Xbox '720'/Durango Dev Kit Photos via IGN

[Alladaskill17]

Photos of a next-generation Xbox development kit have emerged online. The images were first spotted on the AssemblerGames forums when a user named DaE attempted to sell the kit for $10,000. At the time, the pictures were met with heavy skepticism and many assumed they were simply a hoax.

Now, however, Digital Foundry has spoken to ?multiple developers working on next-gen projects? as well as DaE himself and confirmed that the images are indeed a legitimate look at the hardware being used to develop games for Microsoft?s next-generation system.

Source

[+Warwagon MVC]

Well ram is pretty cheap

[Alladaskill17]

Well ram is pretty cheap

I'm hoping the 12GB rumor mentioned in the article is true!

[+Warwagon MVC]

I'm hoping the 12GB rumor mentioned in the article is true!

Well Crytek would be happy

[Crisp]

Isn't DDR4 out next year? So new Xbox will go out of date as soon as it's shipped.

[Alladaskill17]

Isn't DDR4 out next year? So new Xbox will go out of date as soon as it's shipped.

You're not familiar with console specs are you... :rolleyes:

[FlintyV]

No way it'll ship with 8GB let alone 12GB of RAM.

[Alladaskill17]

No way it'll have 8GB let alone 12GB of RAM.

One can dream, 4GB would be sufficient IMO (but what do I know about dev'ing ha)

[FlintyV]

I'd say 2GB.. maybe 4GB. Have to remember most homes now are 1080P maximum resolution so no real need for high resolution textures, more could be spent on content and even 2GB would be a huge improvement over the PS3/360.

I don't think we can draw much on what the next Xbox will be like from the Dev Kit :/

However it is interesting that it's an Intel CPU considering the 360 used an IBM PowerPC.

[Alladaskill17]

I'd say 2GB.. maybe 4GB. Have to remember most homes now are 1080P maximum resolution so no real need for high resolution textures, more could be spent on content and even 2GB would be a huge improvement over the PS3/360.

I don't think we can draw much on what the next Xbox will be like from the Dev Kit :/

However it is interesting that it's an Intel CPU considering the 360 used an IBM PowerPC.

Well I only say 4GB assuming the next console will have a lifespan the length of the 360; so that would future proof it. Also, when 4k resolutions and displays come into play we will be glad if it's 4GB not 2GB ha

[Blackhearted]

Well I only say 4GB assuming the next console will have a lifespan the length of the 360; so that would future proof it. Also, when 4k resolutions and displays come into play we will be glad if it's 4GB not 2GB ha

4K is pretty much irrelevant since it's guaranteed that neither 'next-gen' console will have remotely close to enough power to handle it.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Well I only say 4GB assuming the next console will have a lifespan the length of the 360; so that would future proof it. Also, when 4k resolutions and displays come into play we will be glad if it's 4GB not 2GB ha

There's no way the Xbox 720 will have the graphics power required for 4K resolutions, as even top-end dual-GPU PC setups can't manage that. It's very unlikely you'll even see 2K resolutions supported, even for graphically simple games. And that's without even factoring in the adoption rate of 2K/4K displays, which aren't as well supported as 1080p was at the launch of the X360 (and 720p was still in its infancy).

I wouldn't be surprised to see 2GB or less, as that would be up to four times the amount seen in the X360 and the speed will be considerably faster. The largest benefit could come from using SSD storage or a SSD/HDD hybrid drive, which would take a lot of pressure off the system memory. All they need is enough memory to handle 1080p in 3D (120Hz), with a little bit more for "future proofing" (as if such a thing is even possible).

I'm expecting to be underwhelmed with the specs of the next generation of consoles, as I really think they'll do the bare minimum needed to support 1080p / 3D. Sony took big losses last generation and Microsoft doesn't want to price itself out of the market either. With Microsoft looking to make Kinect mandatory - at least according to the last rumours I saw - I think they're looking to move away from sheer horsepower and focus on the experience.

[Alladaskill17]

4K is pretty much irrelevant since it's guaranteed that neither 'next-gen' console will have remotely close to enough power to handle it.

Could we at least expect to have native 1080p be the minimum? As opposed to the up-converting crappy textures like...nearly this entire generation of games, at least on the Xbox platform.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Could we at least expect to have native 1080p be the minimum? As opposed to the up-converting crappy textures like...nearly this entire generation of games, at least on the Xbox platform.

Exactly.

I think all we can expect with the "next gen" of consoles is actual 1080p support. There were hardly any games this generation that did support 1080p native, and those handful that did were more on the simplistic side graphically.

To add to this, I would be shocked if next gen consoles support true stereoscopic 3D in 1080p, as I really doubt they will have enough horsepower to render two scenes of 1080p simultaneously.

I also think the life span we have come accustomed to with consoles will be a thing of the past. Technology is just going to move at a much faster rate then it has in the past, so in order to keep up, the whole premise of a longer life span will be tossed out the window. At least that is my take on things.

[Blackhearted]

Could we at least expect to have native 1080p be the minimum? As opposed to the up-converting crappy textures like...nearly this entire generation of games, at least on the Xbox platform.

Probably. As long as they don't go too cheap on the GPU, or cut too many corners on things releated to it(like how sony crippled the ps3's gpu by killing half its memory bandwidth).

[Alladaskill17]

...

I also think the life span we have come accustomed to with consoles will be a thing of the past. Technology is just going to move at a much faster rate then it has in the past, so in order to keep up, the whole premise of a longer life span will be tossed out the window. At least that is my take on things.

I won't pretend to be an expert in this area by any means, the only point I would made to this last statement (thanks for agreeing with my post btw) is that the longer the lifespan, regardless of tech advances, the easier it becomes to turn profits on 'aging' hardware like we're seeing with this current generation.

[ShareShiz]

Geez 12 gbs of ram. Thats more than the HDD space i have on my 360 :wacko: .. and 3 times more ram than my computers.

[M4nB3arP1g]

If this was assumed to be true the final console would have less ram then this anyway because its a dev kit.

[dagamer34]

Geez 12 gbs of ram. Thats more than the HDD space i have on my 360 :wacko: .. and 3 times more ram than my computers.

Devkits have more RAM than retail machines for debugging tools.

[George P Global Moderator]

Devkits have more RAM than retail machines for debugging tools.

Exactly, but how much more? Anyone remember what the 360 dev kits have/had? I'm going to make a guess and say it was 1GB and the final had 512MB for us. So, who knows? There are lots of Xbox 720 rumors flying around the place but I'd also like to add that 4GB is now the norm on the PC side so the next Xbox should have at least 4GB to match. Back when the 360 came out PCs were just starting to move to 1GB as the shipping norm all those years ago. I think MS does a good enough job of matching the Xbox to the specs of the PC at the time of release. Hell the 360 had a better GPU than the PC for a few months at least till ATi released it's new GPU to the PC market.

Wild guess, I'd say it could be anything from 4GB to 8GB as well, remember that we could be in for even more cores and even more "power states" and also multitasking, if you follow the details in that leaked document from last month. So more ram is needed to do things like that, specially if they want to run other stuff while your game is playing.

Another interesting bit, what if not all of the RAM is for games? To date the xbox has let devs use and chop up the RAM as they needed but what if there's 2GB or something set aside just for the dashboard and apps so they can keep running? This would add to the RAM totals in the end.

[TheLegendOfMart]

Well I only say 4GB assuming the next console will have a lifespan the length of the 360; so that would future proof it. Also, when 4k resolutions and displays come into play we will be glad if it's 4GB not 2GB ha

Theres no chance that the next gen will do 4k, I think the target resolution will be 1080p/30fps with all the graphical effects enabled. 1080p/60 for arcade games and games that dont have demanding graphics.

[Blackhearted]

Theres no chance that the next gen will do 4k, I think the target resolution will be 1080p/30fps with all the graphical effects enabled. 1080p/60 for arcade games and games that dont have demanding graphics.

I hope not. I'd rather not see another cycle where our goal is a mere 30fps and we can't even manage to do that most of the time.

[Emn1ty]

I hope not. I'd rather not see another cycle where our goal is a mere 30fps and we can't even manage to do that most of the time.

I still don't understand why people have a hard time with 30fps. I would rather play a game at max settings averaging at 27-35fps than half settings and get 60fps. As long as the framerate is relatively consistent.

I guess it just comes down to what you want. 60fps, or high res textures? I am of the opinion that higher resolutions aren't really going to solve anything and that smooth animation/features are going to be key in making games look better. But I also don't feel that 60fps is a necessity.

[S00N3R FR3AK]

I don't really see the difference between 60fps and 30fps. 30fps is more then enough for me as I rather see large graphical improvements.

[Blackhearted]

I still don't understand why people have a hard time with 30fps. I would rather play a game at max settings averaging at 27-35fps than half settings and get 60fps.As long as the framerate is relatively consistent.

I guess it just comes down to what you want. 60fps, or high res textures? I am of the opinion that higher resolutions aren't really going to solve anything and that smooth animation/features are going to be key in making games look better. But I also don't feel that 60fps is a necessity.

This is consoles we're talking about, not a pc. A console game with a framerate bouncing between a gap as wide as you mentioned would not only be very noticeable, but would likely be quite annoying.

And honestly, i wouldn't mind if they cut back a little for a steady 60fps. Cause the games that do hit 60fps(forza 4 is a 60fps game that comes to mind) typically feel alot better due to things such as significantly less input lag than the games that "aim" for 30 but fail and run at 20-25fps most of the time instead(which is, unfortunately, most console games).