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History of video games/Platforms/Subor Z+

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History[edit | edit source]

Shanghai skyline in 2017.

Subor of Guangdong had been a notable producer of computers as clone game consoles in the Chinese market between 1987 and 1995 where it commanded as much as 80% of the home game console market, which it helped to establish in the country.[1][2] The brand was acquired by Yihua Group, also of Guangdong, in 2010.[2]

The system was announced by August 5th, 2018 by a subsidiary company in Shanghai.[2][3] The system was meant for specifically for the Chinese market.[4]

The team developing the console was disbanded by May 16, 2019 due to financial holdups and the impending launch.[1] There was some confusion caused by the folding of a company with the same name around the time of the console cancellation, leading to many in China to reminisce about the company that introduced them to gaming back in the 1990's.[5][2] The Subor company itself continued to operate after the console team was dissolved.[2]

Technology[edit | edit source]

The system was based on an X86_64 PC architecture, though with non-standard parts.[4] The system used a custom AMD System on a Chip combining a AMD Ryzen CPU (Model DG02SRTBP4MFA) with a AMD 15FF Vega GPU.[1][6] The CPU contains 4 cores with 8 threads, and can turbo clock to 3.0 gigahertz.[6] The GPU contains 24 compute units clocked at 1300 megahertz and is capable of 3.99 teraflops.[1][6]

The console had 8 gigabytes of GDDR5 capable of 256 gigabits per second of bandwidth, which was shared between compute and graphics.[6][4]

The system used twin installs of Windows 10 Enterprise IoT for either a PC gaming or console gaming experience.[4][6]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. a b c d Judd, Will (16 May 2019). "The Subor Z+ console team has disbanded - but it's not game over yet" (in en). Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-05-15-subor-z-games-console-team-has-been-disbanded. 
  2. a b c d e Davis, Kenrick (2020). "Reports of Our Death Are Greatly Exaggerated, Says Chinese Gaming Console" (in en). Sixth Tone. https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006436/reports-of-our-death-are-greatly-exaggerated%2C-says-chinese-gaming-console. 
  3. Leadbetter, Richard (4 August 2018). "Meet the Chinese console that's like PS4 Pro - but with AMD's next-gen CPU" (in en). Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2018-meet-the-chinese-console-thats-like-ps4-pro-with-ryzen-cpu. 
  4. a b c d "We GOT the Chinese Game Console!! - Subor Z+ Early Review". Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  5. "Iconic bootleg console maker in China faces bankruptcy" (in en). South China Morning Post. 9 November 2020. https://www.scmp.com/abacus/games/article/3109039/bootleg-gaming-console-maker-subor-faces-bankruptcy-frontman-barred. 
  6. a b c d e Subramaniam, Vaidyanathan. "Zhongshan Subor Z+'s custom Ryzen+Vega SoC has more GPU compute power than the Intel 'Kaby Lake-G' Core i7-8809G" (in en). Notebookcheck. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Zhongshan-Subor-Z-s-custom-Ryzen-Vega-SoC-has-more-GPU-compute-power-than-the-Intel-Kaby-Lake-G-Core-i7-8809G.331872.0.html.