Further Xbox 720 details emerge, CPU and GPU revealed

It’s next-gen Xbox speculation time! Two separate sources are speculating on the speed of the CPU and GPU of the new, currently nameless next-gen Xbox.

Power to the people

Processer rumours have whirled around the melting pot of the internet for months now, but until recently, nothing has been set in stone. It now seems that the next-gen Xbox will rock a brand new System on a Chip (SoC), codenamed Oban. Global Foundries and IBM will be the production line behind the SoC.

The CPU will be a PowerPC processor, combined with an ATI Southern Islands GPU, commonly referred to as the “6000 Series”. This is a US$80 graphics processor with a standard memory size of 3GB (on the standalone cards). Despite the card being released last year, there are plenty of new features included on the chip which the current Xbox is sorely lacking.

A release during 2012 seems unlikely, as the first run of the Oban chips are as yet to land in the hands of game developers. Many agree that 2013 will see the release of a new Xbox console. The most optimistic view is that the new Xbox could see the light of day come November.

Eye-wateringly beautiful

It is expected that the new Xbox will be up to six-times as powerful as the current model and a full 20% faster than Nintendo’s highly anticipated Wii U.

If we look at the Radeon HD 6670 (which the next-gen Xbox possibly bases its graphics chipset on), the new Xbox will support the now standard 1080p HD output, be capable of multi-monitor displays, enjoy full DirectX11 compatibility and puzzlingly, allow users to play 3D-compatible titles.

When the developer’s version of the next-gen Xbox arrives in August, further rumours and product details will hopefully begin to leak out.