The Redmond company details many of the novelties of the system, which will go on sale in late 2020.
Microsoft’s new console, Xbox Series X, reveals new details. Not only does it show a technical demo with some of its features, but we can also see the console for the first time, from the hand of youtuber Austin Evans. Through an entry on the Xbox website, Redmond report on the latest news. The team maintains that from the beginning, the intention with Xbox Series X was to offer the most powerful Xbox system for their video games. “In past generations, potential was defined first with innovation in graphics.” However, they consider that currently players demand more than 60 frames per second and high definition.
“Although Xbox Series X will offer a massive increase in GPU performance and will continue to redefine and advance the state of the art in graphics with new capabilities, such as ray tracing accelerated by the hardware itself,” says Jason Ronald, director and Xbox Series X product manager. “We don’t think this generation is going to be defined only by graphics and resolution.” Anyway, the North American company has offered the full technical specifications.
This Thursday, July 23, the Xbox Games Showcase will take place, where the first games from Xbox Game Studios will be announced for the imposing Xbox Series X. There is a confirmed name: Halo Infinite.
Technical specifications
- CPU: 8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz w / SMT) Zen 2 Custom CPU
- GPU: 12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1,825 GHz RDNA 2 Custom GPU
- Tablet size: 360.45 mm2
- Processor: 7nm Enhanced
- Memory: 16GB GDDR6 w / 320mb bus
- Memory bandwidth: 10GB @ 560GB / s, 6GB @ 336GB / s
- Hard Drive: 1TB NVME SSD Custom
- I / O performance: 2.4 GB / s (Raw), 4.8 GB / s (Compressed with custom lock decompression hardware)
- Expandable Storage: 1TB Expansion Card
- Exerno storage: USB 3.2, allows external HDD
- Optical reader: 4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive
- Performance target: 4K @ 60 FPS, Up to 120 FPS
AMD chips: “The greatest generational leap”
The team was aware that a new generation platform had to be built that would run at 60fps with 4K resolution, but developers had to have room to manage. They also knew they could go further and offer 120 fps on some competitive products. However, those aspects depend a lot on the developers. Xbox Series X will ensure that the system can host competitive and independent blockbuster games.
Americans continue their long relationship with AMD, which has been working on Xbox for 15 years. “Xbox Series X is the biggest generational leap in a SOC (System on Chip) and API design we’ve done at Microsoft so far; and it is truly an honor for AMD to have Microsoft’s trust as a partner in this endeavor, ”said Sebastien Nussbaum, Vice President, Corporate and Product Technology, AMD.
According to Nussbaum, “Xbox Series X is going to be a boast of leadership in technical innovation for this generation of consoles and will spread innovation across the DirectX ecosystem both this year and next year,” he adds.
Speed, one of the most important characteristics
Microsoft highlights speed as a key point of Xbox Series X, a feature that can be defined in many ways, according to the company. In the field of video games, this new generation system will allow you to enjoy titles with greater speed thanks to the SSD hard drive. The development team has carefully considered loading times when designing the console architecture, to ensure that players “spend more time playing and less waiting.”
The development group invested in improving speed levels through Xbox Velocity Architecture, which offers full integration between hardware and software. It is optimized for streaming game resources. The statement specifies that this will unlock capabilities that have never been seen before in video game development, allowing 100 GB of game resources to be immediately accessible to developers. “The components of Xbox Velocity Architecture combine to create a more effective multiplayer in physical memory,” highlight the information.
“The CPU is the brain of the new console and the GPU the heart, but Xbox Velocity Architecture is the soul,” explains Andrew Goosen of Microsoft’s technical department on Xbox Series X. “Xbox Velocity Architecture is much more than speed. loading times. It is one of the most innovative parts of our new console. It’s about revolutionizing the way games can create more vast and compelling worlds. ”
Despite the fact that in the present generation of consoles progress has been made in the creation of open worlds, in Microsoft they assert that to design more dynamic and improved universes it is necessary to increase the processing capacity and the function of streaming resources more quickly. This is so as not to break the dive, for example, with the elevator trips that serve as a patch to hide loading times. “Developers will be able to eliminate load times between levels or create faster, faster trips.”
Goosen also focuses on latency: “Competitive players and the best gaming experiences demand precise controls.” The Xbox team has set itself the goal of eliminating latency and has maximized its efforts to “identify any opportunity” to reduce this problem.
Xbox Series X will implement a new technology called Dynamic Latency Imput, which will use HDMI 2.1 to add 120hz and other additional features. The team has also worked alongside television companies to ensure that televisions are properly prepared.
On the other hand, the Quick Resume technology was previously advanced and consists of the possibility of changing the game quickly and instantly, without the need to close the software you are using at the time. “Since games will be stored directly on the SSD, they persist even if you turn off the console, disconnect it completely, or update the system. One of the team’s testers unplugged it for a week, then updated it, and it was still possible to continue where it had left off, ”they comment.
Backward compatibility in a big way
For months, it has been official that Xbox One video games will work on Xbox Series X. What’s more, many of them, like Cyberpunk 2077, will have additional improvements. “The team came and told us about Xbox Series X,” says Peggy Lo, head of the backward compatibility team. He claims that they were asked what they could do with more power, so they saw it as a challenge. “They gave us Xbox One X and we saw it as a playground; then we received Xbox Series X and it was as if we had the entire amusement park to play. ”
Players will benefit from improvements in load times, while enjoying a more stable framerate, higher resolutions, better image quality and HDR effect even in games from the first Xbox. Developers continue to work on improving their techniques in order to continue pushing this functionality to the limit. In addition, backward compatibility includes the ability to use all Xbox One accessories, not to mention moving the progression to the new platform.
When it comes to backward compatibility, there is a lot to say and add after what was known this May from Jason Ronald of Microsoft. As he explained, all his studios are “working hard” to create “the best catalog of exclusives in the history” of the platform. “We are tremendously excited to soon showcase many of the games that are in development for Xbox Series X,” he says. Thanks to more than 100,000 hours of testing by the same team that made the Xbox One backward compatible, the Xbox Series X is guaranteed to have “thousands” of compatible launch games.
And yes, Xbox Series X backwards compatible games will also have reduced load times compared to their original wait times. “Our NVME SSD is responsible for powering the Xbox Velocity Architecture.” To this we add Quick Resume, HDR and the possibility of achieving improvements from 30 to 60 FPS or even going from 60 FPS to 120 FPS in backward compatible titles.
Source | Microsoft
