Ready At Dawn’s Graphics Dev On Xbox Scorpio: CPU Upgrade Is Not Huge Or Amazing, Won’t Be Priced At $399
The big bottleneck on the Scorpio is likely to be the CPU- something that Matt identified as being ‘nice, but not amazing’ himself. “Well let’s be clear, these changes aren’t in the same world as a Zen upgrade. It’s nice (and in fact basically required), but not huge or amazing,” he said. “Let’s not buy into the spin so completely,” he continued, referring to some conclusions people are drawing from the ambiguous ‘improvements’ the Scorpio CPU will have. “But yes, the upclock and improvements are very welcome.”
He elaborated a bit upon why he isn’t as impressed by the CPU. “Hardware additions to improve CPU performance aren’t rare (current gen systems already have them),” he said. “It was never going to be just the CPUs on their own. But like I said, a definite improvement.”
At the same time, he did make it very clear that he isn’t criticizing the CPU- as a matter of fact, he holds that this was probably the most sensible thing Microsoft could have done. “I’m not criticizing the CPU,” he said. “
It was the only logical choice for the system, and really the only option MS had was to upclock the Jag and put in some extras to help. There is nothing wrong with what they did. I just think the people acting like it’s a bigger improvement than it is are kinda silly.”
That said, though, this is a solid machine, packing a powerful punch- so you shouldn’t expect it to be $400. This is, in fact, something he reiterated multiple times, noting that while it would be nice, it is absolutely not something people should be hoping for, or they risk disappointing themselves.