Xbox Series X Specs, Smart Delivery & Other Features Revealed
In a new post on Xbox Wire, Phil Spencer revealed some of the specs and features of the Xbox Series X. These include the 12 teraflops of GPU, support for up to 120 fps, Smart Delivery technology, new SSD Storage and Quick Resume technology, and more.
The first and most prominent fact is that the Xbox Series X will have 12 teraflops of GPU. Which, yeah, sure is impressive, but ultimately means nothing if you don’t have good games, but I digress. It’ll have four times the processing power of the Xbox One, thanks to the new custom processor, as well as Variable Rate Shading, and Hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing. So, if pure horsepower gets you engine revving, the Series X sure has a lot to offer under the hood. Oh, and support for up to 120 fps.
There are also some quality-of-life features I’d like to bring up; specifically, the SSD storage and the Quick Resume. With the new SSD the console boasts, it’ll allow for larger and more dynamic in-game worlds. That’s to say nothing of the improved loading speeds. As for the Quick Resume feature, it’ll let you “continue multiple games from a suspended state almost instantly, returning you to where you were and what you were doing, without waiting through long loading screens.” I come down hard on Xbox, but I have to admit, that’s pretty cool.
The Xbox Series X will also take steps to ensure the best possible experience when it comes to backwards compatibility. The console will support all existing Xbox One games, as well as every Xbox 360 and original Xbox game that backwards compatibility exists for. All those games, including those that you own via the Xbox Pass, will have “steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual fidelity – all with no developer work required.”
This is where the Smart Delivery technology comes into play. Basically, what it does is ensure that you get the best possible experience while playing a game, whether you’re playing on the Xbox One or Xbox X (seriously, who is naming these?). In Spencer’s words: “We’re making the commitment to use Smart Delivery on all our exclusive Xbox Game Studios titles, including Halo Infinite, ensuring you only have to purchase a title once in order to play the best available version for whichever Xbox console they choose to play on.” Incidentally, Hellblade 2 is also going to be one of the first new games to use this technology, so that’s fun.
So, there you have it. Reminder: Xbox Series X is slated to launch some time during the holiday season of 2020. In other words, some time between September in December. I’d say that October is the most likely candidate, but we’ll have to wait and see. The console definitely boasts a lot of power, and some pretty handy quality-of-life features. However, what it truly needs are first-party games that people will want to play, and so far, I’m not picking up on a lot there. We’ll see what happens in late 2020. Meanwhile, you can read Spencer’s full article here.
