The Xbox Series X UI runs At 1080p

[VanDoughnut]

It's pretty whack honestly..

But it's not the end of the world.

I think acting like it doesn't matter at all, is going a bit too far in the other direction. UI is an under appreciated thing, it's not what we buy the consoles for. But we do appreciate it when it's nice.

 

[trioptimum24601]

Wouldn't really bother me, but I'm confused as to how changing the output resolution of UI elements to 4K would require reserving an additional gigabyte of memory.

 

[Beyond Vast]

Lmao at anyone deluded enough to care or pretending enough to care to throw shade at a rival console.

The UI has been shown numerous times, has been in the hands of all major tech YouTubers and not a single one has even noticed or cared.

And vast majority of you would elect to choose a faster UI and more ram dedicated to games if given the option. What a non-starter of an issue, but amusing seeing some grasping at straws.

 

[Ploid 6.0]

It's probably not that bloated actually, the PS4 Pro did require an extra GB of DDR ram which helped free up some ram for the games and also allowed them to run the ps4 PRO UI at native 4k. So the ram limitations are real but still surprising that this couldn't be partially offloaded in the Series X with it's much faster storage. Surely they could use a small portion of the drive as a virtual memory for the OS to help free up the main memory.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I'm thinking Windows OS for things like Phones, tablets, and their consoles has to be as light as they get it, something like an Android OS+ whatever a hardware company adds on to it, but maybe slightly less. Just enough not to cause issues, but still useful for the company.

 

[2shd]

Not dealbreaker, but still quite disappointing. Just watched the PS4 UI video on the One X YouTube app and even on that the extra clarity is noticeable, especially with how much much content is being shown on the Xbox screen at any one time.

The updated Xbox UI has some big, bold fonts so it's readable, but I end up spending a lot of time in the UI on Xbox, especially with a lot of Game Pass game stuff.

 

[Vinc]

Lmao at anyone deluded enough to care or pretending enough to care to throw shade at a rival console.

The UI has been shown numerous times, has been in the hands of all major tech YouTubers and not a single one has even noticed or cared.

And vast majority of you would elect to choose a faster UI and more ram dedicated to games if given the option. What a non-starter of an issue, but amusing seeing some grasping at straws.

Click to shrink...

Jesus, it might be time to take a step back. I'm buying a Series X at launch and I'm disappointed. Not everything is a conspiracy or an attempt at console wars. It's so strange, this cycle I've been more annoyed at people constantly rolling their eyes and insinuating people are biased than I've been annoyed at actual fanboy drivel, I swear...

It's not the end of the world, but the extra clarity would be nice and noticeable if it was available.

 

[Beyond Vast]

Jesus, it might be time to take a step back. I'm buying a Series X at launch and I'm disappointed. Not everything is a conspiracy or an attempt at console wars. It's so strange, this cycle I've been more annoyed at people constantly rolling their eyes and insinuating people are biased than I've been annoyed at actual fanboy drivel, I swear...

It's not the end of the world, but the extra clarity would be nice and noticeable if it was available.

Click to shrink...

This thread is at 23 pages about a UI resolution.
I tried to wade through the first 5 pages and then gave up. The ones pointing out how much of a non issue this is are not the ones who need to "step back".

 

[Alek]

It's hard to read your book here. If games look better to sacrifice UI I'm all for it...this much energy into explaining why MS wants to make games look better seems pretty silly to me.

Click to shrink...

If the length of my post bothers you, then don't read it. Don't reply to it. It's that simple.

Why even reply without anything to add? Your point is that my post was too long? That it consumed too much energy? So you decided to spend your time, telling me that my post was silly, because it expends too much energy? What kind of mental gymnastics did you have to perform to get here?

Save yourself the energy replying to this one. It's fine to disagree with me, but in the future if you don't want any meaningful discourse I'd suggest just ignore my post.

 

[Vinc]

This thread is at 23 pages about a UI resolution.
I tried to wade through the first 5 pages and then gave up. The ones pointing out how much of a non issue this is are not the ones who need to "step back".

Click to shrink...

Why in the world are you posting in this thread just to let people know they shouldn't care? If people are screaming in pain at the thought of having a lower res UI, sure they need to probably reexamine things, but other people, like myself, who are disappointed that the UI isn't upgraded or higher res on this 500 dollar next gen console have every right to feel the way they do. To pretend everyone who cares has some sort of bias against it is crazy talk and feeling the need to come here to complain about it shows it's something that you should reevaluate.

 

[Mutagenic]

This thread is at 23 pages about a UI resolution.
I tried to wade through the first 5 pages and then gave up. The ones pointing out how much of a non issue this is are not the ones who need to "step back".

Click to shrink...

Damn, you're going in harrrrrd. You clearly take this extremely personal. Yikes.

 

[DrowsyJungle]

If the length of my post bothers you, then don't read it. Don't reply to it. It's that simple.

Why even reply without anything to add? Your point is that my post was too long? That it consumed too much energy? So you decided to spend your time, telling me that my post was silly, because it expends too much energy? What kind of mental gymnastics did you have to perform to get here?

Save yourself the energy replying to this one. It's fine to disagree with me, but in the future if you don't want any meaningful discourse I'd suggest just ignore my post.

Click to shrink...

I added that if it makes games look better then...why would you want more ui Rez? Do you want games to look and run worse?

 

[Beyond Vast]

Here comes the eye-rolling at the eye-rollers. If you sincerely care, and are disappointed, that's fine.

I'll ask you this, would you prefer 4K resolution with less dedicated ram for games?
Also, do you believe that the UI will stay the same or will it be updated to 4K in the future?

 

[mentok15]

Does anyone know how much vram Windows takes up at 1080p vs 4k?

 

[dreamer3kx]

Going to look like switch on 4k tv, ugh.

 

[MirageDwarf]

I just don't get why people are defending low res UI.

It certainly won't stop me from enjoying games if dashboard is in 1080P but I don't see any reason to defend it on behalf of Microsoft. Difference in 4K vs 1080P dashboard is clearly visible.

If it is about allocating more resources to games, why not add dedicated resource for OS or have 720P UI and allocate even more resources to games. Xbox os is based on Windows. When you switch away from any Windows app (not traditional desktop/win32 apps), it uses almost no resources. I'd assume something similar should be possible in Xbox os while game session is active.

Series X/S not starting with 4K UI would be downgrade. Dashboard is the very first impression of the console. You can't have console without ever seeing dashboard.

Of course, none of this discussion would matter if MS has already plan to do it soon. May be MS should keep option to revert to 1080P UI when/if it implements it in future for these folks with 4K TV.

Anyway, can can't wait for real next gen games!!!

 

[EnVy_CaLiBeR]

Literally didn't even know the X1X was 1080p. Regardless, it looks fine on my 4K TV. I'm sure it will look fine the Series X as well. Not even close to a dealbreaker.

Hope they implement it later though for those that actually care.

 

[a Master Ninja]

Interesting. I'd definitely prefer 4K on paper, but I'll need to see it in person.

Click to shrink...

If you have an Xbox One you can see it right now.

 

[Vinc]

I added that if it makes games look better then...why would you want more ui Rez? Do you want games to look and run worse?

Click to shrink...

Here's the thing- I want both. Sure, if we see a tangible benefit and games run much better on Series X than, say, a PS5 specifically because of this, then great! But at the end of the day, even the One X was originally designed to have a 4K UI, and they only decided to drop to 1080p because devs wanted the extra resources. Now that a brand new system was being designed, why not include an extra gig of slower RAM, or some sort of solution to make sure the UI can run at a higher res?

Personally, like I said, I want both. I want a 4K UI, ideally even with HDR support so my TV doesn't have to constantly switch between modes, and I want my games to look and run great. The Series X doesn't do that, and that's a shame. The PS5 looks like it does it just fine.

 

[scottbeowulf]

It's not that big of a deal but it's a silly limitation. Of course people are gonna compare their direct competition and call out any lacking features. Especially when people are so thirsty for any granular info on these systems. I'm sure it's something they will just patch if it ends up actually being an issue.

 

[karmitt]

If you have an Xbox One you can see it right now.

Click to shrink...

I don't. Series X will be my first XBox ever :P

 

[WordsintheWater]

You all really equating people being okay with reconstructed 4k if it gives them 60 FPS, but want the UI to be in 4k as well as an issue of conflict? Lmao

I'd have a harder time noticing reconstructed 4k then a UI at 1080p on a 4k TV, but it's okay, make those silly arguments to try and have your little gotcha moment.

The difference so I can spell it out for you is that they view that as a worthy sacrifice for the FPS gain, right now despite some of you citing the Xbox One X which again is a different system than the Series X we aren't clear what we are gaining with that sacrifice. If they come out and say that the sacrifice is for more RAM to developers then cool, but right now we don't know anything.

 

[TheGhost]

I just don't get why people are defending low res UI.

It certainly won't stop me from enjoying games if dashboard is in 1080P but I don't see any reason to defend it on behalf of Microsoft. Difference in 4K vs 1080P dashboard is clearly visible.

If it is about allocating more resources to games, why not add dedicated resource for OS or have 720P UI and allocate even more resources to games. Xbox os is based on Windows. When you switch away from any Windows app (not traditional desktop/win32 apps), it uses almost no resources. I'd assume something similar should be possible in Xbox os while game session is active.

Series X/S not starting with 4K UI would be downgrade. Dashboard is the very first impression of the console. You can't have console without ever seeing dashboard.

Of course, none of this discussion would matter if MS has already plan to do it soon. May be MS should keep option to revert to 1080P UI when/if it implements it in future for these folks with 4K TV.

Anyway, can can't wait for real next gen games!!!

Click to shrink...

Because you can't even tell it's not 4k
It's not defending Microsoft it's just stating the obvious that the large majority on Xbox don't even realize it it care. You could never update it, tell them it's 4k and they would believe it.

 

[Watership]

Going to look like switch on 4k tv, ugh.

Click to shrink...

I have a 4k OLED with the Xbox One X interface at 1080p, and it looks nothing like the Switch. I want the UI to be 4K, but I'm not going to remotely say it looks blurry now.

 

[ResetEraVetVIP]

Pre-order cancelled.


(But seriously, John is right and they should fix this)

Click to shrink...

lol. We'll see with the launch if they'll fix it. They most likely will...

 

[tapedeck]

Literally didn't even know the X1X was 1080p. Regardless, it looks fine on my 4K TV. I'm sure it will look fine the Series X as well. Not even close to a dealbreaker.

Hope they implement it later though for those that actually care.

Click to shrink...

Same here, I have a 65" 4K tv and just assumed the UI on my 1X was 4K lol. Sure I'd like the XSX UI to be 4K but if the trade off is better performing games then they definitely made the right call.

 

[2shd]

This is a long thread, but so I'm not sure if this has been clarified, but what what sort of differences could a user potentially see if a game gets an extra GB of memory?

We already know the UI trade off, but it's not clear how that might impact a game. What coud be expected?

Would this be something that would be an added benfit for Series X multiplatform games?

 

[MirageDwarf]

Because you can't even tell it's not 4k
It's not defending Microsoft it's just stating the obvious that the large majority on Xbox don't even realize it it care. You could never update it, tell them it's 4k and they would believe it.

Click to shrink...

I believe you. I guess it is one of that thing which some people will notice and some wouldn't.

Like I can't tell all minor graphics/framerate differences other people notice immediately. With dashboard I notice visible difference in how clean and sharp (including texts) 4K dashboard looks.

 

[ResetEraVetVIP]

Why in the world are you posting in this thread just to let people know they shouldn't care? If people are screaming in pain at the thought of having a lower res UI, sure they need to probably reexamine things, but other people, like myself, who are disappointed that the UI isn't upgraded or higher res on this 500 dollar next gen console have every right to feel the way they do. To pretend everyone who cares has some sort of bias against it is crazy talk and feeling the need to come here to complain about it shows it's something that you should reevaluate.

Click to shrink...

I agree with you tbh..

 

[ThatsMyTrunks]

I haven't read all 23 pages of this, but haven't they confirmed it's not the final UI? That's what they said in the Engadget video today.

Peep 3:53 at this video.

Xbox Series X final preview: This feels like next-gen

In my house, the gaming console is the epicenter of the living room. It’s where we watch shows and movies, listen to music and podcasts, pull up recipe video...

youtu.be

 

[Alek]

I added that if it makes games look better then...why would you want more ui Rez? Do you want games to look and run worse?

Click to shrink...

I agree with the sentiment, but that's a perpetual question.

To pose another example, how about we drop down to 720p. 720p is fine for the UI right? Do you want games to look and run worse?

How about we take away the UI animations. Draw resources from both GPU and CPU, so we can give those back to the developers. Do you want games to look and run worse?

We have to draw a line for what we want from the user experience, otherwise the never-ending performance demand of games will intrude upon it. I don't think that a 1080p system UI is a deal breaker, but I do think that 4k is better. Additionally, I think as the XSX is positioned to be the most powerful next-gen system, it makes sense to reflect that benefit throughout the system - they don't need to min-max their OS/game resources to get there, the system is already well positioned, and that affords them the opportunity to take care of the smaller details, such as the 4k UI. And so, I think they've taken the wrong approach here (if true).

 

[aevanhoe]

I was convinced that PS4 UI was 4K too. I know this thread is about Xbox, but considering the news of Series X having 1080p UI - and DF mentioning how it's great that PS5 will have a 4K UI - got me confused. Are you telling me the PS4 Pro UI wasn't 4K all this time??

If that's true, I guess my TV's upscaler does a great job.

 

[TheGhost]

I believe you. I guess it is one of that thing which some people will notice and some wouldn't.

Like I can't tell all minor graphics/framerate differences other people notice immediately. With dashboard I notice visible difference in how clean and sharp (including texts) 4K dashboard looks.

Click to shrink...

Like I believe....my PS4 pro UI is 4k as well right? But it doesn't wow me like "wow those letters really pop more than my Xbox one text" you know?

As I said before people are acting like when you tried hooking a 360 up to a CRTV and all the words were a blurry mess.

 

[Inti]

I have a 65 inch TV and honestly I didn't know it was 1080p on the One X. Now, having said that, I had noticed the extra sharpness on the PS4 UI. For me it's not a deal breaker, I would hope to have both? But if I had to choose I will take the better performing games, if, indeed, that GB results in a noticeable performance. If Series X is gonna have third party parity and nothing noticeable in first party vs PS5 first party, then I rather we have a 4K menu.

But again, far from a deal breaker, probably wouldn't have cared if not mentioned. Haha.

 

[bes.gen]

I was convinced that PS4 UI was 4K too. I know this thread is about Xbox, but considering the news of Series X having 1080p UI - and DF mentioning how it's great that PS5 will have a 4K UI - got me confused. Are you telling me the PS4 Pro UI wasn't 4K all this time??

If that's true, I guess my TV's upscaler does a great job.

Click to shrink...

pro has 4k ui, its definitely sharper compared to onex ui too if you compare,
but wasn't bothered much with onex either, tough i have 49" tv, maybe larger tvs would make it more of an issue.

 

[Liabe Brave]

It's probably not that bloated actually, the PS4 Pro did require an extra GB of DDR ram which helped free up some ram for the games and also allowed them to run the ps4 PRO UI at native 4k.

Click to shrink...

Right, the extra GB of RAM was split functionally. Which means the OS footprint only got 512MB larger while going from 1080p to 2160p. People are just talking about 1GB difference now because that was mentioned years ago in reference to One X. We don't know what the allocation gap would be on Series X, it could be smaller (or larger, but that seems unlikely).

It's mostly likely 1080p because the same UI runs on the Xbox One and One X, where as on other platforms there is a clear distinction between their dashboards.

Click to shrink...

I doubt Microsoft couldn't manage Smart Delivery on their own OS. What I mean is, it's very easy to have a single piece of software detect which device it's running on and change its settings accordingly. They don't have to write a different build of Windows for each PC configuration, for example.

I added that if it makes games look better then...why would you want more ui Rez? Do you want games to look and run worse?

Click to shrink...

It's not just either/or, though. With PS4 Pro, Sony wanted to go to 4K UI, but didn't want games to look and run worse. So they added a separate, slower RAM chip to assist the OS, and achieved both goals. This is a false dilemma.

 

[Bishop89]

Odd, but I don't really get the big deal.

It's just the menu..
As long as the content (movies, games) are in 4k.

 

[Not you]

I agree with the sentiment, but that's a perpetual question.

To pose another example, how about we drop down to 720p. 720p is fine for the UI right? Do you want games to look and run worse?

How about we take away the UI animations. Draw resources from both GPU and CPU, so we can give those back to the developers. Do you want games to look and run worse?

We have to draw a line for what we want from the user experience, otherwise the never-ending performance demand of games will intrude upon it. I don't think that a 1080p system UI is a deal breaker, but I do think that 4k is better. Additionally, I think as the XSX is positioned to be the most powerful next-gen system, it makes sense to reflect that benefit throughout the system - they don't need to min-max their OS/game resources to get there, the system is already well positioned, and that affords them the opportunity to take care of the smaller details, such as the 4k UI. And so, I think they've taken the wrong approach here (if true).

Click to shrink...

Not. Not important. It's never been importent over the history of consoles, and it's not going to start now. People care about games, and that's all they should care about and it's all they really care about.

 

[WordsintheWater]

pro has 4k ui, its definitely sharper compared to onex ui too if you compare,
but wasn't bothered much with onex either, tough i have 49" tv, maybe larger tvs would make it more of an issue.

Click to shrink...

I noticed the difference on my 85 inch TV, it isn't egregious, but I understand why people want a 4k UI in there 500 dollar machine, this is premium it should have a premium looking UI.

 

[Liabe Brave]

I haven't read all 23 pages of this, but haven't they confirmed it's not the final UI? That's what they said in the Engadget video today.

Click to shrink...

Digital Foundry have said that they were directly told the UI on Series X would be 1080p. This was when they were invited to visit Microsoft back in March, to prepare the articles they did to fully reveal the console.

That doesn't mean it couldn't change. But it would be odd to specify a resolution so early in the marketing process, if the eventual target was different.

 

[LifeIsKillingMe]

I agree with the sentiment, but that's a perpetual question.

To pose another example, how about we drop down to 720p. 720p is fine for the UI right? Do you want games to look and run worse?

How about we take away the UI animations. Draw resources from both GPU and CPU, so we can give those back to the developers. Do you want games to look and run worse?

We have to draw a line for what we want from the user experience, otherwise the never-ending performance demand of games will intrude upon it. I don't think that a 1080p system UI is a deal breaker, but I do think that 4k is better. Additionally, I think as the XSX is positioned to be the most powerful next-gen system, it makes sense to reflect that benefit throughout the system - they don't need to min-max their OS/game resources to get there, the system is already well positioned, and that affords them the opportunity to take care of the smaller details, such as the 4k UI. And so, I think they've taken the wrong approach here (if true).

Click to shrink...

Just my two cents, but I would take a DOS based UI if it meant all that processing would go to running smoother games at higher resolutions, I can appreciate the aesthetics of a nice UI but I buy a gaming console to run games. Don't give a dang what the UI looks like TBH

 

[delete]

Right, the extra GB of RAM was split functionally. Which means the OS footprint only got 512MB larger while going from 1080p to 2160p. People are just talking about 1GB difference now because that was mentioned years ago in reference to One X. We don't know what the allocation gap would be on Series X, it could be smaller (or larger, but that seems unlikely).


I doubt Microsoft couldn't manage Smart Delivery on their own OS. What I mean is, it's very easy to have a single piece of software detect which device it's running on and change its settings accordingly. They don't have to write a different build of Windows for each PC configuration, for example.

Click to shrink...

There are definitely many reasons why they should be able to have the UI at 4k native, I am just playing devil's advocate for why it isn't.

 

[SRTtoZ]

Well that's....annoying. I still hate how the Switch's UI runs at 720p on a 4k TV. Don't get me wrong, it's not a game breaker but the more I see and hear about the PS5 from a design standpoint, both hardware and software, the more I'm impressed.

 

[sjackso3]

I like Digital Foundry. I like them a lot. I'm a subscriber. However, making a big deal out of something that hardly no one has ever noticed and "saying that it's unacceptable" seems over the top. I say that because all of the people that already own the One X have never complained about it... doesn't that mean it was already accepted? And we can reasonably conclude that by reading this forum. If that was something that a console warrior could use as a bone of contention, we would have no doubt, already heard about it. When has the resolution of the UI been such a big deal? I could care less, just like I didn't understand the Xbox guys saying... "The PS5 must be in trouble, we still haven't seen the UI yet!"

Again, I like John and all of the other Digital Foundry contributors, but this kind of stuff feels like watching cable news. Let's make every story have two sides, that way people will start fighting and that fills the 24 hour news cycle. It's like a person will say anything that causes outrage as long as it drives views. I plays games to get away from this kind of nonsense. It's a real turn off. Just my two cents.

 

[Xx 720]

I'd waaaaaaaay rather they use any cpu/gpu power for games than a user interface.

 

[DrowsyJungle]

Right, the extra GB of RAM was split functionally. Which means the OS footprint only got 512MB larger while going from 1080p to 2160p. People are just talking about 1GB difference now because that was mentioned years ago in reference to One X. We don't know what the allocation gap would be on Series X, it could be smaller (or larger, but that seems unlikely).


I doubt Microsoft couldn't manage Smart Delivery on their own OS. What I mean is, it's very easy to have a single piece of software detect which device it's running on and change its settings accordingly. They don't have to write a different build of Windows for each PC configuration, for example.


It's not just either/or, though. With PS4 Pro, Sony wanted to go to 4K UI, but didn't want games to look and run worse. So they added a separate, slower RAM chip to assist the OS, and achieved both goals. This is a false dilemma.

Click to shrink...

Show me the actual code that makes this a false dilemma. Also games on Xbox One X outperformed PS4 Pro.

 

[Dunlop]

I just don't get why people are defending low res UI.

Click to shrink...

Is it something that needs to be defended? Is there some belief that the Xbox cannot handle it, the UI devs are too lazy to implent it or there is some kind of money constraint?

I think most people "defending" in this thread are calling out how ridiculous it is that this thread is exploding in post count since the PS5 UI reveal even though we have been watching Series X videos that have shown the UI for over a month now.

I'm sure some are surprised and disappointed, but ultimately this is just the latest "concern" topic

 

[janusff]

This sucks but ultimately it's not a big deal, at all.

 

[DrowsyJungle]

I agree with the sentiment, but that's a perpetual question.

To pose another example, how about we drop down to 720p. 720p is fine for the UI right? Do you want games to look and run worse?

How about we take away the UI animations. Draw resources from both GPU and CPU, so we can give those back to the developers. Do you want games to look and run worse?

We have to draw a line for what we want from the user experience, otherwise the never-ending performance demand of games will intrude upon it. I don't think that a 1080p system UI is a deal breaker, but I do think that 4k is better. Additionally, I think as the XSX is positioned to be the most powerful next-gen system, it makes sense to reflect that benefit throughout the system - they don't need to min-max their OS/game resources to get there, the system is already well positioned, and that affords them the opportunity to take care of the smaller details, such as the 4k UI. And so, I think they've taken the wrong approach here (if true).

Click to shrink...

I'd rather resources be spent on games than Ui resolution. You can argue otherwise though and that's ok and I appreciate your difference in opinion but I'm not buying a game console to look and admire a ui, it's to play games.

 

[Hark]

My 1080p Xbox One looks fine on my 4K TV.

While 4K would be cool, I don't plan on spending much time on the dashboard.
If there's actual benefits to a 1080p dashboard I'm for it!

 

[bes.gen]

I noticed the difference on my 85 inch TV, it isn't egregious, but I understand why people want a 4k UI in there 500 dollar machine, this is premium it should have a premium looking UI.

Click to shrink...

yeah i agree, the small screens with super high resolutions on phones, laptops etc. are actually training peoples eyes to be more perceptive of things like these text, ui sharpness.

definitely totally blown out of proportion on this site like almost everything else, but its not like a complete non-issue for me either.

also not buying it would take 1gb for ms to up the res from 1080 to 4k. someone found a reddit post from 2 years ago, saying that about onex supposedly, and now its repeated at every 10th post like its a gospel of truth lol