As mentioned yesterday, late last night Digital Foundry unveiled the full technical specs of Microsoft's upcoming "most powerful console ever made" -- Project Scorpio. Although we don't know what name the unit will have when its finally released, or when that will be exactly, or even what it looks like, this definitely gives us a good idea of what's under the hood. Spoiler alert, the thing is a beast.

In terms of numbers, this is how it stacks up to the existing Xbox One S and the PS4 Pro.


To most of us these might just look like noticeably higher numbers, but in execution it means that Scorpio will be able to hit native 4K on most, if not all, current Xbox One titles. Not only that, but better frame-rates, improved 1080p effects and texture filtering, and faster load times. It's also quite impressive for a home console, with Digital Foundry noting that the GPU "is only 94MHz off the maximum boost clock of AMD's Polaris-based RX 480 graphics card, which only has 36 compute units - and requires a meaty custom cooler to sustain its max boost clock."

That last bit is a testament to the engineering that has gone into the creation of the Scorpio, which like the Xbox One S integrates the power supply into the unit whilst also running relatively cool compared to the launch Xbox One.



Now all of this is great on paper but in terms of games and what they'll look like, that's the real question. To showcase the Scorpio's capabilities Digital Foundry was given a demonstration of Forza 6 running in 4K with 4K assets and Xbox One quality settings. The result was a steady 60fps with only 66% GPU utilisation. When pushed at the same 4K resolution to PC's ultra setting, that GPU number bumped up to 88%. Certainly, the hardware is both capable and lives up to Microsoft's claims.

Add on top of that the fact that the Scorpio's extra power will be used out of the box to make all existing Xbox One games look better and load faster, and it starts to sound more like a brand new console that a mid-life refresh. Expect to see more on the Scorpio, and what games will take advantage of its power, at E3.

Oh, and be sure to head on over to Eurogamer to read more.