E3 still doesn’t kick off for another couple of days, but Microsoft got its big announcement out of the way by revealing the look – and the name – of its mysterious Project Scorpio.
We’ve spent the past 12 months wondering just what MS will name the brand new 4K Ultra HD console. Project Scorpio was mysterious and unique, and we hoped that would translate into a powerful new name for the new hardware…
…and today, it was revealed: Xbox One X.
Xbox Director of Software Engineering Kareem Choudhry took to LA’s Galen Center and spilled the beans – including the all-important tech specs – about Microsoft’s brand new gaming machine.
First things first: It’s even smaller than the Xbox One S that was revealed last year (and heralded as the tiniest home console EVAR). Crammed into that miniscule box is a four-fold graphics capability upgrade, a 50% increase in onboard RAM, and a 31% increase in CPU speed.
All of your current Xbox One games will be playable on the new system out of the box. Some will receive special Xbox One X upgrade patches that will add super-shiny 4K imagery, as well as making better use of the new hardware.
Want to know what that new hardware actually is? Here is everything in a handy table form, thanks to Digital Foundry.
| Hardware | Xbox One X | PlayStation 4 Pro | Xbox One |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 8 custom x86 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz |
8 Jaguar cores clocked at 2.1 GHz |
8 custom Jaguar cores clocked at 1.75 GHz |
| GPU | 40 customized compute units at 1172 MHz |
36 improved GCN compute units at 911 MHz |
12 GCN compute units at 853 MHz (Xbox One S: 914 MHz) |
| Memory | 12 GB GDDR5 | 8 GB GDDR5 | 8 GB DDR3/32 MB ESRAM |
| Memory Bandwidth | 326 GB/s | 218 GB/s | DDR3: 68 GB/s, ESRAM at max 204 GB/s (Xbox One S: 219 GB/s) |
| Hard Drive | 1 TB 2.5-inch | 1 TB 2.5-inch | 500 GB/1 TB/2 TB 2.5-inch |
| Optical Drive | 4K UHD Blu-ray | Blu-ray | Blu-ray (Xbox One S: 4K UHD) |
If you’re now frothing at the mouth, there’s even more good news for you. The Xbox One X will be on shelves around the world from November 7, 2017. That means you should be able to get one for Christmas, but you should probably pre-order now if you don’t want to miss out.
…the other relevant bit of info, of course, is the price. The Xbox One X comes with a US$499 price tag in the United States, and will set you back AU$649 in Australia. This is considered “premium pricing” for the premium console – but it could be enough to put the average gamer off the new hardware. Remember of course, to get the full benefits of the shiny new games box, you’ll need a 4K TV, and while they’re coming down in price, they’re still not cheap.
