Microsoft detailed the full Xbox Series X hardware specifications on Monday, validating the nuts and bolts of the next- gen Xbox’s CPU, GPU, RAM, and internal storage– the latter of which is a 1 TB custom NVMe solid-statedrive That drive will allow fast filling times, however it likewise provides a problem: 1 TB isn’t much storage nowadays, specifically as current-generation games balloon well beyond 100 GB.

Microsoft’s response to that is the Xbox Series X Storage Growth Card, an exclusive hardware service being developed with Seagate. According to Seagate, those 1 TB growth cards will reproduce “the full speed and efficiency of the Series X’s internal storage.” The back of the Xbox Series X has actually a port committed to these Storage Growth Cards, however the Series X will likewise accept external USB hard disk drives. Xbox Series X games can be supported to a USB drive, however users need to install them to the console’s internal SSD or a Storage Growth Card to play them. This likewise makes an application for Xbox One games that get “enhanced for Xbox Series X” updates, such as Gears 5– Microsoft states those boosted games can’t be played off of a USB drive if users desire “ideal efficiency.”

Neither Seagate nor Microsoft exposed specs on the Xbox Series X Storage Growth Card (aside from to state its efficiency “matches internal storage precisely”). The business likewise did not divulge the rate for those Storage Growth Cards. We ought to keep in mind that 1 TB NVMe SSDs cost around $100 or more, indicating a possibly costly storage growth card.

In February, when we got a peek at the back of an Xbox Series X model, the port that accepts Xbox Series X Storage Growth Cards was identified for the first time. The port was hypothesized to have actually been compatible with the CFexpress format, a high-capacity, high-speed storage choice. According to Digital Foundry’s hands-on analysis of the Xbox Series X, the Storage Growth Card is efficiently an NVMe user interface gadget enclosed within a chunky heatsink to keep it cool. The cards will provide some level of mobility in between Xbox Series X gadgets, letting players copy full games to the card to move them from console to console.

The Xbox Series X is slated to introduce throughout vacation 2020.