I honestly thought the entire point of the Series S was that they would later be able to shrink it down into a portable device without any game patches
Comment on Microsoft's Xbox Handheld: Switch-Like Dock and Multi-Platform Support
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Using Qualcomm chips
Oof.
Why didn’t they go AMD, or hell, even Intel? They have big APUs in the pipe that would mostly just work.
Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 1 week ago
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yeah, that would be perfect!
Or (alternatively) they could majorly underclock the a shrunken series X chip to make it equivalent to an S.
jacksilver@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I mean choosing Qualcomm means they’re targeting Arm chips, which Intel and AMD don’t make.
It would probably mean a longer battery life, but I’m not sure how that would work for backwards compatibility and power.
If that’s true though, it would really set this device apart from the competition.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 week ago
It means emulation with pretty much every current title, and graphics driver issues and sluggish game out of the wazoo (as Qualcomm is very different than AMD/Intel/Nvidia).
ARM being more power efficient is also kind of a meme. Intel/AMD can be extremely good when clocked low (which they can do since there’s no emulation overhead), with both the CPU/GPU. Apple just makes x86 look bad because they burn a ton of money on power efficiency, but Qualcomm is more in the “budget” space.
jacksilver@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yeah, I know it would mean emulation, the question is more if they can deliver. Since they state it will work with all Microsoft, Epic, and Steam games. Assuming any of the leaks are right.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Games are complex. Qualcomm/MS may tune it for the most popular titles, but I just don’t see how they can catch up to years of desktop GPU driver development.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The base M4 is a very small chip with a modest memory config. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic, but it’s more Steam Deck/laptop than beefy APU (which the M4 Pro is a closer analogue to).
jacksilver@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I thought he meant more R&D, but even $1200 would be way too expensive for a console (especially a handheld).