Ever since Microsoft teased its next-gen gaming console Xbox Project Scorpio at E3 2016, the company has been touting it as the most powerful gaming console ever. The software giant would release Project Scorpio before 2017 holiday shopping season. Now the head of 343 Industries and Franchise Development Director for Halo, Frank O’Connor has revealed that the upcoming system is “beefier” than he expected.
Project Scorpio key specs
Responding to fans in a NeoGAF forum thread, O’Connor said he hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the specifics of the Project Scorpio, though he might have “seen it in a slide or something.” He did mention that it would be “beefier than I expected.” Halo is among Microsoft’s biggest franchises, but 343 Industries has yet to announce games for Project Scorpio.
Anyway, O’Connor’s comments are enough to get gamers excited for Microsoft’s upcoming console. Key specs of Project Scorpio include true 4K gaming, 6 teraflops of power, high-fidelity virtual reality, an octa-core processor, and 320 GB/s memory bandwidth. It’s unclear whether the console would be even more powerful than its already announced specs.
Scorpio to cost more than Xbox One S
Xbox chief Phil Spencer has confirmed that Project Scorpio would cost more than Xbox One S. That’s a given considering it will be the “most powerful console ever made.” He said in November that the resources Microsoft was putting into the product would ensure that it meets demands of the higher-end consumer. The company may reveal its pricing at E3 2017.
Phil Spencer has affirmed that none of the previous Xbox One consoles would be left out of future gaming titles. The upcoming console also presents a huge potential for virtual reality gaming. A section of gamers were disappointed with Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro because of the omission of a 4K Blu-ray player. A strong performance of Project Scorpio could help close the gap between Microsoft and Sony in the console market.
Will AMD chips power the Project Scorpio?
Project Scorpio was recently mentioned at AMD’s booth at the Consumer Electronics Show 2017. The console was mentioned during a New Horizon live stream. It has sparked speculations that Microsoft’s console could be powered by AMD’s architecture. AMD unveiled its high-performance Vega GPU architecture at the CES. According to Tweakdown, AMD has indicated previously that it was working with Microsoft on Project Scorpio, and its technology could power the console.
However, AMD has not revealed which processors the Scorpio would use. It is rumored to use scaled versions of AMD’s Ryzen CPU and Vega GPU. AMD is currently working to integrate the Ryzen CPU and Vega GPU on a single chip.
