2020, the year of game console replacement.

In a flash, PS4 and Xbox One have been released for 7 years. In the past few years, the game industry has boomed. Both the creative concept and technology have made great progress. Players look forward to the next era. .

The new mainframe does show great strength in hardware, but the price adjustment and the impact of the epidemic have left this industry with a layer of uncertainty.

The next generation of performance monsters

On March 16, US time, Microsoft announced the detailed configuration parameters of the new-generation console Xbox Serie X on the official website.

First, in terms of volume, the Xbox Serie X is no longer a flat shape similar to the Blu-ray machine that the console has always used in the past, but has expanded a cube. The performance of the new generation host has greatly increased. In order to place components and better heat dissipation, the volume must be enlarged. The specific size is 15.1 × 15.1 × 30.1 cm, and the weight is 4.45 kg. Compared with the previous generation host, it has increased by nearly 60%. It looks like a small air purifier.

What’s even more interesting is the dramatic increase in performance of the Xbox Serie X.

In terms of CPU, the Xbox Serie X uses a 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz w / SMT) custom 8-core 16-thread Zen 2 CPU, which is equivalent to about 3700x performance, which is priced at more than 2,300 yuan at JD.com.

In terms of GPU, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz custom RDNA 2 GPU, 12 T-Flops floating-point computing power, support VRS, hardware optical tracking, chip area 360.45 mm2, 7nm DUV process, countPower is close to the level of NVIDIA RTX 2080 S, slightly behind RTX 2080Ti, this graphics card costs more than 5,000 yuan.

AMD is a loyal and powerful partner of Sony and Microsoft on the console. For the performance of the Xbox Serie X, AMD said: “The SOC and API design of the Xbox Series X completed by us and Microsoft will be the biggest leap in the era. , Xbox Series X will be the beacon of technological innovation for the next generation of game consoles. ” The description is a bit exaggerated, but in terms of parameters, this is indeed a very large upgrade.

16GB GDDR6 memory from Samsung, 1TB custom NVME SSD from Seagate, can also expand up to 1TB of external storage, Microsoft brings Quick Resume Tech and Quick Speed ​​to Xbox Series X Features such as game reading function (Loading Times Tech). The new console supports 8K games with a frame rate of up to 120fps and stable operation at 4k @ 60fps.

This performance has surpassed most current (conservatively estimated 90%) mainstream gaming PCs. This generation of consoles plays exclusive, first launch, and PCs play the ultimate picture quality (4K HDR 60fps). Times may passNow, developers can achieve the highest level of picture quality on the host platform.

Sony’s PS5 will also officially announce some technical details recently, according to the previous , Sony ’s new host PS5 also uses AMD ’s customized processor and GPU. The CPU is an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU + 3.4 GHz, and the GPU is an RDNA 2 architecture. It will have 13.3T-Flops of floating-point computing power (should Is the Pro version), and another Explore , it means that the PS5 GPU unit frequency is 1743MHz, and the floating-point performance is 11.06 T-Flops.

The upgrade of ray tracing, high frame rate, solid state hard disk and other technical parameters has made the next generation of consoles eye-catching. Players are waiting for the leapfrog upgrade of the platform. From the current point of view, the technical parameters of the two new consoles have not disappointed players, or even exceeded expectations.

A price increase is inevitable?

In the past, the console industry has always had a “$ 500 law”. It refers to the platform for games. The price of the console cannot be too expensive. Success in the market. The most powerful console currently available, the Xbox One X, was priced at $ 499 when it was released, which is also stuck in this pricing.

But with the soaring performance of the Xbox Series X and PS5, prices are likely to increase.

As mentioned above, the same level of CPU and graphics card as Xbox Series X is already expensive, and it is very difficult to control the price of the whole machine. US gaming media IGN publishes Article , based on the components of the Xbox Series X, predicted its possible selling price:

The article states that the price of the Xbox Series X CPU is close to the Ryzen7 3700X priced at $ 289 (Amazon pricing), the GPU is close to $ 400 to $ 700 of the Radeon RX 5700XT and RTX 2080S, plus memory and solid state drives. According to PC standards, the price of this machine has exceeded $ 1,000, and IGN believes that if the price of the Xbox Series X exceeds $ 600, they will not be surprised.

Of course, the Xbox Series X will be a higher-end model. Microsoft will have a relatively entry-level machine to meet diverse market needs. Analysts at Kantan Games Forecasting , the price of the Xbox X series will be around $ 499, And this is likely to be the pricing of the standard version.

Sony’s side, at the financial report meeting at the end of last year, Sony’s CFO Indicates that the success of the PS5 will depend on the price. Sony is carefully analyzing the price, judging market profitability and platform penetration, and is also very concerned about investor opinions.

Actually, Sony and Microsoft are very entangled in pricing.