Digitalfoundry, part of eurogamer, got a glimpse of the new Xbox One Project Scorpio. The new version is against Sonys Playstation 4 fight pro, apparently with absurd performance figures. What you are about to read sounds infinitely good, but let's leave the horses in the village. There is no extensive testing and only one source. Still, time to dream.
Upgrades as far as the eye can see
The new Xbox One should be four times as strong as its predecessor. Microsoft continues to rely on an octa core, cooled by a vapor chamber like the current NVIDIA Founders Edition graphics Cards. New are 12 instead of 8GB GDDR5 memory which, as is known, between RAM and VRAM are divided. This is now integrated Power Supplies as well as a faster 2,5 inch 1TB hard drive. Furthermore, Project Scorpio comes with 4K capable BluRay Drive. That sounds like a radical performance upgrade, but Microsoft doesn't seem to just leave it at the hardware. Allegedly, tiny adjustments were made during analyzes of the chipset to fix bottlenecks. The new system would probably be the most special chipset in console history to date and the Scorpio would also be the most powerful console of all time.
Promise upon promise
So far so good. Now it's getting interesting, because Microsoft promises pretty much everything that has ever been asked for on Reddit. The new Xbox One should offer real 4K, every Xbox One game that has already been released, whether 900p or Full HD, should be playable in 4K with a patch. The patch is the only drawback, without an adjustment by the developer there will be no 4K support, but all games are compatible. The team behind Forza Horizon 3, which was released in September, was said to be able to implement the adjustments in two days. If that's true, the updates would be expected quickly. Games currently working with dynamic textures or framerates will automatically choose the maximum settings. Players of 1080p TVs should also be able to benefit from Scorpio, Microsoft uses 4K downsampling for this, if possible 4K textures and better anti-aliasing. Xbox 360 Games are enhanced using anisotropic filters. The new Scorpio Dashboard is also said to be rendered in 4K.
Compared to the PS4 Pro, which often uses upscaling to achieve 4K resolution, the Scorpio is said to deliver real 4K. However, upscaling is still supported if developers want to use it. This is where I step in as an editor and say: I do not believe that. The current NVIDIA 1080Ti is the first graphics card that makes most AAA titles playable with a solid 4K60. The graphics card alone costs €800. Microsoft's solution is not comparable to this because console games can be adapted much better, after all there is only one or soon two systems. But anyone who seriously expects 4K at 60 frames per second on graphics settings similar to those of PCs does not understand anything about technology. If the Scorpio doesn't cost at least 1000 euros, I don't think so.
Be that as it may, 4K in every game doesn't necessarily have to be the goal either. A good 1440p would be a start, and it doesn't take much to beat the PS4 Pro. Their advantage compared to the normal PlayStation has already been sufficiently assessed as "well". Microsoft even claims that the above-mentioned Forza Engine would only have used 4% of the graphics unit at 60K66 frames and conveniently provides the screenshot that proves everything at the same time. Well, I'm curious.
Endless features
Graphics are nice but Scorpio should offer much more. Thanks to a faster hard drive, loading times should be reduced. If memory is left over in operation, it is used as a RAM disk to cache files. The game recordings should also take place in higher quality.
That all sounds awesome. I own PS4 and 4K TV and have decided against the Pro. I don't call a one my own yet, if half of what was reported here is correct, I'm in. And if Microsoft really delivers true 4K at 60 frames per second, Kazuo Hirai can throw himself off the next bridge. The Scorpio is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2017. More information is expected at E3 in June.
Here you can see the video from digitalfoundry:
