Going from 3 x 3.2 ghz cores to 7 x 3.6 ghz cores is not that big of a jump, considering the original xbox had a single 733 mhz core.
I had hoped for at least 9 cores, 1 reserved for pvr and other background functionality, 8 for optimal game development together with pc's with eight core processors.
Let's hope for at least 4gb of ram.

With that much CORE processors, hopefully MS would release just as many CORE games per year! 

Get it? 

Xbox 360 has 3 cores and the 3 core games this year were Halo CEA, Forza 4, GOW3. 

Huh? Huh?? 

Just joking, I like my xbox.

we don't know the exact amount of cores, but this is also only an indicator of performance. and what about the core mentioned from the first xbox? that was x86, not ppc. when do people realize that performance of a cpu is more than the accumulated cores with their clock-rates? *sigh*

but yes, i also hope for 4gib of ram.

I was thinking the other day.

Many devs this generation have said if the 360 and PS3 had more Ram then the visuals would be alot better. Especially in the cases of Crysis 2, Rage an Battlefield 3. In fact some like Carmack and Blezinski think the visuals are hampered more from Ram than older GPU models.

With that said I was thinking about the 6 x more powerful GPU rumour for 720 at IGN. If true its not as big a leap as 360 was to Xbox in terms of straight GPU to GPU. However if M$ chose to save a bit there but spend the saved cash on more RAM, I believe that would benefit both the visuals and gameplay more than if they had less Ram but higher GPU.

If this gen has taught me anything Ram means more in many ways than how may cores we have or what the proceessor is capable of.

Come to think of it, we probably have and will never see the full potential of 360 and Ps3 CPU's and GPU's due to lack of Ram available.

Devs reguale complaint is they run out of Ram. And with more Ram could push the current consoles much furher.

If the 720 rumour is true, I hope and believe its in favour of more Ram. Which in turn I believe will be better for the visuals and serve the console to be pushed much further than if they opted for higher clock speeds.

ram can't be exchanged with anything. it is definitely as vital as cpu-power, when not more. look at ps3 - bethesda claimed the problems with fallout and skyrim are because of the ram of the ps3 (please no discussion about this - they said and done).
you can circumvent less ram with heavy reloading of storage data (either from dvd or hdd) but this is expensive cpu-time which has to be extra done. having more ram means you can also load more data directly and don't have to "reload".

Good thread.

If the system is launched Fall 2013, then it´s still almost 2 years away...is it normal that a lot of rumors start emerging like, ~2 years in advance?

I'll be updating this thread up all the way untill the X720 launches, whenever credible information & rumours emerge, not just during big showsconferences. :)

@Selnor: I hope you're right, and I'm expecting between 4GB and 8GB of RAM, considering it's dirt cheap at retail now, let alone on production level.

@Thread: A PowerPC 7 with 7 cores running @ ~3.6-4.0GHz should be absolutely more than sufficient CPU power to keep up with the rest of the console, otherwise you run the risk of bottlenecking.

@JGarret: Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but the first rumblings of a 720 have been stirling since 2009 when FudZilla made an article that AMD had already won the race to supply the GPU's for the succesor to the 360. But I'm making this thread now, because I finally feel were getting near the 2418 month launch window.

I'm excited to see what they're going to do with Kinect 2.0! That could get very interesting!

I move that we immediately change the thread title and every retarded reference to "x720/Xbox 720/etc" to something much more logical like NextBox or Xbox Next or simply Next Xbox...

Xbox 720 or X720 is just retarded and makes no sense at all. All it would do is to serve as confusion for customers and fodder for fanboys to attack saying, "720? Oh it must be only 720p!"

Infinity FTW