Microsoft has admitted the Xbox One performs better without the Kinect motion gaming peripheral.
Apparently the upcoming Kinect-free Xbox One will get a 10 per cent GPU performance boost over the original model that comes pre-packaged with the gaming accessory.
Microsoft has now confirmed that this GPU performance boost is directly related to the removal of Kinect.
“Yes, the additional resources allow access to up to 10 per cent additional GPU performance,” said Microsoft in a statement to Eurogamer. “We’re committed to giving developers new tools and flexibility to make their Xbox One gamers even better by giving them the option to use the GPU reserve in whatever way is best for them and their games.”
Sometime this month, Microsoft will release a new SDK that lets developers access this additional graphical power originally reserved for the Kinect.
“The team is continually calibrating the system to determine how we can give developers more capabilities. With this SDK, we will include new options for how developers can use the system reserve as well as more flexibility in our natural user interface reserve (voice and gesture).”
Hopefully, by unlocking the additional 10 per cent GPU, more games on the Xbox One could reach the 1080p 60fps benchmarks.
“Xbox One games look beautiful and have rich gameplay and platform features. How developers choose to access the extra GPU performance for their games will be up to them. We have started working with a number of developers on how they can best take advantage of these changes. We will have more to share in the future.”
The Xbox One June update started rolling out this week, bringing hugely anticipated features like external hard drive support to the console.
Microsoft has also removed the Xbox Live Gold paywall for entertainment services including Netflix.
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