XBOX Project Helix Reportedly Reaches 56Teraflops at 3GHz

Recent leaks suggest that XBOXProject Helix will launch with a bigger chip and better GPU performance than the PlayStation 6. According to the numbers, compute performance differs. Other hardware details hint that the next-generation XBOX will have faster GPUs and more compute units.

By now, it's almost common knowledge that XBOX Project Helix will be a more powerful console than PlayStation 6. Several leaks from Kepler L2 and Tom of Moore’s Law Is Dead have mentioned this, but they never really discussed the consoles' performance.

XBOX Project Helix Reportedly Reaches 56 Teraflops

There's information out there that the XBOX Project Helix chip will be around 40% bigger than the PlayStation 6 chip, but size doesn’t always tell the whole story about performance. Now we’ve got some new information on the theoretical performance of these consoles, and according to Kepler L2, PlayStation 6 will offer around 40 teraflops and XBOX Project Helix around 56 teraflops.

So, that’s actually quite a hefty difference. And by the way, it looks like the 40% bigger chip in this particular case may actually translate into 40% more performance. Now, obviously, we’re talking about theoretical performance. We’re talking about mathematical computational performance, not real-life performance.

Another exciting part of this leak is that many people on forums have calculated possible GPU clock speeds. That’s pretty exciting because we've talked about that topic before. XBOX could potentially run the GPU at around 3GHz because it's actually bigger, and that looks to be the case.

By the way, another interesting piece of information is that Kepler L2 confirmed that both PlayStation 6 and XBOX Project Helix chips have been taped out. That means they are pretty much ready for production. There could still be some testing, but the fact that these chips are almost complete strongly suggests the next-generation consoles will launch late next year.

PlayStation 6 and XBOX Project Helix May Not Use Dual Issue

As for performance, the fact that PlayStation 6 will offer 40 teraflops doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. A leak reported two days ago said the PlayStation 6 was supposed to have around 80 teraflops if it offered dual-issue technology. If we were to go by these numbers: teraflops and the number of compute units.

To be honest, it looks like the next-generation XBOX won't offer that either. This is just speculation, but if XBOX were going to run at 3GHz and offer 68 compute units, and it offered dual-issue technology, it would probably offer way more than 56teraflops, probably close to 100teraflops. So, it looks like both manufacturers, Sony and Microsoft, decided not to go with dual-issue.

These dual-issue capabilities and all these teraflops may be better for other computationally heavy tasks, like AI. That doesn’t mean they would not be good for gaming. Apparently, drivers were fixed, and instructions were added to take better advantage of it, but those instructions were for this generation and the last one.

Teraflops Are Not the Only Performance Factor

Going back to the teraflops, teraflops are not everything. We still have to consider other parts of the system, including the CPU and memory, memory bandwidth, and tools. We hope XBOX will prepare the tools for the next generation, and that developers will be ready and fully equipped with everything they need to create a game and port it for XBOX Project Helix.

Otherwise, all this extra power will go to waste. The most important takeaway from the teraflops figure, although it is not officially confirmed, is that the next-generation XBOX will very likely run at 3GHz or close to it. That’s a massive uplift compared to the Xbox Series X, which runs at 1.8GHz versus around 3GHz.

The current Xbox Series X offers around 52, 54, or possibly 56 compute units, so the next generation will have more. Generally speaking, it looks like Microsoft won't make the same mistakes again. In real performance, these teraflops are useful and look good in a thumbnail.

The next-generation XBOX will also have far more compute units.

Digital Foundry recently discussed one reason the Xbox Series X had issues, especially early in this generation. Tools were one thing, but another factor was that the Xbox Series X was clocked pretty low at 1.8GHz versus 2.2GHz for PlayStation 5. Xbox Series X chip was bigger and more powerful, but slower.

Not many game engines at the time, especially at the very beginning of this generation, were taking advantage of that. Now it’s different because developers have started optimizing for Xbox Series X better. But higher clock speeds would help Xbox Series X tremendously. Not only would it have more teraflops, but it would simply be faster and run games better.

It includes a powerful CPU, more memory, and a big GPU, and it is also clocked high. So, it looks like a full package is coming in the next generation. The information still needs confirmation, but the reported 56 teraflops, 68 compute units, and a potential 3GHz GPU clock suggest what the hardware could deliver.