Xbox One News: Patch Could Improve Graphics for Games

A new rumorored Xbox One patch could allow the console to bring more GPU power to the graphical components of the machine to make the games on the console look better than ever.

As Hot Hardware reports, via gaming insider Pete Doss, the unconfirmed patch would transfer GPU processing power from the Kinect to other parts of the Xbox One so that games would achieve a steadier frame rate and look better graphically as well. Right now, 10 percent of the total GPU processing power is devoted to the Kinect. This 10 percent is broken up between video processing and voice input processing. Eight percent of the GPU is given to the Kinect video processing power, but this patch would give that over to other components of the Xbox One while keeping the 2 percent for voice input processing.

This may not sound like much, but it could help games on the Xbox One look better in a variety of ways. While some may not see much difference in graphical detail, this extra GPU power could be used to steady the frame rate for games. When games suffer from dips in frames per second, the human eye is able to detect it much more noticeably than an overall slow frame rate. The latency jumps and bumps of a game that jumps around from 40 frames per second down to 20 are more distracting to the human eye than a steady 30 frames per second, so implementing this patch Microsoft could ensure that games have steady frame rates and look better overall.

This patch is not yet confirmed by Microsoft, so this rumor may turn out to be false. However, considering the minor controversy that has erupted over games on the PlayStation 4 having better graphics for games shared between the two consoles, Microsoft may shift GPU power away from the Kinect and more towards the graphical components of the console. Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on the Xbox One reportedly had an average frame rate of 30 frames per second, while the PlayStation 4 version of the game averaged close to 60 frames per second.