New Xbox One Update Boosts Console GPU Power

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June 4, 2014

Microsoft is looking to close the performance gap between the Xbox One and Sony's more powerful PlayStation 4, and is now giving developers access to more GPU bandwidth with the console's latest software development kit.

"June #XboxOne software dev kit gives devs access to more GPU bandwidth. More performance, new tools and flexibility to make games better," said Xbox Xboss Phil Spencer on Twitter. Microsoft had previously made rumblings that it was looking to make this the case as soon as possible.

It is widely believed that Microsoft reserved a chunk of the Xbox One's hardware potential for the Kinect, which was one of the many reasons that PlayStation 4 routinely trumped the machine with whizzier 1080p resolutions and zippier framerates. It is (or now, technically, was) widely believed, thanks to a fascinating Digital Foundry report, that Microsoft reserved 10 percent of its total graphics resources for the Kinect and apps. By giving more hardware oomph to developers, will we finally see the Xbox One catch up?

Microsoft has now removed the Kinect from the default Xbox One bundle, and will start selling the console for $399 starting June 9. Microsoft will begin selling standalone Kinect units for Xbox One later this year. Xbox One owners can also begin downloading the June software update for the console from today, which brings with it real name support on Xbox Live and the option to use external storage.