Digital Foundry is set to reveal and analyze the Scorpio’s specs this morning at 6am PST / 9am EST. We’ll be commenting live via this post so stay tuned!
Update : We now know why so many industry insiders and developers have shown excitement regarding the Scorpio. In short, it seems Microsoft has truly kept their word and are delivering the most powerful console ever created by a significant margin. First, here are the details and Digital Foundry breakdowns of the hardware:
Notable Spec Overview
- Custom CPU and GPU architecture dubbed the Scorpio Engine.
- 31% increase in CPU frequency.
- A direct implementation of DirectX12 to allow for very low latency instructions thus reducing CPU workload by up to 50%.
- GPU has 40 compute units at a very fast 1172MHz (as compared to 12/853 in the standard X1 and 36/911 in the PS4 Pro).
- 12gb GDDR5 RAM in total. 8gb GDDR5 available for games with 4gb reserved for UI (as compared to 5gb DDR3 on the standard X1 and 5gb GDDR5 on the PS4 Pro). This allows the UI to run in native 4K.
- The customization of the GPU will allow games that were originally 900p-1080p to run in native 4K with minimal effort from developers. Per DF, this is “unprecedented”. As an example, Forza 6 which was originally 1080p was running in native 4K with only 2 days of work by Turn 10. More notable is that running in native 4K was only utilizing 55-70% of the GPU.
- Will ship with a 1tb HD with a 50% increase in bandwidth.
- There are no vents on the top of the box due to a vapor-cooling chamber, something never before used in a console.
- 4K Game DVR and video capture.
Detailed Hardware Analysis
Ways the Scorpio Will Improve Existing Titles
Below is a sample of the Scorpio’s ability to take an existing title to native 4K using Forza Motorsport 6 as it was built for the X1 at 1080p originally. Per DF, it was running at native 4K and still only using 66% of the GPU.
You can find the full article by Digital Foundry/Eurogamer here: Scorpio Detailed Breakdown
SG’s contributors will be offering our thoughts individually over the next day or two. Stay tuned!
