Xbox Series X 4K 60 FPS Frame Rate "Standard," not "Guaranteed"

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox Series X entertainment system has some pretty serious hardware specs, to support its lofty design goals of 4K UHD gaming at 60 Hz, with ray-tracing, and yet have 8K capability. It turns out that Microsoft isn't holding game developers to that 60 FPS number at 4K UHD, and that the minimum frame-rate is still 30 FPS. At lower resolutions such as Full HD, the console could offer high refresh-rate gaming. Apparently, the console natively displays 4K UHD at 60 Hz, and uses VESA adaptive-sync on TVs and monitors that support it; but game developers are free to cram in enough eye-candy to drive performance down to 30 FPS. This came to light when Ubisoft confirmed that "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" will run at 30 FPS on the Xbox Series X. "Developers always have flexibility in how they use the power, so a standard or common 60 FPS is not a mandate," said Aaron Greenberg, Xbox marketing head, in a Tweet Tuesday night.