Xbox general manager Aaron Greenberg spoke to Official Xbox Magazine at the event, talking up the console’s new specs. Though he didn’t go into detail, he did reiterate and expand upon some points made in its announcement. “For next-gen, I think you’ll see a big upgrade in CPU because we want to make sure you don’t have any compromises with frame rate. Yes we can do 4K, but we can also do frame rates up to 120. I think that type of capability will be something people don’t see today,” said Greenberg. “And then the high-speed instant gaming using solid state drives to enable instant resume, getting into games and being able to play by removing load times and load screens that exist today. That’s going to be a huge change.”
Xbox Scarlett Spec Expectations
Microsoft previously announced that Xbox Scarlett will make use of a custom-designed processor, which uses the same 7nm Zen 2 and Navi architecture that will be seen in the PS5. The additional power will be used to target higher framerates of up to 120fps, while devs can scale up to 8K or implement raytracing if they wish. Microsoft is promising that this will be the biggest generational leap of any console generation. Given the jump from the original Xbox to Xbox 360, that’s a very bold assertion. Marketing aside, though, SSD improvements could be genuinely game-changing. Both Sony and Microsoft are likely to be using custom designs that could reduce load times and decrease the need for significant RAM upgrades by using it as a virtual memory pool. Unlike the Xbox One X, Microsoft has been fuzzy on the exact details of its next console, saving them for next year. Beyond graphics, though, developers will be excited about how additional CPU power could lead to improvements in AI or physics.
