Anandtech's Xbox360 Falcon Dissection and Power Consumption Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Anandtech's Xbox360 Falcon Dissection and Power Consumption Posted by XanTium | November 16 17:02 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From anandtech.com: [QUOTE] It's amazing how little has actually changed with the internal design of the console, obviously some components have changed (e.g. DRAM) but the general layout remains the same after two years. Here's what's interesting: the CPU, GPU and eDRAM die all seem to have gotten smaller, but at different rates. The CPU sees the biggest reduction in size, the new core being about 75% the size of the old one, while both GPU components are around 85% the size of their predecessors. It's possible that all three chips are now 65nm, or a mixture of 65nm and 80nm (TSMC's 80nm half-node process was used in ATI's R600 GPU). Needless to say, the chips are all smaller, which should yield some nice power savings. The power savings of the new Xbox are dramatic: Playing Halo 3 on the new Falcon consumes less power than the old Xbox 360 just sitting idle at the dashboard. [/QUOTE] Full Story: anandtech.com (6 pages)

[metalcoat]

40+ watts savings, not bad. Any power savings is good.

[Martinchris23]

Overall a very interesting read. I understood that the new falcon only had a smaller CPU: from the images and the data collected, it seems a lot more has happened here.

[88 Ecko Unltd 88]

that pretty good. 43 watts less then the original 360

[Shonk]

thats pretty well timed

i was gona post about this tonight
my uncle got a arcade today and i set it up for him

Thats sitting in the dash
my 360's use 139 in the dash



This post has been edited by Shonk: Nov 17 2007, 12:02 AM

[twistedsymphony]

while gaming the new console draws less power than the old one at idle...

IMO that's pretty impressive.

[Tony42077]

30% power reduction is pretty impressive. I just picked up one of these for a buddy and modded the Benq DVD (lot 0737 team FDOU). I wish I wasn't so nice of a guy, it'd be nice to switch out w/ my v1 banned box as he said he wasn't ever planning on using Live. Damn my upbringing!

Now all we need is some temperature comparisons with these muthas!

[Reikon]

Huh? ArcsTechnica != Anandtech.

[UB6_IB9]

Are the new falcon motherboards out now? How do you know you are getting one? When will they be released in Australia?

[nachomans]

Also the new power supply says 175W instead of 203w oh the original power supply.

And...is has one plastic bar instead of two...so..its impossible to use a new power supply on an old x360..

[omar_rawashdeh]

Interesting read.

I am trying to find one here locally , wasn't aware that they sneaked the smaller process gpu in there as well, However I didn't hear any plans of 80nm ( most prob) gpu's , I thought they would just jump down to 65nm.

My guess is that they are correct and the gpu is 80 nm vs 65. Because 65 requires a redesign/ lots of tweaking while 80 nm is easily achievable with a few tweaks.

This should keep things a bit cooler until 65 nm gpu's hit at end of 08 as they are currently planning

[The Prankster]

That's pretty astonishing statistics there. I'm also wondering how you'd know if you got a falcon motherboard. Is there any way to tell without opening the packaging? Like just walk into Best Buy and look at it quick to determine? Who knows.

[scuba156]

why dont you read the whole article? it tells you how to find out if its a falcon by looking at the box

[codecxbox]

Wouldnt it be easier to just stick a fan to the GPU heatsink? Smaller IC's dies means much tighter electronic specs, like low loss data lines, something that MS didnt learn very well from major motherboards manufacturers. I do hope there will be less problems?

This post has been edited by codecxbox: Nov 17 2007, 08:59 AM

[steveju]

Wouldnt it be easier to just stick a fan to the GPU heatsink?

Didn't you read the article? Where would you place this fan of yours? At the back of the console? Oh wait...