Gamers Nexus, a prolific tech YouTuber, recently purchased an Xbox Developer Kit — a special version of the Xbox Series X console studios use for game development. As it turned out, the XDK for the current generation of Xbox consoles comes with a whopping 40GB of GDDR6 memory (please, no jokes about Chrome) and a hardware ban from Microsoft (if obtained illegally).
The Xbox Series X-based XDK looks very similar to the Xbox One X and its developer kit (Project Scorpio). Earlier rumors claimed Microsoft used that design to prevent leaks before the official announcement in 2020. The retail version of the console, as you know, has an entirely different vertical design.
As the name implies, media and regular customers should not get their hands on the Xbox Development Kit. Due to EULA violation, Microsoft banned the console and blocked the ability to go online or play any games. Still, that did not stop Game Nexus from tinkering with the device. Their teardown revealed some interesting tidbits about the hardware Microsoft supplies to game developers.
The XDK uses 40GB of GDDR6 memory soldered on both sides of the motherboard (2GB Samsung chips). That might be why rumors claimed Xbox Series X would come with more than 16GB of memory. Developers can utilize such a large amount of RAM for debugging and running less-optimized code.
Unfortunately, there is no information about how the XDK allocates its RAM. The Xbox Series X spreads its 16GB of GDDR6 RAM into three chunks: 2.5GB for the operating system, 3.5GB for system memory, and 10GB for graphics.
If you are a regular gamer, do not bother trying to buy the XDK. Although these kits sometimes appear on eBay (about 1350 EUR), Microsoft is good at tracking and banning illegally obtained consoles.
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