Microsoft to Unleash More of Xbox One's GPU Power

By Jane McEntegart
published

Microsoft might free up that 10 percent of reserved GPU power.

The Xbox One currently reserves 10 percent of its GPU power for Kinect and apps, but it looks like that could soon change. According to the latest scuttlebutt, Microsoft will dramatically reduce the amount of reserved GPU power in its gaming console.


Pete Dodd, the driving force behind last year's ps4noDRM campaign and a reliable source for video game news, on Sunday tweeted that Microsoft will keep 2 percent of the reserved GPU power for voice but will do away with the 8 percent currently reserved for video (Kinect). This 8 percent will now be 'optional' for game devs, according to Dodd. Presumably game developers with titles that don't use Kinect at all will be only too happy to make use of the extra juice.

The news hasn't been confirmed or denied by Microsoft, nor does Dodd specify as to when this will happen. If it does, users can probably expect a noticeable improvement in framerate and the Xbox One will inch a little bit closer to the PS4 in terms of graphics processing power. That still leaves Microsoft lagging behind in memory, though, because while both consoles pack 8 GB of RAM, the Xbox One is DDR3 and the PS4 is GDDR5.

Check out what we thought of the Xbox One in our review here.

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Jane McEntegart
47 Comments Comment from the forums
  • czar1020
    could soon soon
    Reply
  • JMcEntegart
    12548956 said:
    could soon soon

    Eek, thanks pal. All fixed. :)
    Reply
  • Shankovich
    A comment on the memory: Xbox One has a higher theoretical bandwidth than the PS4 due to the embedded memory. Really, it's more of a question of who will spend the time (money) to program with it, now that the PS4 is the easier platform to work with. That being said, the embedded memory does allow XB1 to run more resource intensive stuff (like AA) with less resources than you would need on the PS4. It was the same deal with the 360. In any case, every game out right now for the consoles is no where near optimized. We'll be seeing those titles in about 2 years.
    Reply
  • p05esto
    I freaking hope so... I'm a bit pissed that even games just released are not keeping up with the PS4 and really not that special graphically speaking. MS laid an egg with the Xbox One. They thought people would care about the stupid TV features, but it's GAMES and graphics people care about.... anything else is fluff. I have the system and was expecting more (same with PS4, not really that advanced).... what about 4k TVs in all the stores? These brand new systems can't push 4k native. That seems super stupid considering these systems are supposed to last for 5+ years
    Reply
  • onover
    The PS4 does not have DDR5 considering we don't even have DDR4 yet. It has GDDR5, which is based on DDR3.
    Reply
  • Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    A comment on the memory: Xbox One has a higher theoretical bandwidth than the PS4 due to the embedded memory. Really, it's more of a question of who will spend the time (money) to program with it, now that the PS4 is the easier platform to work with. That being said, the embedded memory does allow XB1 to run more resource intensive stuff (like AA) with less resources than you would need on the PS4. It was the same deal with the 360. In any case, every game out right now for the consoles is no where near optimized. We'll be seeing those titles in about 2 years.
    The PS3 had a better CPU but it's GPU was a bit weaker than the 360.The PS4 is not the easier console to program for, it is easier than the PS3 was due to the x86 arch but the XB1 is easier since it uses x86 hardware and is also running the Windows 8 kernel at the core of its software, the PS4 is using a Linux kernel.
    Reply
  • bison88
    Toms I expect better of you. People who call gddr5, ddr5 sound like idiots.
    Just another example of how Toms has lost its nerd edge and gone mainstream.
    Reply
  • memadmax
    Kinect is a belly flop... AGAIN.The thing doesn't work, don't reserve anything for it.
    Reply
  • Lee-m
    It doesn't matter what microsoft does, the GPU in the xboxone is technically weaker than the one in the ps4, even if its running at 100%.

    Both consoles are crap anyway, with hardware a good year out of date. Unless this article is right, and the PS4 has this epic future tech DDR5 that hasn't even been invented yet. Maybe toms next story will be Sony invents the time machine?
    Reply