Scarlett Powers Up

Microsoft reveals more about the power of the next-gen Xbox, Project Scarlett.

Xbox games marketing manager Aaron Greenberg has revealed to OXM more about the kind of gaming performance we can expect from Project Scarlett, and it looks as though the next Xbox will go big on CPU – the central processing unit that handles the core performance of the console.

To date, details have been scant on exactly what we can look forward to with the next-generation Xbox console. Back in June, Microsoft had offered up a few tidbits of info at E3 in LA, principally the performance priorities the team has set for Project Scarlett. Four times more powerful than the already mighty Xbox One X, according to Microsoft, Scarlett will be capable of achieving framerates of around 120fps, support 8K resolutions and, thanks to a built-in solid-state drive, eliminate loading times for Xbox games.

Preliminary information suggests that in addition to its SSD, high-bandwidth GDDR6 RAM and custom-designed AMD graphics processing unit, at the heart of the new console will be a custom AMD Zen-2 CPU. These components, although specs could change up to release, tell us that actual gaming performance is key.

Speaking exclusively to OXM at Gamescom in Cologne last month, Aaron Greenberg said that Scarlett will likely see greater CPU gains as opposed to the GPU (graphics processing unit) boosts of the previous console generation – which reached something of a peak with the superior capabilities of the Xbox One X.