I am excited to share some of the details that Microsoft announced today on Xbox Series X, and how it is built upon the partnership with the team at AMD.

Together, we have relentlessly pushed the innovation boundaries of gaming devices for the last 15 years. Today, AMD and Microsoft are excited to announce more details on the Xbox Series X, which will deliver an incredible and immersive gaming experience, including the next generation of performance, graphics, lighting, visuals and audio technologies.

AMD and Microsoft worked together for several years to design and optimize every aspect of the Xbox Series X System on a Chip (SoC). The goal was to deliver a transformational design, generational performance and broad experience uplift with innovation throughout silicon, system and software. Key features include:

Transformational CPU computing performance powered by 8 “Zen 2” CPU Cores (16 Threads)

A customized GPU based on next generation AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture with 52 compute units to deliver 12 TFLOPS of single precision performance, enabling increases in graphics performance and hardware accelerated DirectX Raytracing and Variable Rate Shading

New gaming experiences with seamless content paging from the SSD to the GPU based on the revolutionary Xbox Velocity Architecture

An innovative 320-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface to satisfy the most demanding visual experiences

These features will empower developers to create realistic and immersive experiences like we’ve never seen before. In addition, the design was built from the ground up to enable backward compatibility with existing Xbox One titles and will help drive a new generation of DirectX ecosystem that will continue to push the PC industry forward.

The custom RDNA 2 GPU and “Zen 2” CPU Cores, SoC accelerators and re-architected software stacks will enable gamers to see better image quality, higher resolutions, more stable frame rates and much shorter boot and load times.

The Xbox Series X SoC was architected for the next generation of DirectX API extensions with hardware acceleration for Raytracing, and Variable Rate Shading. Raytracing is especially one of the most visible new features for gamers, which simulates the properties of light, in real time, more accurately than any technology before it. Realistic lighting completely changes a game and the gamer’s perception.

Xbox Series X will support the latest HDMI 2.1 specification, with support for 4K up to 120 Hz, as well as Variable Refresh Rate and Auto Low Latency Mode.

The Xbox Series X is the biggest generational leap of SoC and API design that we’ve done with Microsoft, and it’s an honor for AMD to partner with Microsoft for this endeavor. The Xbox Series X is going to be a beacon of technical innovation leadership for this console generation and will propagate the innovation throughout the DirectX ecosystem this year and into next year. It is a privilege to be Microsoft’s trusted partner, and we look forward to a successful launch this holiday season!

Sebastien Nussbaum is Senior Fellow and Corporate Vice President, Semi-Custom Products & Technologies at AMD.

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