by Dan Moren
Microsoft reveals specs of the next Xbox
Microsoft gave the team at Digital Foundry a look at the hardware inside Project Scorpio, the codename for the next Xbox:
The headlines? Combining smart design with sheer horsepower, Project Scorpio hits the six-teraflop target set for it as E3 last year, thanks to a custom GPU that has been designed from the ground up for optimal performance on today’s game engines – and that runs at an unprecedentedly high clock speed for a console. The GPU is paired with 12GB of fast GDDR5 memory and a custom eight-core CPU, and the whole thing is housed in a compact body with integrated power supply and, for a console, state-of-the-art cooling.
Project Scorpio has been earmarked for late 2017, and given Digital Foundry’s report of the state of games running on the device, it seems like it will hit that target. The publication said Microsoft demoed a version of racing game Forza running at 4K resolution and 60 fps, and Scorpio’s GPUs were only in use to the tune of around 60%. (Of course, the company’s going to show off only its best, most optimized title, so that’s hardly an indication of general game performance.)
The major goals for the bump–which is still technically within the Xbox One family, rather than a totally new platform–are offering 4K graphics across games and positioning the console for VR content. More to the point, it aims to catch up with and surpass the PS4 line–at least until Sony reveals its next hardware platform.