The general public is still roughly four months away from the launch of Microsoft's Xbox One but that's not the case for some lucky individuals. That's because a number of beta units have already been seeded in the homes of select Microsoft employees according to Xbox VP Marc Whitten.
During a recent chat with Xbox spokesperson Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Whitten also revealed the fact that several game developers now have final versions of development kits in their studios and that they now have access to the console's "mono driver." The mono driver is a DirectX graphics driver that is 100 percent optimized for Xbox One.
What's more, the clock speed of the GPU in Microsoft's new console has been boosted from 800MHz to 853MHz - an increase of 6.6 percent. As Whitten pointed out in the interview, beta testing of the console helped them realize the GPU was capable of operating at a higher clock speed without any adverse effects.
Some may call this overclocking but that's probably not the best term to describe the speed boost. It's not unusual for companies to underclock processors inside of gadgets and game consoles in order to reduce heat output, conserve battery power and/or ultimately provide a more stable component.
Whitten said the increased clock speed of the GPU is just one improvement Microsoft made during the beta period although he stopped short of mentioning any other details. We are told to check back with Redmond during the upcoming Gamescom convention in a few weeks for more information.