Microsoft Xbox “Scorpio” To Be Powered by AMD “Polaris” and “Zen”

Yesterday, along with the Xbox One S, Microsoft announced the “Project Scorpio” or Xbox “Scorpio”. According to Microsoft, it is going to be the most powerful console ever made when it launches next year. According to clues, the Microsoft Xbox Scorpio will feature a custom-designed SoC made by AMD. The GPU and CPU inside the Xbox Scorpio could be built on 14nm lithography. Also, to handle 4K-gaming and VR, the Xbox Scorpio is going to feature a CPU based on the upcoming AMD “Zen” architecture. The 1080p 60 FPS w/ HDR, VR and 4K capability of this console and other confirmed specs neatly lineup with the upcoming AMD architectures. The AMD “Zen” will feature 8 cores and 16 threads, this was revealed in AMD’s press conference. It was also revealed that the Xbox Scorpio will feature 8 cores, probably AMD “Zen”“.  This time, instead of using 8 low-power “Jaguar” cores, Xbox Scorpio will use more-powerful “Zen” cores.

The Xbox Scorpio could feature a “Zen” CPU and if it has SMT, it’ll have 16 logical cores. Reports also suggest that it will also feature an AMD “Polaris” CPU with 6TFLOPS of performance. At the conference, it was revealed that the memory bandwidth on the Xbox Scorpio will be 320 GB/s. The memory is likely to be shared by both the CPU and the GPU.

The Xbox Scorpio will feature enough horsepower to run games at 4K Ultra-HD resolutions and 1080p @ 60FPS w/ HDR. It will also have enough power to handle Virtual Reality gaming and it will support the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. The Xbox Scorpio will probably use DirecctX 12, and the games releasing on it will be DirectX 12 too.