Is Xbox Series X backwards compatible? We’re about to find out. A new generation of consoles is upon us, even in the middle of a pandemic. One of the most anticipated – Xbox Series X – was unveiled online after E3 cancelled the physical event because of covid-19.
Xbox Series X new features
Unlike its predecessors Xbox One and Xbox One S, Xbox Series X has been designed as a standing tower. Not only does it look more like a PC tower than a console, it runs similar to one.
• CPU: Eight-core 3.8GHz (3.6GHz with SMT) custom AMD 7nm
• GPU: 12 teraflops 1.825GHz (locked)
• RAM: 16GB GDDR6
• Frame rate: Up to 120 fps
• Resolution: Up to 8K
• Optical: HD Blu-Ray disk drive
• Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD”
The graphics processing chip has been dubbed by Pocket Lint to be “the most powerful graphics processing chip in any console to date”.
But is Xbox Series X backwards compatible?
Yes! That means many games titles will be available such as Battlefield, Cyberpunk 2077, Watchdogs, the Elder scrolls series and many more. The Xbox Series X isn’t only able to run these games, it will modify and adjust its own software to support them so they can be played to their full capacity.
With Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax media (the company that birthed Bethesda) there will be many games on the horizon for Xbox Series X. Although Bethesda has titles spanning different consoles, there are game titles exclusive to PlayStation and Xbox respectively. So what does this mean for future games?
Microsoft have kindly allowed Bethesda to continue with the exclusive game releases on PS5 that have already been announced. However, who knows what the future will hold for the triple A company under Microsoft.
PS5 and Xbox Series X compared
Ray tracing is set to be the “in thing” for both consoles. Toms guide says: “It involves tracking the way light travels around an environment, including all the ways it bounces and refracts off different surfaces, hence the name ray-tracing.”
This means hyperrealism will make the future of gaming almost movie-like, with faster frame rates.
Xbox started allowing pre-orders for the new console from 17 September, while PS5 followed suit a week later.
Both consoles will vary on price depending on whether you order it with or without a disk drive, costing upwards of £249.
The PS5 will boast a higher resolution of 8K with 33 million pixels, which is four times more powerful than the Xbox Series X, showing at 4K (8.3 million pixels).
The PS5 will be running at about 10.28TFLOPS, whereas Xbox Series X will run at 12TFLOPS.
This means the Xbox will run at a much faster rate and with more power, massively reducing loading times.
Microsoft and Sony have just about come toe to toe with their new generation of consoles, but so far the Xbox seems to be more powerful than the PS5.
Both consoles will hold exclusives that will make it hard to make a decision, but with Bethesda being under Microsoft, PS5 will be one advantage down.