Series S Or Series X ?

Hi everyone ,
I am certain that I want to upgrade to a next gen Xbox , but I can’t decide which . Firstly , a bit of information about my current Xbox :

Xbox One S
All digital
1TB storage
Approx. 300GB storage used up so far

Now I am aware that a series s is only 512GB , but I could always get more storage . Another thing is that my Xbox is 2 flights of stairs away from the wifi router , so I’m not sure if the series s would benefit from the faster processor . When I do get a next gen , I am also considering getting a refurbished gaming pc and connecting the s/x to it , which would probably be the best gaming setup which I could afford . To all the series s/x players in these forums , which console would you recommend ? Thanks

 

I have a Series X and it's fantastic (not just for TSW, but across the board). I highly recommend it, especially if you have (or are planning to get) a 4k tv.

SSD is really a game changer, but i think storage is going to be an issue with both consoles. Series S, you have less space to start with, but the games are smaller since with SmartDelivery it won't download 4k textures it can't use. Series X has more to start with, but conversely the games are bigger. I'm already like 60% full, but i have pretty good internet, so i don't mind deleting and redownloading stuff from time to time.

If you're sticking with 1080p, you seem comfortable with all-digital, so no disc drive on Series S shouldn't be an issue. They're definitely easier to find right now, so that could be a factor. Took me months to finally get a Series X.

Good luck with whichever you choose.

 

I don’t have a 4K TV , and I am able to get hold of a series s a lot easier than an x

 

If you don't have a fancy 4k HDR tv and you can easily get extra storage then go for the Series S.
You won't see much improvement graphically with the S but load times will be quicker.

I don't see why MS didn't bring out a Series X and a Series X digital like Sony did with the PS5 and instead opted to keep 1080p HD on the Series S and put a smaller SSD in (at least with Sony both versions of the PS5 had the same SSD storage).

 

So they would have a console to sell for half the Series X's brutal price

 

Just remember when you go for additional storage that due to the SSD storage only the external addition of seagate offers enough speed to use it for gaming. All games need to be loaded in s SSD storage although it's possible to save them on a HDD. You have to move them forth and back then. The internal storage is extremely quick but not very much - a digital version of a Shelby GT500 (fast but always out of fuel) if you like
With upcoming expansions 100 GB+ game size is not uncommon. My series x can store about 10 games at a time. I think I'll go for the Seagate expansion some day...

 

series x

 

Why do you think so ?

 

Can use discs and use its blu ray/dvd player. Storage space you get is about 802gb compared to 364gb for the S. 16gb of ram compared to 10gb ram. higher resolution with higher frame rates. Games that support fps boost may not get supported by xbox series s.

 

But I can always buy more storage , and my Xbox is all digital

 

I’m a PS5 fan, but if I was going to get an Xbox, it’d have to be the Series X. The Series S is stunted in some functionality, so for me personally it has very limited appeal.

 

What’s the price again? Something like £250 for Series S and £450 for the X?

 

In theory. Try to find somebody who will actually sell you one for that. X's are going over here for almost a thousand bucks. Scalper prices.

 

Correct

 

At $500, the XBOX Series X is a bargain. You can't buy a decent gaming PC with comparable specs and performance for less than 3 times that amount. Even when you add in the extra $200 or so for the Seagate SSD, it's still an exceptional deal. If I weren't tied to PC for non gaming reasons, I might go for it myself.

 

the SSD costs £220 for 1tb of storage. You can still get digital games.

 

Again, try to find one for sale for $500. I haven't seen one, anywhere, for less than 800.

 

I found about 500GB of Xbox storage for about £30 , so not that bad

 

Yes but you can not run Xbox series x versions of games off from it.

 

Yes, right now the asking price, even at reputable stores, is ridiculous. But then so is the price of gaming pc's. I probably wouldn't buy anything new for a while, unless money is no object. Can't believe my lowly GTX 1070 is selling for close to 1 grand new. Let's hope the market for tech settles down soon.

 

Aren’t all next gen games available on the s and x ?

 

They will be when they are released but in some cases they might not get the same feature set.
Currently you have to use either the internal storage or the seagate ssd 1tb ssd drive to run s and x games. But to play regular xbox one games you can just use a external hard drive like normal.

 

What about series s ?

 

I think he's trying to say that in the future, there might be games that run on Series X, but not Series S. Purely speculative at this time though.

 

Fair enough . All the games that I currently play are available on the s

 

If you can afford and access both, then I recommend the Series X. The Series S is shaky ground, many developers and games support it differently. It's not just lower resolution, but often lower framerate and graphics settings as well. Microsoft underdesigned the specs of the Series S, it's not fit to run games at the same performance and visual level generally. The basic concept was to have the same experience only at a lower resolution, but this is not fulfilled by the system. So I think if you want to make sure your next console is future-proof for this generation then it should be the Series X.

 

Hi everyone , thank you to everyone who responded . I have made my decision . I will get an Xbox series s , and some extra storage if it fills up . Hopefully it is a good choice . Happy trains !

 

The Problem with Series S is that it's all digital no disk drive and If your TSW 2 is on Disk then take the Xbox Series X because you can play both disks and digital copies. Have one myself and that's my main platform to play TSW 2020

 

My one s is all digital , so having no disc drive on a series s won’t matter

 

Interesting (and informative) thread. But it poses more questions than answers for me. I'm playing content on XBox One and was thinking of upgrading to an S or X . I'm trying to see what benefits/shortfalls there are for both of them. Have actually contemplated going over to PC but that would be a big money investment just to play one, possibly a few more games that I would like to play and mod. What intrinsically will a next gen XBox get me? Faster loading times/disk drive/more memory/faster frame rate?

I'm still confused.....and undecided.

 

The s is digital , but the x can take discs . The X and S have similar loading times , the X is a bit quicker . The S is 512GB , the X is 1TB . The frame rate is 120 on both I think

 

Everything that has been said is true, disc drive, memory etc

The important thing is and X renders natively at 4K (60fps, 120fps at lower resolution) and the S at 1440. So in layman’s terms the X will look and perform better. However the S will not be a slouch by any means.

The difference on a game which is optimised correctly will be noticeable, but both will perform admirably.

One other thing of note is the X is a weird size and I can’t fit it under my TV, on a standard TV unit. The S is much smaller and easier to fit.

I play a lot of video games, it’s my main pastime (if we don’t include getting nagged by the wife), so I went with an X, but for someone who plays games less an S will be fine and £200 cheaper, which is a lot of money which can be spent on dlc.

 

I think the S can download games in 4K if your interface is 4K

 

From techradar..
‘ the Xbox Series X renders games in native 4K at 60 frames-per-second, while the Xbox Series S targets 1440p.’

From The verge...
‘While Microsoft says the Series X is targeting running games at 60fps at a full 4K resolution, the Series S instead targets a lower 1440p resolution at 60fps. It’s a big power disparity, similar to what we saw between the Xbox One and the Xbox One X’


And finally from Xbox.com




The truth is that for an average gamer it will be fine to buy an S.

 

Majority of my games are on disc so looks like I'll have to fork out for the X version.

 

I suppose it depends on how many you still want to play, and of those which can be bought cheaply.

I still play Diablo 3 from time to time, have done since the 360, but I have it on disc. About a year ago they had it on sale with all the dlc for £10, so I bought it again and sold my disc on eBay for £5 or £6 or something.

I don’t really regularly play any other of my disc games.

 

I would personally try and find the more capable Series X
I got mine via private sale from a guy who bought it but wanted to go for a PS5
Sold me the Series X and Elite Controller 2 (he sold the original Series X controller) for $ 700 CAD
Since the Elite 2 is worth $ 229 alone I think I paid close to the regular price for mine
RUns great and worth the price over my XBox One X

 

Talking about backward compatibility. Keep in mind that Series S runs the Xbox One S version while Series X uses the Xbox One X version. So for example if you play Train World Simulator 2 on Series S you'll get the Xbox One S version, not One X. It's not only about resolution, but also framerate and upgraded graphic. I strongly suggest to buy Series X.

 

There is currently only one version of TSW2 for xbox and it covers all the xbox types.

 

I honestly don’t see the point of the S. If you want the true next generation experience on Xbox, it surely has to be the X. I know cost is a consideration, but it’s probably better to save for the X and get the more capable machine. Especially as these could be in use for 5 or more years.

 

Of course if you can find somewhere with stock!

 

Smyths toys, restock on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturdays.

Pick one of those days when you can sit near a computer/phone etc.

Choose collect from store and then choose your nearest store, allow it to refresh (it shows all the stores with your choice first and then nearest to furthest) and if nothing, try again every 15 mins or so.

I got mine the first day I tried, by 10:30. It wasn’t my nearest store but like ten miles up the road.

My advice would be to create an account with the online store first so you are not trying to do that when actually making the purchase.

Good luck

 

But with the optimised next gen version coming up , it will be better

 

Yes, of course it will be better. But if a game doesn't have Series X/S optimization but it has a One S/One X optimization, then Series S will play the One S version while Series X will play the One X version. And the difference is huge in some cases. The vast majority of titles on MS library don't have Series X/S upgrade yet but a lot of them have One X upgrade. So it is something you should considerer.

 

Similar to the OP, I'm contemplating an Xbox upgrade. Currently using a One X in 4k which looks good but I'm disappointed with draw distance with lineside features suddenly appearing. I've also got a Nitro 5 laptop and run TSW2 on that (was free on Epic games) which has a 1080 graphics card and whilst not 4k I think the experience overall is better (even with the cooling fan noise). On the PC there also seem to be more AI services running around than on the One x version. Where should I invest - in the PC setup or Xbox? (I've also got a lot of DLC on Xbox)

 

Not all games. I have my back catalogue of around 600 XBox, 360, and XBox One games all installed on a single 8TB external Samsung QVO SSD. The load times on those games cap out at WAY less than the speed of those drives and they load exactly as fast would off the internal drive. Series X/S enhanced versions of last gen games are the same. The only ones that need the internal storage or a PCIe4 expansion card are dedicated Gen9 games. Look for the "Scarlett" flag in the file info on any game with the X/S logo. If it has it it needs the internal storage, if it instead says "Durango" and "Gen9Aware" then it runs off an external USB SSD just fine with load times in the range of up to around 11 seconds max.

 

Another consideration is the full cost of the upgrade. A great deal of people I know are using 1080p displays. Hell, I had my XBox One for two years back in the day before I even upgraded from a CRT, and had it hooked up via an HDMI-SCART converter the whole time.
Getting the most out of a Series X can also mean getting a new display, and for that you are looking at 1440p or 4k, HDMI 2 or 2.1 if you can get it, or you will be limited in how many features you can use at once, proper HDR support, 120hz to get the high framerate modes in games which support them, VRR which delivers a major improvement on games which do not hit their target lock (something you can expect more of as the generation progresses and they push the hardware more) meaning in the case of a lot of people, you're already looking at the cost of the console again for something to play it on and reap all the benefits. Suddenly it's not a £200 difference, it's closer to a £600 one or more.

 

One S had 8GB total, of which 3GB was reserved for system usage and 5GB available for games
One X had 12GB total, of which 3GB was reserved for system usage and 9GB available for games
Series S has 10GB in total, 2GB of which is reserved for system usage and 8GB of which is available for games
Series X has 16GB in total, 2.5GB of which is reserved for system usage and 13.5GB of which is available for games

 

Correct and you can expand the Series X memory to install by using a Series X/S compatible External Hard Drive. Otherwise this will install to Internal Memory