Full Xbox Series X specs unveiled, includes 1TB SSD expansion cards

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Get the deep dive inside Microsoft's new Xbox Series X console.

Xbox Series X Motherboard
Xbox Series X Motherboard (Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has dropped a fresh wave of new Xbox Series X details, including a full breakdown of proposed specifications for its next-generation console. Partnering up with Digital Foundry, the platform holder has unveiled its full vision for the upcoming device, including the hardware within the box.

As previously unveiled, AMD's latest Zen 2, 7nm processor architecture supplies the brains for Xbox Series X, now confirmed as an eight-core 3.8 GHz setup. That's flanked by a Navi-based RDNA 2 GPU, supplying 12TF of graphical processing power, with 52 compute units clocked at 1.825GHz. Microsoft also delivers 16 GB GDDR6 RAM and a 1TB custom NVMe SSD, with an expandable expansion 1TB SSD expansion card. The full system specifications are listed below, as provided by Microsoft.

CategoryXbox Series X
Processor8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU
Graphics12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU
Die Size360.45 mm2
Process7nm Enhanced
Memory16 GB GDDR6 w/ 320mb bus
Memory Bandwidth10 GB @ 560 GB/s, 6GB @ 336 GB/s
Internal Storage1 TB Custom NVME SSD
I/O Throughput2.4 GB/s (Raw), 4.8 GB/s (Compressed, with custom hardware decompression block)
Expandable Storage1 TB Expansion Card (matches internal storage exactly)
External StorageUSB 3.2 External HDD Support
Optical Drive4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive
Performance Target4K @ 60 FPS, Up to 120 FPS
ColorMatte Black
Size301mm x 151mm x 151mm (estimate)
Release dateHoliday 2020

Among the current focuses of Xbox Series X will be drastic improvements to load times, with Microsoft demonstrating that change with a State of Decay 2 demo, reducing by 40 seconds on the next-generation machine. It primarily attributes the gains to Microsoft's new 1TB custom NVME SSD storage drive, also set to be accompanied by matching 1TB expansion cards from Seagate.

We also receive further details on the Xbox Series X's ray-tracing solution, leveraging hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing to improve how light and shadows are processed and displayed. That results in more realistic lighting, with Microsoft providing its first examples with aid from Minecraft.

Xbox Series X/S

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Matt Brown
Matt Brown

Matt Brown is Windows Central's Senior Games Editor, Xbox & PC, at Future. Following over seven years of professional consumer technology and gaming coverage, he’s focused on the world of Microsoft's gaming efforts. You can follow him on Twitter @mattjbrown.
6 Comments
  • Anything on the release of the console? Still 2020 or..
  • 2021 May. The virus needs to circulate North and south winters before is dissipate. Brace yourself for june southern hemisphere and then back to northern in December.
    then we in the clear.
  • Honestly? That analyst prediction was literally anything. He even stated 1 or both might get delayed or release with supply constraints. The fact that today we see MS has the console completely finished and finalized. So much so that they had the whole console for Digital Foundry to build it themselves. It looks like MS and Xbox Series X is on schedule and into production already. I am betting on a launch this year still. I'm predicting PS5 is delayed. We haven't heard a single thing about it.
  • Crazy thought here! But Microsoft has been very chatty about Next Gen, and I wonder. Is this the lockheart and at a future digital unveiling event, they will show the Xbox Series Pro X, which will catch PS5 off guard. Just food for thought, would be the worst kept secret in gaming.
  • As Digital Foundry say, this thing is a beast. And will outperform any high end GPU PC currently available today. It benchmarked Gears 5 on PC absolute vest settings. Not even optimized for Series X and it instantly benchmarked the same as an RTX 2080. Expect a game designed for Series X to actually be 50 or so % better than that. Maybe more.
  • Yeah this is true, but both GPU manufacturers are releasing new lines this year, the Series X is going to sit around the midrange of PC levels I expect. Which is completely understandable given the huge price difference between a high end PC and a console. That being said this is easily the closest a console has been to the upper levels of PC on release, by a pretty big margin. The One X was the next closest, but it still wasn't pushing the same detail and features as PC, just res.