THE NITTY-GRITTY
What really matters to gaming fanatics is the
internals. Xbox Series X will come with eight
Zen 2 CPU cores at 3.8GHz, and when paired
with 12 teraflops of GPU power, the system
offers unbeatable power and performance. The
Series X will render detailed, photo-realistic
environments in seconds, and offers improved
draw-distances that don’t compromise on
speed. 4K resolution at 60 FPS is also possible,
and in some cases, 120 frames per second will
be supported. One of the most valued features
is backward compatibility, with Microsoft
promising that the console will support Xbox
360 and original Xbox games, and accessories
and controllers from previous models will also
be supported, which will be a relief to some.
Microsoft is including a solid-state drive in the
Xbox Series X, and it will feature a terabyte of
internal storage and that can be expanded via
an external hard drive. This will sit alongside
16GB RAM, a 4K UHD Blu-ray disc drive, and
Project xCloud, which is Microsoft’s streaming
platform that will allow you to play more than
50 games on your Android device, streaming
directly from the cloud over Wi-Fi or
your mobile network, similar to Google’s
Stadia concept.
What’s particularly interesting to note regarding
specifications is that the PlayStation 5, at least
on paper, is significantly less powerful than the
Series X. Of course, there’s more to a games
console than its storage capacity and processing
power - Microsoft often has a distinct lack of
exclusives on its platform, which pushes users
back to Sony. But whilst both consoles use GPUs