We analyze the counter-budgets to face the Microsoft Project Scorpio shown by Xataka and El Chapuzas Informático and present our alternative.
This week we have seen how Microsoft's Project Scorpio console has been officially presented. The specifications of this console are a custom processor based on the AMD Jaguar architecture, quite obsolete, a graphics card with 40 Compute Units, of which nothing more has been said, 12GB GDDR5 shared between the processor and the graphics card and a unit of 1tB and 2.5 ”mechanical hard disk. They are components, which we have analyzed and it seems quite outdated, considering Intel Skylake and Kaby Lake and AMD Ryzen processors.
What has become more relevant by Microsoft is that this console is capable of moving games in 4K @ 60FPS, but of course, the doubt we have is that if the graphic computing is in 1080p and it is scaled up to 4K or does it actually run in 4K, which seems complicated. Shortly after the presentation, Xataka showed a budget for a team that according to them should exceed the console, but which is based on 4K resolutions and for this we currently need an NVIDIA GTX 1080 graphics card, at least.
Regarding the budget of Xataka, we consider that several towns have passed, since an i7 7700K processor It is excessive, but they have made an unforgivable mistake and that is to install an i7 7700K on a motherboard with Z170 chipset. The Skylake motherboard supports Kaby Lake processors, although we need to update the BIOS and we would lose PCIe lanes and other features. We move on to RAM, which have opted for the same as us, but double the capacity, specifically the Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB, which is ideal for such a team.
As a hard drive they have opted for a Crucial MX300 1TB SSD, something that is stupid, since with a smaller capacity unit and a mechanical hard drive as a secondary we have more than enough and it is recommended. Xataka's budget does not specify a power supply, therefore we should add at least € 150 between power supply and chassis, at least. Thanks to the GTX 1070 we could play at 4K @ 60 FPS, in a stable way.
Xataka's budget is excessive, but it is an option. The El Chapuzas Informático portal has presented a counterproposal.
Regarding the budget, we have to agree on Pentium G4560 processor, which we have analyzed and offers excellent performance and the MSI H110 PRO-D motherboard is a very good option in our opinion. We agree on the amount of RAM, 8GB, but we have opted for about 2666MHz, while El Chapuzas has opted for 2133MHz. Regarding the graphics card, they have opted for an AMD Sapphire Nitro PLUS RX 480 OC, how could it be otherwise, although we have opted for the MSI GTX 1060 ARMOR OCV that offers similar performance. Tower and power supply are fine.
We have detected several problems in the budget. The first is that no hard drive is set. We think that they will have opted for an HDD, but since it is not clarified, we consider it a mistake of a person who is not a magician, but who does magic, removing the hard disk drive. It seems that the calculator does not handle it correctly, since the budget amounts to € 559, but we have done the sum and it comes out for € 512, almost € 50 less, which is what a mechanical hard drive costs.
We must bear in mind that the Microsoft console is that, a machine designed to play and little else, while a computer offers us many more options in addition to gaming, such as office tasks (important for a student), photo editing, video and many others that a console does not offer. The three solutions are good and we consider that playing 4K today, if not with a television, is not viable, since the monitors are priced out of the market, while for € 120 we can find a 1080 ”24p monitor , something that in 4K goes from € 300.
Engadget has been wrong, but its budget allows playing at 4K @ 60FPS, something that the RX 480 cannot do, unfortunately, be careful, it also depends on the game and how well optimized it is.