- Microsoft has revealed new details about its next Xbox console, Project Helix
- The system will feature a custom AMD-based SOC, co-designed for the next generation of DirectX and FSR
- It will also deliver improved ray tracing performance and capability
Following the reveal of Project Helix earlier this month, Microsoft has now shared some of the console’s specifications that will offer next-generation performance.
During a special keynote at GDC 2026 (thanks, IGN), Jason Ronald, VP, Next Generation, Microsoft, delivered a deep dive into the next PC/console hybrid Xbox, promising “an order of magnitude improvement” on ray tracing performance.
“The entire design of the console is to usher in the next generation of console gaming by advancing the state of the art, and really breaking a lot of these barriers down,” Ronald said. “Project Helix is designed to play your Xbox console and PC games, delivering high performance and providing the ultimate player-first experience.”
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Ronald announced that it’s working closely with AMD “to define the next generation of rendering and simulation,” and the console is powered by a custom AMD-based SOC, co-designed for the next generation of DirectX and FSR, and will offer the next-generation of ray tracing performance and capabilities.
Beyond these features, Project Helix also includes “an order of magnitude increase in ray tracing performance and capability, beyond what’s currently possible with the Xbox Series X and S,” suggesting that Xbox aims to deliver a higher-performing console compared to the current-gen hardware.
“It also unlocks GPU-directed work graph execution, eliminating CPU bottlenecks, meaning that the GPU can actually generate its own workload in real-time, delivering a massive uplift in performance and enabling massive real-time simulation and large complex worlds using runtime-generated geometry and large-scale interactive worlds that players actually want to engage with,” Ronald said.
Additionally, Project Helix “is really designed for the next generation of neural assisted rendering,” and that, “We’ve reached some of the limitations of what’s possible with traditional rendering techniques, and if we want to continue to advance the state of the art, we have to invent brand new technology.”
“The key part of that is how we’re integrating the next version of AMD FSR into Project Helix and into the Xbox Game Development kit. And this is really designed for that next generation of neural rendering techniques, whether that’s neural materials, whether that’s generated images, or even if you think about things like the latest ML-based upscaling techniques or super resolution techniques,” Ronald continued. “You think about brand new ML-based multiframe generation. And there’s even new capabilities such as a brand new ray regeneration technique that’s really designed to deliver high performance ray tracing for both real-time ray tracing and path tracing.”
During the keynote, Ronald also confirmed that Microsoft plans to ship alpha versions of the hardware to developers beginning in 2027, suggesting it’ll most likely be a while before the console will be in the hands of gamers.
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