Xbox One S Performance Capabilities Revealed

Microsoft’s Xbox One S console is now on sale in the UK, and details have arrived which discuss the new performance abilities of the first of the console’s mid-generation updates.

MCV reported that the Xbox One S, with a 40% smaller redesigned form, does bring noticeable improvements upon its predecessors, beyond more than just the physical alterations to the chassis. MCV mentioned various games which see improvement on the Xbox One S, like Project CARS and Arkham Knight, while some games so little or no improvement.

The Xbox One S was officially confirmed at this year’s E3, alongside the more powerful Project Scorpio. With a key focus on the redesign of the console’s physical form, the Xbox One S also includes native support for 4K resolution, high dynamic range colour capabilities, upgraded GPU and CPU, as well as many other minor alterations. The S’s GPU has increased upon the original console from 853MHz to 914MHz, while computing power increased from 1.31TF to 1.4TF.

Since the release of the Xbox One S, it has become apparent that the slimline console is capable of a marked increase in performance capacity on some games. This is despite assertions made by Xbox planning lead, Albert Penello, who said that the additional GPU and CPU power of the S would have ‘literally no impact’ on the performance of games.

However, MCV reported that Project CARS has a noticeable improvement of 11%. They found that Hitman saw an 8% performance increase, making the Xbox One S version of the game more capable than the PS4’s. They also found, though, that Fallout 4 saw no discernible gain.

Albert Penello told Digital Foundry that at “E3, it’s not always possible to get into the level of detail necessary to give a complete answer.” He said that “the key is that we did not want customers to expect any change in game performance for existing titles. We didn’t want to make it a ‘selling point’ for the new console.”

Penello did confirm that some games would see minor improvements on the Xbox One S, particularly those that use dynamic resolution or unlocked framerates.

Xbox One S is out now. The 2TB edition costs around £350.