Xbox Series S specs just leaked — and they're pretty impressive

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Xbox Series S will be a reasonably capable budget games console

Xbox Series S concept design
(Image credit: Reddit - u/jiveduder)

Specs of the Xbox Series S have been leaked revealing a console that will target 1440p resolution gaming at 60 frames per second, despite its reduced power compared to the Xbox Series X. 

The Verge’s Tom Warren tweeted that the Xbox Series S will have 20 compute units - something he’s hinted at before - and noted they will run at 1.55GHz, which TweakTown combined with other leaked information it’s gathered to create a detailed look into the supposed specs of the Xbox Series S. While the Series S will have the same eight-core, 16-thread Zen 2 architecture CPU as the Series X, it will have a less powerful GPU, delivering four teraflops of graphical power compared to the Series X’s 12 teraflops. 

Give the Xbox One X - currently the world’s most powerful games console - has six teraflops of GPU power and 40CUs, the Xbox Series S could look rather underpowered in comparison. The Series S is also tipped to have 10GB of video memory compared to the Xbox One X’s 12GB.

However, with the new Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU architecture and faster GDDR6 VRAM compared to the One X’s GDDR5, the Xbox Series S could still be the more powerful console given it’ll be running more advanced hardware. 

And targeting a 1440p resolution seems sensible for the Xbox Series S, as that can then be up-mixed to a form of virtual 4K resolution using a technique called checkerboard rendering. This is something the PS4 Pro applies to good effect in some of its latest games. 

As such, if you have a 4K television, you’ll not likely be forced to get an Xbox Series X for 4K gaming, though it will be the machine to get if you want to see next-generation games in all their glory. 

TweakTown’s report then confirmed a lot of details we’ve already heard and postulated around the Xbox Series S. For example, it will be a digital-only console with no Blu-ray drive, allowing for it to be offered at a lower retail price than the Xbox Series X. We’re not sure how much cheaper the Xbox Series S will be compared to it powerful sibling, but some rumors have suggested it could be half the price, so could potentially range between $200 and $300. 

There was no word, however, on the storage space we can expect the Xbox Series S to have other than it will sport a PCIe 4,0 SSD; as it’s a digital-only console we’d expect it to have 1TB of storage given modern games can take up a lot of space. 

The Xbox Series S is expected to be revealed at some point this August, though Microsoft hasn’t mentioned a date for its next Xbox event. Regardless, with increasing amounts of leaks, it looks like the Xbox Series S is indeed on its way. 

Roland Moore-Colyer
Roland Moore-Colyer

Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he’s also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.