The Big Xbox One X

Internal Specs

The Xbox One X presents a major power upgrade over the Xbox One and Xbox One S, with a jump that markedly exceeds the PS4 Pro's processing improvement over the PlayStation 4. It uses an eight-core AMD CPU clocked at 2.35GHz, which is a 31 percent boost over the Xbox One's processor. That alone is impressive, but it's outdone by the system's new GPU, a 40-core graphics processor with a 1.172GHz clock speed. It's much more powerful than the GPUs in the Xbox One and One S, which are 12-core processors with respective 853 and 914MHz clock speeds. The One X also has twice the RAM as the other systems, which itself is about 50 percent faster than its predecessors' memory.

Like the Xbox One S, the Xbox One X will support Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback and streaming of 4K video with HDR. This ensures the system will be useful as a movie player, though it doesn't seem to offer any significant non-gaming multimedia benefits compared with the Xbox One S.

External Design

Despite packing much more power into its chassis than the Xbox One and One S, the One X is actually the smallest of the three systems. It shares a similar profile to the Xbox One S, but is slightly slimmer. I was unable to get precise measurements at the event at E3, but the One X appears to be about half an inch smaller than the One S on all sides.

One X

Outside of the smaller chassis and more powerful hardware, the Xbox One X is identical to the other Xbox One systems. It is compatible with all Xbox One software and accessories, and the gamepad seems to be completely unchanged. The back panel shares the same ports as the Xbox One S, so you'll need a USB adapter if you want to use Kinect with it.

Initial Impressions

I got a good look at the upcoming Forza Motorsport 7 and Assassin's Creed: Origins on Xbox One X development kits at E3 2017. Both games appeared to render at 4K resolution, with Forza a consistent 60 frames per second. Assassin's Creed also looked very smooth, but I was unable to monitor the framerate during the demo. Regardless, the 4K resolution is an impressive technical feat that even gaming PCs can struggle with.

While the PS4 Pro can also render games at 4K, its effective rendering resolution and framerate have been much less predictable, with trade-offs offered in certain games between smooth animation and high resolution. The extra power of the Xbox One X will hopefully present much less stark compromises in performance, but it will ultimately depend on each game's use of the system's hardware.

Many upcoming games will take advantage of the hardware, and several dozen first- and third-party Xbox One games that have already been released are slated to get free patches that will make them look or perform better on the Xbox One X when it releases.

Higher Price for Higher Resolution

The console's $500 price tag is a bit hard to swallow, especially since the Xbox One S now retails for half that much. However, looking at the price of 4K gaming on PCs, the Xbox One X could be a bargain. High-end gaming PCs can readily render games at 4K, but they can easily cost four times as much as the Xbox One X. A PC built on a $500 budget is very, very unlikely to offer performance comparable to even a standard Xbox One when playing recent games. That's an important consideration when looking at the system's price, though it still might not be a compelling enough reason to shell out the cash for some gamers.

We'll get a better look at the Xbox One X later this year. Check back for more details and a full review ahead of its release November 7.