The full tech specs for the Xbox Series X have been revealed

What’s in an Xbox? Lots apparently! If there’s one message that Microsoft seems hellbent on emphasising with their next video game console, it’s power. Pure power in a raw form that’ll pave the way for games to not only look better but perform beyond the norm and load quicker than ever before. “While the Xbox Series X will deliver a massive increase in GPU performance and continue to redefine and advance the state of art in graphics with new capabilities such as hardware accelerated raytracing,” said Jason Ronald, Director of Product Management on Xbox Series X on the Xbox Wire.

We don’t believe this generation will be defined by graphics or resolution alone.

The team knew they needed to build a next generation console that could run games in 4K at 60 fps with no compromises for developers. They also challenged themselves to deliver a level of performance once thought impossible on console, including support for up to 120 fps for the most demanding and competitive games. While they believe resolution and frame rate are creative decisions best left in the hands of title developers, the team wanted to ensure the system was able to support the needs of the largest blockbusters, competitive esports, and innovative independent creators.

In order to support those needs, the team strengthened their long-term partnership with chipmaker AMD, which began working with the Xbox team over 15 years ago on the Xbox 360. Sebastien Nussbaum, Corporate Vice President & Senior Fellow, Semi-Custom Products and Technologies​ at AMD, spoke a bit about what the team created to help power Xbox Series X.

Thanks to a focus on transformational design and generational performance uplift, Nussbaum said that, for developers, “the console ends up being a playground for technical innovation.” This is due in large part to the raw power of the custom designed processor, powered by an 8 core AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2-class GPU.

These next generation architectures deliver a new level of performance that lets developers create realistic and immersive experiences like we’ve never seen before, while also allowing the team at AMD to seed a next generation DirectX ecosystem that will continue to push the industry forward.

So what do those fleshed out stats look like? Like this!

• CPU – 8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU
• GPU – 12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU
• Die Size – 360.45 mm²
• Process – 7nm Enhanced
• Memory – 16 GB GDDR6 w/ 320mb bus
• Memory Bandwidth – 10GB @ 560 GB/s, 6GB @ 336 GB/s
• Internal Storage – 1 TB Custom NVME SSD
• I/O Throughput – 2.4 GB/s (Raw), 4.8 GB/s (Compressed, with custom hardware decompression block)
• Expandable Storage – 1 TB 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

I’m no expert, but I can safely say that that is a LOT of power. Bring on the next-gen already!

Last Updated: March 16, 2020