Honestly, the Microsoft Xbox One X shouldn't still be this good. It’s almost a decade old in tech years. When it launched back in 2017 under the code name Project Scorpio, Phil Spencer stood on stage and promised the "most powerful console ever built." Usually, that’s just marketing fluff. But for the first time in a long time, Microsoft actually over-delivered. They crammed six teraflops of graphical power into a box that was somehow smaller than the original, chunky Xbox One.
It was a weird time for gaming. We were stuck between standard HD and the promise of 4K. Sony had already blinked first with the PS4 Pro, but that felt like a half-step. The Microsoft Xbox One X was a whole staircase.
The Secret Sauce in the Scorpio Engine
Most people look at the spec sheet and see the numbers. 12GB of GDDR5 RAM. A customized Jaguar CPU clocked at 2.3GHz. But that’s not why the console felt fast. The real magic was the vapor chamber cooling—tech usually reserved for high-end server racks or enthusiast PC GPUs. This allowed the system to maintain high clock speeds without sounding like a jet engine taking off in your living room.
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I remember plugging mine in for the first time. The silence was eerie. You’d boot up Red Dead Redemption 2—a game that pushes hardware to its absolute breaking point—and the console just hummed. It didn't scream.
There was also the "Hovis Method." It sounds like a bread brand, but it was actually a sophisticated power delivery system where each individual processor was tuned to a specific voltage. This efficiency is why the Microsoft Xbox One X aged so much better than its competitors. It wasn't just raw power; it was surgical precision.
Native 4K vs. Checkerboard Rendering
We have to talk about the resolution wars. Sony’s PS4 Pro used a trick called checkerboard rendering. It basically guessed what pixels should look like to fake a 4K image. It looked okay, but it was often blurry in motion.
The Microsoft Xbox One X went for the throat with native 4K.
Games like Forza Motorsport 7 ran at a locked 60 frames per second in true 3840 x 2160 resolution. Seeing the rain droplets bead on the hood of a Porsche 911 at that clarity changed the expectations of an entire generation of players. It made the jump to the Series X feel smaller because the One X had already moved the goalposts so far down the field.
Why You Might Actually Prefer It Over a Series S
This is the controversial part.
If you go to a store today, you’ll see the Xbox Series S. It’s newer. It has an SSD. It has Quick Resume. But for a specific type of gamer, the Microsoft Xbox One X is actually the superior machine.
Let's look at the disc drive. The Series S is digital-only. If you have a massive collection of physical Xbox 360 discs or original Xbox games, the Series S is a paperweight. The One X, however, features a 4K UHD Blu-ray player. If you're a movie nerd, that alone makes it more valuable than the newer budget consoles. You're getting a high-end media center and a gaming rig in one.
Then there’s the "One X Enhanced" library.
Microsoft spent years working with developers to patch older games. There are hundreds of titles that recognize when they are running on an Xbox One X and unlock higher resolutions or better textures. In many cases, these games actually look sharper on a One X than they do on a Series S. The Series S often runs the "One S" versions of backward-compatible games, which means you’re stuck with 900p or 1080p. On the One X? You’re hitting that 4K ceiling.
The Bottlenecks: It’s Not All Sunshine
I'm not going to sit here and tell you it's perfect. It isn't.
The hard drive is the biggest killer. It uses a spinning mechanical HDD. In a world where we are used to the near-instant load times of the Series X or PS5, waiting two minutes for Grand Theft Auto V to load on a Microsoft Xbox One X feels like an eternity. It’s agonizing. You can see the hardware struggling to pull data off those spinning platters fast enough to keep up with the GPU.
- The CPU Problem: The Jaguar architecture was mobile-tech based. It was weak in 2013 and it was ancient by 2017. This is why many games on the One X are capped at 30fps even if they look beautiful. The GPU is ready to run, but the CPU is huffing and puffing just trying to keep the game logic moving.
- Size and Weight: It’s a dense brick. Seriously, don't drop it on your foot.
- Longevity: We are finally seeing games that simply won't run on it. Starfield? Nope. Microsoft Flight Simulator? Only via the cloud.
The Collector’s Market and Special Editions
If you are looking to pick one up now, the used market is fascinating. Most people just want the standard black model, but Microsoft went wild with the limited editions for this console.
The Project Scorpio Edition is the one everyone wanted. It had a subtle gradient on the casing and "Project Scorpio" printed in tiny green text on the console and controller. Then there was the Cyberpunk 2077 edition. It’s probably one of the coolest looking consoles ever made, with custom panels, glow-in-the-dark etchings, and a laser-etched "No Future" logo. It even had a custom startup sound.
Ironically, the game it was bundled with—Cyberpunk 2077—famously ran like garbage on the base Xbox One, though it was actually playable on the Microsoft Xbox One X. It was the only "old" console that could really handle the density of Night City at launch.
How to Optimize an Xbox One X in 2026
If you have one sitting in a closet or you just bought one for $150 on eBay, there are things you should do immediately.
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First, swap the internal drive. If you are brave enough to open the casing—there are plenty of guides on iFixit—replacing that old 1TB HDD with a cheap SATA SSD will change your life. It won't give you Series X speeds because of the SATA interface limitations, but it will cut your load times by 50% in most cases. It makes the UI feel snappy again.
Second, check the thermal paste. These consoles are getting old. The factory paste is likely dry and crusty by now. Replacing it with some Arctic Silver or Thermal Grizzly will keep those fans quiet and prevent the Scorpio Engine from throttling.
The Legacy of the 4K Era
The Microsoft Xbox One X represented a shift in how we think about "generations." It killed the idea that a console has to stay the same for seven years. It paved the way for the "Pro" consoles we see today.
It also solidified Microsoft’s commitment to backward compatibility. The fact that I can pop a disc of Ninja Gaiden Black from 2005 into a Microsoft Xbox One X and have it output at 4K with 16x anisotropic filtering is basically sorcery. Digital Foundry has done extensive testing on this, and the results consistently show that Microsoft's software emulation team are the best in the business.
Moving Forward: Actionable Insights for Buyers
Don't buy this if you want to play the latest "next-gen only" titles natively. You'll be disappointed when the store tells you a game is "not compatible."
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Buy the Microsoft Xbox One X if:
- You have a 4K TV but a limited budget.
- You own a large collection of physical Blu-rays and DVDs.
- You primarily play games like Destiny 2, Warframe, or Minecraft, which still look and run great on this hardware.
- You want the best possible "backward compatibility" machine for OG Xbox and 360 games without spending $500.
Avoid it if:
- You crave 120Hz gaming.
- You don't have patience for 60-second loading screens.
- You want to play GTA VI when it drops—it almost certainly won't support this hardware.
If you find a used one for under $130, grab it. Clean it out. Use it as a media hub in the bedroom or a dedicated "retro" machine in the living room. It’s a piece of engineering history that still holds its own against the newer, cheaper-feeling plastic consoles of today. The weight, the vapor chamber, and the 4K drive make it feel like a premium piece of AV equipment, not just a toy. That’s a rare thing in the tech world.
To get the most out of your setup, ensure you are using a high-speed HDMI 2.0 cable. While the console came with one, many second-hand units ship with older cables that can't actually handle the 4K 60Hz HDR signal, leading to flickering or "black screen" issues. Check your TV settings to ensure "HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color" (or your brand's equivalent) is toggled on for the specific port you're using. These small tweaks are often the difference between a blurry image and the crisp 4K experience the console was designed for.