Microsoft’s revamped Xbox One, the Xbox One S, is now available for purchase. The new console is smaller than the original and supports 4K video streaming and HDR. But one feature that is not touted by Microsoft is that the console contains a boost in performance.
The Xbox One S’s CPU is unchanged, but the GPU sees a boost in speed, from 853 MHz to 914 MHz. ESRAM bandwidth is also bumped up, from 204 GB/sec to 219 GB/sec. Microsoft does not want to advertise the speed boost, since it is not meant to boost gaming performance. The speed bumps were put in place to make HDR possible. But it’s only logical that games would see some change in performance. To find out how much, Digital Foundry ran a series of performance testsTo find out how much.
The results show that some games do see a marked performance boost. A Project CARS replay showed a seven percent average improvement in frame rate – or about 5 frames per second – from the Xbox One to the Xbox One S. Switching to a third-person view saw the improvement grow to about 11 percent, or about 9 FPS. Digital Foundry notes that the comparison is not perfect, as random weather effects skew the results some. But they insist the performance increases are repeatable.
Some games see little to no benefit from the boosted hardware. Rise of the Tomb Raider is locked at 30 FPS, but the Xbox One S does show better performance when playing it. On the Xbox One, Rise of the Tomb Raider would show dips to 28 FPS, something absent from the Xbox One S. Hitman sees an 8.1 percent increase in frame rate during gameplay is Paris, but the game is more CPU-bound than GPU-bound. This means that the frame rates level out on both systems.
Fallout 4 sees little benefit from the increase in performance. Batman: Arkham Knight, however, shows marked improvement. In addition to a frame rate increase, there is less stutter and screen tearing. Backward-compatible games are affected but see no dramatic improvement.
For those that were interested in seeing how significant the hardware changes would be, the Digital Foundry article is a very detailed read. Overall, the Xbox One S is only useful if you intend to use it to play 4K video content. Gamers looking for better performance are better off waiting for Microsoft’s upcoming Project Scorpio, as it will be a significant upgrade over the original console.
