Microsoft’s new Xbox Series X models have a smaller chip and different cooling

The white Xbox Series X — Image: Tom Warren / The Verge

Microsoft’s discless Xbox Series X goes on sale today, and while it looks slightly different on the outside thanks to a white paint job and the lack of a disc drive, inside, it has been redesigned. Microsoft has redesigned the motherboard on the white Xbox Series X and new 2TB models, shrunk the chip down to 6nm, and switched to a new cooling solution.

YouTuber Austin Evans spotted the changes in a teardown of the new models and reported that the shrunken chip allows the new Xbox Series X models to run around 10 watts less than the original model at idle.

*The new Xbox Series X motherboard has been heavily redesigned.*

The motherboard on the new Xbox Series X models has been totally overhauled, with many components on the board simplified, shrunk down, or moved around. There’s no more shield over the SSD, and on the digital Xbox Series X, there’s a blank space where the disc drive usually is. You can’t easily retrofit a disc drive, either, as you’d have to solder on connectors for the drive.

The cooling for the updated 6nm chip has also been redesigned on these new Xbox Series X models. There’s no longer a vapor chamber, and Microsoft is using a more traditional copper heat pipe design instead. Evans found that the exhaust temperature and noise of these new Xbox Series X models hasn’t changed from the original, though.

Evans found that the original launch Xbox Series X hardware runs at around 61 watts idle on the Xbox dashboard, but on the new 2TB special-edition model, this dropped to around 51 watts idle and just 38 watts on the digital Xbox Series X. During gaming, the original Xbox Series X runs at 167 watts, with the discless model at 156 watts and the 2TB model at 151 watts.

While a drop of up to 16 watts doesn’t sound like a lot, it will certainly make a difference for Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming power usage. Microsoft is already using Xbox Series X-like hardware in its data centers, and it’s reasonable to assume the company will use a mix of these smaller chips and redesigned cooling for efficiency purposes.

Ultimately, the redesigned internals of the new Xbox Series X models will make it less expensive for Microsoft to manufacture these consoles, and this updated hardware could make it more efficient to run Xbox Cloud Gaming servers.

The white discless Xbox Series X model goes on sale today, priced at $449.99. The 2TB special-edition Xbox Series X is also available to purchase for $599.99.