Let’s cut to the chase, Microsoft has revealed the specifications of the upcoming Xbox Series X, Microsoft’s foray into the next-generation of gaming consoles. They are as below:
- CPU: Custom 8-core, 3.8GHz Zen 2 CPU (3.66GHz with simulatenous multithreading)
- GPU: Custom 12 Teraflop, 52 compute units at 1825MHz RDNA 2 GPU
- Die Size: 360.45 mm²
- Process: 7nm Enhanced
- Memory: 16gb GDDR6 w/ 320mb bus
- Memory Bandwidth: 10GB at 560 GB/s, 6GB at 336GB/s
- Internal Storage: 1TB Custom NVMe SSD
- I/O Throughput: 2.4 GB/s (Raw), 4.8 GB/s (compressed, with custom hardare decompression block)
- Exandable Storage: 1TB Expansion Card (matches internal storage exactly)
- External Storage: USB 3.2 External HDD support
- Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive
- Performance Target: 4K 60 FPS, up to 120 FPS
Other points to note:
- Supports hardware accelerated DirectX Raytracing
- Variable Rate Shading, also known as deferred rendering, allows for games to priotise different visual elements and render those in full quality, while other, less important elements are render in lower quality to ensure consistent performance.
- Quick resume is basically multitasking, you can quite easily pick up where you left off with games as they can remain in a suspended state until you are ready to play them again.
- All games will work on the Xbox Series X, including those currently supported by Xbox Backwards Compatibility
- Proprietary storage means replacement/expansion of storage may not be cheap (if the PS Vita’s propietary storage method is anything to go by)
As a tech nerd, these specs are incredibly impressive. What really stands out to me are the clock speeds of the hardware. Consoles historically have had lower clock speeds for consoles, with the Xbox One X’s CPU frequency hitting 2.3GHz. Additionally, the usage of NVMe SSDs (non-volatile memory express) is also very surprising. This method is incredibly fast but also has a high price point to match, especially at these storage capacities. The inclusion of Ray Tracing is cool but the current implementations of DirectX Ray Tracing have not been very good but I would not be surprised to see the console’s inclusion of the tech push the standards for it forward.
Jordan lives and breathes Dark Souls, even though his favourite game is Bloodborne. He takes pride in bashing his face on walls and praising the sun. Hailing from the land of tacos, he is the token minority for WellPlayed.
