Matthew Wilson 6 hours ago Console, Featured Tech News
We’ve known the specs for both the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 for a few months now. On the PS5 side, the console has an SSD speed advantage, meanwhile, the Xbox Series X has the beefier GPU. When it comes down to it though, the difference in GPU power isn’t going to make much of a difference according to one developer.
Speaking with GamingBolt, Mike Moreton, lead designer on Dirt 5, talked about the difference between the two consoles: “From development and gameplay perspectives, it doesn’t really have an impact. When it comes to tuning, tweaking and optimizations at the end of a game, it might mean slightly less work for one platform.”
This is easy enough to believe, as many games ended up looking and running similarly across Xbox One and PS4, which also had slight power differences.
Of course, when it comes to this generation, developers are also going to have to keep the Xbox Series S in mind, which has a less capable GPU compared to both the PS5 and Xbox Series X, which may end up making the power gap between the top-end consoles look even smaller.
KitGuru Says: We’ve seen developers optimise for multiple console specs through the course of last generation, so I don’t think there are going to be any issues going into next-gen. You’re going to be getting a decent upgrade regardless of which next-gen console you end up picking up.
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Belonging to Corsair’s consolidated HS series , the new HS 75 XB are excellent wireless headphones, particularly suitable for those who intend to buy the new Xbox Series X
of Rosario Grasso published on 22 October 2020 , at 15: 01 in the Peripherals channel Corsair
Based on the foundation of Corsair’s HS series , also present in our comparison of the best wireles headphones s with the HS model 70, HS 75 XB Wireless is a solution designed specifically for Xbox Series X, Xbox One and Windows 10.
Xbox Series X has its own wireless headphones
The new Corsair headphones they connect easily with the Xbox and without the need for an adapter: just press the pairing button on the console body and then for a few moments on the power button of the headphones. The console dashboard will notify the user with a connection notification and the headset will immediately start working. They then disconnect if unused for a few minutes, in order to preserve battery life. The headphones can also be connected with the USB cable included in the package (which also serves to recharge them), while for the wireless connection with the PC you need the Xbox wireless receiver (not included in the package).
Don’t miss our comparison of the best gaming headsets wireless
As we have seen in the case of other Corsair headphones, also the HS 75 XB guarantee excellent comfort, high audio quality and communications via microphone comparable to those allowed by broadcasting solutions. Compared to HS 70, in addition, the new HS 75 make up for the aesthetic gaps, because they are very pleasant and captivating to the eye, perfectly in tune with the minimalist style of the new Microsoft consoles.
The headphones are sturdy and resistant, but not heavy, with earpads equipped with internal memory foam padding. Furthermore, on the left pavilion, a wheel allows you to balance the volume of in-game chats with that of the game . The pavilions are also adjustable by a few degrees in both directions. As for the strength of this Corsair solution, it should be added that it is equipped with a high quality metal inner band reinforced with aluminum.
The Wi-Fi connection allows you to move away from the game up to about 9 meters and to continue enjoying the sound, while the autonomy stands at 20 about hours . The driver from 50 custom neodymium millimeters are compatible with specification Dolby Atmos , while the detachable microphone features noise canceling technology , very important for conversations with the rest of the team in the context of competitive multiplayer.
The Doby Atmos, supported by consoles Xbox, positions game sounds with three-dimensional precision, increasing engagement and ensuring positional fidelity. In this way it is possible to react to the stresses in the competitive multiplayer context in an accurate manner. Through the Dolby Access app for Xbox , you can also customize the equalization, so that you can enjoy the best performances available depending on whether you watch a movie, play games (also depending on the genre), listen to music, or whatever. The list of games that support Dolby Atmos, however, is rapidly expanding.
Gears Tactics was a big game for Microsoft. A splashy, strategic spin on the Gears franchise, it served not only to show that Microsoft is willing to invest heavily in PC games, but that it’s just as committed to Xbox Game Pass on Windows as it is on Xbox consoles.
“We were thrilled,” says Tyler Bielman, design director at Microsoft’s Gears-focused studio The Coalition, when asked about the reaction to the game. “We knew that we had captured some magic in bringing that Gears intensity and action and combining it with a thoughtful turn-based experience, and we were really happy with the reviews, we’re really happy with everyone’s response — the response on PC Game Pass was tremendous, so yeah, we were really happy with it. We think it’s a really cool addition to the Gears franchise.”
While Gears Tactics was developed for PC first, a console version was always in the works, and now, Microsoft has confirmed that it’ll land on November 10th — the same day the Xbox Series X and Series S next-gen consoles go on sale. Gears Tactics is arguably the biggest first-party launch title Microsoft has for the new Xbox consoles. With Halo Infinite delayed into next year, this is the only console debut for one of Microsoft’s premier franchises that you’ll be able to play on launch day.
For the PC version, The Coalition had to figure out how to translate Gears’ fast-paced action to a traditionally console-unfriendly genre. Now, they have the opposite task.
“We wanted to really make it authentic for the PC strategy gamer first and foremost, but we also knew eventually we would take our time and bring it to console in a way that feels really native on the console,” Bielman says, citing the game’s controls as the most important thing to get right. “The game has to feel great with the sticks in your hand, and the game that we have with Tactics is very free and open — it doesn’t take place on a grid, you can move your units anywhere on the map. We knew that in order to make that feel good, we couldn’t just have a simple mouse simulation on the controller — we had to add functionality.”
The bones of the game haven’t changed, but there are some affordances to make it play smoother with a controller. There’s a precision mode that slows the cursor down and new snapping features that help you select the right target faster and more accurately. The UX has also been streamlined in certain regards, like the convoy area where you manage your soldiers and choose missions, and there’s additional content, including a new playable character along with extra enemies and equipment.
Gears Tactics did ship on PC with controller support, but it clearly worked better with a mouse and keyboard, so The Coalition’s efforts to refine the game for controllers will also come to the PC version along with the new content. Conversely, Bielman says that you can plug a mouse and keyboard into an Xbox console and play the game just as it would run on a PC.
While a console version was always planned, it wasn’t necessarily intended to happen alongside the launch of the new Xboxes. “It wasn’t so much someone saying like, ‘Hey, you’re gonna make sure this game is on the hardware,’” says Cam McRae, technical director at The Coalition. “It was more like, our game’s gonna be ready to ship and there’s hardware so let’s target it and make it happen.”
“PC was our primary focus, but we knew that we were going to ship on console eventually so we had a console version running mostly from the very start of the project,” McRae adds. “We didn’t specifically spend a lot of time with it, but we just maintained it to make sure that there wasn’t going to be this massive effort to go and actually make it run on Xbox at the very start. So when we started actually looking at the console, we already had an Xbox version running, which was really good because we didn’t have to spend time on the table stakes of running on the hardware.”
“And then when Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S hardware came out, moving from Xbox to that hardware was not a huge effort for us. We were already working on it for Gears 5, and even though the hardware itself is different, the tooling that we work with remained the same, so we weren’t making this huge change to how we built the game. We just had a target like the rendering subsystem and I/O and other things to make it work on the new hardware.”
Microsoft’s multidevice Xbox strategy means that its new games need to run on a wide variety of hardware, all the way from the original 2013 Xbox One through the 4K-capable Xbox One X, the 1440p-targeting next-gen Series S, and the ultra-high-end Series X. According to McRae, though, tuning Gears Tactics for each system was simpler than making it work on PCs in the first place.
“It’s harder to make PC games,” he says. “Tyler can attest to the fact that my workplace has a stack of GPUs — there’s just so much hardware on PC. You have different RAM configurations and different hard drive speeds and totally different vendors on GPUs and then just a huge range of drivers you have to worry about and CPUs. So it’s harder, but it’s kind of fun, too.”
“For us, because we’ve made a few PC games now and we kind of understand how to scale for all that hardware, when it comes to looking at the whole range of Xbox we can scale our game very well because we already know how to do it on PC. It really helps when you start targeting consoles — it’s just like yeah, there’s a few of them and everything’s fixed, right? Targeting fixed hardware is always easier even if there’s two or three. It’s still much easier than the tons of combinations in the PC space.”
Gears Tactics will run at 4K / 60fps on the Xbox Series X with a choice of 60 or 30fps for the cinematics — “not for any performance reason but more for just personal taste,” McRae says. The Series S will run the game at 1440p / 60fps, while the One X will have the option for 4K / 30fps or 1440p / 60fps, and the One S is at 1080p / 30fps. McRae says each version is tuned individually for each console beyond simple parameters like resolution. “I look at the hardware, look at all the different settings I have available under the hood in the engine, which is hundreds of things I can tweak and tune or optimize, and then it’s just balancing them all to get the best picture quality and hit a performance target.”
The Series X will obviously run Gears Tactics better than the other consoles, but one big question I had was the relationship between the Xbox One X and Series S versions. The Series S is a next-gen console with similar CPU and SSD advances as the Series X, but unlike the One X, it doesn’t target 4K resolution, despite a GPU that’s roughly comparable in raw power. Given that both consoles can run the game at 1440p / 60fps, with an extra 4K / 30fps option on the One X, which is the better version?
“That’s a good question — it is better on the Series S,” says McRae. “It’s visually better — same resolution, same frame rate, but the CPU is so much better in the Series S and the Series X that we have a lot more ability to just draw more stuff. Even though the GPU is responsible for drawing, we still have to get it there off the CPU, and on the Xbox One X you’ll see that the visual quality is not quite as high as it is on the Series S in the performance mode.”
While Gears Tactics still needs to run on the CPU-constrained Xbox One consoles, The Coalition says this didn’t compromise the design of the game. The two foundational elements of Tactics’ action, according to McRae, were the number of enemies for a given encounter and how long it could take for the AI to make its move. There was initially a back-and-forth between the tech and the design side, as you’d expect, but ultimately, McRae says the team hit a “really sweet spot” between the scale of the encounters and the speed at which they play out. “If you put too many enemies in, it becomes very overwhelming very quickly,” he says.
“Because we had worked to design the constraint of how many enemies and we kind of knew our hardware limits, we could then go and say this is how much we need to optimize the enemy turns so that it can finish in time. So how that actually manifests in reality is, on a very slow CPU, the enemy turn might go over its limit a little bit compared to a brand-new CPU in the Series X or the Series S where the enemy turns are really snappy, they finish their planning really quickly and they do their turn and it’s back to the player.”
Microsoft’s hardware agnosticism has been taken to a new level recently with the launch of Xbox Game Pass for Android devices, all streaming over the company’s xCloud servers. The Coalition won’t confirm when or whether Gears Tactics will be playable this way, but I was interested to know the team’s thoughts on how the game might adapt to touch controls, which is something that Microsoft has been expanding.
“We actually looked at it way back when we started on the PC because we thought that people might be playing this on a PC that has touch,” says McRae. “So we did a very initial pass of it, but it wasn’t something that we really pursued because we were just looking at the data and not a lot of users actually would use touch for this kind of game. They would sit down and play on their laptop or they would play it with the mouse and keyboard. But when we look at something like xCloud, yeah, if we were gonna put it there then I think touch is something we would revisit.”
Wherever you end up playing it, Gears Tactics is worth checking out — particularly since it’s on Game Pass across all Xbox platforms. I really like the PC version. It’s a smart reinvention of the Gears series, and it’ll be one of the first things I fire up on a next-gen Xbox. Between Tactics and last year’s excellent Gears 5, it feels like the franchise is firing on all cylinders again.
We recently mentioned in PurePC that Electronic Arts, after rebranding its subscription service to EA Play, will abandon Origin to EA Desktop, unifying the nomenclature to combine all players in one EA ecosystem. Now, the competitive Ubisoft will follow the same path, which intends to launch a new service by the end of October, which will integrate users of all hardware platforms. Ubisoft Connect, because we are talking about it, will be the result of combining the Uplay application and the Ubisoft Club loyalty program with rewards for players who will have access to the company’s games on all devices. When can we expect the new app?
Ubisoft Connect aims to be an ecosystem of all gaming services that will replace Uplay and Ubisoft Rewards. It will offer cross-save and cross-play functions and a refreshed loyalty program. The new app will be available from 29 October this year.
Electronic Arts will soon abandon Origin in favor of EA Desktop
Service Ubisoft Connect, which we will be using instead of Uplay, will be available from 29 this October. It will allow you to transfer your progress in Ubisoft games between hardware platforms (so-called cross-save) and for online gameplay between PC users and consoles (so-called cross-play). Unfortunately, at the beginning, the first option will only be offered by five titles (Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Hyper Scape, Riders Republic and Watch Dogs Legion), while the latter only by Watch Dogs Legion, which will receive a free multiplayer mode on December 3. Ubisoft’s next big games are expected to support Ubisoft Connect. In turn, not every older production will be supported (at this address you will find the current list of excluded items). You can read more about Ubisoft Connect in the official FAQ.
UPlay + is over 100 Ubisoft games with subscription for PC and Stadia
Ubisoft Connect will be available on PC, Google Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PlayStation 4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch, as well as Android and iOS mobile devices. All existing stats, experience levels, points to spend on 20% discount will be kept. On the occasion of the announcement, Ubisoft has released over 1000 digital rewards for free – the rest can be unlocked just like before, i.e. by gaining new experience levels, completing challenges and completing achievements in productions. The loyalty program is to be refreshed and more attractive. Importantly, players will still be able to exchange 100 Units for 20% discount on games purchased directly from the Ubisoft Store.
Matthew Wilson 3 hours ago Featured Tech News, Headphones
Corsair is well known for its PC gaming peripherals but what about console gaming? Today, Corsair is launching the HS75 XB Wireless gaming headset, the company’s first licensed headset for Xbox.
The HS75 XB Wireless is compatible with Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles wirelessly without an adapter and also works on Windows PCs with the use of an Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows – the same one you would use for a non-Bluetooth Xbox controller.
As you can see from the image above, the cans on the HS75 XB are big, housing 50mm neodymium drivers and for the first time in a Corsair headset, Dolby Atmos spatial audio. For multiplayer, you have a noise-cancelling uni-directional microphone to stay connected over comms. The headset comes with chat mix controls too, so you can balance game audio with your party audio during multiplayer sessions.
Design-wise, the HS75 XB Wireless comes with the comforts you would expect from a HS-series headset from Corsair. That includes thick, plush cushions for around your ears, adjustable ear cups and a sturdy frame reinforced with aluminium. In terms of battery life, Corsair claims up to 20 hours of wireless freedom before needing to recharge, combined with 30 feet of wireless range.
The Corsair HS75 XB Wireless is available starting today for £149.99 here in the UK.
KitGuru Says: We have a review for this headset coming up soon, so keep an eye out for that. For now though, what do you all think of the HS75 XB wireless so far?
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Layers of Fear 2 is free on the Epic Games Store
For the month of October, Epic Games appears to be leaning into the Halloween spirit. …
It seems that earlier reports of the new Xbox Series X running so hot “you can heat up your flat with it” may have been somewhat exaggerated. Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter has taken a thermal camera to his early sample and found that, while it certainly does run hot, its heat dissipation is actually very effective.
The tower-like Xbox Series X has two large fans; one at the bottom that draws in cool air and one at the top that expels hot air. Leadbetter reports that the bottom of the console constantly runs more or less at room temperature, while the console’s skin registers about 48-49deg C.
Unsurprisingly, the top of the console is where it gets hottest, with the thermal camera measuring a maximum of 62deg C. Leadbetter notes that that’s “hotter than any console I’ve tested before”, but that that’s not really surprising given that it’s also “the most powerful console I’ve tested”.
Crucially, while it does run a bit hotter than the Xbox One X, the Series X runs far cooler than a high-end PC and is hardly going to act like a house radiator. You will want to ensure it’s got some airflow, though, so hiding it in a cupboard is inadvisable.
Leadbetter also tested the heat of the expansion card, which is used to extend the Series X’s storage and on which Giant Bomb’s Jeff Bakalar Apparently burnt his hand. Here, the thermal camera registered a temperature of 49deg C, which is warm but certainly not burning hot.
All told, the extremely experienced Leadbetter is very impressed with the Series X’s cooling, particularly as it produces almost no noise: “Series X is quiet to the point where breaking out the noise meter is a pointless exercise because the console’s acoustics merge into the background noise of my living room and office”, he says.
He reckons it’s at least as quiet as the near-silent One X, which is an excellent result for a console that’s so much more powerful.
Will the PS5 be similarly quiet? We’ll have to wait and see as it seems that Sony is yet to send out review consoles. Heat and noise really matter to gamers, though, so they’ll be areas that both manufacturers will be keen to win.
MORE:
Everything you need to know about the Xbox Series X: release date, specs and news
All the information on the Xbox Series X price and pre-orders
Next-generation consoles compared: Xbox Series X vs PS5
As you know by now, NBA 2K 21 includes advertisements that are shown to players before each game, during the screens loading. Needless to say, the community hasn’t taken it very well, but 2K Games has already prepared a possible solution.
by Pasquale Fusco published 22 October 2020 , at 12: 45 in the Videogames channel 2K Games
The choice of 2K Games to include advertising within its NBA 2K 21 . A few days after the ‘discovery’, the US publisher responds to user criticism with a message of apology and, above all, promising a solution. This time the community seems to have prevailed , but the fixes promised by 2K may not please everyone.
NBA 2K 21: 2K Games’ apologies, stop advertising?
The 2K Games team welcomed player feedback on the new basketball simulator and, on Twitter, spread an official press release on the issue of commercials – present, we recall, also in the penultimate chapter of the NBA2K series.
2K Community ? pic.twitter.com/rvMC9z0Wft
?? NBA 2K 21 (@ NBA2K) October 20, 2020
The 2K message literally reads the following words: “As many know, in recent years the announcements advertisements have been integrated within the 2KTV segments. Yesterday’s 2KTV episode and its placement had an unexpected impact on the experience of our players, as these advertisements are not meant to run as part of the introduction pre-match “.
Put simply, the commercials advertisements will be removed from the loading screens that will anticipate each match, but, in all likelihood, we will find them in 2KTV with another type of positioning . It may be an effective solution to the invasiveness of the aforementioned ads, but the fact that these will continue to exist within the game still makes you turn up your nose; after all, we’re talking about a stock that will be sold at the recommended price of 80 euro in its next-gen versions.
Meanwhile, users point out to 2K Games that there is another, serious problem that plagues NBA 2K 21: i cheater . The game does not feature an anti-cheat system that can protect players during online games, a serious shortcoming for triple-A production.
NBA 2K 21 is available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One and will soon be landing on next-generation consoles, with Xbox Series X | S and PS5 versions arriving in November.
Watch Dogs Legion is undoubtedly the biggest game of an extremely quiet October premiere. There is only a week left until the release of the third installment of the series, which will take place in futuristic London. Behind us are numerous gameplay shows and demonstrations of the ray tracing technique, which will be used in the game for all kinds of reflections. We also learned the hardware requirements of the PC version, and now Ubisoft has shown the Watch Dogs Legion graphics options on the latest video material. The game will offer a wide range of settings customization, not only those related to the visuals. We also know how it will work on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles.
Watch Dogs Legion will offer very rich settings (not only graphics) in the PC version. We also learned that the game is to run in 4K and 30 frames per second with ray tracing on.
Watch Dogs Legion – hardware requirements for Ray Tracing and DLSS
Watch Dogs Legion is to support both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12. Ubisoft has previously confirmed the availability of ray tracing and DLSS techniques, for which it will be possible to set the quality level (from low to ultra and from performance mode to ultra performance). We will adjust, among others the field of view (FoV), the detail of the geometry of the game world (with an additional slider affecting the detail of distant objects), the quality of the environment, shadows and reflections or the resolution of textures. Each option has at least a pair of setting levels (low to high or ultra). Ubisoft – as in its last games – has included a short description next to the options, information about the approximate impact on the load on the processor and graphics card, and visualization of changes in graphics quality.
Watch Dogs Legion – release date, gameplay and ray tracing on XSX
What’s more, Watch Dogs Legion will also allow you to customize many options related to the gameplay and interface elements, or even such small things as subtitles ( their size and color). So it will be difficult to complain about the modest settings in the PC version. Watch Dogs Legion premieres on October 29 October 2020 on personal computers, Google Stadia, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions will be released on the day of the launch of the new generation consoles. Unlike Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, the title is supposed to work on them in 4K resolution at “only” 30 frames per second. This is closely related to the game’s support for ray tracing, which we are activating on new consoles. Perhaps Ubisoft will also offer an alternative mode that, after turning off the ray tracing option, will make the animation smooth at the FPS level 60, but it has not been he is still officially confirmed.
Mustafa Mahmoud 5 hours ago Console, Featured Tech News, Online, Software & Gaming
When PUBG first launched on consoles, in many instances the game struggled to hit even a solid 30fps. Over time, the team at PUBG Corp have been optimising the game for both PC and consoles, making for a smoother experience overall. Now, in a surprise announcement, those who own a PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X can now run the Battle Royale game at a full 60fps.
As part of the game’s 9.1 console patch, PUBG Corp announced that “The Frame Rate Priority setting has some exciting changes this time around. The frame cap is now lifted to 60 FPS and the screen resolution will be set to 1920 x 1080 to increase frame rates. The new Framerate Priority is available on Xbox One X and the PlayStation 4 Pro, and we are investigating ways to bring the lifted frame cap to other console devices as well. Stay tuned.”
Across the full list of PS4 Pro and Xbox One X enhanced titles, only a few have managed to use the increased GPU power to double the frame rate, with many games opting for a higher resolution instead. While PUBG on these enhanced consoles previously ran at increased resolutions while maintaining a 30fps target, it appears as though PUBG Corp believe that the battle royale game would benefit greater from increased framerates.
Of course, it will be interesting to see whether both consoles will be able to hit and maintain its new 60fps target, or whether the frame rate will fluctuate depending on the action on screen. The full patch notes can be found HERE.
KitGuru says: Are you surprised by this update? Do you prefer increased frame rates or resolutions? Do you still play PUBG? Let us know down below.
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Ex-Blizzard devs team up to create ‘the next great RTS’ game
Last week, Blizzard officially announced that it was done with StarCraft 2 content development. Now, …
Less than one month from highly anticipated debut, we return to talk about Cyberpunk 2077 and, more precisely, its localization. Ten of the different languages the game has been translated and voiced into will boast full lip sync, which dramatically increases the realism of the ambitious RPG. Among the supported languages we also find Italian.
by Pasquale Fusco published 21 October 2020 , at 12: 11 in the Videogames channel CD Projekt Red
There are no longer any doubts regarding the high production quality of Cyberpunk 2077 . Less than a month to go before the launch of the colossal title of CD Projekt RED – authors of the acclaimed The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt – but in the last hours there has been talk of another interesting feature of the new role-playing game.
The expected RPG will boast the full lip sync for ten of the different languages it has been translated and dubbed into; among these, luckily for us, we also find Italian.
Cyberpunk 2077: customized lip-sync for the Italian language
This incredible result was achieved thanks to the technology of JALI Research , a Canadian company founded by researcher Pif Edwards and by animator Chris Landreth. In the company of Mateusz Popławski , Lead Character Technical Director of CD Projekt RED, the two co-founders of JALI they told us about the collaboration with the software house and the entire creative process that lies behind the facial animations of Cyberpunk 2077.
How explains Popławski himself, in the plans of the Cyberpunk developers 2077 it should have had better lip sync than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and , in this regard, a customized support extended to the different languages in which the game would have been localized.
The goal has been largely achieved for ten languages: every single character in the open world will boast an almost perfect lip-sync and extremely realistic facial expressions. This was made possible by the AI and machine learning implemented by JALI, which allowed CD Projekt RED to ‘bypass’ the motion capture usually used in this phase.
Beyond all ‘ Italian , the nine languages that can enjoy the synchronized lip are: English, French, Spanish, German , Polish, Russian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin.
Recall that Cyberpunk 2077 will be available from next time 19 November on PC , PS4 and Xbox One . The game will be backwards compatible with new generation platforms, but it is in the 2021 that we will welcome the update that will introduce full support to PS5 and Xbox Series X hardware | S.
AMD Big Navi, RX 6000, Navi 2x, RDNA 2. Whatever the name, AMD’s next-generation GPUs are promising big performance and efficiency gains, along with feature parity with Nvidia in terms of ray tracing support. Will Team Red finally take the pole position in our GPU hierarchy and lay claim to the crown for the best graphics card, or will the Nvidia Ampere architecture cards keep the top spots? It’s too soon to say, but here’s everything we know about AMD Big Navi, including the RDNA 2 architecture, potential specifications, performance, release date and pricing.
With Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080, and GeForce RTX 3070 now revealed, and the first two officially launched, the ball is in AMD’s court. There are various ways of looking at the Nvidia Ampere launch. It’s Nvidia doing its best to bury AMD before Big Navi even steps out the door, or Nvidia is scared of what AMD is doing with RDNA 2, or Nvidia rushed the launch to get ahead of the holiday shopping spree, or … you get the point. The RTX 3080 and 3070 appear to be priced reasonably (relative to the Turing launch at least), and demand right now is very high. Frankly, AMD would have likely benefitted if it could have launched Big Navi already, but it has a lot of other balls it’s juggling (like Zen 3).
We’ve done our best to sort fact from fiction, but even without hard numbers from AMD, we have a good idea of what to expect. The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 hardware are basically a marriage of Big Navi with a Zen 2 CPU, giving us clues as to where Big Navi is likely to land in the PC world. If AMD plays its cards right, perhaps Big Navi will finally put AMD’s high graphics card power consumption behind it. Nvidia’s RTX 30-series cards leave plenty of room for AMD to catch up, considering the 3080 and 3090 have the highest Nvidia TDPs for single GPUs ever. Let’s start at the top, with the new RDNA 2 architecture that powers RX 6000 / Big Navi / Navi 2x. Here’s what we know, expect, and occasionally guess for the AMD’s upcoming GPUs.
Big Navi / RDNA 2 at a Glance
Up to 80 CUs / 5120 shaders
50% better performance per watt
Coming October 28 (confirmed)
Pricing of $549-$599 for RX 6900 XT (rumor, big spoonful of salt)
(Image credit: AMD)
The RDNA 2 Architecture in Big Navi
Every generation of GPUs is built from a core architecture, and each architecture offers improvements over the previous generation. It’s an iterative and additive process that never really ends. AMD’s GCN architecture went from first generation for its HD 7000 cards in 2012 up through fifth gen in the Vega and Radeon VII cards in 2017-2019. The RDNA architecture that powers the RX 5000 series of AMD GPUs arrived in mid 2019, bringing major improvements to efficiency and overall performance. RDNA 2 looks to double down on those improvements in late 2020.
First, a quick recap of RDNA 1 is in order. The biggest changes with RDNA 1 over GCN involve a redistribution of resources and a change in how instructions are handled. In some ways, RDNA doesn’t appear to be all that different from GCN. The instruction set is the same, but how those instructions are dispatched and executed has been improved. RDNA also adds working support for primitive shaders, something present in the Vega GCN architecture that never got turned on due to complications.
Perhaps the most noteworthy update is that the wavefronts—the core unit of work that gets executed—have been changed from being 64 threads wide with four SIMD16 execution units, to being 32 threads wide with a single SIMD32 execution unit. SIMD stands for Single Instruction, Multiple Data; it’s a vector processing element that optimizes workloads where the same instruction needs to be run on large chunks of data, which is common in graphics workloads.
This matching of the wavefront size to the SIMD size helps improve efficiency. GCN issued one instruction per wave every four cycles; RDNA issues an instruction every cycle. GCN used a wavefront of 64 threads (work items); RDNA supports 32- and 64-thread wavefronts. GCN has a Compute Unit (CU) with 64 GPU cores, 4 TMUs (Texture Mapping Units) and memory access logic. RDNA implements a new Workgroup Processor (WGP) that consists of two CUs, with each CU still providing the same 64 GPU cores and 4 TMUs plus memory access logic.
How much do these changes matter when it comes to actual performance and efficiency? It’s perhaps best illustrated by looking at the Radeon VII, AMD’s last GCN GPU, and comparing it with the RX 5700 XT. Radeon VII has 60 CUs, 3840 GPU cores, 16GB of HBM2 memory with 1 TBps of bandwidth, a GPU clock speed of up to 1750 MHz, and a theoretical peak performance rating of 13.8 TFLOPS. The RX 5700 XT has 40 CUs, 2560 GPU cores, 8GB of GDDR6 memory with 448 GBps of bandwidth, and clocks at up to 1905 MHz with peak performance of 9.75 TFLOPS.
On paper, Radeon VII looks like it should come out with an easy victory. In practice, across a dozen games that we’ve tested, the RX 5700 XT is slightly faster at 1080p gaming and slightly slower at 1440p. Only at 4K is the Radeon VII able to manage a 7% lead, helped no doubt by its memory bandwidth. Overall, the Radeon VII only has a 1-2% performance advantage, but it uses 300W compared to the RX 5700 XT’s 225W.
In short, AMD is able to deliver roughly the same performance as the previous generation, with a third fewer cores, less than half the memory bandwidth and using 25% less power. That’s a very impressive showing, and while TSMC’s 7nm FinFET manufacturing process certainly warrants some of the credit (especially in regards to power), the performance uplift is mostly thanks to the RDNA architecture.
(Image credit: AMD)
That’s a lot of RDNA discussion, but it’s important because RDNA 2 appears to carry over all of that, with one major new addition: Support for ray tracing. It also supports Variable Rate Shading (VRS), which is part of the DirectX 12 Ultimate spec. There will certainly be other tweaks to the architecture, as AMD is making some big claims about Big Navi / RDNA 2 / Navi 2x when it comes to performance per watt. Specifically, AMD says RDNA 2 will offer 50% more performance per watt than RDNA 1, which is frankly a huge jump—the same large jump RDNA 1 saw relative to GCN.
It means AMD claims RDNA 2 will deliver either the same performance while using 33% less power, or 50% higher performance with the same power, or most likely some in between solution with higher performance and lower power requirements. Of course, there’s another way to read things. RDNA 2 could be up to 1.5X performance per watt, if you restrict it to the same performance level as RDNA 1. That’s pretty much what Nvidia is saying with its 1.9X efficiency increase on Ampere. Again, #salt.
The one thing we know for certain is that RDNA 2 / Big Navi / RX 6000 GPUs will all support ray tracing. That will bring AMD up to feature parity with Nvidia. There was some question as to whether AMD would use the same BVH approach to ray tracing calculations as Nvidia, and with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X announcements out of the way, the answer appears to be yes.
If you’re not familiar with the term BVH, it stands for Bounding Volume Hierarchy and is used to efficiently find ray and triangle intersections; you can read more about it in our discussion of Nvidia’s Turing architecture and its ray tracing algorithm. While AMD didn’t provide much detail on its BVH hardware, BVH as a core aspect of ray tracing was definitely mentioned, and we heard similar talk about ray tracing and BVH with the VulkanRT and DirectX 12 Ultimate announcements.
We don’t know how much ray tracing hardware is present, or how fast will it be. Even if AMD takes the same approach as Nvidia and puts one RT core (or whatever AMD wants to call it) into each CU, the comparison between AMD and Nvidia isn’t clear cut. Nvidia for example says it roughly doubled the performance of its RT cores in Ampere. Will AMD’s RT cores be like Nvidia’s RT Gen1, RT Gen2, or something else? There are at least a few rumors or hints that Big Navi might not even have RT cores as such, but will instead use some optimized shader logic and large caches to boost RT shader calculations. The fact is, we don’t know yet and won’t know until AMD says more.
Note that Nvidia also has Tensor cores in its Turing architecture, which are used for deep learning and AI computations, as well as DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), which has now been generalized with DLSS 2.0 (and DLSS 2.1) to improve performance and image quality and make it easier for games to implement DLSS. So far, AMD has said nothing about RDNA 2 / Navi 2x including Tensor cores or an equivalent to DLSS, though AMD’s CAS (Contrast Aware Sharpening) and RIS (Radeon Image Sharpening) do overlap with DLSS in some ways. Recently, Sony patents detailed a DLSS-like technique for image reconstruction, presumably for the PlayStation 5. It may be possible to do that without any Tensor cores, using just the FP16 or INT8 capabilities of Navi 2x.
We also know that AMD is planning multiple Navi 2x products, and we expect to see extreme, high-end and mainstream options—though budget Navi 2x seems unlikely in the near term, given RX 5500 XT launched in early 2020. AMD could launch multiple GPUs in a relatively short period of time, but more likely we’ll see the highest performance options first, followed by high-end and eventually mid-range solutions. Some of those may not happen until 2021, however.
(Image credit: AMD)
Potential Big Navi / Navi 2x Specifications
What does all of this mean for RX 6000 / Big Navi / RDNA 2 desktop GPUs? Based on the Xbox Series X, AMD is fully capable of building an RDNA 2 / Big Navi GPU with at least 52 CUs, and very likely can and will go much higher. AMD is also using two completely different GPU configurations for the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, and a third configuration for Xbox Series S, though likely none of those precise configurations will actually end up in a PC graphics card. Regardless, the upcoming consoles give us a minimum baseline for what AMD can do with Big Navi.
AMD has a lot of options available. The PC Navi 2x GPUs are focused purely on graphics, unlike the consoles. AMD also doesn’t benefit from the console sales or subsidies from Sony and Microsoft—each of the new consoles will likely ship close to 100 million units over the coming years, and Sony and MS can take a loss on the hardware because they make it back on software sales. There’s a balancing act between chip size, clock speed, and power, and every processor can prioritize things differently. Larger chips use more power and cost more to manufacture, and they typically run at lower clock speeds to compensate. Smaller chips have better yields, cost less, and use less power, but for GPUs there’s a lot of base functionality that has to be present, so a chip that’s half the performance usually isn’t half the size.
Looking at Navi 10 and RDNA 1, it’s not a stretch to imagine AMD shoving twice the number of GPU cores into a Navi 2x GPU. Navi 10 is relatively small at just 251mm square, and AMD has used much larger die sizes in the past. Anyway, let’s cut to the chase. There have been lots of rumors floating around, but with only weeks separating us from the official Big Navi launch, we’re relatively confident in many of the core specs. A GPU’s maximum CU count can’t be exceeded, but disabling parts of each GPU is common practice and has been for years.
The following table lists potential specs, based on our best information. The question marks indicate our own best guesses based on rumors, previous GPU launches, and the current graphics card market. We’ve run some numbers to help fill in the remaining data, though there’s still plenty of wiggle room for AMD. It’s unlikely AMD will go significantly higher or lower than these estimates, but anywhere within about 10% is feasible.
The highest spec rumors point to a Navi 21 GPU with 80 CUs and 5120 GPU cores, and more than double the size (536mm square) of the current Navi 10 used in the RX 5700 XT. While there are very good sources on the CU and core counts, we’d take the die size with a scoop of salt. It’s entirely possible AMD has gone with a huge die for Navi 21, but if that figure is correct, it’s the biggest AMD GPU since 2015’s Fiji (R9 Fury X).
That also means it’s likely very power hungry, and while some leaks on TBP (Total Board Power) have come out, the way AMD calculates TBP vs. TGP (Total Graphics Power) is a bit muddy. Based on the TBP figures, it looks like AMD will likely have a chip that’s close to GeForce RTX 3080 in terms of power (give or take).
Big Navi / RDNA 2 has to add support for ray tracing and some other tech, which should require quite a few transistors. AMD may also go with very large caches, which would help overcome potential bandwidth limitations caused by the somewhat narrow 256-bit and 192-bit bus widths. Note that Nvidia has opted for a 320-bit bus on the 3080 and 384-bit on the 3090, plus faster GDDR6X memory.
The real question is whether AMD has tuned the shader cores similar to what Nvidia did with Turing, adding concurrent FP32 and INT32 pipelines. If so, performance on the biggest of the Big Navi chips could definitely give the RTX 3080 some needed competition. The ray tracing hardware may still not be up to Turing levels, however, never mind Ampere. Based on some of the information surrounding the Xbox Series X, it seems like the RT support will end up with lower ray/triangle intersection performance than Nvidia’s hardware.
Not surprisingly, clock speeds are all still unknown. So many ‘leaks’ have happened with maximum boost clocks going as high as 2.4GHz, or as low as 1.7GHz. It’s impossible to know for certain where AMD will land, but we’ve aimed at a medium/high value that will deliver the promised performance per Watt gains. TSMC’s N7 process is generally better than the Samsun 8N that Nvidia’s using for Ampere, but then AMD has generally lagged behind Nvidia when it comes to architecture designs (at least for the past seven years).
(Image credit: AMD)
Getting back to the memory side of things, AMD’s configurations are interesting but leave us with a lot of questions. Most rumors and leaks point to 16GB of GDDR6 for the top RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT, but only 12GB for the RX 6700 XT. The memory capacities look good, with all of the GPUs at least matching the RTX 3080, but bus widths and speeds could be a big problem.
If AMD uses 16GB and 256-bit as expected, even with the fastest 16Gbps GDDR6 that’s still only 512GBps of bandwidth. The 6900 XT potentially doubles compute performance of the current RX 5700 XT, with twice the VRAM capacity, and yet it would only have 14% more bandwidth. The 16GB 6800 XT with 14 Gbps GDDR6 would end up with the same bandwidth as the current RX 5700 series, while the RX 6500 would have 8GB and an even narrower bus. Depending on architecture, it could still come close to RX 5700 levels of performance, but we’ll have to wait and see.
This is why many expect Big Navi / RDNA 2 to come with massive L2 caches. Double the cache size and you can avoid hitting memory as hard, which might be sufficient to get around the GDDR6 bandwidth limitations. We’ve also heard ray tracing shader calculations can get a hefty performance boost by adding more cache, and as noted above there are hints this is what AMD is doing. We’ll know more by the end of the month.
Big Navi / Navi 2x Graphics Card Model Names
(Image credit: AMD)
What will AMD call the retail products using Big Navi / Navi 2x GPUs? AMD has at least revealed that the Navi 2x family will be sold under the RX 6000 series, which is what most of us expected. Beyond that, there are still a few remaining questions.
AMD has said it will launch a whole series of Navi 2x GPUs. The Navi 1x family consists of RX 5700 XT, RX 5700, RX 5600 XT, and RX 5500 XT (in 4GB and 8GB models), along with RX 5600/5500/5300 models for the OEM market that lack the XT suffix. AMD could simply add 1000 points to the current models, but we expect there will be a few more options this round.
The top model will almost certainly be called RX 6900 XT, with the various performance tiers as RX 6800 XT, 6700 XT, etc. It also looks like AMD is moving into higher performance segments, going by the 6900 and 6800 model numbers, with the 5600 XT replacement ending up as the 6700 XT. The 5500 XT meanwhile will eventually be replaced by 6500 XT is our assumption, so there’s a 200 point gap between the high-end 6700 and the mainstream/budget 6500.
All of this could of course change, as model names are relatively easy to update (though packaging has to be complete as well). So, the above is what leaks and rumors currently indicate. We expect the consumer models will keep the XT suffix, and AMD can continue to do non-XT models for the OEM market. We think it would be great to have more consistent branding, but we’ll have to see what AMD decides to do.
RX 6000 / Big Navi / RDNA 2 Release Date
AMD has reiterated many times this year that RDNA 2, aka Big Navi—which AMD is even using now in homage to the enthusiast community’s adoption of that moniker—will arrive before the end of 2020. AMD has now announced a Future of Radeon PC Gaming event that will take place on October 28.
AMD could potentially launch the RX 6000 GPUs at that time, but more likely is that it will first reveal the architecture, specs, and other details similar to what Nvidia did with it’s Ampere announcement. That means actual GPUs will probably arrive in November, just in time for the holiday shoppers.
While the impact of COVID-19 around the globe is immense, AMD still plans on launching at least some Navi 2x parts in 2020. However, given the late date of the event, it’s possible we will only see the top two products from RDNA 2 in 2020. It might be more than that, but most new GPU families roll out over a period of several months.
RX 6000 / Big Navi / Navi 2x Cost
(Image credit: AMD)
We provided our own estimated pricing based on the potential performance and graphics card market in the table near the top. We’ve changed those estimates quite a bit since the Nvidia Ampere announcement, as AMD can’t hope to sell slower cards at equal or higher pricing. On the other hand, some rumors suggest RX 6900 XT won’t be far from RTX 3080 performance, so higher prices are certainly possible.
Officially, AMD hasn’t said anything in regards to pricing yet, and that will likely remain the case until the actual launch. Other factors, like the price of competing Nvidia (and maybe even Intel DG1) GPUs, will be considered as well. We can look back at the Navi 10 / RX 5700 XT launch for context.
Rumors came out more than six months before launch listing various prices. We saw everything from RTX 2080 performance for $250 to $500, or RTX 2060 performance for under $200. AMD officially revealed prices of $449 for the RX 5700 XT and $379 for the RX 5700 about a month before launch.
After the initial RX 5700 XT reveal, Nvidia (to the surprise of pretty much no one) launched its RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2060 Super, providing improved performance at lower prices. (The RTX 2080 Super was also announced, but it didn’t launch until two weeks after the RX 5700 series.) Just a few days before launch, AMD then dropped the prices of its RX 5700 XT to $399, and the RX 5700 to $349, making them far more appealing. (The RX 5600 XT arrived about six months later priced at $299.) AMD would later go on to state that this was all premeditated—gamesmanship to get Nvidia to reveal its hand early.
The bottom line is that no one, including AMD itself, knows what the final pricing will be on a new graphics card months before launch. There are plans with multiple contingencies, and ultimately the market will help determine the price. We now have Nvidia’s Ampere pricing of $1,499, $699, and $499 for the 3090, 3080, and 3070, respectively. Only AMD knows for sure how RX 6000 stacks up to RTX 30-series in performance, and it will tweak prices accordingly.
There are also multiple reports of a 500mm square or larger die size, and if that’s correct we have to assume Big Navi / Navi 2x graphics cards will go after the enthusiast segment—meaning, $600 or more. TSMC’s 7nm FinFET lithography is more expensive than its 12nm, and larger chips mean yields and dies per wafer are both going to be lower. Plus, 16GB and 12GB of GDDR6 will increase both the memory and board price. Big chips lead to big prices, in other words.
The only real advice we can give right now is to wait and see. AMD will do its best to deliver RDNA 2 and Navi 2x GPUs at compelling prices. That doesn’t mean we’ll get RTX 3080 performance for $500, sadly, but if Big Navi can give Nvidia some much-needed competition in the enthusiast graphics card segment, we should see bang-for-the-buck improvements across the entire spectrum of GPUs. And if AMD really does have an 80-CU monster Navi 21 GPU coming that will match the RTX 3080 in performance, we expect it will charge accordingly — just like it’s doing with Zen 3 CPUs now that it appears to have a clear lead over Intel.
Big Navi and RX 6000 Closing Thoughts
AMD has a lot riding on Big Navi, RDNA 2, and the Radeon RX 6000 series. Just like Nvidia’s Ampere, AMD has a lot to prove. This is the GPU architecture that powers the next generation of consoles, which tend to have much longer shelf lives than PC graphics cards. Look at the PS4 and Xbox One: both launched in late 2013 and are still in use today. There are also still PC gamers with GTX 700-series or R9 200-series graphics cards, but if you’re running such a GPU, we feel for you.
We’re very interested in finding out how Big Navi performs, with and without ray tracing. AMD’s RX 6000 performance teaser only serves to whet our appetites. 50% better performance per watt can mean a lot of different things, and AMD hasn’t shied away from 300W GPUs for the past several generations of hardware. A 300W part with 50% better performance per watt would basically be double the performance of the current RX 5700 XT, and that’s enough to potentially compete with whatever Nvidia has to offer.
Realistically, AMD’s 50% PPW improvements probably only occur in specific scenarios, just like Nvidia’s 90% PPW improvements on Ampere. Particularly for the higher performance parts, we’re skeptical of claims of 50% improvements, but we’ll withhold any final judgement for now. About all we can say is that Nvidia has left the door open for AMD to walk through.
We also hope AMD will manage to avoid the shortages that have plagued Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and 3090 cards. Part of that comes from demand for new levels of performance, so AMD will need to keep pace with Ampere if it hopes to see similar demand. Also, every Ampere GPU purchase prior to Big Navi’s launch means one less buyer for AMD’s GPUs. Still, TSMC can only produce so many N7 wafers per month, and AMD has Navi 10 chips still in production, along with Zen 2 and Zen 3 CPUs, and now Navi 2x. Add in wafers from other companies (Apple, Nvidia, and Intel are all using TSMC N7) and we could see Big Navi shortages until 2021.
Without actual hardware in hand, running actual gaming benchmarks, we can’t declare a victor. Give it another month and we should have all the final details and data in place. The last months of 2020 are shaping up to be very exciting in the GPU world, which is good as the first part of 2020 sucked. Considering it’s been more than a year since AMD’s Navi architecture launched, we’re definitely ready for the next-gen GPUs.
After the questionable choice of prices of sale of next-gen versions, NBA 2K 21 back to discuss with the introduction of a feature not particularly popular: in-game advertisements. Promotional spots will appear before each match within the loading screens.
by Pasquale Fusco published 20 October 2020 , at 12: 19 in the Videogames channel 2K Games
Back to talk about NBA 2K 21 , basketball simulator developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Games . Speaking of the US publisher, the latter decided to reintroduce a particular feature from the previous iteration: non-skip commercials .
The players do not seem happy at all, after all we are talking about one of the first next-gen titles to be sold to 80 euro , one price that does not justify the presence of the aforementioned advertisements.
NBA 2K 21 not only will cost 80 euro, but will also have advertisements
We remind you that, with the launch of the new NBA simulator, 2K Games was one of the first companies to talk about the need for an increase in game prices.
2K is also one of the few publishers to have evaluated, and concretized, the idea of inserting commercials within its titles.
The discovery comes from the NBA 2K players themselves 21: before each match you are forced to watch a commercial broadcast during the loading screen.
The sponsored content in this case concerns the new Oculus Quest 2 , the promotional video of which will appear on both the PC and PS4 and Xbox One versions – and, soon, also in the editions compatible with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S.
Beyond to the Californian company, Electronic Arts had also taken this path on the occasion of the release of the most recent UFC 4 . In the case of UFC, the ads were added a month after the game’s launch, sparking the anger of the players: eventually EA was forced to reverse and remove the sponsored content after apologizing to its users.
Even 2K Games could change its mind by evaluating the negative feedback from users, or it could simply wash their hands of it. We will see, in the meantime we point out that NBA 2K 21 is already available for purchase on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The next generation console version will be available from 10 November for Xbox Series X and Series S and from 19 November for PlayStation 5 – this edition will cost 10 euro more than the last-gen counterpart
Amazon’s Luna streaming service has arrived, with the company rolling out early access to a limited set of customers today. It’s starting with a library of 50 games and support for Mac, PC, Fire TV, and, in a first for a major streaming service, iOS devices — because Amazon has a web app that circumvents Apple’s controversial App Store rules. Luna starts at $5.99 a month.
We’ve spent a couple of hours streaming games with Luna. Here’s what it’s like so far and how it compares to other streaming services out there like Microsoft xCloud and Google Stadia.
Luna’s iOS web app.
Performance
The biggest question for Luna — like any cloud gaming service — is performance. For cloud gaming to work well, companies like Amazon need to rapidly deliver compressed video frames that respond to your button presses even if internet bandwidth dips and even if your house isn’t located right next to an Amazon server farm. Amazon recommends a minimum connection speed of 10 Mbps for Luna, but your home’s internal network also matters. We tested Luna on a variety of devices in two different Verge editors’ homes across two different coasts with a variety of internet speeds and connection types.
So far, 10 Mbps doesn’t seem like nearly enough. We found that we needed a connection of at least 25 Mbps in order to have a consistently playable stream, with more bandwidth obviously being better. My colleague Sean Hollister limited his router to 10 Mbps, 15 Mbps, and 20 Mbps, but he’d still get stretches of choppy video.
The best performance (of course) came from a PC with a wired Ethernet connection and controller, with no other family members streaming video in the house. Playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on that solid of a connection was virtually indistinguishable from the game running natively. (Switching back and forth, you can tell it takes oh-so-slightly longer to swing a sword, but it felt perfectly playable.) Admittedly, there are few benefits to actually using Luna to stream the game on a capable PC.
On the other hand, Metro: Exodus, one of the most graphically intensive games available to stream, looked and played decidedly worse streamed to a web browser than it does on a capable gaming PC. Honestly, it doesn’t look great in either Luna or Stadia, but at least Stadia could keep up with a mouse and keyboard. Luna’s mouse was extremely laggy.
Metro: Exodus in a PC web browser at 1080p in a best-case scenario.”,”image_left”:{“ratio”:”*”,”original_url”:”https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21975090/metro_exodus_luna_pc.jpg”,”network”:”verge”,”bgcolor”:”white”,”pinterest_enabled”:false,”caption”:null,”credit”:null,”focal_area”:{“top_left_x”:0,”top_left_y”:0,”bottom_right_x”:2564,”bottom_right_y”:1396},”bounds”:[0,0,2564,1396],”uploaded_size”:{“width”:2564,”height”:1396},”focal_point”:null,”asset_id”:21975090,”asset_credit”:null,”alt_text”:””},”image_right”:{“ratio”:”*”,”original_url”:”https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21975091/stadia_metro_exodus_pc.jpg”,”network”:”verge”,”bgcolor”:”white”,”pinterest_enabled”:false,”caption”:null,”credit”:null,”focal_area”:{“top_left_x”:0,”top_left_y”:0,”bottom_right_x”:2568,”bottom_right_y”:1440},”bounds”:[0,0,2568,1440],”uploaded_size”:{“width”:2568,”height”:1440},”focal_point”:null,”asset_id”:21975091,”asset_credit”:null,”alt_text”:””},”credit”:null}” data-cid=”apps/imageslider-1603238043_3316_32537″>
Left: Luna. Right: Stadia. This is Metro: Exodus in a PC web browser at 1080p in a best-case scenario.
Using wireless connections introduces a lot more variables into Luna’s performance. If you have a steady, strong Wi-Fi connection, Luna works pretty well, with little to no lag, smooth HD video, and responsive enough gameplay to enjoy even fast-paced platformers like Sonic Mania on an iPhone with a paired Bluetooth controller.
But when Luna has a bad connection, it’s rough. For some reason, Amazon doesn’t seem to degrade the quality of video streaming when connection speeds are bad; it just tries to power on through by dropping frames until speeds pick up. I also ran into issues where audio started to lag behind what was otherwise smooth gameplay, presumably due to a sluggish connection. Right now, it seems that Luna’s performance is almost entirely dependent on having good internet.
Luna works on iOS devices with a variety of Bluetooth controllers.
On my initial tests on my iPhone, games like Control were virtually unplayable since my Wi-Fi was running slower than usual. It wasn’t until a full network restart that speeds jumped up and allowed for a far more playable gameplay experience. I actually had better luck getting consistent performance over LTE than with my constantly shifting Wi-Fi (which has been bouncing between 30 Mbps and 120 Mbps).
Regardless of how well they play, these games load fast. One of the biggest issues with Microsoft’s xCloud right now is that every game is literally streaming from an old Xbox One S motherboard in a server rack, and many games can take a full minute to load. Stadia and Luna are running on powerful servers that don’t have that issue. Control loaded far faster than it does on a PS4, and Bloodstained popped up just as quickly as it does on our gaming PCs at home.
There are two key parts to Luna’s performance that we haven’t been able to test: 4K streaming, which is listed as “coming soon,” and the Amazon Luna Controller, which can directly connect to Amazon’s servers and promises to reduce latency “by 17 to 30 milliseconds” compared to a Bluetooth controller. Amazon only just opened sales for the Luna Controller to early access customers today, and it won’t ship for another 10 days.
iOS web app
Of particular note for Luna is the fact that it’s one of the first game streaming services to offer a functional iOS option, thanks to a souped-up web app. “Installing” Luna requires just opening it once in Safari and saving the Luna website to your iOS home screen (just like you would any Safari web app), after which it functionally behaves like any other iOS app.
How you’ll “install” the Luna web app to your iOS home screen.
While Amazon is almost certainly running into some technical limitations by not being able to produce a full-fledged native app, the Luna web app experience is good enough that if I didn’t already know it was a web app, I probably wouldn’t have guessed. So far, it just works — except perhaps for the times we had to toggle on and off our Bluetooth when the app forgot it was paired to our controllers.
Library
Amazon is launching its Luna Plus game channel — which costs $5.99 per month during early access — with 50 games, with the promise of more to start. Here’s the whole collection so far:
The 50 games current available in the Luna Plus channel.
There are some big titles there, including Control, Metro: Exodus, Grid, The Surge series, Sonic Mania, the SteamWorld games, and more. It’s not as impressive of a lineup as Microsoft’s xCloud library (which offers over 100 games), but it’s also still early for Amazon’s service. It’s theoretically easier for Luna to add games than for Stadia: Google requires developers to migrate to its Linux servers, while Amazon is using Windows boxes.
But although it’s playing Windows games, there doesn’t yet seem to be a way to bring your PC savegames along for the ride. That’s one of the biggest benefits of xCloud (which can sync with your Xbox library) and Nvidia’s GeForce Now, which can primarily sync with Steam and Epic.
Luna is also relying on you paying for “channels” of bundled games. Instead of an all-you-can-eat price (like Netflix or, more relevantly, xCloud) that gives you access to everything on the service, Luna works more like cable, where you’ll be able to bundle together groups of channels to get access to the games you want.
But like cable, you’ll have to work within those channel groups, at least for now. In early access, Luna only offers channels. So if you want to just play one Ubisoft game, for example, you’ll have to pay for the entire Ubisoft catalog when it appears on the service.
App functionality
The Luna apps (and web apps) are pretty bare-bones at this time. There’s a home menu for resuming games that you’ve already started, a library that lists all the games you have access to in your subscription, a “playlist” menu for saving your favorite games, a search bar, and a settings menu.
Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and S consoles have specific requirements when it comes to using expandable storage. Titles that are optimized for Xbox Series X|S and Velocity Architecture can be stored on USB 3.0 drives but can only be played on the internal PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD or the external Seagate SSD carts. Games that aren’t optimized, such as Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox games, can be installed and played off of USB 3.0 external drives larger than 128GB.
(Image credit: Tomshardware)
It’s worth pointing out that the 128GB requirement is lower than the 256GB minimum requirement that once was specified for the Xbox One and Xbox One X. This has changed with the updated Xbox UI, which is available on both the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles.
As for why Microsoft is not allowing games that are optimized for Xbox Series X|S to be played on USB 3.0 drives, there’s a reason for that – speed. Both consoles exhibit enhanced loading times, enabling games to load much quicker than their current-gen counterparts. They also feature a game-changing feature called “Quick Resume,” which allows gamers to play one game, then instantly switch to another in seconds.
While USB 3.0 external hard drives are fast, they’re a far cry from speeds that have been noted for the Xbox Series X|S. Games that took minutes to load on the Xbox One now load half the time or less.
Xbox Series X vs Xbox One X load times
Game
Xbox Series X
Xbox One X
Destiny 2
43 seconds
1 minute, 53 seconds
Sea of Thieves
20 seconds
1 min, 20 seconds
No Man’s Sky
1 minute, 27 seconds
2 minutes, 13 seconds
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
30 seconds
1 minute, 7 seconds
Warframe
25 seconds
1 minute, 31 seconds
Final Fantasy XV
13 seconds
1 minute, 11 seconds
Red Dead Redemption 2
38 seconds
2 minutes, 8 seconds
Needless to say, this is why Microsoft wants everything to run off the internal SSD or external SSD carts.
The Xbox Series X|S next-generation consoles will launch on November 10th, 2020. The Xbox Series X is priced at $499 and includes a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVME SSD, while the Xbox Series X is priced at $299 and includes a 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVME SSD.
The Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are less than a month away from release, and ahead of launch, Microsoft is announcing that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be fully optimized for its next-gen hardware.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the Series X / S will run at 120 frames per second in both campaign and multiplayer modes, Microsoft confirmed. Split-screen will also receive some improvements, and the game will get 4K support for the Series X.
The upgrade will be available starting on November 17th, one week after the Xbox Series X / S release. Those who currently own the game will receive a free copy. The game is also available on Microsoft’s gaming subscription service, Xbox Game Pass.
It’s time to dust off the ol’ Needler.
✅ Fully Optimized on Series X|S ✅ 120 FPS in Campaign & Multiplayer ✅ Split-screen improvements & up to 4K on Series X ✅ Available for free to existing owners or those with @XboxGamePass on November 17 pic.twitter.com/Ufusdsyd8C
— Xbox (@Xbox) October 20, 2020
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a anthology that includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Reach, and Halo 4. The compilation was originally released on the Xbox One but was ported to PC in late 2019, though it has been slow to add every game in the collection.
With Halo: Infinite delayed until next year, the announcement of The Master Chief Collection coming to the Xbox Series X / S within the first month of the console’s launch is a nice benefit for early adopters. It’s also great for Halo fans who likely played the game o
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