Since 2013, the Xbox One has had some painful load times. While loading between different sections in games is usually fine, the initial boot-up of some larger triple-A blockbusters can take a minute or two (or longer in some cases). With the $500 upgraded Xbox One X, you might expect to see an improvement in this area. And Microsoft’s new console delivers. Load times are still around a minute or more, but in some of the worst offenders, the X is a huge upgrade over the original Xbox One.
YouTube user Hogarth has uploaded a loading-time comparison between the Xbox One X and S. The test has each system with its internal hard drive (HDD) and an external solid-state drive (eSSD). In the video below, you can see that while the SSD is an improvement in the S, it makes less of a difference in the X. The load times are also relatively close to the PlayStation 4 Pro. For example, GTA V loads in about 50 seconds on both PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but this varies game-by-game.
Have a look for yourself:
Here’s a breakdown by game:
Grand Theft Auto V
- Xbox One S: 2 minutes, 3 seconds
- Xbox One S with eSSD: 1 minute, 2 seconds
- Xbox One X: 51 seconds
- Xbox One X with eSSD: 50 seconds
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Xbox One S: 3 minutes, 20 seconds
- Xbox One S with eSSD: 2 minute, 8 seconds
- Xbox One X: 1 minute, 39 seconds
- Xbox One X with eSSD: 1 minute, 39 seconds
Watch Dogs 2
- Xbox One S: 1 minutes, 48 seconds
- Xbox One S with eSSD: 1 minute, 14 seconds
- Xbox One X: 1 minute, 7 seconds
- Xbox One X with eSSD: 58 seconds
Based on these times, you can see that the X is approximately twice as fast as S. Again, an SSD can help, but it doesn’t do a lot for loading when it comes to The Witcher 3 or GTA V. This suggests the system has bottlenecks somewhere else along the memory pipeline.
