Xbox Series X 1TB Review: Powerful 4K Gaming With a Disc Drive

The Microsoft Xbox Series X 1TB is Microsoft’s premium current-generation console, built for native 4K gaming, up to 120 FPS, hardware ray tracing and fast SSD performance.

The Carbon Black version includes a 1TB custom NVMe SSD and built-in 4K UHD Blu-ray drive, making it suitable for both digital and physical game collections.

Xbox Series X Specs

Microsoft specifies a 3.8GHz 8-core Zen 2 CPU, 12-TFLOPS RDNA 2 GPU and 16GB of GDDR6 memory.

Gaming Performance

The Series X is designed around native 4K gaming, with a typical performance target of 4K/60fps and support for up to 120fps in compatible games.

Supported features include:

• 4K gaming
• Up to 120 FPS
• Variable Refresh Rate
• Auto Low Latency Mode
• AMD FreeSync
• Hardware ray tracing

For the best 120Hz experience, you need a compatible HDMI 2.1 TV or monitor.

12-TFLOPS RDNA 2 GPU

The Series X uses a custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU with 52 Compute Units running at 1.825GHz, delivering approximately 12 TFLOPS of graphics performance.

It provides enough power for:

• High-resolution textures
• Ray-traced reflections
• Higher frame rates
• Large open worlds
• Enhanced Series X games

Hardware Ray Tracing

Hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing allows supported games to produce more realistic:

• Reflections
• Lighting
• Shadows
• Environmental effects

Microsoft built dedicated ray-tracing acceleration into the Series X RDNA 2 architecture.

1TB Custom NVMe SSD

The Series X includes a 1TB custom NVMe SSD.

Microsoft rates raw I/O throughput at 2.4GB/s, increasing to up to 4.8GB/s for compressed data using its hardware decompression system.

This dramatically reduces loading times compared with older Xbox One consoles.

Xbox Velocity Architecture

The SSD is part of Microsoft’s Xbox Velocity Architecture, combining high-speed storage, hardware decompression and optimized software.

Benefits include:

• Faster loading
• Large game worlds
• Faster asset streaming
• Quick Resume

Quick Resume

Quick Resume lets you suspend multiple compatible games and switch between them without starting each title from the beginning.

Microsoft continues to highlight Quick Resume as one of the defining Series X|S features.

4K UHD Blu-ray Drive

The 1TB Carbon Black Series X includes a built-in 4K UHD Blu-ray drive.

It can be used for:

• Physical Xbox Series X games
• Compatible Xbox One games
• Compatible backward-compatible titles
• 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays
• Standard Blu-rays
• DVDs

This remains a major advantage over the all-digital Series X.

Backward Compatibility

Xbox Series X supports a large library of games from previous Xbox generations.

Compatible Xbox One titles and selected Xbox 360 and original Xbox games can run on Series X, with some benefiting from improvements such as faster loading, Auto HDR or higher frame rates.

This makes the Series X especially attractive for users who already own a large Xbox library.

Storage Expansion

Storage can be expanded using official Xbox Series X|S Storage Expansion Cards, which are designed to match the performance of the internal SSD.

USB external drives are also supported, although Series X|S optimized games generally need the internal SSD or compatible expansion card for full performance.

Dolby Vision & Dolby Atmos

Xbox Series X supports Dolby Vision Gaming on compatible titles and displays.

It also supports Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos, along with DTS 5.1 and multichannel LPCM audio.

This makes the Series X particularly attractive for home-theater setups.

Xbox Wireless Controller

The console includes an Xbox Wireless Controller featuring:

• Textured grips
• Hybrid D-pad
• Share button
• 3.5mm headset jack
• Xbox Wireless
• Bluetooth

The controller remains simple and comfortable, although it lacks the advanced adaptive triggers found on Sony’s DualSense.

Game Pass

Xbox Series X works with Microsoft’s Xbox subscription ecosystem, providing access to downloadable games and online features depending on the selected plan.

Game Pass remains one of the biggest ecosystem advantages of owning an Xbox, especially for players who prefer access to a rotating library rather than purchasing every game individually.

Series X vs Series S

The biggest differences are straightforward.

Series X: native 4K focus, 12-TFLOPS GPU, 16GB GDDR6 and optional physical discs.

Series S: lower-performance hardware, primarily targets 1440p and is entirely digital.

Microsoft describes Series X as the native-4K console while Series S targets 1440p with 4K upscaling.

Pros

✓ Powerful 12-TFLOPS GPU
✓ Native 4K gaming
✓ Up to 120 FPS
✓ Hardware ray tracing
✓ Fast 1TB NVMe SSD
✓ Quick Resume
✓ 4K UHD Blu-ray drive
✓ Strong backward compatibility
✓ Dolby Vision Gaming
✓ Dolby Atmos support

Cons

✗ 1TB fills quickly with modern games
✗ Expansion cards are relatively expensive
✗ Large and heavy console design
✗ Controller lacks adaptive triggers
✗ Not every game supports 4K/120fps
✗ 8K HDR should not be confused with practical 8K gaming

Xbox Series X Rating

Gaming Performance: 9.4/10
Graphics: 9.4/10
Storage: 9.0/10
Backward Compatibility: 9.7/10
Media Features: 9.5/10
Controller: 9.0/10
Value: 9.2/10

Overall: 9.4/10

Verdict

The Xbox Series X 1TB remains a powerful 4K gaming console for players who want strong performance, a physical disc drive and excellent backward compatibility.

Its biggest strengths are the 12-TFLOPS RDNA 2 GPU, native 4K gaming, up to 120 FPS, Quick Resume and fast 1TB SSD.

The built-in 4K UHD Blu-ray drive also makes the Carbon Black model more flexible than all-digital consoles.

For players already invested in the Xbox ecosystem or who value Game Pass, backward compatibility and physical games, the Xbox Series X remains a capable premium console.