Back in April, Microsoft revealed detailed specs for Project Scorpio, Microsoft’s big upgrade to the Xbox One that promises to deliver true 4K games and compete with Sony’s PS4 Pro. At E3 this week, Microsoft finally revealed Project Scorpio to be the Xbox One X.
Most of the hardware details of the Xbox One X are already known since April: A 31 percent increase of CPU power over the regular Xbox One, the GPU is four times more powerful, a total of 12 GB of RAM (with nine available for use by game developers, and a 4K HDR Blu-ray drive. What wasn’t known back in April was the actual look of the new console and price. The Xbox One X has a similar look as the redesigned Xbox One S console although instead of the white top half, the Xbox One X will come in black. Like the Xbox One S, the One X will also have the same port array with three USB 3.0 ports and HDMI In and Out. Despite the similar look to the Xbox One S, the console is smaller, making it the smallest Xbox console ever while also being the most powerful gaming console ever. Price-wise, the Xbox One X will cost $499.
During Microsoft’s E3 presentation, much ado was made about the Xbox One X 4K capabilities with numerous games shown to output in 4K. Interestingly, only Forza Motorsport 7 ran at 60 frames per second (fps). It looks like Forza may be the exception rather than norm when it comes to outputting native 4K while running at 60fps. Even in the PC gaming world, it would take at least an Nvidia GTX 1080 (which by itself costs as much as Xbox One X). Still, the feat that Microsoft has accomplished here cannot be overstated. The fact that they could not only achieved native 4K on almost all games but do it in a form factor that’s smaller than the Xbox One S is admirable. The console war will continue to heat up once Xbox One X is released on November 7th worldwide.
