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[Gamers Nexus] Xbox Series X Thermals, Power, & Noise Testing: Cooler Design Analysis & Break-Down
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
The Series X is a masterpiece of a console, design wise. The cooling for it is top notch, and just further evolves what Microsoft had done with the Xbox One generation: cool and quiet. The fact that this thing remains whisper silent, inaudible even, even when under load, is amazing. Huge props to MS for engineering such a well designed machine.
In 30+ years of buying consoles, it is the most impressive I have owned from a design perspective.
To make a comparison i quickly watched the Ps5 video and SOC reached 75-80°C degrees so mostly the same as XSX that is at 75°C.
well done MS... Panos Panay, Jason Ronald and the rest of the Xbox hardware team have built a very powerful and efficient machine.
I was really concerned about noise levels when buying mine as the One X could get loud at points. However, the Series X is silent no matter what I throw at it.
They really didn't want another RRoD. Great job by the design team and engineers. Seems we rarely get both good design and good cooling. Of course with design it's subjective but from a pure put together machine it's well designed.
I could hear my One X at idle (even standby).
I can barely ever hear the Series X (unless the disc drive is active).
I can barely ever hear the Series X (unless the disc drive is active).
Yeah, it's been almost completely silent for me other than hearing the disc drive which is insanely loud.
The problem I have is dust which seems to have accumulated quite a lot already on the heat sink (I think) by looking at the back vent with a light. I may blow some compressed air in there but hopefully it's not too much of a problem
The problem I have is dust which seems to have accumulated quite a lot already on the heat sink (I think) by looking at the back vent with a light. I may blow some compressed air in there but hopefully it's not too much of a problem
I really do love the Series X.
Design wise, I think it's both functionally and aesthetically cool (quite literally). Microsoft using their matured Xbox One interface allowed them to incorporate a ton of settings and features that the PS5 is a bit laggard on besides, and it runs great since it's just the same old OS running on excellent new internal spec. The controller is my favorite in terms of comfort -- love the new grainy texture and it fits into my hand so well. Backwards compat reaches far back and works extremely well. Smart Delivery didn't feel like it really was going to be much of a thing until I experienced the lack of it on PS5's early stage interface and realize how complicated it is to get working correctly.
... and I love the bootup noise from cold boot -- the Xbox splash on this system is great. Minor detail, but helps when everything else is so good.
Design wise, I think it's both functionally and aesthetically cool (quite literally). Microsoft using their matured Xbox One interface allowed them to incorporate a ton of settings and features that the PS5 is a bit laggard on besides, and it runs great since it's just the same old OS running on excellent new internal spec. The controller is my favorite in terms of comfort -- love the new grainy texture and it fits into my hand so well. Backwards compat reaches far back and works extremely well. Smart Delivery didn't feel like it really was going to be much of a thing until I experienced the lack of it on PS5's early stage interface and realize how complicated it is to get working correctly.
... and I love the bootup noise from cold boot -- the Xbox splash on this system is great. Minor detail, but helps when everything else is so good.
My series X gives off a slight heat from the top at all times. I do have it in quick resume mode or whatever it's called.
I'm yet to hear the console make a noise other than the startup chime. Had it since launch day and play it near daily.
I'm yet to hear the console make a noise other than the startup chime. Had it since launch day and play it near daily.
Is actually funny. I'll ask my wife if she hears anything, not. And I'm like argh!
I was thinking about that the other day. Seems like they have some cooling and thermal overhead.
I wonder if people are willing to do a trade off. Slightly noisier console for a clock and Teraflops increase. Personally I wouldn't mind at all.
Years from now when we are deeper into this decade, it'll be fascinating to see how the PC industry has gone as far as getting around yield issues and how/if the chip industry can dramatically increase performance between how it is now in 2021 vs how it is going to be in 2025 and beyond.
With that said, therefore it should likely prove to be very interesting to see if/how such advances in the consumer/gaming PC industry are then reflected In the choices and approaches AMD/MS and AMD/Sony make in designing how Scarlett's successor and PS6 are be built—In terms of silicon, packaging, high bandwidth+lower latency AMD fabric, I/O, various levels of cache,etc.
Will it be, that future console hardware in the back half of the 2020s decade is then the time to haves moved to HBM. Or on-package MCM chiplets. Or both.
All of that largely depends on what AMD can design for consoles that retail for $499, and TSMC can manufacture at scale.
Maybe I am assuming GDDR7 won't be the way forward, or that GDDR in general now uses too much power delivering barely enough bandwidth (post 2025*) that is still well short of a decent enough leap in bandwidth over current 2020 consoles that use a 256-bit or 320-bit memory interface and monolithic APUs.
With that said, therefore it should likely prove to be very interesting to see if/how such advances in the consumer/gaming PC industry are then reflected In the choices and approaches AMD/MS and AMD/Sony make in designing how Scarlett's successor and PS6 are be built—In terms of silicon, packaging, high bandwidth+lower latency AMD fabric, I/O, various levels of cache,etc.
Will it be, that future console hardware in the back half of the 2020s decade is then the time to haves moved to HBM. Or on-package MCM chiplets. Or both.
All of that largely depends on what AMD can design for consoles that retail for $499, and TSMC can manufacture at scale.
Maybe I am assuming GDDR7 won't be the way forward, or that GDDR in general now uses too much power delivering barely enough bandwidth (post 2025*) that is still well short of a decent enough leap in bandwidth over current 2020 consoles that use a 256-bit or 320-bit memory interface and monolithic APUs.
There's also supply shortage, at 2025 almost everything will have silicon in them, there needs to have some kind of revolution in the industry before we have some kind of worldwide crisis because there's not enough silicon to everyone at the same time.
The Series X has been nothing short of an amazing feat in terms of build quality and technical prowess.
I know, I did not forget that, I had those realities in mind when making and editing that post. Just so many things I wanted to pack into several short paragraphs that I did not mention everything I had in mind. I'm aware of the semi-severe (pun intended) shortage of silicon wafers, the difficulty and costs of each step/node (or name given to a manufacturing process) by TSMC and Samsung. Yet also keeping in mind that over the next 3-5 years,the big for-business Foundries are each spending billions on new and old chip factories, and doing so on more than one continent.Capacity will constantly be tight, yet it will also expand, even more so from ever increasing demand for more more more chips for current and upcoming products. The need is also greater than before due to massively increasing need to support a work from home/remote work world we are just getting into at scale.
Expections? More physical chip factories.
More performance for nearly equal total power spending but chips themselves must become more power efficient and since more tremendous shrinks in transistor size can no longer be counted on for the only way to increase compute/graphics performance like we had been seeing, even in the early to mid 2010s, there has obviously been much thought into, some R&D dollars spent, manpower dedicated to, finding another (and needed in some cases) way of putting together products that need a high and higher level of CPU/GPU/Bandwidth/RAM performance even if "just to keep up with previous increases and previous gen-on-gen product cycles, Products for GPC, industries and eventually consumer products.
PC Gaming is up there, always in need of more, on the consumer side.
Once that moves down from the high-end of PCs for gaming into the more mainstream $200-$300 graphics cards, performance mainstream laptops, desktops, and now higher performance mobile devices, a new console generation should follow several years down the road (probably 3 years, maybe 1.5 years, or even 4-5 years later if current gen 6-8 year cycle products like game consoles only released 2–3 years before a significant shift occurs with technology in mainstream/midrange PC products, new gens of higher-end consumer tablet/mobile devices and now and especially in the future more and more, mobile classes of CPUs GPUs, etc,Along with a given set of upgrades, etc
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I appreciate the detailed analysis by Gamers Nexus, but they go to all these lengths to have a thorough review of the unit and they don't use properly calibrated thermocouples. Their ice bath / boiling water method is good for an approximation, but it's not a calibration.
It should be accurate enough, I think a 1-2 degree error wouldn't make a difference for this. They may also be sending it out for an annual calibration at a lab.
Yes, but then they're reporting temperatures in the tenth of a degree increments. If it was being sent out for calibration I'd expect that to be stated, it'd also mean it wouldn't be necessary to verify temps in ice / boiling water.
I'm not trying to say their data is wrong, in fact it's likely fairly accurate, just that they go to great lengths to be detailed and thorough, then just kind of softball calibrations, which are responsible for giving confidence in the values they're reporting.