The next Xbox will quadruple XB1’s CPU, octuple its GPU performance

Xbox Series X, due in late 2020. It's tall. And it has a modified controller compared to the Xbox One pad. [credit: Xbox ]

Back in December, Microsoft showed us what the outside of the Xbox One Series X would look like. Today, the company is announcing in more detail what will be on the inside of the box, with a blog post discussing the machine's internal specs and new features focused mostly on speed and compatibility.

Forward compatible

Microsoft reconfirmed today that "existing Xbox One games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games" would still be playable on the Series X with "steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual fidelity—all with no developer work required." More exciting, though, Microsoft seemingly announced a new commitment to forward compatibility throughout the Xbox line via a program called Smart Delivery.

In Microsoft's words, Smart Delivery "empowers you to buy a game once and know that—whether you are playing it on Xbox One or Xbox Series X—you are getting the right version of that game on whatever Xbox you're playing on." That sounds a lot like the existing system that automatically downloads higher-resolution packages for "Xbox One X enhanced" versions of older Xbox One games. Extending the same system to the Series X, though, lets publishers take advantage of features like ray-tracing and SSD load times without needing to develop and sell an entirely new Series X-exclusive version of the game.

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