Advertisement

The Xbox Series X vs. the Xbox Series S: What's the difference?

It's more than just looks and price.

Microsoft

This week was a real deluge of big news about the next Xbox, including its price, release date and the announcement of a cheaper, less powerful version. So now that we know what’s coming this November, gamers are wondering where to spend their cash. Are the robust specs under the hood of the Xbox Series X worth the extra $200? Or could you get by just fine with the more diminutive Series S? We’ve got the major points below so you can compare the two, but the real test will come when we review both systems this November.

Xbox Series X

Xbox Series S

Price

$499

$299

Dimensions

151 x 151 x 301 mm (5.94 x 5.94 x 11.85 inches)

Not available, but 60 percent smaller than the Series X

Weight

4.45 kg (9.8 pounds)

Not available

CPU

Custom AMD Zen 2, 8-core 3.8 GHz (3.6 GHz with SMT)

Custom AMD Zen 2, 8-core 3.6 GHz (3.4 GHz with SMT)

GPU

Custom RDNA 2, 12.15 TFLOP, 52 CU at 1.825 GHz

Custom RDNA 2, 4 TFLOP, 20 CU at 1.565 GHz

RAM

16 GB GDDR6 320-bit

10 GB GDDR6

Memory bandwidth

10 GB at 560 GB/s, 6 GB at 336 GB/s

8 GB at 224GB/s, 2 GB at 56GB/s

Internal storage

1 TB PCie Gen 4 NVME SSD

512 GB PCie Gen 4 NVME SSD

I/O throughput

2.4 GB/s (raw), 4.8 GB/s (compressed)

2.4 GB/s (raw), 4.8 GB/s (compressed)

External storage

1 TB expansion card, USB HDD support

1 TB expansion card, USB HDD support

Physical media

4K UHD Blu-ray

None

Output resolution

4K at 60 fps (target 120 fps)

1440p at 60 fps (target 120 fps)