Phil Spencer has been quick on the trigger with Xbox Series X announcements and we will now stack them up against our article earlier this year that outlined all of the rumours. How close were everybody’s crazy predictions?
When is it Out?
After Sony did a deep dive reveal of the PS5, Microsft were quick to announce a locked-in release date of 26th November 2020. As of today, there is no news of a delay to this release date and Microsoft are confident of hitting it. Given the current situation, a delay may be possible though.
How Much Will it Cost?
Microsft have only eluded to the pricing being “competitive” suggesting it wouldn’t be an unfathomable price. Early rumours pointed towards a mammoth $599 price tag. Sony were laughed out of the door when they asked that for the PS3 but given the hardware in this machine, it’s not outlandish. In reality, it will likely go for between £400 and £500.
CPU
The rumours were indeed correct, the Xbox Series X will use 8 cores of AMD’s Zen2 architecture, clocked at 3.8GHz. This is a huge upgrade over the Xbox One’s 1.75GHz CPU which simply can’t handle newer games. As rumoured, the CPU will utilise AMD’s upcoming RDNA2 microarchitecture. Developers can opt to use Simultaneous Multi-Threading and determine what the clock speed will for their game. This should provide more stable games and a CPU that will last the generation.
GPU
People laughed at the rumoured 12 Teraflop GPU, but the rumour was indeed true. As is, its utilisation of RDNA2. The original version of the Xbox One has just 12 CUs clocked at 800MHz, while the Xbox Series X will have 52 CUs clocked at 1.825GHz, making it a vastly more powerful and stable machine. Ray Tracing was once again confirmed and actually shown in video. This proves that the Xbox Series X utilises full path tracing, putting aside fears it would be a dumbed-down version. Also confirmed, is that the Xbox Series X will use the brand new Direct X12 Ultimate, normally reserved for Nvidia’s RTX cards.
RAM
As rumoured, the Xbox Series X will use 16GB of GDDR6 RAM. Twice that of the outdated 8GB of DDR3, the Xbox One used. This will mean a better console at 4K, Microsft have confirmed the Xbox Series X will target 4K 60FPS.
Storage
The move to an SSD was re-confirmed and also the capacity will be 1TB. This storage system will be far quicker than the standard Xbox One device. While it’s confirmed it will be a custom device, no specifics were given. Expandable storage will be proprietary, though it will support older USB’s, HDD’s and SSD’s but only for file transfer.
Anything Else?
As previously discussed, all Xbox One peripherals will be usable on the new system and a new controller has been shown. A slight redesign is nice but the new sensitive triggers are an awesome upgrade. Backwards compatibility is still a massive focus for Microsft and the Xbox Series X will support every generation of Xbox. A feature rumoured was the multi-game suspension system. This would allow you to jump in-between several games, in an instant. Not only was this confirmed, but it was also shown in video across multiple generations of games. There was no mention of the rumour concerning booting up on Windows 10, this feature would allow you to play Steam titles on the Xbox. It remains a rumour.
The biggest rumour was of a cheaper model of Xbox Series X, dubbed Xbox Series S. There has been no further mention of this and given the scarcity of hardware parts and potential loss of labour, it would seem unlikely for this to be true, at least for launch.
Are you still Team Green? Does the new hardware entice you to part with your money? Let us know on Twitter.
