly after launching its cheapest next-gen console, Microsoft has also unveiled the pricing of its powerful Series X console.
Microsoft is ready to launch its next-gen most powerful console yet. The company will officially launch the Xbox Series X on November 10th for $499.
Before then, however, preorders of the Xbox Series X will be opened starting this month, on 22nd. In supported countries, Xbox Series X could be purchased using the Xbox All Access program, which allows one to pay for the console in monthly installments.
Xbox All Access also includes the cost of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Live spread across 24 months at $34.99/month.
Xbox Series S
In Addition to the Xbox Series X, Microsoft’s budget all-digital Series S console will also be available on November 10th for $299.
At such a price, Xbox Series S indeed includes some compromises. For instance, it only supports up to 1440p gaming at 120fps. There are some compromises too on the GPU, memory, and internal storage.
Despite the lack of high res gaming, Xbox Series S features the same CPU as the Series X but with less frequency. The only difference is the GPU. Instead of AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU with 52CUs in the Series X, the Series S’ GPU includes 20CUs at 1.565GHz. In GPU performance, that translates to 4 teraflops, way less than the 12.15 teraflops on the Series X.
Microsoft says the Xbox Series S is four times more powerful than Xbox One. On the GPU front, Series S delivers approximately 3x the GPU performance of the Xbox One.
Under the hood, Xbox Series S includes a 512TB PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSD, 10GB GDDR6 RAM, and an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU. There’s a difference between Series S and Series X, but the former is optimized for up to 1440p gaming.
However, Microsoft’s next-gen console includes hardware upscaling to 4K on compatible TVs.
It, however, still delivers hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing and variable rate shading. Microsoft touts lower latency, faster load times, and higher frame rates to be at the core of Xbox Series S, just like its bigger sibling.
Xbox Series X vs Xbox Series S Specifications and Price
| Xbox Series X | Xbox Series S | |
| CPU | 8-core AMD Zeb 2 CPU @3.8GHz (3.6GHz with SMT enabled) | 8-core AMD Zeb 2 CPU @3.6GHz (3.4GHz w/ SMT) |
| GPU | AMD RDNA 2 GPU
52CUs @ 1.825GHz |
AMD RDNA 2 GPU
20CUs @ 1.56GHz |
| GPU Power | 12.15 Teraflops | 4 Teraflops |
| SoC | Custom 7nm Enhanced Soc | Custom 7nm Enhanced Soc |
| RAM | 16GB GDDR6
10GB @ 560GB/s 6GB @ 336GB/s |
10GB GDDR6
8GB @ 224GB/s 2GB @ 56GB/s |
| Perfomance Target | 4K @ 60fps (up to 120fps) | 1440p @ 60fps(up to 120fps) |
| Storage | 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSD | 512GB PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSD |
| Expandable Storage | 1TB expansion card | 1TB expansion card |
| Disc Drive | 4K UDH Blue-ray | Only Digital |
| Dislay Output | HDMI 2.1 | HDMI 2.1 |
| Backward compatibility | Supports Xbox 360 titles, and Xbox One accessories | Supports Xbox 360 titles, and Xbox One accessories |
| Price | $499 | $299 |