What in the event you may take the Zen 2 CPU cores discovered inside Xbox Collection X and PlayStation 5, transplant them onto a PC motherboard, set up Home windows and really play PC video games on them? Wanting hacking the console and in some way crafting drivers for it, it is a pipedream, however we are able to do the following smartest thing. AMD not too long ago – and considerably stealthily – launched the 4800S Desktop Equipment for Chinese language OEMs. It is a Micro ATX motherboard constructed across the Xbox Collection X APU, transport with 16GB of GDDR6 reminiscence. The built-in GPU is disabled, however it’s potential to put in Home windows on it, you may connect a good graphics card – and sure, you may play PC video games on an Xbox CPU.
The concept this product even exists is baffling, however there’s some logic to it. Not each PS5 or Collection X chip that makes it off the manufacturing line is practical. There will be imperfections within the silicon that write off the chip – or elements of it. On this case, AMD chooses chips with faulty GPUs, disables that graphics part and makes use of the CPU portion solely. As you will see within the accompanying video – and certainly within the headline picture – we will be certain it is Collection X silicon as a result of in the event you put the 2 chips aspect by aspect, they are a match.
There’s additionally precedent with this taking place earlier than. The AMD 4700S Desktop Equipment follows the identical ideas, though that is constructed round faulty PlayStation 5 processors. I do personal a 4700S, however it’s kind of of a lifeless weight. PCI Categorical bandwidth is just too restricted to assist high-end graphics, there isn’t any NVMe performance and solely two SATA ports. In the meantime, the cooler is slight to say the least. With the 4800S, AMD resolves all of those points. There are 4 SATA ports, an NVMe slot, a meatier cooler and, though GPU bandwidth continues to be restricted, the 4x PCIe 4.0 interface does produce good outcomes from higher-end graphics playing cards.
I do really personal the 4700S Desktop Equipment – and others have coated it extensively. I wrote off our protection as a result of PS5-level gaming merely wasn’t potential on it, owing to the PCI Categorical bandwidth limitation. We purchased the 4800S on the advice of DF supporter, Fidler_2K, who famous its extra luxurious spec. Nonetheless, really buying one was problematic. I purchased the 4700S on eBay from an Italian provider. Whereas we have been conscious the 4800S was on the market, we discovered it nigh-on unimaginable to truly get it exported.
Fortunately, my colleague Will Judd and his spouse Stella visited China a few months again and managed to safe one – however even then, it required liaising with an area PC store, getting a whole prebuilt system shipped from elsewhere in China after which stripping the board out in preparation for its return journey to the UK. So, due to Will, Stella and certainly Fidler_2K for making this venture potential.
The place to start with 4800S Desktop Equipment testing, although? Earlier than having enjoyable with gameplay, I assumed I might do some fundamental benchmarks stacking it up towards the mainstream CPU we use as a matter in fact in our PC gaming evaluations – the now-classic Ryzen 5 3600. CineBench R20 offers us an 1184 level single thread rating on the 3600, and an 1148 rating on the 4800S – so the 4800S is barely outdoors of margin of error there by way of the differentials, which isn’t shocking as each are Zen 2 processors with comparable single core turbos. On multicore scores, the 4800S has extra cores and due to this fact the next rating – 10539 vs 8113 on the 3600.
Nonetheless, the most important impression to efficiency goes to be within the reminiscence system. A regular desktop CPU is paired with SDRAM modules that you simply select your self and insert into the motherboard. The 4800S desktop package comes with GDDR6 on the board. This reminiscence is often used for graphics functions, not CPU. Bandwidth is massively greater which is an efficient factor, however latency – the time taken for entry – can also be greater, which is most definitely not an excellent factor. On prime of that, the console CPUs, and in flip the 4800S, have rather a lot much less onboard cache than AMD’s Ryzen chips. You’ll be able to see how that pans out within the graphs under.
Throughout the entire benchmark, the 3600’s a lot bigger cache presents far greater ranges of bandwidth and, as the scale of the transfers will increase, the 4800S cannot preserve tempo because it runs out of cache and has to drop again to the reminiscence modules. Nonetheless, one thing fascinating occurs when the transfers break by means of the cache restrict of the Ryzen 5 3600. Now it is the 4800S taking level, with GDDR6 reminiscence providing nigh-on twice the extent of bandwidth supplied by the G.Ability 3200MT/s CL16 reminiscence. Sadly, latency is problematic, because the graphs display – regardless of how massive the scale of the switch.
Earlier than we go on, some phrases of warning in how the info must be interpreted. On a fundamental stage, we must always get some thought of the horsepower accessible to builders for his or her console titles. Nonetheless, equally, we have to settle for that consoles are very totally different beasts. The Xbox CPU is out of its pure habitat. So, simply on a superficial stage, the Xbox CPU and GPU are built-in into the identical chip – there isn’t any must ship out graphics instructions and information over a PCI Categorical slot as we do on PC. On prime of that, the character of improvement on console and PC may be very totally different: for Xbox Collection machines, we must always anticipate builders to tailor their CPU code to the fastened platform Microsoft has developed for them. On PC, video games must work on a plethora of various {hardware}.
On the flipside, this PC model of the Xbox Collection X CPU has some benefits over the console set-up. With SMT lively – which means eight cores and 16 threads – the console operates the CPU at a flat 3.6GHz, with one core held in reserve for OS stage capabilities. On the AMD 4800S Desktop Equipment, the CPU acts extra like a normal Zen 2 processor in that clocks are variable. Sometimes, it appears to run all cores at round 4.0GHz like the opposite Zen 2 processors we have examined. That is a circa 11 p.c enhance to hurry, and Home windows may also entry all eight cores and 16 threads. There is no such thing as a OS reservation right here.
So, in abstract, we could get a ballpark indication of the CPU horsepower accessible to console builders in comparison with different processors, however extra precisely, what we’re undoubtedly getting are the outcomes of PC variations of console video games operating in a Home windows 11 surroundings. Even so, I belief you will discover the next pages fairly fascinating!
