Xbox Series S “Lockhart” GPU specs leak: 1280 shader core Navi GPU slower than Xbox One X, AMD Radeon 5500XT - can it really do 1080p/60 FPS?

New details have just emerged about the GPU used in the Xbox Series S “Lockhart.” Microsoft’s purported entry level 9th generation console is set to feature 20 RDNA CUs, meaning 1280 shader cores. This compares favourably with AMD’s Radeon RX 5500XT graphics card in the PC space, which features a 22 CU configuration with 1408 shaders.

If earlier rumors claiming that Lockhart would deliver 4 TFLOPs of compute are correct, this would mean that the Xbox Series S’s GPU might be running at substantially lower clockspeeds than the Xbox Series X GPU and, indeed, other Navi parts. 

The leaked specs make it clear that Lockhart will be targeting mainstream 1080p displays. However, even if that is the case, the conservative numbers here raise some questions.

Lockhart’s GPU looks to be 15-20 percent slower than AMD’s entry-level RX 5500XT, with lower clocks and a lower CU count. The RX 5500XT itself has a tough time running a number of current-gen titles at 1080p 60 FPS, without dropping settings. Borderlands 3, for instance, runs below 50 FPS. 

During the “cross-gen” period, Lockhart might not have trouble delivering on its 1080p/60 FPS promise. However, once developers start leaving behind the Xbox One and Xbox One X, when games like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 become the ninth-gen norm, graphics features might have to be toned down considerably on Lockhart. We might even see a return to sub-1080p rendering.