Xbox Series S or Series X - which is better

Sony, with its PlayStation, is not trying to categorize buyers. Everyone knows for sure that the same Sony PlayStation 5 can be supplied with or without a disk drive. But with Microsoft, everything is different. Buyers are constantly worried about just one question - which is better to buy an Xbox Series S or Series X. Having released 2 consoles to the market, the manufacturer clearly drew a line between buyers. It would seem that everything has been decided - an expensive console is better. But not a fact.

Xbox Series S or Series X - similarities and differences

 

The architecture of both consoles is identical - the Zen 2 platform from AMD is used. But, in terms of computational processors and RAM memory with ROM, there is a difference. The difference can be most easily seen in synthetic tests. In floating point operations, Series S demonstrates 4 TFLOPS, while Series X demonstrates 12 TFLOPS. That is, the performance (theoretical) of a more expensive set-top box is higher.

The Series X has 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD ROM. The budget console comes with 10GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD module. It is better not to focus on these indicators. If desired, the volumes of both types of memory can always be increased. The emphasis here is better on effective gaming performance. And it is limited by the processor power, which cannot be improved.

 

To the difference, you can add the presence of a Blu-Ray drive in the expensive Microsoft Series X series. Here it is not cheap, as well as the disks for it. This fact should be considered before buying. After all, it is expensive for someone to buy discs, while it is problematic for another user to download games due to a low-quality Internet channel.

The connectors are identical. There are 3 USB 3.0 ports, fresh HDMI 2.1 and a gigabit RJ-45 connector for connecting to the Internet. The gamepads of the consoles are also identical. The budget employee has a white gamepad, while the S series has a black one. The nicest moment here is the immutability of the controller, as in the XBOX One. It's great that the manufacturer did not change the reference version.

 

Screen output - Xbox Series S vs Series X

 

It may seem that Microsoft has deliberately awarded an expensive set-top box with 4K video support, and left the state employee at the 2K level. This is not true. Due to the lower performance, the Xbox Series S at high resolutions will not be able to play the game at normal frame rates. And mind you, for most 4K TVs, 2K resolution is not critical. Even in FullHD, the picture will look great.

On a nice note, both consoles support Ray Tracing. At first, gamers greeted this technology negatively. But at the end of 2020, after a bit of tweaking, it became clear that the technology did indeed make the lighting look more realistic. And this is not the end result yet. This technology has a long and bright future.

 

Xbox Series S or Series X - which is better

 

Better to buy Xbox Series S. The reason is simple - when creating games, the developers faced one problem. For each console you need to adapt the toy. For the processor, memory, video output to the screen. In fact, you have to create 2 different games. And this is a cost in time and money. Therefore, most of the developers have opted for the budget Microsoft Series S set-top box. Since these are the models that have been sold the most.

And what happens next - there are a lot of games on the market for Series S and a little for the cool Microsoft Series X. Accordingly, a fan of console games buys a budget console. Thus, motivating developers to continue creating games for the Xbox Series S. And this vicious circle cannot be broken in any way. You think it's better - Xbox Series S or Series X, believe me - a budget employee is more practical. Under it, there are simply many times more cool modern games.

By the way, applause and thanks can be sent to Microsoft, which by this division into categories simply canceled out all earnings from Premium consoles to itself. Only financial subsidies to developers can help correct the situation. But Microsoft is unlikely to take this step.