The Xbox Series X specs have now been revealed, and we’ve taken a deep dive into the specs to see what they mean for gamers. So, read on for everything you need to know about the Xbox Series X specs.
The next generation of consoles is looming somewhere over the horizon, taunting us with a late 2020 release. And up to now there hasn’t been a ton of information about what we could expect from the Xbox Series X and PS5, beyond some vague fake-sounding stuff like “8K” and “instant loading times”.
Microsoft did reveal some information in a blog post a couple weeks ago, but that was largely limited to a vague statement that the GPU would be capable of 12 teraflops of compute performance, and didn’t really tell us much beyond that.
But now that Microsoft has revealed almost everything we need to know about the hardware through a lengthy post on Eurogamer, we have a much clearer picture of what the Xbox Series X will be capable of – and, really, the Xbox Series X seems to be quite an incredible piece of hardware.
The Xbox Series X will have the equivalent of an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X – but without a Boost Clock (Image credit: Future)
All about the numbers
We’ve known for a while that the Xbox Series X would be sporting an AMD Zen 2 processor and RDNA 2 graphics, but now we have some actual specific hardware information.
The Xbox Series X will have an 8-core, 16-thread processor with a maximum clock of 3.8 GHz, but it won’t quite operate like a desktop chip.
The Xbox Series X will have an 8-core, 16-thread processor with a maximum clock of 3.8 GHz, but it won’t quite operate like a desktop chip. You see, rather than automatically boosting up core clocks when there’s thermal headroom and the demand for greater performance, the processor will stay at one clock speed at all times – depending on how developers use the CPUs.
What we mean is that developers can either use the processor with or without SMT (simultaneous multi-threading), and the clock speed will change depending on their choice. The clock speed will be 3.8GHz if hyperthreading isn’t being used, which will boost single-core performance, or 3.6GHz if it’s enabled.
Since most games right now prioritize a few cores with high clock speeds, this makes the most sense right now, but we could see a move for games to prioritize multi-threaded performance in the future, and this approach would leave the Xbox Series X open to that as time goes on.
What’s particularly interesting, however is the GPU on offer here. Microsoft decided on a 12TFLOP GPU to target 4K60 gameplay – we already knew that – but now we know how Microsoft is hitting that target.
The Xbox Series X will be using a GPU with 3,328 Stream Processors spread across 52 compute units … the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT – the current AMD RDNA flagship – is rocking 2,560 Stream Processors across 40 compute units.
The Xbox Series X will be using a GPU with 3,328 Stream Processors spread across 52 compute units. This might not mean a lot to many folks, but to put it in perspective, the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT – the current AMD RDNA flagship – is rocking 2,560 Stream Processors across 40 compute units. This means the Xbox Series X GPU has 24% more Stream Processors than the 5700 XT, which should lead to a substantial lead in performance.
Raw compute performance for a GPU is only a part of the story: memory is also extremely important. Now, the Xbox Series X will have 16GB of 14Gbps GDDR6, but that’s shared between the CPU and GPU. However, because the operating system of the console will only be limited to one CPU core, it’s likely that the system won’t be using too much of the system RAM, leaving more resources for actual games to utilize.
But to further expand memory capabilities, Microsoft is also leveraging the extreme bandwidth of PCIe Gen 4.0 to expand system memory when needed. This could potentially be the gateway to actual 8K gaming, as it would allow for much higher resolution textures.
Is this 4K?
One of the major issues with the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro is that they’re not quite capable of handling true 4K gaming, even though the consoles were marketed targeting that resolution. Instead, both Sony and Microsoft utilized checkerboard rendering to upscale the resolution of games up to 4K.
For the most part this is fine, and looks enough like 4K to pass, but it’s not quite the same as native 4K rendering. The problem is that native 4K rendering takes a lot of processing power. In fact, it’s not until you drop something like $799 (£749, AU$1,199) on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 that you can even approach ‘4K60’ performance.
So, now that the Xbox Series X is rocking a GPU that’s even more powerful than an RTX 2080, at a price point that’s likely going to be be way more approachable than a high-end graphics card, true 4K gaming is about to enter the mainstream.
The Xbox Series X is already able to handle Minecraft with full path tracing (Image credit: Microsoft; Nvidia)
The future is ray traced
Now, of course, both major console manufacturers have promised that their consoles would support hardware-accelerated ray tracing, much like the Nvidia Turing line of graphics cards.
We haven’t seen this capability in AMD’s first-generation RDNA cards like the Radeon RX 5700, and while we knew it was on the horizon, now we know a bit more about what to expect. Specifically, the Xbox Series X’s hardware acceleration will be able to leverage 25 TFLOPs of performance for ray traced workloads. Now, it’s hard to compare that to something like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, as Nvidia measures its ray tracing performance in RTX-OPS and Giga Rays/s.
We don’t know yet if AMD’s new GPUs will be comparable to Nvidia’s in this regard, but we can be sure that if games on next-generation consoles are going to start pushing out more and more games with ray tracing, we’re going to see a huge increase in the amount of games that support the technology. And because there are so few games that actually have ray tracing right now, we frankly need the consoles to adopt the technology.
But it doesn’t end there. AMD and Microsoft also seem to be targeting Nvidia’s DLSS technology with RDNA 2 and the Xbox Series X. If you’re not familiar with DLSS, or deep learning super sampling, it’s a technology that uses dedicated hardware on Turing graphics cards to upscale images through AI.
Nvidia graphics cards have dedicated Tensor cores that handle this, but AMD is taking another approach. Instead, AMD will be relying on the raw throughput of the GPU, and executing the machine learning workloads through 8- and 4-bit integer operations – much lower precision than the 32-bit operations that are typically used in graphics workloads. This should result in a huge amount of power for this up-scaling without sacrificing too much.
Looks like consoles are about to catch up with the best graphics cards (Image credit: Future)
What does this mean for PC gaming?
The specs for the Xbox Series X are looking mighty juicy right now, but what about folks that like PC gaming instead? Well, it might mean you’ll have to make some upgrades in the near future.
We should be clear – the specs that Microsoft has revealed here don’t outpace the most powerful consumer components on the market, but they do come close. Near the end of the year, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re rocking an 8-core CPU and at least an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super if you want to stay ahead of the curve.
That’s an incredibly tall order for a lot of people, as that hardware is incredibly expensive. The Xbox Series X, then, could very well be on-par with the best gaming PCs right now, and given that it’s going to be much cheaper for that level of performance, it could potentially be an easy recommendation.
Now, we’ll totally admit that we were incredibly skeptical when we first heard that Microsoft started making its claims about Xbox Series X performance, but these specs are incredibly promising. It’s going to be quite a while before we’re able to get our hands on the console to see what it’s really capable of, but it’s looking pretty damn promising.
We’re about to see a true generational jump, and it’s going to be felt no matter which platform you typically play games on. It’s something to be excited about, even if it’s several months away, and we’re here for that.
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
