Microsoft has released an updated console for the fourth anniversary of the Xbox Series X launch Xbox X gets new colors, digital version and a bigger drive. There are also minor hardware changes.
The new consoles have been available since yesterday, with the digital version without an optical disc drive costing $449 — $50 less than the original 2020 model at launch. It offers 1 TB of storage and the same AMD Zen 2 processor with RDNA2 graphics. But it’s still a little different.
Disassembling the new Xbox confirmed that the chip is manufactured using a more advanced process. Austin Evans’ video demonstrates that the processor is based on a 6 nm process. The original version of the chip, codenamed Project Scarlett, used 7 nm.
You can’t just plug in the optical drive in the digital edition — there is room for it, but the connectors are not soldered. The cooling system and PCB design have also been updated. The board looks similar, but it is soldered in a noticeably different way.
The cooler has lost its massive copper evaporation chamber and instead has a small copper contact surface from which heat pipes extend to the radiator. By eliminating a significant amount of copper, the cooler now weighs 100 g less.
A quick look shows that the new processor version delivers the same performance, noise and temperature levels, but uses less power. The original Xbox consumed 60 watts in standby mode, while the new versions, including the 2TB model, consume 51 watts. The diskless version — only 39 watts. Here are the numbers at idle and under load:
- Xbox Series X (2020) : 60W/167W
- Xbox Series X (2024) 2 TB : 51W/156W
- Xbox Series X (2024) Digital : 39W/151W
So, the Xbox Series X upgrade doesn’t offer better performance, it just requires less power, and the diskless option is cheaper. However, reducing the price of a virtually four-year-old device by only $50 may not seem enough. In addition, the digital version is only available in Robot White.
Sources: Austin Evans, VideoCardz
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