The Date is set for May 21, the day Microsoft will release its latest and greatest console… the Xbox 720. Remember Microsoft is behind its original release date, way behind. Speculations have it that this was  purely due to the fact that Microsoft was waiting for Sony to release its own specifications for the PS4. Truth?

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XBox 720 concept

From what we can tell, the Xbox 720 will come packing very similar specifications to the already-announced PS4. However, it is rumored strongly that the Xbox 720 will come with reduced graphics potency.  The Xbox 720’s CPU will be an AMD Jaguar-based CPU clocked at 1.6GHz – possibly very similar to that of the PS4, possibly identical in every way. That would certainly be a boost for game developers as it would make cross-platform development much easier than it is currently. Graphics-wise, rumors suggest that the console will contain a revision of AMD’s 7000 series graphics, which is based on its 28nm Graphics Core Next (GCN) Southern Islands tech. The PS4 graphics are provided by a bespoke AMD chip from this family somewhere along the lines of a Radeon 7850 card with 18 GCN processing clusters, each with 64 cores. It is thought that the Xbox 720 will have just 12 processing clusters which could well mean that Microsoft is using a version of the (rumored/forthcoming) AMD Radeon 7790 chip. That means less power and cheaper bits, basically, but it’s not all doom and gloom. The PS4 comes packing 8GB of unified GDDR5 memory which combines system and graphics memory for super-fast gaming. But the Xbox 720 is rumoured to contain 8GB of general system memory and separate graphics memory.

That means that the Xbox 720 might not be as potent a gaming rig as the PS4, but will be more efficient at other tasks, making the Xbox better and faster outside of gaming environments.

The controller though is rumored to be very similar. This from Kotaku:

The controller actually seems quite similar to the current Xbox 360 one. Same two analog sticks in the same upper-left/lower-right position, same positioning of the d-pad and face buttons and forward and back buttons. Triggers. Bumpers. Top-center power button. It all seems to be the same, though we can’t tell if any of these buttons have been improved-if, say, the d-pad responds more crisply, if the triggers pull more deeply, and so on.

Another Rumor that really stuck is the “Always On” rumor: This has been a major sticking point. Xbox will require a persistent internet connection, presumably at broadband level, in order to play games. And the people have not been amused.

 

It’s all rumors at the moment, we’re going to have to wait and see.