The Xbox Series X Overheating: An In-Depth Analysis

Have you been wondering if the Xbox Series X overheats? This has been a question that I have received frequently since having this console in my office, and today we will take a closer look.

My setup for this analysis involves a thermal camera, as well as a decibel meter, and a microphone on the console. My goal is to determine exactly how loud it gets and how hot it gets.

I would like to provide a disclaimer before we begin. While the embargo has now been lifted, and I can discuss this kind of hardware in detail, including some other topics that we will cover later, please note that this is not a final Xbox Series X hardware unit. This is a prototype, and therefore, there may be some slight differences between this and the final retail model.

However, at the very least, this should give us a good sense of what kind of performance the Xbox Series X has or does not have.

Now that the Series X is on, it's going to start warming up. What you should see is all of that heat being exhausted out the top. As we can hear, the console is making some noise, and I am currently playing a game with my microphone on.

(Gentle upbeat music continues in the background)

Note: The gun blasting sound effect has been removed as it seems to be an unrelated part of the original file content.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Does the Xbox Series X overheat?Over the last few weeksof having this console here in the officethat has been my number onequestion that I have received.So why don't we take a closer look?So my setup involves a thermal camera.We also have a decibel meter,as well as a microphone on the console.And I wanna just find out exactlyhow loud it gets and how hot it gets.So I will give a disclaimer.While the embargo has nowlifted and I can talk aboutall of this kind of hardware stuff,as well as a few other thingsthat we'll talk about in a minute,this is not final Xbox Series X hardware.This is not a retailunit. This is a prototype.So technically, we may seesome slight differencesbetween this and that final retail model,but at the very least, itshould give us a very good sensefor what kind of performancethe Xbox Series X hasor doesn't have.So now that the Series X is on,it's going to start warming up.But essentially, what you should seeis all of that heat beingexhausted out the top.(gentle upbeat music)(gun blasting)So, right now, I am playing "Gears 5".So this has been Series X optimized.So we might play some XboxOne and 360 games later,but realistically,I don't think that'sgoing to tax the consolein the same way that a game that isfully taking advantage of this hardware.So I've been playing for alittle over five minutes now,and the Series X has gottenwarmer but not by a huge amount.The exhaust is sitting at somewhere around45 degrees Celsius.And the fan noise is, atleast from where I'm sitting,is pretty much nonexistent.But I'll be quiet and letyou see the decibel meterand actually hear exactlyhow loud it is at the moment.(Xbox Series X fan whooshing)So I think it's clearto say that the Series Xis not going to overheat ina normal circumstance, right?I think that is pretty obvious.What I really wanna seeis what happens when westart to compromise thatby putting it on its side or specifically,by enclosing it in a box.Well, normally you would put itin like a cabinet or something,but we're just gonna put in a boxand see what happens. (laughing)So, next up, I wanna put theXbox Series X on its side.Now, I'm pretty confidentthat this will make next to no differencebecause while yes, heatrises, generally speaking,I think all that heat isbeing pushed out the side,and regardless, this thinghas feet on the side of it,so it's meant to be usedin this orientation.But let's play a little whilewith the Xbox Series X on itsside and see what happens.- Find his office. Poke Around.- Okay. We'll go.- So satisfying. Everythingwith this is so satisfying.(gentle upbeat music)(gun blasting)- Plus side, the temperatureshave not changed at all.- It hasn't changed at all?- 51.- I'm not massively surprised.Like, it shouldn't reallyget that much warmer.So if you were concernedat all about the Series Xbeing on its side and overheating, don't.But I think where you mayhave a little bit more concernis you have it in an enclosed spacebecause right now theSeries X is wide openit can get all the cool air it wants.But generally speaking, you'reprobably gonna have thisin something like a TV cabinet.So to simulate the TV cabinet,we're putting it in a box.It's okay, we'll open one side of it.So what's our baseline, right now?- 52, 53.- 53. Okay, so we're starting at 53.So a little warmer for sure.After about five minutes orso of the Series X in the box,the temperatures aren't too crazybut what I can hear is a lot more noise.So if I'm quiet for a second,you can hear where it's at.(Xbox Series X fan whooshing)I wouldn't say it's particularly loud.And it's still not as loud as the PCthat is sitting overto my right-hand side,but now we're getting a little bit closerto that 45 decibels,46 or so, on the meter.Now temperature-wise,what are we at right now?- Oh, temperature's 56- 56. So 56 degrees Celsius.That seems to be roughly the pointat which the Series Xstarts to ramp up that fan.I would say that if thiswas underneath my TVand I'm sitting any morethan a couple feet away,I'm probably not goingto really notice it.But you do start to hear itin a way that you haven't before,which does go to show thatthe ability for the Series Xto get access to cool airmakes a big difference.I will just say, anecdotally,while you can obviouslysee the temperature,if I put my hand near it, it's toasty.It's definitely kickingout some real heat.I think, so far, it's okay.I'm not super worried.But what if we take this one step farther?So, look, we've all been there, right?You're just playingyour Xbox, no big deal,and your little brother comes byand tosses a PlayStationgame right on top.Normally, that wouldn't be a problemif you're using, say, an Xbox One,but because this is reallythe exhaust of the consoleit's gonna mean to all of that hot airthat is coming out of theXbox has only one outlet,this little tiny port right herewhich I can already tell feels very warm.So we'll play for a fewminutes and see what happens.(upbeat music)Okay, that's cool. (laughing)Okay, so in the time ittook to clear this stage,what do we have going on over here?It looks like we're sittingat about 54 degrees,so it's certainly not sort of choking.Whoa, you can feel the heatcoming off of that though.I mean, all of that exhaust,we're pretty much entirely covered up,all that heat is startingto kinda leak out here.'Cause I guess technically thegame doesn't fully cover it.That being said, it is still not dying.I'm not losing any performance.The temperatures are, while quite warm,not totally a disaster.And that fan noise, ifthis is as loud as it gets?(Xbox Series X fan whooshing)I mean, you hear it.It's still quieter than thePC that's sitting right here,that has 20 more fans in it.I'm gonna say I'm impressed.I actually thought that this would bea much more difficult challengebecause you've gotta considerthat this Series X ispulling some serious power.But there's a whole lot more to the Series Xthan just that pure temperature.(logo whooshing)Why, hello there!And welcome to Austin's XboxSeries X testing dungeon.So I have a few gamesthat I can play right nowand I can give you guys alittle interface walkthrough.So the first thing I wanna do is "DIRT 5".So right now, just so you're aware,I'm recording this gameplayat 4K at 60 frames per second.However, the Series X iscapable of going up to 4K 120,and "DIRT 5" is one of thefew games, at least so far,that does support that resolution.The downside, though, is thatif I go into my video options,right now it's on image quality,I can switch it over to frame rate,but that does not unlock 120because I don't have a 120 setup.And I wish that therewas some way on YouTubefor me to actually show that properly.Instead, you'll have to kindof look at the 60 FPS gameplayand (chuckles) imagine.So the thing with "DIRT 5"is that this is a game whichwe'll also be launchingon last-gen consoles, as well as PC.However, this version has been optimizedfor the Xbox Series X.So as you can seethe graphics are impressive on "DIRT".Now, again, this is nota completely native game,so because it is sharing some componentswith the Xbox One versionand the PC version,I assume that later games in the cyclewill be able to take betteradvantage of the hardware.But that being said, it does look good.Now, there are a coupleof small technical issuesin the build that I am playing right now.But this is very early beta stuff.The hardware isn't finished,software's not finished,games not finished.You know, the standard sort of stuff.For what it is good enoughis for at least a little bit of a lookat how well the Series X will perform.So one of the things that I thinkis also worth talkingabout is the latency,or rather the lack thereof.So there are a few optimizationswith the Xbox Series X to improve latency.So one of which is thecontroller is able to timestampand send those frames to the Xbox Series Xto better sync things up.Supposedly that helps out a little bit.So one thing to definitely keepin mind with this generationis that while some games willlook better no matter what,to get the best advantage of ityou are gonna need agood set up around it.So that means something like aTV which can support 120 FPS.Something that will support,ideally, auto low-latency mode,so you have things like FreeSyncor variable refresh rate.And that's not something thatmost people have right now.But this is early in theconsole generation, right?You can imagine that, as time goes on,there already TVs which arestarting to come down in pricethat will support a lot of these features.But, importantly, as thatbecomes more and more mainstreamyou'll be able to get betterand better performanceout of the hardware that youalready have with the console.And come on, really?Really, really, really?Argh!I was so close.I was so close. (laughing)You know what, why don'tI actually give youa little preview of the interface.So things look verysimilar to on the Xbox One,which shouldn't be a surprisebecause the Xbox SeriesX in a lot of ways,is an evolution of the Xbox One.So when you first get yourXbox Series X or Series S,one of the very first things you should dois jump into the settingsand tune it for your display.So it's in general underTV and display options.So there are a few things you should do.So if you open up the 4K TV details,you'll see that right now itsays that I can't do a lot.That's purely because I'm recording.If I have this directlyplugged into my TV,a lot of the stuff would light up.But what you can dois you can, first of all,pick your resolution.So if you have the option ofa higher refresh rate displayyou will also be able topick that up from 60 to 120.Right now it's grayed outbecause it can't do that.And you also have your video modes.So a lot of this stuff will beautomatically turned on by default,but if you can enable stufflike auto low latency mode,which will allow the Xboxand TV to communicateso that it will automatically pickthe best settings for youto get into game mode,as well as stuff likevariable refresh rate,which is essentially FreeSync,will allow the TV to refreshat the same time as the Xbox,therefore giving you a smoother experiencewith fewer dropped frames,and specifically fewer torn frames.So something else I thinkis worth talking aboutwith the Xbox Series X is the storage.So if I hop into my systemand take a look at my storage,you'll see that rightnow I have 800 gigs free,right out of the box.So I filled up about half of thatwith the various different gamesthat I've been playing with.But you also have thestorage expansion module.Now, of course, this isan optional accessoryfor the Series S or the Series X.And what does is giveyou the same performanceof that internal SSD.And that is important becauseif you plan on installingXbox Series S and SeriesX games to your consoleyou will need to install itonto one of these two devices.Either internal SSD orthe expansion module.Now, you can stillconnect a USB hard drive.However, that will be limitedto copying files back and forthand specifically running older games.So you can run an Xbox One gameor 360 or an original Xboxgame off of a USB hard drive.But if you want to playa optimized Series X or Series S game,you'll need to install it intoone of these two locations.Now, I will say that theone terabyte expansion carddoes drop down to 920 gigswhen you actually have it hooked up.And the actual storage on the Series Xis also significantly below one terabyte.But, obviously, you havethings like the formatting,you have the operating system,and you also have a bufferfor games to essentially hibernate.So that's what the QuickResume is all about.One example of the speedof these next-gen consolesis just simply in loading times.So I've showed a little bit inthe backwards compatibility,but with "DIRT 5",a game which is completelyoptimized for the Series X,let me show you just how quickit is to jump into a game.So unlike something likethe Xbox One or the PS4,which could take 30 seconds, 45 seconds,a minute, or more based onwhich game you're playing,because we have thatCPU as well as the SSD,this feels very much likea high-end PC when itcomes to loading games.So it's one of those things that, like,once you get used to it, itdoesn't seem like a big deal,but as soon as you step backdown to an older consoleyou're like, "Oh my, God! Whatwas I thinking?" (chuckles)So what have we learned today?Well, to put the title in context,the Xbox Series X doesn't seem to haveany major overheating issue.It does a good job inany normal circumstance.And of course, as dust and time attacks itwe'll have to wait andsee, but so far so good.On a lot of the other fronts,it's also looking promising.So while the UI might notbe a huge step forward,there's still a lot of new stuffthat we're going to be waitingon over the next few monthsas more games come out andas we get a more fine lookat the final version of the Series X.So make sure to subscribe.Check out some of our otherXbox and PlayStation videos.Until next time, I will catch youwhenever we decide to move on tothe video where I'm rightin front of the cameraand very uncomfortably close.