Xbox One S WON’T offer a performance advantage, but WILL upscale games to 4K

Microsoft has denied claims that some games will perform better on Xbox One S than they do on the existing Xbox One.

Yesterday Gears of War 4 boss Rod Fergusson stated that the new machine boasts slightly improved CPU and GPU performance, and that in turn will allow the Coalition shooter to better handle its dynamic resolution system.

However, Xbox’s Albert Penello has denied this to Eurogamer, insisting that the slimmed-down console is designed to run games precisely the same as the existing Xbox One.

"When we made changes to the box for 4K we unlocked a little bit more processing power to enable HDR. That’s it. It’s exactly the same architecture as the existing one," he said. "To support HDR, we give people access to a little more CPU and GPU. That’s it. It is so insignificant it is mind boggling it is being picked up.

"I promise, it won’t even show up. It will have no impact on games at all. Literally no impact. They will be identical. It’s nothing, it is literally nothing."

Elsewhere, it has been confirmed that while the Xbox One S doesn’t support 4K gaming, it will upscale 1080p games to 4K.

We’ll upscale anything you have, games, other things that aren’t [4K], we’ll upscale them to 4K as well,” Xbox’s US marketing boss Aaron Greenberg told IGN, as reported by Videogamer. We’re taking advantage of a lot of the great benefits of technology that’s happening today, whether it’s gaming or video, and at the same time reducing the size of the box as well."

4K TVs are already designed to upscale 1080p, 720p or even standard def video into 4K, so whether the Xbox One S will do a better job than this largely depends on your TV.