Any advantage of Series X on a 1080p TV?

[AkimboCurly]

There was a recent (19th sept) article on Eurogamer discussing the Series S back compat which kind of nullifies what I said earlier, as it was more detailed than the video released a few weeks ago. I argued that basically Series S has sub-1080p back compat across the board.

In reality it seems that that is only true for Xbox One games that ran without dynamic resolution. Xbox Original games that ran at 480p are scaled 3x3 and now can run at 1440p. For the Series X they would scale 4x4 and run at something like 2560x1920 depending on the aspect ratio.

So, for instance, Fuzion Frenzy (Xbox) will run at 16x original resolution on Series X, but 9x Original resolution on Series S. This will likely be difficult to notice on a 1080p screen. Done at emulator level

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360) will run at 16x original resolution on Series X (4x4), taking it from 720p up to 2160p UHD, like it did on the One X. On Series S it will run at four times original resolution, aka 1440p. But the Xbox One X enhancements, which included HDR and a touch of optimisation, will be replaced on Series S with automatic enhancements, which are basically "Auto-HDR" done by machine learning and faster loading via velocity. Whereas Series X gets these pre-existing enhancements, which may be noticeable on the 1080p screen. Done at emulator level.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Xbox One) will run at full 4k on Series X but at 864p on Series S - the same as Xbox One S. The game featured HDR to begin with, and has no dynamic resolution, so without a developer patch, the game will only benefit from faster load times and better framerates - nothing else. The Series X would get the One X enhancements which is 4k, plus extra visual effects. Easy to notice difference on 1080p screen. Played natively - not by emulator.

Halo 5 (Xbox One) will run at full 4k on Series X, with all the One X enhancements, and will run 1080p on Series S (again, unless it gets a manual patch). This is because Halo had a dynamic resolution so it should hit 1080p without much trouble, plus some nice HDR and anisotropic filtering. Series X will still look much better because the 1080p boost will not change other relevant graphical features like draw distances, for instance.

Battlefield 4 (Xbox One). Will look exactly the same on Series S and Series X. It had no One X enhancements, and currently runs at 900p on all xbox consoles. It is unlikely that it gets a patch, being from 2013. So basically expect 900p/60fps and Auto HDR and faster load times. The only hope for Series consoles here is that "velocity architecture" comes into play, which claims to be able to boost resolutions in Xbox One games without altering code, even though this isn't done at the emulator level. But i'm super sceptical of that so... yeah.

TL;DR. The biggest differences on a 1080p screen will come from Xbox One games. I don't trust the "velocity architecture" to change framerates automatically so consider that a bonus on Xbox One games if it ever materialises. But i'm sceptical of its plausibility since many games tie gameplay to framerates, and it isn't done through emulation. 360 and OG Xbox emulation will be nigh-on identical on a 1080p screen. Series X becomes relevant at 1080p only for unpatched Xbox One games, then. So you should be set with a Series S on a 1080p screen from my viewpoint.