During its E3 presser, Microsoft announced ‘Project Scorpio’ – a heavily enhanced Xbox One console.

　　Microsoft’s Xbox head, Phil Spencer, claimed that the Xbox Scorpio will be the most powerful console ever created when it hits the market in 2017. Full specifications have to be revealed, but so far we know that the Scorpio will feature an 8-core CPU, 6 teraflops of GPU power, and more than 320GB’s of memory bandwidth.

　　The console is said to offer “the best quality pixels”, “true 4K gaming”, “fully uncompressed quality pixels”, and the “best frame-rate”. “No compromises” will be have to made with the Scorpio.

　　The “best frame-rate” claim is rather interesting in the light of a recent Gameinformer interview with Microsoft Studios general manager, Shannon Loftis.

No frame rate difference

　　"No, there wouldn't be a frame rate difference, because typically the frame rate is determined by the game developer and what's right for the gameplay mechanic," Loftis said. "You don't necessarily want to create two different mechanics for two different configurations."

　　Loftis’ answer implies that game performance on the Scorpio might be limited to sub-60 frame performance of the Xbox One.

　　We asked about what happens when Xbox One games are only capable of sub-60 frame performance and whether Scorpio would be pinned to the lower spec in that regard. "Typically, yes. A good example is Killer Instinct, which is cross-play on PC and Xbox One. We have locked the frame rate to 60 frames per second," Loftis says. "We could do better on super high end PCs, but that ruins the competitive nature of it."

　　The Scorpio will be part of the Xbox One family, and as recently pointed out by Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg, there will be “no Scorpio exclusives”. As pointed out by Loftis in the Gameinformer interview, the team thinks of “them as Xbox One games that may take advantage of the 4K rendering abilities of Scorpio”.

　　“If you put a 4K game in a non-4K box it's going to render at 1080p. It will still look beautiful. Same with HDR. That will all work correctly”, Loftis said.