- Does the Xbox Series X overheat?
Over the last few weeks
of having this console here in the office
that has been my number one question that I have received.
So why don't we take a closer look?
So my setup involves a thermal camera.
We also have a decibel meter,
as well as a microphone on the console.
And I wanna just find out exactly
how loud it gets and how hot it gets.
So I will give a disclaimer.
While the embargo has now lifted and I can talk about
all of this kind of hardware stuff,
as well as a few other things
that we'll talk about in a minute,
this is not final Xbox Series X hardware.
This is not a retail unit. This is a prototype.
So technically, we may see some slight differences
between this and that final retail model,
but at the very least, it should give us a very good sense
for what kind of performance the Xbox Series X has
or doesn't have.
So now that the Series X is on,
it's going to start warming up.
But essentially, what you should see
is all of that heat being exhausted out the top.
(gentle upbeat music) (gun blasting)
So, right now, I am playing "Gears 5".
So this has been Series X optimized.
So we might play some Xbox One and 360 games later,
but realistically,
I don't think that's going to tax the console
in the same way that a game that is
fully taking advantage of this hardware.
So I've been playing for a little over five minutes now,
and the Series X has gotten warmer but not by a huge amount.
The exhaust is sitting at somewhere around
45 degrees Celsius.
And the fan noise is, at least from where I'm sitting,
is pretty much nonexistent.
But I'll be quiet and let you see the decibel meter
and actually hear exactly how loud it is at the moment.
(Xbox Series X fan whooshing)
So I think it's clear to say that the Series X
is not going to overheat in a normal circumstance, right?
I think that is pretty obvious.
What I really wanna see
is what happens when we start to compromise that
by putting it on its side or specifically,
by enclosing it in a box.
Well, normally you would put it
in like a cabinet or something,
but we're just gonna put in a box
and see what happens. (laughing)
So, next up, I wanna put the Xbox Series X on its side.
Now, I'm pretty confident
that this will make next to no difference
because while yes, heat rises, generally speaking,
I think all that heat is being pushed out the side,
and regardless, this thing has feet on the side of it,
so it's meant to be used in this orientation.
But let's play a little while
with the Xbox Series X on its side and see what happens.
- [Man] Find his office. Poke Around.
- [Man] Okay. We'll go.
- So satisfying. Everything with this is so satisfying.
(gentle upbeat music) (gun blasting)
- [Ken] Plus side, the temperatures have not changed at all.
- [Austin] It hasn't changed at all?
- [Ken] 51.
- I'm not massively surprised.
Like, it shouldn't really get that much warmer.
So if you were concerned at all about the Series X
being on its side and overheating, don't.
But I think where you may have a little bit more concern
is you have it in an enclosed space
because right now the Series X is wide open
it can get all the cool air it wants.
But generally speaking, you're probably gonna have this
in something like a TV cabinet.
So to simulate the TV cabinet, we're putting it in a box.
It's okay, we'll open one side of it.
So what's our baseline, right now?
- [Ken] 52, 53.
- 53. Okay, so we're starting at 53.
So a little warmer for sure.
After about five minutes or so of the Series X in the box,
the temperatures aren't too crazy
but what I can hear is a lot more noise.
So if I'm quiet for a second, you can hear where it's at.
(Xbox Series X fan whooshing)
I wouldn't say it's particularly loud.
And it's still not as loud as the PC
that is sitting over to my right-hand side,
but now we're getting a little bit closer
to that 45 decibels, 46 or so, on the meter.
Now temperature-wise, what are we at right now?
- [Ken] Oh, temperature's 56
- 56. So 56 degrees Celsius.
That seems to be roughly the point
at which the Series X starts to ramp up that fan.
I would say that if this was underneath my TV
and I'm sitting any more than a couple feet away,
I'm probably not going to really notice it.
But you do start to hear it
in a way that you haven't before,
which does go to show that the ability for the Series X
to get access to cool air makes a big difference.
I will just say, anecdotally,
while you can obviously see the temperature,
if I put my hand near it, it's toasty.
It's definitely kicking out some real heat.
I think, so far, it's okay. I'm not super worried.
But what if we take this one step farther?
So, look, we've all been there, right?
You're just playing your Xbox, no big deal,
and your little brother comes by
and tosses a PlayStation game right on top.
Normally, that wouldn't be a problem
if you're using, say, an Xbox One,
but because this is really the exhaust of the console
it's gonna mean to all of that hot air
that is coming out of the Xbox has only one outlet,
this little tiny port right here
which I can already tell feels very warm.
So we'll play for a few minutes and see what happens.
(upbeat music)
Okay, that's cool. (laughing)
Okay, so in the time it took to clear this stage,
what do we have going on over here?
It looks like we're sitting at about 54 degrees,
so it's certainly not sort of choking.
Whoa, you can feel the heat coming off of that though.
I mean, all of that exhaust,
we're pretty much entirely covered up,
all that heat is starting to kinda leak out here.
'Cause I guess technically the game doesn't fully cover it.
That being said, it is still not dying.
I'm not losing any performance.
The temperatures are, while quite warm,
not totally a disaster.
And that fan noise, if this is as loud as it gets?
(Xbox Series X fan whooshing)
I mean, you hear it.
It's still quieter than the PC that's sitting right here,
that has 20 more fans in it.
I'm gonna say I'm impressed.
I actually thought that this would be
a much more difficult challenge
because you've gotta consider
that this Series X is pulling some serious power.
But there's a whole lot more to the Series X
than just that pure temperature.
(logo whooshing)
Why, hello there!
And welcome to Austin's Xbox Series X testing dungeon.
So I have a few games that I can play right now
and I can give you guys a little interface walkthrough.
So the first thing I wanna do is "DIRT 5".
So right now, just so you're aware,
I'm recording this gameplay at 4K at 60 frames per second.
However, the Series X is capable of going up to 4K 120,
and "DIRT 5" is one of the few games, at least so far,
that does support that resolution.
The downside, though, is that if I go into my video options,
right now it's on image quality,
I can switch it over to frame rate,
but that does not unlock 120
because I don't have a 120 setup.
And I wish that there was some way on YouTube
for me to actually show that properly.
Instead, you'll have to kind of look at the 60 FPS gameplay
and (chuckles) imagine.
So the thing with "DIRT 5"
is that this is a game which we'll also be launching
on last-gen consoles, as well as PC.
However, this version has been optimized
for the Xbox Series X. So as you can see
the graphics are impressive on "DIRT".
Now, again, this is not a completely native game,
so because it is sharing some components
with the Xbox One version and the PC version,
I assume that later games in the cycle
will be able to take better advantage of the hardware.
But that being said, it does look good.
Now, there are a couple of small technical issues
in the build that I am playing right now.
But this is very early beta stuff.
The hardware isn't finished, software's not finished,
games not finished.
You know, the standard sort of stuff.
For what it is good enough
is for at least a little bit of a look
at how well the Series X will perform.
So one of the things that I think
is also worth talking about is the latency,
or rather the lack thereof.
So there are a few optimizations
with the Xbox Series X to improve latency.
So one of which is the controller is able to timestamp
and send those frames to the Xbox Series X
to better sync things up.
Supposedly that helps out a little bit.
So one thing to definitely keep in mind with this generation
is that while some games will look better no matter what,
to get the best advantage of it
you are gonna need a good set up around it.
So that means something like a TV which can support 120 FPS.
Something that will support, ideally, auto low-latency mode,
so you have things like FreeSync or variable refresh rate.
And that's not something that most people have right now.
But this is early in the console generation, right?
You can imagine that, as time goes on,
there already TVs which are starting to come down in price
that will support a lot of these features.
But, importantly, as that becomes more and more mainstream
you'll be able to get better and better performance
out of the hardware that you already have with the console.
And come on, really?
Really, really, really?
Argh!
I was so close.
I was so close. (laughing)
You know what, why don't I actually give you
a little preview of the interface.
So things look very similar to on the Xbox One,
which shouldn't be a surprise
because the Xbox Series X in a lot of ways,
is an evolution of the Xbox One.
So when you first get your Xbox Series X or Series S,
one of the very first things you should do
is jump into the settings and tune it for your display.
So it's in general under TV and display options.
So there are a few things you should do.
So if you open up the 4K TV details,
you'll see that right now it says that I can't do a lot.
That's purely because I'm recording.
If I have this directly plugged into my TV,
a lot of the stuff would light up.
But what you can do
is you can, first of all, pick your resolution.
So if you have the option of a higher refresh rate display
you will also be able to pick that up from 60 to 120.
Right now it's grayed out because it can't do that.
And you also have your video modes.
So a lot of this stuff will be
automatically turned on by default,
but if you can enable stuff like auto low latency mode,
which will allow the Xbox and TV to communicate
so that it will automatically pick
the best settings for you to get into game mode,
as well as stuff like variable refresh rate,
which is essentially FreeSync, will allow the TV to refresh
at the same time as the Xbox,
therefore giving you a smoother experience
with fewer dropped frames, and specifically fewer torn frames.
So something else I think is worth talking about
with the Xbox Series X is the storage.
So if I hop into my system and take a look at my storage,
you'll see that right now I have 800 gigs free,
right out of the box.
So I filled up about half of that
with the various different games
that I've been playing with.
But you also have the storage expansion module.
Now, of course, this is an optional accessory
for the Series S or the Series X.
And what does is give you the same performance
of that internal SSD.
And that is important because if you plan on installing
Xbox Series S and Series X games to your console
you will need to install it onto one of these two devices.
Either internal SSD or the expansion module.
Now, you can still connect a USB hard drive.
However, that will be limited
to copying files back and forth
and specifically running older games.
So you can run an Xbox One game
or 360 or an original Xbox game off of a USB hard drive.
But if you want to play
a optimized Series X or Series S game,
you'll need to install it into one of these two locations.
Now, I will say that the one terabyte expansion card
does drop down to 920 gigs
when you actually have it hooked up.
And the actual storage on the Series X
is also significantly below one terabyte.
But, obviously, you have things like the formatting,
you have the operating system, and you also have a buffer
for games to essentially hibernate.
So that's what the Quick Resume is all about.
One example of the speed of these next-gen consoles
is just simply in loading times.
So I've showed a little bit in the backwards compatibility,
but with "DIRT 5",
a game which is completely optimized for the Series X,
let me show you just how quick it is to jump into a game.
So unlike something like the Xbox One or the PS4,
which could take 30 seconds, 45 seconds,
a minute, or more based on which game you're playing,
because we have that CPU as well as the SSD,
this feels very much like
a high-end PC when it comes to loading games.
So it's one of those things that, like,
once you get used to it, it doesn't seem like a big deal,
but as soon as you step back down to an older console
you're like, "Oh my, God! What was I thinking?" (chuckles)
So what have we learned today?
Well, to put the title in context,
the Xbox Series X doesn't seem to have
any major overheating issue.
It does a good job in any normal circumstance.
And of course, as dust and time attacks it
we'll have to wait and see, but so far so good.
On a lot of the other fronts, it's also looking promising.
So while the UI might not be a huge step forward,
there's still a lot of new stuff
that we're going to be waiting on over the next few months
as more games come out and as we get a more fine look
at the final version of the Series X.
So make sure to subscribe.
Check out some of our other Xbox and PlayStation videos.
Until next time, I will catch you
whenever we decide to move on to
the video where I'm right in front of the camera
and very uncomfortably close.