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Microsoft to Unleash More of Xbox One's GPU Power

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US | B 47 comments

Microsoft might free up that 10 percent of reserved GPU power.

The Xbox One currently reserves 10 percent of its GPU power for Kinect and apps, but it looks like that could soon change. According to the latest scuttlebutt, Microsoft will dramatically reduce the amount of reserved GPU power in its gaming console.


Pete Dodd, the driving force behind last year's ps4noDRM campaign and a reliable source for video game news, on Sunday tweeted that Microsoft will keep 2 percent of the reserved GPU power for voice but will do away with the 8 percent currently reserved for video (Kinect). This 8 percent will now be 'optional' for game devs, according to Dodd. Presumably game developers with titles that don't use Kinect at all will be only too happy to make use of the extra juice.

The news hasn't been confirmed or denied by Microsoft, nor does Dodd specify as to when this will happen. If it does, users can probably expect a noticeable improvement in framerate and the Xbox One will inch a little bit closer to the PS4 in terms of graphics processing power. That still leaves Microsoft lagging behind in memory, though, because while both consoles pack 8 GB of RAM, the Xbox One is DDR3 and the PS4 is GDDR5.

Check out what we thought of the Xbox One in our review here.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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Top Comments
  • 16 Hide
    onover , January 27, 2014 5:35 PM
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
  • 14 Hide
    centralpoint , January 27, 2014 5:44 PM
    Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.
  • 11 Hide
    JMcEntegart , January 27, 2014 6:36 PM
    Quote:
    Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.


    Quote:
    Quote:
    Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.
    Just another example of how Toms has lost its nerd edge and gone mainstream.


    Sorry, guys. Just a typo. Xbox is DDR3 and I guess my fingers ran away with themselves. Should be all fixed. Thanks for pointing that out!
Other Comments
    Display all 47 comments.
  • 0 Hide
    czar1020 , January 27, 2014 5:09 PM
    could soon soon
  • 2 Hide
    JMcEntegart , January 27, 2014 5:13 PM
    Quote:
    could soon soon


    Eek, thanks pal. All fixed. :) 
  • -9 Hide
    p05esto , January 27, 2014 5:24 PM
    I freaking hope so... I'm a bit pissed that even games just released are not keeping up with the PS4 and really not that special graphically speaking. MS laid an egg with the Xbox One. They thought people would care about the stupid TV features, but it's GAMES and graphics people care about.... anything else is fluff. I have the system and was expecting more (same with PS4, not really that advanced).... what about 4k TVs in all the stores? These brand new systems can't push 4k native. That seems super stupid considering these systems are supposed to last for 5+ years
  • 16 Hide
    onover , January 27, 2014 5:35 PM
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
  • 14 Hide
    centralpoint , January 27, 2014 5:44 PM
    Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.
  • -7 Hide
    jimmysmitty , January 27, 2014 6:05 PM
    Quote:
    A comment on the memory: Xbox One has a higher theoretical bandwidth than the PS4 due to the embedded memory. Really, it's more of a question of who will spend the time (money) to program with it, now that the PS4 is the easier platform to work with. That being said, the embedded memory does allow XB1 to run more resource intensive stuff (like AA) with less resources than you would need on the PS4. It was the same deal with the 360. In any case, every game out right now for the consoles is no where near optimized. We'll be seeing those titles in about 2 years.
    The PS3 had a better CPU but it's GPU was a bit weaker than the 360.The PS4 is not the easier console to program for, it is easier than the PS3 was due to the x86 arch but the XB1 is easier since it uses x86 hardware and is also running the Windows 8 kernel at the core of its software, the PS4 is using a Linux kernel.
  • 4 Hide
    bison88 , January 27, 2014 6:06 PM
    Quote:
    Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.
    Just another example of how Toms has lost its nerd edge and gone mainstream.
  • -7 Hide
    memadmax , January 27, 2014 6:07 PM
    Kinect is a belly flop... AGAIN.The thing doesn't work, don't reserve anything for it.
  • -7 Hide
    Lee-m , January 27, 2014 6:16 PM
    It doesn't matter what microsoft does, the GPU in the xboxone is technically weaker than the one in the ps4, even if its running at 100%.

    Both consoles are crap anyway, with hardware a good year out of date. Unless this article is right, and the PS4 has this epic future tech DDR5 that hasn't even been invented yet. Maybe toms next story will be Sony invents the time machine?
  • 11 Hide
    JMcEntegart , January 27, 2014 6:36 PM
    Quote:
    Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.


    Quote:
    Quote:
    Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.
    Just another example of how Toms has lost its nerd edge and gone mainstream.


    Sorry, guys. Just a typo. Xbox is DDR3 and I guess my fingers ran away with themselves. Should be all fixed. Thanks for pointing that out!
  • -3 Hide
    siman0 , January 27, 2014 6:49 PM
    Quote:
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
    Quote:
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
    Quote:
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
    Quote:
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
    to be quite honest yes and no. gddr5 is just an enhanced or specialised version of ddr r an and its much faster. well if you go back to the roots of gddr based ram. you can however use gddr ram as system ram its much faster than ddr based ram downside its expensive to do so.
  • 1 Hide
    dragonsqrrl , January 27, 2014 7:05 PM
    Quote:
    A comment on the memory: Xbox One has a higher theoretical bandwidth than the PS4 due to the embedded memory.
    It really doesn't. Effective memory bandwidth to the 32MB of eSRAM is probably similar to the PS4's GDDR5 memory interface, but definitely not higher. The difference is that on the Xbox One you only get that bandwidth to your most frequently used data. The main performance bottleneck on the Xbox One is not memory bandwidth, the GPU is simply not as powerful as the one in the PS4, especially in terms of ROPs. The Xbox One has 16, the PS4 has 32. This has been speculated to be the primary performance deficiency in the Xbox One, and is probably why it can't seem to keep up with the PS4 at higher resolutions even though graphics fidelity looks nearly identical.
  • 3 Hide
    dragonsqrrl , January 27, 2014 7:10 PM
    Quote:
    Both consoles are crap anyway, with hardware a good year out of date.
    Not sure how it's out of date. GCN is still current gen.
  • 6 Hide
    dragonsqrrl , January 27, 2014 7:14 PM
    Quote:
    you can however use gddr ram as system ram its much faster than ddr based ram downside its expensive to do so.
    It's also higher latency.
  • 1 Hide
    SteelCity1981 , January 27, 2014 8:00 PM
    how about allowing communications between 360 and one owners on xbox live. the dumbest thing about the xbox one is the fact that you can't communicate with xbox one and xbox 360 owners on xbox live.
  • -2 Hide
    DjEaZy , January 27, 2014 8:58 PM
    ... m$ could get even more power... just phase out DX and enable Mantle... there should be the hardware support for it...
  • -3 Hide
    Rahbot , January 27, 2014 9:02 PM
    Next on the news... Microsoft Bricks every Xbox One after update to speed up the console pass safe specs.
  • -1 Hide
    danwat1234 , January 27, 2014 10:27 PM
    Quote:
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
    to be quite honest yes and no. gddr5 is just an enhanced or specialised version of ddr r an and its much faster. well if you go back to the roots of gddr based ram. you can however use gddr ram as system ram its much faster than ddr based ram downside its expensive to do so.[/quote]

    But I thought GDDR# has higher latency than regular DDR[#-2]. That's why the CPU on computers don't usually use GDDR but regular DDR so latency is very low, though bandwidth is not as high as GDDR. But the PS4 just has GDDR5 and no DDR3, I guess latency is fine then for that console.
  • -2 Hide
    jimmysmitty , January 27, 2014 10:47 PM
    Quote:
    Quote:
    Both consoles are crap anyway, with hardware a good year out of date.
    Not sure how it's out of date. GCN is still current gen.


    Because GCN is old. It is 2 years old actually. And the GPUs in it may be GCN but it is still lower end GCN, not like they threw a HD7970m in there with it's own 3GB of GDDR5, which I am not sure why they didn't just do that.

    People call these consoles next gen when we have been using this next gen technology for 2 years now, well at least I have and am ready for the true next gen, which would be Maxwell and whatever AMD has next.

    Quote:
    ... m$ could get even more power... just phase out DX and enable Mantle... there should be the hardware support for it...


    Microsoft won't phase out DX, it is their game winner as most games run DX and Mantle is not getting anywhere fast yet. I haven't even seen true tests with it yet.

    Secondly, AMD has stated that Mantle was not designed for the GPUs in the consoles, so far it only would run on the HD7950/7970, R9 280/280X and R9 290/290X as they are all based on GCN. That and the HD 7790 should since it was also based on GCN but who knows.

    Third, while it is interesting of an idea AMD is going to have to do a lot more than just offer the technology. They will have to support it and my worry is that if it does allow for direct hardware access then it will start to act like games did before DX or OGL were around, and that's to cause the entire system to crash if the game crashes. I hope not but you never know with new technology.

    Quote:
    Quote:
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
    to be quite honest yes and no. gddr5 is just an enhanced or specialised version of ddr r an and its much faster. well if you go back to the roots of gddr based ram. you can however use gddr ram as system ram its much faster than ddr based ram downside its expensive to do so.

    But I thought GDDR# has higher latency than regular DDR[#-2]. That's why the CPU on computers don't usually use GDDR but regular DDR so latency is very low, though bandwidth is not as high as GDDR. But the PS4 just has GDDR5 and no DDR3, I guess latency is fine then for that console.
    [/quote]

    I guess we shall see later on when the CPUs need more data. If so we might see the PS4 bog down with the higher latency GDDR5 vs Microsofts DDR3.

    As I said before, I am not sure why they didn't just used a decent CPU and throw in a mobile style GPU instead with dedicated VRAM. Would have worked a lot better in the long run.
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