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Microsoft has shot down reports that the slim model of the Xbox One will also tout faster hardware than its bigger brother.
The claims stemmed from a Polygon interview with The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson, where he claimed that Gears of War 4 would “provide a more consistent level of technical performance” on the Xbox One S.
According to Fergusson, the new console boasts extra CPU and GPU power compared to the original Xbox One, allowing devs to improve both framerate and resolution. The Xbox One S does support 4K video output, via upscaling.
However, Xbox planning lead Albert Penello told Eurogamer that Fergusson was mistaken, explaining that the Xbox One S “will have no impact on games at all”.
“Literally no impact,” he reaffirmed. “[The consoles] will be identical.”
Penello did confirm that the Xbox One S would utilise a little more processing bandwidth to allow for the addition of high dynamic range (HDR) and 4K – but, again, stressed that the difference was negligible.
“That’s it,” he stated. “It’s exactly the same architecture as the existing one,"
"To support HDR, we give people access to a little more CPU and GPU. That’s it. It is so insignificant it is mind boggling it is being picked up."
What will have more processing power is Microsoft’s Project Scorpio, which has been confirmed to offer six teraflops of GPU oomph and eight CPU cores to devs – a welcome addition indeed.
