Report: The Next Xbox Will Have 16GB RAM, 13GB For Games

xbox project scarlett specs

The new consoles have talked up teraflops, 8K, real-time raytracing and lots of other features. But just as crucial to the whole equation is how much memory they'll ship with, and a new report shines some light on what to expect.

Windows Central, which has always been pretty close to all things Microsoft for obvious reasons, was confident enough overnight to report some specs around the two iterations of the next Xbox: Anaconda, which is the codename for the Project Scarlett that was first announced, and Lockhart, the cutdown version we've heard about.

Sources: Microsoft Is Still Planning A Cheaper, Disc-Less Next-Gen Xbox

In June, Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, a new iteration of the Xbox that the company said would “set a new bar for console power, speed and performance.” What Microsoft didn’t say is that it is also working on a lower-cost, disc-less version of Scarlett, code-named Lockhart, according to four people briefed on the company’s plans.

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Anaconda, reportedly, will have 16GB of RAM in total with 13GB reserved for games and the remainder going towards to the console's OS. And that number could fluctuate a little more, as Microsoft already mentioned that they were using the SSD (which is a proprietary NVMe SSD) as virtual memory. By comparison, the Xbox One X has 9GB of RAM, which varied depending on what the OS was doing.

Any developers that want to access new features from the Scarlett generation, like real-time ray tracing, will need to get to grips with Game Core OS. Game Core OS isn't a prerequisite for developers making games for the next-gen Xboxes, but it's designed to help streamline development so devs only have to build a game once, and it will automatically work across Xbox and PC.

The SSD is likely to be the most noticeable change, though. Every game will benefit from faster loading times, though, and games won't need to be specifically patched for the Scarlett generation to take advantage of that.

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Microsoft Announces Project Scarlett, The Next-Gen Xbox

Microsoft today teased some its first plans for Project Scarlett, the next-generation Xbox, and the buzzwords make it sound impressive: up to 120 frames-per-second, a solid state drive, ray-tracing, and so on. It’ll be out in the spring of 2020.

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[Thanks, Windows Central!]


    That 13GB will be shared though with the GPU.

    That's the problem - shared memory means less ram for the CPU, and slower RAM for the GPU because instead of using GDDR6 it will be stuck using regular DDR5.

    Last edited 10/12/19 9:47 am

      Scarlett's using GDDR6 - not sure where you got DDR5 from. (Unless you mean it'll be using DDR5 because of the shared RAM it's pulling from rest of the system.)

    The real question is, how much is the damn thing going to cost considering its specs atm are better than most midrange PC's.

      Probably about what the One X cost at launch - no doubt it’ll be sold at a slight loss.

    So with the SSD, given it’s proprietary and used for memory, are folks still going to be able to swap it out for their own drives?

      there will no doubt be after market warranty voiding options.

      The SSD will almost certainly be soldered to the motherboard, as it is in most modern laptops.

      However, I see no reason why Scarlett won't support external drives like the current XBone models do.

      Furthermore, I don't expect to see this SSD with enough capacity to be the main drive. IMO, we will still have spinning rust, that uses the SSD for game cacheing.

    cant wait really.

    this will spell the end of the current version of the switch. 3rd parties will ditch it fast as they wont be able to port next gen games to it without making a completely different version.

    expect a switch pro in line with ps4 slim specs to come out 2020.

      Given that Switch runs ARM and XBone uses x86, developers already have to make completely different versions for the Switch.

      Given that there isn't currently a mobile SoC on the market that has "PS4 slim specs", it's unlikely a "Switch Pro" with such specs will come out in 2020.

        Not quite, there's the issue of just available power, its not just an arch port, but a complete refactoring of the game.

      Yep, bring on the next gen! Can't wait.

      As for the Switch - that concept can only hang with the tail end of a generation. It's impossible for it to have contemporary specs/power.

    8K seems... optimistic. Who said anything about nex-gen consoles doing 8K?

      Microsoft did...

        Okay, I don't remember that. If they just get 4K running smoothly I'll be happy. :)

      Microsoft explicitly mentioned it in the Scarlett reveal trailer at E3.

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