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'Jasper' Xbox 360s begin shipping?

30 September 2008 12:21 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 30 comments

According to the Xbox 360 DVD Drive Database, the new 'Jasper' Xbox 360s have begun shipping as of August in the UK and in the US.

The 'Jasper' hardware revision is the shrinking of the GPU from a 90nm chip to a 65nm chip which the company hopes will keep the system cooler and significantly reduce the now infamous 'red ring of death', the sign that your 360 needs to be replaced.

Overall, Microsoft has spent $1 billion USD in replacing 360s that have failed (mainly from overheating) which has dipped into profits the software maker is making on the console.

The database says the Arcade model is shipping with the Jasper revisions in the UK, the US and other countries around Europe. A new update marked this week shows the Elite model shipping to the US with the Jasper revisions.

Permalink to this article | Topic: Consoles

'Jasper' Xbox 360s finally available (30 November 2008)

"New Xbox Experience" coming November 19th (9 October 2008)

Japanese videogame sales fall sharply (5 October 2008)

Xbox 360 outselling PS3 two-to-one, says Microsoft (30 September 2008)

US Xbox 360 pricecuts coming across the board? (3 August 2008)

65nm Xbox 360s coming in August? (8 May 2008)

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chubbyInc (Member) 1 October 2008 0:32
Jasper for the Elite too? Has anyone reported problems about the Elite, I thought it was only the 20GB model that had issues. I've went through 2 of them already. @ Hunt720 Yes the PS3 has a Blu-Ray drive and some other features, currently I can't say which one has the better graphics, because my PS3 is running on HDMI and my xbox is on Component. PS3 seems to be a very sturdy machine, but the quality of the games are the pits. For anyone to compare Resistance FoM to Gears of War is nuts, Resistance was a horrible game, Haze is a horrible game, the only exclusive which looked good is MGS4. So maybe they should spend more time on the quality of the games. And both systems should get some more 2 or 4 person games and I don't mean online! [ + quote]
DXR88 (Senior Member) 1 October 2008 1:00
*Originally posted by chubbyInc:* Jasper for the Elite too? Has anyone reported problems about the Elite, I thought it was only the 20GB model that had issues. I've went through 2 of them already. @ Hunt720 Yes the PS3 has a Blu-Ray drive and some other features, currently I can't say which one has the better graphics, because my PS3 is running on HDMI and my xbox is on Component. PS3 seems to be a very sturdy machine, but the quality of the games are the pits. For anyone to compare Resistance FoM to Gears of War is nuts, Resistance was a horrible game, Haze is a horrible game, the only exclusive which looked good is MGS4. So maybe they should spend more time on the quality of the games. And both systems should get some more 2 or 4 person games and I don't mean online! Xbox looks real nice on a PC Monitor, you should try it. if you dont share your box that is. The smaller GPU isn't going to do much. with all that room in the case u'd think they would ad a internal blower. that would reduce heat greatly. the other thing the could do is separate the heat pipes, and the heat plates. i have had mine since launch i noticed a lot of bad case designing. 2 years ago i modded mine. talismoon fan, Crystal blue case. no problems. [ + quote]
DoomLight (Newbie) 1 October 2008 1:09
*Originally posted by Hunt720:* I think Sonys strategy involves quality instead of quanity. Why drop price on the only next gen console that offers ALL of the next gen features within the markets failure rate standards. To drop price just because your competitor is struggling to provide a quality machine that is worth a next gen price just undercuts the basic fact that a PS3 is capable of soo much more than the 360 in every department relevant to the current console generation. And as far as GOW (which looks cool) and fable 2, The ps3 has a stronger line up this holiday hands down with KZ2, RFOM2, and LBP alone. those games suck are you crazy? Killzone2 and Resitance are nothing compared to the killer line up of Microsoft. and im not even a fan boy. but realistically man. Little Big Planet looks lame and might be fun if ur an ADHD child with the attention span of a gnat. sony must of paid you to say that. cause its so false. maybe next year sony might have enough 3rd party support to get out some good software. but as of this holiday season. its just not a posibility. [ + quote]
chubbyInc (Member) 1 October 2008 1:09
I tried fan mods with my first Xbox, don't recommend anyone do that if they are worried about RLOD probably won't get a replacement. I retired my LCD monitor about a year ago, Use my Samsung 52" LCD for PC and Gaming. Got a VGA Port on the TV, so considering I don't have HDMI on my Xbox I'll try the VGA cable. 3 HDMI ports are taken up already anyways by the PC, PS3 and DVD player. :) [ + quote]
lxhotboy (Member) 1 October 2008 1:33
*Originally posted by Hunt720:* I think Sonys strategy involves quality instead of quanity. Why drop price on the only next gen console that offers ALL of the next gen features within the markets failure rate standards. To drop price just because your competitor is struggling to provide a quality machine that is worth a next gen price just undercuts the basic fact that a PS3 is capable of soo much more than the 360 in every department relevant to the current console generation. And as far as GOW (which looks cool) and fable 2, The ps3 has a stronger line up this holiday hands down with KZ2, RFOM2, and LBP alone. First....you have got to be kidding me with the quality line. That's a joke right. I would be better just to admitt though both systems have some great exclusives we all know were the majority of them are. If i had a dollar for every person who had said they own both the ps3 and xbox360 and play the xbox360 more i would be as rich man. Second....Why drop the price??? Who do you mean Nintendo??? B/c they are the only other company that can afford to drop the price of their console if they choose to and i dont see it happening while Wii's sell like hotcakes. Sony invest a lot of money into each console with production cost. They dont drop the price b.c they honesty can not afford to. Blueray and cell and expensive. Third....The PS3 may be capable of who knows what but currently is it doing anything that make it a better than the xbox360. Surely not graphics are they are pretty much even... oh yeah... wait. The PS3 is the thing most people use just to watch Blueray movies. Thats sad....But then the online experience did make me laugh for the week i had his PS3. So i guess it did serve some entertainment. Last....as far as the lineup of games we will have to wait and see but i do remind you that besides MGS4 sony hasnot had too many games with great reviews lately. Haze was so hyped and fell flat on its face. [ + quote]
gnovak1 (Junior Member) 1 October 2008 10:47
My brother is a PS3 fanboy, has been all his life. He now owns both the PS3 and the XBOX 360. He says how surprised he is how much better the graphics are on the 360 as compared to the PS3. He admits the 360 games look better and the 360 has better quality games including Halo and Gears of War. Looks like the my bro is turning into a 360 fanboy now !! [ + quote]
lxfactor (Senior Member) 1 October 2008 13:25
*Originally posted by gnovak1:* My brother is a PS3 fanboy, has been all his life. He now owns both the PS3 and the XBOX 360. He says how surprised he is how much better the graphics are on the 360 as compared to the PS3. He admits the 360 games look better and the 360 has better quality games including Halo and Gears of War. Looks like the my bro is turning into a 360 fanboy now !! i dont think anyone cares.. its preference.. they are both good consoles.. [ + quote]
warriorp (Junior Member) 1 October 2008 17:19
*Quote:* *Originally posted by gnovak1:* My brother is a PS3 fanboy, has been all his life. He now owns both the PS3 and the XBOX 360. He says how surprised he is how much better the graphics are on the 360 as compared to the PS3. He admits the 360 games look better and the 360 has better quality games including Halo and Gears of War. Looks like the my bro is turning into a 360 fanboy now !! i dont think anyone cares.. its preference.. they are both good consoles.. lol! [ + quote]
cdman2005 (Newbie) 1 October 2008 18:55
i think that the ps3 has more potential than the x360 to be a very good console, but i do agree the 360 now has a huge game selection that blows the ps3 out of the water and right now that makes it a better console. i have a ps3 but i want to get 360. i am just afraid that ill play it for a week then ill get the red lights and be out of the system for a few weeks. ill probably end up waiting till the eliminate that problem before i get one. [ + quote]
Spartan28 (Member) 1 October 2008 19:25
What is up with you people and your RROD Phobia? Your missing out on some great games and if it does get RROD theres warranty for 3 years. [ + quote]
canuckerz (Senior Member) 1 October 2008 22:37
*Originally posted by Hunt720:* I think Sonys strategy involves quality instead of quanity. Why drop price on the only next gen console that offers ALL of the next gen features within the markets failure rate standards. To drop price just because your competitor is struggling to provide a quality machine that is worth a next gen price just undercuts the basic fact that a PS3 is capable of soo much more than the 360 in every department relevant to the current console generation. And as far as GOW (which looks cool) and fable 2, The ps3 has a stronger line up this holiday hands down with KZ2, RFOM2, and LBP alone. Dude wrong place for this, and look at the snowball effect it started. Don't feed the fanboys, whether they're Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo. I'm sure I'm not the only one tired of sifting through comments to find something interesting and actually pertaining to the articles. Think of it this way, if what people have or are doing doesn't effect you in any way why must we constantly start crap with each other. Everything has goods and bads, if you have what you want stop pestering your neighbors. I'm not aiming this specifically at you Hunt but towards this problem in general. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 1 October 2008 22:39
lxhotboy (Member) 1 October 2008 22:47
*Quote:* *Originally posted by gnovak1:* My brother is a PS3 fanboy, has been all his life. He now owns both the PS3 and the XBOX 360. He says how surprised he is how much better the graphics are on the 360 as compared to the PS3. He admits the 360 games look better and the 360 has better quality games including Halo and Gears of War. Looks like the my bro is turning into a 360 fanboy now !! i dont think anyone cares.. its preference.. they are both good consoles.. True they are both good consoles and its is preference...It is also most peoples preference to play the xbox360 more often than their PS3 and if it doesnot interest you then dont post. [ + quote]
rvinkebob (Member) 1 October 2008 23:24
*Originally posted by DoomLight:* those games suck are you crazy? Killzone2 and Resitance are nothing compared to the killer line up of Microsoft. and im not even a fan boy. but realistically man. Little Big Planet looks lame and might be fun if ur an ADHD child with the attention span of a gnat. sony must of paid you to say that. cause its so false. maybe next year sony might have enough 3rd party support to get out some good software. but as of this holiday season. its just not a posibility. Has anyone ever bothered quoting DoomLight's BS? "im not a fanboy" is false. They all suck? Really? If you hate Sony, you don't have a PS3, and have at most, only watched videos of the games that suck. Maybe you should play them, then make an inference. Oh and as soon as the 360 60GB drops to $200 CDN, I'm picking one up with VGA cables. It can do 1024x768, right? Cause I don't want to have to see stretched video on my monitor. [ + quote]
DXR88 (Senior Member) 2 October 2008 0:33
*Quote:* Has anyone ever bothered quoting DoomLight's BS? "im not a fanboy" is false. They all suck? Really? If you hate Sony, you don't have a PS3, and have at most, only watched videos of the games that suck. Maybe you should play them, then make an inference. Oh and as soon as the 360 60GB drops to $200 CDN, I'm picking one up with VGA cables. It can do 1024x768, right? Cause I don't want to have to see stretched video on my monitor. it can do 1920x1080 only if your console has a HDMI port. the reason why is because of the pinout the the Xbox by itsself does 640x480 848x480 1024x768 1280x720 1280x768 1280x1024 1360x768 [ + quote]
lxhotboy (Member) 2 October 2008 14:20
*Quote:* *Quote:* Has anyone ever bothered quoting DoomLight's BS? "im not a fanboy" is false. They all suck? Really? If you hate Sony, you don't have a PS3, and have at most, only watched videos of the games that suck. Maybe you should play them, then make an inference. Oh and as soon as the 360 60GB drops to $200 CDN, I'm picking one up with VGA cables. It can do 1024x768, right? Cause I don't want to have to see stretched video on my monitor. it can do 1920x1080 only if your console has a HDMI port. the reason why is because of the pinout the the Xbox by itsself does 640x480 848x480 1024x768 1280x720 1280x768 1280x1024 1360x768 I thought the xbox360 could do 1920x1080 without the HDMI. Mine came with the HD component cables and i have a lcd set that displays picture at 1080p and 1080i. Also have an HDMI cable that i recently started using and their isnot much difference in the picture. You have to really look hard to notice diff between components and HDMI. There a small diff but i am not sure it is really worth investing the money into an expensive HDMI cable since you get the HD component cables free. [ + quote]
SProdigy (Member) 2 October 2008 16:13
I also thought that the non-HDMI version of the 360 could to 1080p and that they had a software update for it; however, it only worked if you had a VGA cable. [ + quote]
getbrian (Newbie) 2 October 2008 19:26
No news since May, BUT, another thing we're all still waiting for is the Xbox360 Blu-Ray Drive!!! Check these links.....(NOTE: All my links are in RED): Xbox 360 Blu-ray console shipping by September? Sony "in talks" with Microsoft about a Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive I was one of those that bought the 360's HD-Drive at $169 just months before the plug was pulled on HD format. Then the drive price tanked to $35. Probably my fault for not keeping up on the news but I was in the middle of moving...oh, well. Maybe related though....Blu-Ray drive prices are dropping fast and broad. Sony AND Panasonic price drops were all over the news within the last couple days....but Sony is the important one I think. Sony's Blu-Ray drive price cuts could be in part related to an upcoming and unannounced Blu-Ray 360 Drive, PLUS Apple wants BD-R (NOT just Blu-ray / DVD�RW) in their Notebooks and likely Desktops as well. THIS ARTICLE and THIS ARTICLE sum it up with links all over the place. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 2 October 2008 21:32
DXR88 (Senior Member) 2 October 2008 21:36
*Originally posted by SProdigy:* I also thought that the non-HDMI version of the 360 could to 1080p and that they had a software update for it; however, it only worked if you had a VGA cable. No, it can do 1080i, it only does 1080p if you have a hdmi port. So its really a mute issue, for most people. [ + quote]
rvinkebob (Member) 2 October 2008 23:25
*Originally posted by DXR88:* No, it can do 1080i, it only does 1080p if you have a hdmi port. So its really a mute issue, for most people. I favor 720p over 1080i and 1080p in cases where the TV is too small or where 720p is sharper. 1080p is a little much for now but I think it'll fit in perfectly as a good medium when the next next-gen systems come around, a few years from now. Do you think it'll take a year for the 360 60GB to drop? [ + quote]
rvinkebob (Member) 2 October 2008 23:26
*Originally posted by rvinkebob:* *Originally posted by DXR88:* No, it can do 1080i, it only does 1080p if you have a hdmi port. So its really a mute issue, for most people. I favor 720p over 1080i and 1080p in cases where the TV is too small or where 720p is sharper. 1080p is a little much for now but I think it'll fit in perfectly as a good medium when the next next-gen systems come around, a few years from now. Do you think it'll take a year for the 360 60GB to drop in price? [ + quote]
rvinkebob (Member) 2 October 2008 23:27
Timeout. Sorry about the dup. [ + quote]
DXR88 (Senior Member) 3 October 2008 0:46
*Originally posted by rvinkebob:* *Originally posted by DXR88:* No, it can do 1080i, it only does 1080p if you have a hdmi port. So its really a mute issue, for most people. I favor 720p over 1080i and 1080p in cases where the TV is too small or where 720p is sharper. 1080p is a little much for now but I think it'll fit in perfectly as a good medium when the next next-gen systems come around, a few years from now. Do you think it'll take a year for the 360 60GB to drop? That's why i said its a mute issue, in a sense its vga im sure your not going to hook up your 40+ inch plasma tv to a vga. No, i think it may drop, right before Christmas. What better way to get the old units out, course it will be advertised as a store discount. i think the 60 gig units will remain at the current price tag for a good 1 year or longer. anyway the 65nm Graphic Processing Unit, should cut down on production cost. the 90nm tech is for the AIW 9600's [ + quote]
Jemborg (Member) 5 October 2008 10:23
Oh god, true native 1080p looks great- but we will have to wait till the next gen of consoles for that. meanwhile the 360's scalar chip does a fair job of upscaling so there is no taxing the GPU or CPU when outputting in 1080p. Not everyone has a small screen, I sure as hell don't. Also to those expecting any major change in noise from the new units... the noisiness comes from the optical drive not the fans unfortunately. Shame because it sounds like a bloody jet aircraft. [ + quote]
Jemborg (Member) 5 October 2008 10:36
Probably the best solution for noise is an extra long HDMI cable (expensive) and sticking the unit in the next room...door closed :). [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 5 October 2008 10:39
lxhotboy (Member) 6 October 2008 7:07
*Originally posted by Jemborg:* Oh god, true native 1080p looks great- but we will have to wait till the next gen of consoles for that. meanwhile the 360's scalar chip does a fair job of upscaling so there is no taxing the GPU or CPU when outputting in 1080p. Not everyone has a small screen, I sure as hell don't. Also to those expecting any major change in noise from the new units... the noisiness comes from the optical drive not the fans unfortunately. Shame because it sounds like a bloody jet aircraft. Probably the best solution for noise is an extra long HDMI cable (expensive) and sticking the unit in the next room...door closed :). LMAO... I have always had a problem with the loudness of the xbox360. I am a nightowl. When my wife goes to sleep i would generally move xbox360 into another room to keep from disturbing her with the light from the tv. Then she complained about missing me in bed and said the light doesnot bother her so i started playing in the bedroom at night instead with the TV on mute. But the damn Xbox is so loud it wakes her up. Guess i just got to get my butt in bed and go to sleep at a decent hour....:( They should make a muffler for that thing. Lately really being looking at getting another HD tv and noticed that 1080p doesnot neccesarily mean better picture than 720p. I have seen a Vizio 1080p be outshined by a Samsung 720p, but the price was about the same with identical sizes. It took me a while to figure out why but as a kept looking at other tv's I noticed a much talked about sony bravio 1080p and to my suprise it looked better than the vizio but not the samsung, nor the pioneer, nor the sharp aquous. Most of them running at 720p. Then i noticed the contrast ratio. Samsungs was very high compared to some of the others and i did notice generally the higher the contrast ratio the clear and sharper the images appeared. A sales guy told me that there is not much diff in 1080p and 720p to the naked eye and he would choose a 720p tv with contrast ratio(30,000:1) over a 1080p tv with a contrast ratio of 5000:1) I could sure see the difference. Just depend on how much money you are willing to pay. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6 October 2008 7:32
Jemborg (Member) 6 October 2008 13:39
*Quote:* LMAO... I have always had a problem with the loudness of the xbox360. I am a nightowl. When my wife goes to sleep i would generally move xbox360 into another room to keep from disturbing her with the light from the tv. Then she complained about missing me in bed and said the light does not bother her so i started playing in the bedroom at night instead with the TV on mute. But the damn Xbox is so loud it wakes her up. Guess i just got to get my butt in bed and go to sleep at a decent hour....:( They should make a muffler for that thing. Lately really being looking at getting another HD tv and noticed that 1080p does not necessarily mean better picture than 720p. I have seen a Vizio 1080p be outshined by a Samsung 720p, but the price was about the same with identical sizes. It took me a while to figure out why but as a kept looking at other tv's I noticed a much talked about sony bravio 1080p and to my surprise it looked better than the vizio but not the samsung, nor the pioneer, nor the sharp aquous. Most of them running at 720p. Then i noticed the contrast ratio. Samsungs was very high compared to some of the others and i did notice generally the higher the contrast ratio the clear and sharper the images appeared. A sales guy told me that there is not much diff in 1080p and 720p to the naked eye and he would choose a 720p tv with contrast ratio(30,000:1) over a 1080p tv with a contrast ratio of 5000:1) I could sure see the difference. Just depend on how much money you are willing to pay. @ lxhotboy, haha I am a nightowl too, or should I say hoot hoot. My dear wifey is a sweetheart but an absolute bear when it comes to all matters concerning sleep. Noise, light and the fact I'm not there to cuddle her to sleep- I mean that's part of my husbandly job description! Salesmen will say anything to get a sale- I can only tell you my experience. At the time I am typing this on a 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma... and it looks awesome. Large plasmas seem symbolic of modern decadence nowadays, but I'm not into fancy cars whatever...we like our teev. Plasmas aren't as power hungry as they used to be, and don't suffer from burn in like they used to. Any lasting after image will (and has) disappeared in a little time, the thing has suffered thru extended all night gaming on heaps of occasions, it's almost a year old, and it's still going fine. Even though there has been a number of times I've said, "ZOMG, I've done it now", it's always come good. Still, there is some perceived "wisdom" that suggests that games for LCD and movies for plasma. Presumably burn-in is the reason... a good salesman will tell you that this is just not so anymore. Anyway, I wanted movie-like looking games, can you blame me? I don't dig the specular highlights on LCD it looks unnatural too me, plus they can have poor contrast (like you said). It looked much, much smaller in the shop so when we got it home it was like, "Almighty Zeus, it's Fahrenheit 451 here !!!" We were actually intimidated at first... but gob-smacked. We got over that. :D At sizes at, or close to, this you will notice the difference believe me, it really is a different experience. Like a wall devoted to changing art. Try Milkdrop visualization on WinAmp to get my drift. Games look fantastic and you will feel no longer compromised by letterboxing in movies. Why did'nt we go for a smaller size at the time... well we wanted something that would just last us years, we didn't want to say, "oh jeez, wish we'd got the next size up". Panasonic has a great reputation for upscaling ect., and even my old XBox and PS2 look great as long as the sharpness is turned down. Can you tell the difference between 1080p and 720p? Hell yeah! It's over 2 and a half times the res. Both standards are broadcast in Australia (I can hardly tell the difference between 1080p and 1080i at 100hz btw). Not to suggest that 720p looks bad. I was so disappointed that the PS3 was only native res of 720p (if actually that, try 640p for GTA IV, so much for superior graphics :/ ), I was expecting full 1080p after all the hype. One git salesman in EB arrogantly informed me that "there ain't no difference between 1080 and 720 anyway"... he was talking out of his backside, and deserved a good kick in said klacka. (I can't help it, I have to bite into the above arguments posted... why ever think the the X360 has less potential for game development than the PS3? Why because the PS3 is more radical? Whoever designed the thing shut game programmers out the door! The X360's GPU is superior to the PS3s with super fast cashes involved, it's memory architecture isn't split between the GPU and the CPU, so less bottlenecks. And talking of the CPUs, they are both modified Xeons, the difference being that the PS3 has only one general purpose instruction core, where the 360 has three! The other six cores are for floating point calcs only, and game programmers don't give a stuff about greater FP calcs over general instruction capacity. Given that the CPU of the X360 has a GI set specifically designed around game programming (eg branch predictors, gofetch commands etc.) how does that above argument hold water? You can't build a mansion on a shaky foundation.. Put it another way, say my PC has a better CPU but only a nVidia 8600gt compared to my mates 9600gt gfx. Which machine do you think is going to have the better graphics...? Do you think he would swap his PC for mine...? Like hell he would... it's a no-brainer! In the final analysis it comes down to the actual games you want to play! Go retro for all I care, but don't tell me an over-blown BluRay software decoding player has more potential as a games platform over one that was designed for the job. Ahem.) Of course this facilitated the building of a little media PC in the lounge, with a blu-ray drive in it. And I can tell you "authoring" of the HD disc is important, some don't look any different to upscaled DVD, disappointingly, but most do. I expect they will get better at it. I took my X360 to my nephew's to try on his LG 720p plasma, the results were bad to say the least, for some reason the image looked pixilated on his screen. (I was using the repetitive but gorgeous Assassins Creed as a test.) Whereas on the Panasonic 1080p it looked... spectacular. One last thing, my mate bought a new Panasonic 46" 1080p the other day, That baby has a contrast ratio of a million to one 0_0 !!! And cost roughly half what I paid for mine :(. I suggest you go have a gander at it. It's a lot easier being righteous than right. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6 October 2008 13:54