During its panel at GDC 2026 this week, Microsoft discussed its upcoming console, now known by the code name “Project Helix.” Jason Ronald, Vice President of Next Gen at Xbox, spoke during the presentation.
He noted that the machine was designed to run Xbox and PC games with “exceptional performance” and “an optimal gaming experience”. To achieve this, it will feature a customized AMD SoC. What’s more, the console was also designed for the next generation of DirectX.
The first alpha versions of Project Helix will be sent to developers in 2027. Finally, a graphic shown at GDC highlights the machine’s main features.
Powered by a custom AMD SoC
- Designed in collaboration with the next generation of DirectX
- Next-generation performance and ray tracing capabilities
- Direct execution of the GPU work graph
AMD FSR Next and Project Helix
- Designed for the next generation of neural rendering
- Next-generation ML scaling
- Next-generation multi-image ML
- Next-generation ray regeneration for ray tracing and path tracing
Deep texture compression
- Neural texture compression
- DirectStorage and Zstd
