The first Xbox Series X units have ended up in the hands of reviewers this week, though none of the console’s new games were included. Even so, the highly regarded team at Digital Foundry have posted a lengthy but interesting piece on their YouTube channel going into the box’s backwards compatibility.
Microsoft is pushing one of the console’s big strengths being backwards compatibility – not just for playing games but for using the new console’s power to seriously enhance older titles. The results, for the most part are actually really good.
According to the video, the console is able to run most Xbox One X games at a mostly stable 60 frames per second – many at 4K though some at 1080p and 1440p. There are dips but usually just into the mid 50s, the new console offering an extraordinarily consistent 60fps frame rate across multiple titles from multiple generations.
Indeed some games which struggled to reach a consistent frame rate on the Xbox One X like “Final Fantasy XV,” “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice”” or “Hitman 2” yielded a stable 60fps and mostly stable 60fps respectively on the new console.
The video also clearly shows backwards compatibility only goes so far on any console and if a game has a locked frame rate/resolution (say 4K/30fps or 1080p/60fps) then the new machine won’t change that – it’ll still run at that until the game is updated or overhauled enough to allow for unlocked frame rates.
Things like new textures, lighting, ray tracing, etc. also all has to be added by the developer in updates that may not come cheap. It’s an issue rival PlayStation 5 will have to deal with as well when it launches. Games will need updates for users to take full advantage of the Series X’s hardware, though the lure of Game Pass and its need for consistent regular content will likely help Microsoft’s backwards compatibility efforts.
The Xbox Series X goes on sale in early November.
