(Xbox Series) X gon’ give it to ya.
Microsoft has given us several brief glimpses of the capabilities of the Xbox Series X. We’ve heard about the TFLOPs capacity of the GPU, the removal of load times, the fact that it’ll hit 120 frames per second at 4K, and that it will feature something called “dynamic latency input”. (Whatever that is.)
But we haven’t heard, specifically, about the silicon and circuits inside the Xbox Series X.
Until now.
Today, in a blog post – and a detailed breakdown by Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry – Microsoft has revealed the full Xbox Series X specs. We now know the core and clock speeds of the CPU and GPU. We know how much RAM is in there and how fast it is. We know how big the storage will be, and how expandable it is.
Here’s the full rundown:
Xbox Series X specs
- CPU: 8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.6 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/ 320b 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
- Dimensions: 301 mm (h) x 151 mm (w) x 151 mm (d)
We already knew about the 12 TFLOPs figure for the GPU, so we’ll skip over that for now. Other items – like the Custom AMD Zen 2 CPU – aren’t exactly a surprise, either. The combined APU – that’s CPU and GPU on the same die, with shared access to memory – will definitely be faster than AMD’s Ryzen APUs, however, because the whole thing is powered by 16GB of GDDR6 memory.
The real big-ticket item on that list, though, is the 1 TB custom NVMe SSD. Both Microsoft and Sony have been putting a lot of focus on solid-state storage and the impact it will have on the overall experience: reduced download and install times; ability to launch games quicker; the near-total removal of loading times.
It’s not just the performance of that SSD, but also the value proposition, that’s really interesting. To buy a 1 TB NVMe SSD at retail will cost you £100-200, but the entire Xbox Series X console might set you back somewhere in the region of £500-600. A GPU that pushes 12 TFLOPs will cost nearly that much on its own.
Obviously we’re still waiting to see the final pricing strategy for the Xbox Series X, but based on those specs and the general price band of video game consoles, it’s going to be significantly cheaper than an equivalent-power gaming PC.
Amazingly, Microsoft says it’ll still be coming this holiday season, in spite of current global health issues.
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