Microsoft Drops More Xbox Series X Details

February 25, 2020

Pokemon Go Fanatics

Since we got our first glimpse of the Xbox Series X and the vague promises of ‘8 times the power of the Xbox One’, I’ve been waiting for Xbox to release more concrete details on the power contained within the Series X and the other features the console will have. So, imagine my delight and surprise when I woke up this morning to a new info drop that had happened overnight.

Among the myriad of details that were detailed and confirmed, Xbox has confirmed that the customer processor contained with the Xbox Series X will feature 12TF of compute power (up from the 1.31TF found in the Xbox One and 6TF found in the One X) and be based on AMD’s RDNA 2.0 architecture. For reference, consoles are frequently based on older generations of GPU or CPU architecture, with some smatterings of features from newer or soon to come architectures, so to use an architecture that even AMD hadn’t got any fully revealed products using is a big deal.

Continuing the hardware themes, Xbox again confirmed that the Series X will support Variable Rate Shading (which allows shading to be prioritised in more important places, balancing performance and image quality more effectively), Hardware Accelerated DirectX Raytracing and support for 120fps. There’s no doubt that we really are looking at a generational leap here.

On the software front, a number of new initiatives and implementations were confirmed as well. First we have a new Quick Resume feature which, unlike the current generation, lets you suspend and resume multiple games. Best of all, however, is Smart Delivery. Think of Smart Delivery as a cross-generational Cross Buy scheme. If you own a game on Xbox One that supports Smart Delivery, you’ll be able to play the Xbox Series X version for free (if one exists). Smart Delivery will require developers and publishers to support it, with only Xbox themselves committing to have all of their future games support it, while CD Projekt Red has also confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 will support the feature.

There’s still plenty of time to go until the Xbox Series X releases in the holidays of this year, but keep an eye on Rocket Chainsaw in the future to keep up to date with details as they release.