Microsoft Proves That Xbox Series S Can Double Frame Rates by Running Fallout 4 at 60 FPS

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Image: Microsoft

Despite being the weaker sibling, Microsoft’s Xbox Series S still has enough horsepower to enhance older games in various ways, such as improved frame rates, faster loading times, and automatic HDR. Microsoft demonstrated the former with a new video today, showing how the system turns Bethesda’s Fallout 4 into a “buttery smooth” experience.

While the comparison is a real snoozer for PC gamers, this looks like a very cool upgrade for console peasants who have been forced to cope with sub-60 frame rates. It isn’t clear whether the Xbox Series S will be able to manage this at 1440p, though (the video maxes out at 1080p).

“On the Xbox One, we were able to provide a curated list of titles that were enhanced for the Xbox One X via the Heutchy method,” Microsoft explained in today’s blog post about four generations of backward compatibility. “This allowed titles from Xbox 360 that rendered at 720p and original Xbox games that ran at 360p to play at 4K on Xbox One X, well beyond the capabilities of their original platform. The Heutchy method continues to be used to bring a variety of titles to 1440p on Xbox Series S and 4K on Xbox Series X.”

“Improved texture filtering is also coming to backward compatible titles on both Xbox Series X and Series S,” the company added. “On Xbox One X, a portion of the catalog benefited from increased anisotropic filtering, improving image quality of games. On Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, 16x anisotropic filtering has been enabled for nearly all backward compatible titles so you can experience the very best visuals the games have to offer.”

We’re looking forward to seeing more backward compatibility tests, especially those running on the Xbox Series X. As noted above, the flagship console should have no problem running many older titles in glorious 4K.

Microsoft also shared a look at what Auto HDR can do for older titles, such as Subnautica and Fuzion Frenzy. You can decide if there was any Photoshop trickery.

Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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