Yesterday Xbox head-honcho, Phil Spencer, announced details on the upcoming Xbox Series X scheduled for release winter 2020. The announcement confirmed that the next games console will feature a 12 teraflops graphics processor which will make it 8 times more powerful than the original Xbox One as well as a new Smart Delivery feature that makes buying games for whatever system it will be played on much easier.
Providing this 12 TFLOPS of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) performance will be Microsoft’s custom designed processor leveraging AMD’s latest Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures. This will provide a true leap in processing and graphics power over that of its predecessor and will enable developers to provide higher framerates and create larger and more immersive worlds for gamers to enjoy. Players can expect 120 fps to become the norm.
The Xbox Series X will also make use of their very own patented form of Variable Rate Shading (VRS) allowing developers to prioritise individual effects on specific game characters or important environmental objects. This means more stable frame rates and a much higher resolution. Also, hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing will provide true-to-life lighting, accurate reflections and realistic acoustics in real time in a first for consoles.
A next-generation SSD drive, an optimised Dynamic Latency Input (DLI), and a Quick Resume feature will all go towards providing players with more gaming time and less waiting through lengthy loading times. The Quick Resume feature will let players continue multiple different games from a suspended state almost instantly.
Gamers will still be able to play their favourite games from the previous three generations of Xbox thanks to backwards compatibility, plus Xbox Game Pass will continue to have first party games, like Halo Infinite, included at their launch.
What do you think of the Xbox Series X? Share your thoughts on possibly the most powerful console ever in the comments below…
