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XboxOneFeature

An anonymous European developer has confirmed that a major European studio is working on a VR title for the Xbox Ane upgrade currently expected in 2022. Microsoft is expected to denote the new panel at E3 this yr, and the new title volition likely debut there also.

Microsoft intends to work with Oculus Rift to support VR on the Xbox One rather than building its own in-firm solution, according to Ars Technica. At this stage in the game that'south probably wise; VR headsets historically have several years to develop and the new Xbox One (Xbox 1.5? Xbox Ii? Xbone Xtreme?) will already be striking markets behind PlayStation VR and the PlayStation 4K / 4.5 / Neo. Different Sony, which has mandated strict backwards compatibility requirements, Xbox One VR may only be available on the 2022 model due to VR's loftier performance demands. This makes sense, given that the Xbox One typically lags the PlayStation in operation tests, even though its games typically run at a lower resolution.

How will Microsoft upgrade the Xbox I?

If rumors are true, Sony'southward PlayStation Neo is a straightforward update with an improved GPU architecture, a faster CPU clock, and faster GDDR5 memory. Microsoft, in contrast, may take to make some tough choices virtually the future of its platform.

The Xbox One's current design combines four DDR3-2133 channels with a 32MB SRAM cache. Chief memory bandwidth is 68GB/s, while the SRAM enshroud provides 109GB/s. The SRAM cache is dedicated entirely to the GPU, equally discussed in this Microsoft presentation, and its designed to convalesce pressure on main memory. Some developers have complained that the SRAM is also small to allow for 1080p; a faster, larger SRAM cache could prove extremely beneficial to the platform.

Xbox One SoC block diagram

Xbox One SoC cake diagram. The 32MB of ESRAM (iv blocks of 8MB) is at the bottom.

Co-ordinate to the presentation linked above, the CPU on the Xbox 1 is incapable of saturating the quad-channel DDR3-2133 memory bus, while the GPU can easily saturate it. This causes significant problems for the CPU clusters, which is why Microsoft recommends that the GPU use SRAM as much every bit possible.

ESRAM

If Microsoft wants the next generation of Xbox One to run VR titles, it'south going to need a much larger pipe for the GPU. Theoretically the company could redesign its master retention omnibus and upgrade it to DDR4-3200, just that only works if it can also ensure the CPU doesn't become memory starved. DDR4-3200 only offers ~102.3GB/s of memory bandwidth. While that's l% more than the electric current Xbox I, it's not near enough to feed a mod midrange GPU, which is what we expect an updated Xbox 1 to target.

Microsoft has two bones choices: Information technology could redesign the console to use GDDR5 or HBM, thereby solving the bandwidth problem, or it tin double down its SRAM enshroud. The 2nd selection would seem to preserve backward compatibility more hands, so it'll exist interesting to run across where Microsoft goes from here.