Everything We Know About Project Scorpio
Microsoft's revision and upgrade to the Xbox One is currently named 'Project Scorpio' and information is finally starting to be revealed by the corporate giant and Xbox platform holder.
Release & Pricing
Current window for Project Scorpio's launch is Holiday 2017
Beyond a vague later 2017 schedule to hit retailers worldwide, the price for the improved Xbox One remains anyone's guess. It's likely to float between around the £500 mark given its big push for 4K support with hardier specs to match.
Hardware Specs
Microsoft has finally lifted the lid on what the technical guts of Project Scorpio looks like, as Digital Foundry reveals.
• CPU: Eight custom x86 cores clocked at 2.3GHz
• GPU: 40 customised compute units at 1172MHz
• Memory: 12GB GDDR5
• Memory Bandwidth: 326GB/s
• Hard Drive: 1TB 2.5-inch
• Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray
The custom CPU is based off an upgraded iteration of the Jaguar CPU chipset from AMD found in the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro. It has been pushed higher in clock speed to achieve 2.3GHz compared to the Xbox One's 1.75GHz. The GPU meanwhile is also partially based off the Polaris chip with 40 compute units, nudging ahead of the PS4 Pro's 36, and has a clock speed of 1172MHz - potentially worth a 43% power advantage over the PS4 Pro.
It should be noted that none of these components for the Project Scorpio Xbox are off-the-shelf but extensively customised by Microsoft to better squeeze efficiency savings out of them. If Scorpio is to be a true 4K gaming console then it'll need every ounce of power to help avoid trade-offs.
Upgrades & 4K
Current Xbox One titles will be able to run on Project Scorpio and even take advantage of the new power it will provide, but that ultimately rests with the developers says Microsoft. It will be up to studios to go over their past works and decide whether it's worth giving them a Scorpio performance overhaul or not. Microsoft claims most titles with 900p and 1080p resolutions should work in 4K but seeing is believing.
Turn 10, creator of Forza Motorsport, demonstrated to Digital Foundry how well the game ran in 4K locked at 60 frames per second with about 60-70 GPU utilisation. As the tech site pointed out this was just the original Xbox One version 'ported' to run on the Scorpio and so wasn't strictly built for pure 4K.
Stay tuned for more Project Scorpio news and information as it emerges.
