The rumors of Microsoft planning to debut a cheaper and less-powerful Xbox Series X, alongside the standard one, have been around for some time. It was said to feature an underclocked CPU and no physical drive. But the latest report seems to suggest that it isn’t the case and you won’t have to compromise on power with the cheaper variant.
Known as Xbox Lockhart, the rumors for this cheaper Xbox pointed at lower-specced hardware. The underclocked CPU was a point of concern for many looking forward to this disc-less alternative. But, The Verge’s Tom Warren has today cleared the air and revealed that Lockhart will provide the ‘same CPU speed’ as the Series X. It’s the GPU frequency and CU count that will differ between the two variants, as seen in the tweet below.
I’ve been reporting on Xbox Lockhart having a slightly underclocked CPU, but I now believe it’s the same speed as Series X. Just different GPU frequencies and CU counts 👍
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) June 27, 2020
Warren continues to dole out additional details for this cheaper Xbox Series X variant in the tweets to follow. This includes the availability of less usable RAM (7.5GB) in Xbox Lockhart as compared to 13.5GB usable RAM in the Series X. It will only offer up to 4 teraflops of GPU performance while the Series X targets up to 12 teraflops, as per the official hardware specs. The machine will still manage to pump out stable frame rates at a lower resolution.
Xbox Lockhart will provide gamers the opportunity to try out the latest titles at up to 1080p or 1440p (unknown at the moment) by investing less into the console itself. It has also been reported that developers have access to the Lockhart mode in their dev kits to test out games in a restricted environment.
Xbox head Phil Spencer has already confirmed Microsoft’s plans to launch additional next-gen Xbox SKUs. Xbox Lockhart is rumored to arrive as Xbox Series S, alongside the standard Series X, to take on the disc-less PS5 that was finally shown off earlier in June. The next-gen Xbox Series X will cost over $550, as per the leaks, and that’s much higher than the existing variants. So yeah, there’s a need for a cheaper variant to attract the masses.
