Microsoft has been teasing us with its upcoming new console for quite some time now. Codenamed project Scorpio, the company has been claiming it will be the most powerful gaming console ever released and now we finally have some official specs from Microsoft to back that claim up.
Scorpio will boast a custom GPU and eight core CPU. It will be able to hit the 6-teraflop target Microsoft has been aiming at for some time now. That’s some serious power and we’ll have 12GB of GDDR5 memory to back it all up.
Scorpio’s engine has once again been developed alongside the folks at AMD. For comparison, the x86 core the new console carries with it are around 31 % faster than Xbox One’s.
As for 4K, it looks like Scorpio will be able to handle it just fine. We saw tests of a Forza tech demo running at 60 frames per second in native 4K. That is certainly nice to see, but what about older/existing titles? Microsoft promises that we will see 900p and 1080p Xbox games running at native 4K resolutions on Scorpio. Definitely good news for pulling out your back catalogue. Everytime a new console releases we take the chance of losing or having to purchase our favorite games all over again (Sony we are looking at you). While Microsoft has clearly done about as good a job in that category as we could hope for in the past, Scorpio looks to be taking it to the next level.
Here is a great little chart comparing Scorpio with Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro (and Xbox One). Many have already begun to suggest that after seeing Scorpio’s specifications, it already seems like more of a next generation offering than PS4 Pro.
While Microsoft looks to be winning the spec war here, PlayStation 4 still dominates the market in terms of sales and software support. Many suggest Microsoft is having a hard time keeping up with PS4 software including exclusive Japanese developed titles. This all comes in the wake of cancelling some of its higher profile titles like Scalebound. Sony definitely has a leg up in the software realm, but only time will tell if Microsoft’s dedication to raw console power and backwards compatibility will come through in the end.
We have no official pricing yet, but Scorpio is due out this fall.
In the mean time, keep it locked to our Games/Apps Guide for all the best deals on games, console bundles, accessories and more.
Source: Digital Foundry
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