The original Xbox One was first launched way back in 2013. But while Microsoft believed it could help them win the 8th generation of consoles, it paled in comparison to Sony's PlayStation 4.
A group of Microsoft Xbox One video game consoles and a controller photographed on a white background, created on November 19, 2013.
Now, the base Xbox One has been largely forgotten in lieu of its far more popular (and powerful) successors in the One X, One S, and the newest Xbox Series consoles. But is the base console still a viable gaming system when it comes to playing cross-generation games? Well, that was the question that the tech wizards at Digital Foundry tried to answer, and their findings were to put it mildly: not good.
Aging Hardware And Cross-Gen Struggles
Digital Foundry tested a total of 8 cross-generation games on the original Xbox One: Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon 5, Elden Ring, Tales Of Arise, Call of Duty Vanguard, Battlefield 2042, and Grid Legends. Out of these games, only three ran relatively well, while the rest were almost unplayable due to how the old hardware simply couldn't keep up.
Much of these is due to just how old the hardware on the 9-year-old Microsoft console is. Its 8-core AMD Jaguar APU paired with 8GB of DDR3 system memory and an ancient spinning-disk hard drive is just not going to cut it for modern games. These hardware were among the fastest of its time, but that was 2013. It's 2022 now, and game developers are moving on to more modern hardware.
Cyber-Punked
The first game they tested was Cyberpunk 2077, which is the game where the base Xbox One showed its age the most. Even if CD Projekt Red had already updated the game with so many patches, performance remained quite miserable with the game almost never cracking the playable 30 FPS target. Even basic things like walking around or driving are just not great, with issues like constant stutters and absolutely terrible input latency.
xbox one cyberpunk
Things can get even worse in combat, when the frame rate can dip to as low as 15 FPS. That is just... unacceptable in every level there is. All in all, Cyberpunk 2077 on the base Xbox One bogs down when you need input responsiveness the most - resulting in a horrid experience not worth any price you might want to pay for it.
Read also: This Xbox Series X Was Customized To Look Like It Was Made Of Marble
First-Person Shot-Up
Next up on Digital Foundry's test list are Call Of Duty Vanguard and Battlefield 2042. These two games ran way better than Cyberpunk, but they're still far from perfect on the last-gen Xbox console. Both of them fell short of the target 60 FPS performance, mostly hovering around the low 40s to mid 50s and barely scraping 60 outside of graphically less-intense scenes.
xbox one vanguard
The only good thing about these games is relatively, they look... fine. Just fine. Nothing too spectacular or next-gen like, just fine. And in today's gaming generation where looks and performance on games are everything, this is just not going to cut it.
Forget Being The Elden Lord
Out of the remaining games on the list: Elden Ring, Tales Of Arise, Grid Legends, and Forza Horizon 5, the last three are the only ones that truly ran fine. FromSoftware's open-world romp basically hovered at less than 30 FPS even during simple traversal and open world activities.
xbox one elden ring
Frame rates take an even bigger hit whenever you need to engage multiple enemies at once, and the entire game almost always falls below the 30 FPS performance target - while also looking like it basically runs on a toaster. With how poor the performance of Elden Ring on this old Microsoft console is, it's basically a de-facto Prepare To Die edition that makes an already tough game even more impossible to beat. Yeah, try dodging Malenia's Waterfowl Dance in less than 30 FPS.
The Ones That Worked
As previously mentioned, only Tales Of Arise, Grid Legends, and Forza Horizon 5 fared relatively well on the base Xbox One. All three managed to hit their target frame rates on a consistent basis, with Tales Of Arise being the only one that still struggles a little bit due to its uncapped frame rate that makes the entire experience feel uneven.
xbox one grid
Conclusion
If you're looking for a cheap gaming system to tide you over until you can get a next-gen console, the base Xbox One isn't it. The performance you get for the price you can expect to pay for a used unit (as low as $100 on eBay as of this moment) is just horrendous if you want to play modern games. Microsoft dropped the ball on this one, and it shows.
Related: Xbox Series S: 4 GREAT Reasons To Buy One In 2022
Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce
