Xbox Series X: new details and first hand-on video
16.3.2020
Translation: Eva Francis
While Sony is still rather secretive about the PS5, Microsoft is giving us new details on the Xbox Series X – and even a first hands-on.
Although E3 was cancelled, there’s no stopping Microsoft's hypetrain for the new console generation. In a new blog entry, the company from Redmond has given us new insights, mainly regarding performance, speed and compatibility.
The goal is to display games in UHD resolution at 60 frames per second. To achieve this, Microsoft relies on an 8-core Zen 2 CPU by AMD and an RDNA 2 graphics card. The CPU operates at a clock rate of up to 3.8 GHz and the GPU provides 12 TFLOPS, 52 Compute Units (CU) and a clock rate of 1.825 GHz. To put things in perspective: an AMD RX 5700 XT features only 40 CU and around 9 TFLOPS. Hardware-accelerated ray tracing is also part of the functional scope, as the «Minecraft» example shows.
On top of this, the new Xbox features 16 GB GDDR6 RAM. Ten of them run at 560 GB/s, while six gigabytes are reserved for less intensive system tasks at 336 GB/s.
In a demo video, Microsoft shows us how the hardware makes «Gears 5» look even more detailed than on the Xbox One X while it still runs at 100 fps. The first hands-on videos, uploaded by YouTube channels such as Digital Foundry, also confirm this performance – while allowing us to see the console in the wild, so to speak. The new controller, which is based on the design of the Elite controller and has a sharing button, is also included.
No more loading times
You can install games on a 1 TB NVME SSD. The «Xbox Velocity» architecture is supposed to guarantee that 100 GB of in-game content is available immediately and
(long) loading times are a thing of the past. Microsoft provides an example for this: «State of Decay» takes ten seconds to start on the Series X, while it takes almost a minute on the Xbox One X.
The new SSD also supports another exciting feature called «Quick Resume», which allows you to switch between multiple games with virtually no loading time.
If you don't have enough memory, you can upgrade with a 1 TB expansion card or connect an external drive via the USB 3.2 port. A UHD Blu-ray player is also included.
Reduced latency was also mentioned in Microsoft's blog post. Latency is the time it takes from your controller input to movement on the TV. The technologies Dynamic Latency Input (DLI), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) are used, which are developed together with TV manufacturers. After all, your TV has to support these technologies in the first place. If your device doesn't feature HDMI 2.1, the chances are slim.
Cross-generational
Unlike at the launch of the last console generation, Microsoft will focus on downward compatibility for games from the very beginning. So you will be able to play many (not all) games from the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and, of course, Xbox One on the new console. Plus, these games are supposed to run even smoother, look nicer and load faster.
Last but not least, there's also a new predicate called Smart Delivery. Games that feature Smart delivery have a cross-generational multiplayer mode and the Xbox Series X version. Developer CD Project Red has promised that «Cyberpunk 2077» will support Smart Delivery.
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
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