Does the Xbox Series X Support Minecraft RTX?


Since being released in November 2009, Minecraft has grown to become one of the most popular video games ever.

As of 2020, over 200 million units of this block game that lets you create entire worlds had been sold, and more than 131 million people played Minecraft monthly.

The video game has achieved what most games cannot do, which is to have a long shelf life. Most video games are usually forgotten after 2 to 3 years.

And now that Minecraft has gotten an upgrade to support ray tracing (Minecraft RTX) for a better gaming experience, I expect it to continue drawing in more gamers, despite being 12 years old.

Already many Xbox Series X owners are eager to play Minecraft RTX and are asking if their consoles support the game.

Here is the answer to that question.

Does the Xbox Series X support Minecraft RTX? No, the Xbox Series X doesn’t support Minecraft RTX. Minecraft RTX is currently only available to Windows 10 users. Even if Minecraft RTX wasn’t exclusive to PCs, the Xbox Series X wouldn’t support it because it requires Nvidia RTX graphics cards to run. The Xbox Series X uses Nvidia’s rival, AMD RDNA 2 graphic processing units.

In the following sections, I’ll share with you more details about Minecraft RTX, when you can expect Minecraft RTX on the Xbox Series X, and what you can do as you wait for Xbox to release Minecraft RTX.

What is Minecraft RTX?

NVIDIA GeForce via YouTube

Minecraft RTX is the latest version of the incredibly popular Minecraft game.

It is not a fresh game but an upgrade of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

The key feature of this Minecraft upgrade is that it supports ray tracing through Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards, hence the name Minecraft RTX.

If you’re wondering what ray tracing is all about, let me break it down for you.

Ray tracing is a technology that aims to emulate how real light works.

Using the technology games can display shadows, reflections, environments, etc., in real-time, and as they would appear in real life.

This lighting tech is revolutionary because it will solve the problem a lot of games have had of not being able to portray light effects naturally because lighting effects in games are usually faked.

Before ray tracing, game lighting was simulated and artificial, which made it lack a dynamic feel.

The lighting effect wasn’t terrible, but now with ray tracing lighting in games will look ultra-realistic with shinney surfaces realistically reflecting objects and light and shadow pooling accurately in post-apocalyptic buildings. 

Nvidia is the first company to roll out ray tracing, and they have worked with Microsoft to deliver the tools needed for game developers to support ray tracing in their games.

Currently, you can only play games that support ray tracing on PCs using NVIDIA graphic cards or, to a lesser extent, AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics cards.

That’s why Minecraft RTX is only available on Windows 10 PCs, but I believe Minecraft creator Mojang Studios is working to bring ray tracing to next-gen consoles like the Xbox Series X and the PS5, which already support this technology.

Note, however, that the Xbox Series X uses an AMD GPU, not Nvidia.

So, Microsoft will have to work with AMD to bring Minecraft with ray tracing to the Xbox Series X.

When will Minecraft RTX be available on the Xbox Series X?

Technical test with path tracing, image from digital foundry

The Xbox Series X supports ray tracing, and Minecraft is one of Microsoft’s most successful and biggest franchises.

If you didn’t know Mojang Studios was acquired by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion.

This acquisition, along with Xbox Series X’s ability to support ray tracing, makes me optimistic that Minecraft RTX will be an Xbox Series X game title.

There is no word on when Minecraft RTX will be made available on Microsoft’s console because Mojang Studios have been silent on whether they’ll release an upgrade or a new Minecraft game for Xbox’s next-gen consoles.

Microsoft did, however, use Minecraft in its demo of the Xbox Series X ray tracing feature, which means the idea of having the game on the new console with this lighting technology has been discussed.

I wouldn’t cross my fingers though for a completely new Minecraft game for the Xbox Series X.

What is likely to happen is Mojang Studios will update a previous Minecraft title, for example, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, to support ray tracing, and other new features on the Xbox Series X.

This is the strategy they used with the Minecraft RTX PC game.

With the release of the Minecraft RTX PC version, you can get a feel of what the next-gen Minecraft experience will be like on the Xbox Series X.

Can you play Minecraft on the Xbox Series X?

As you wait for a Minecraft next-gen upgrade, you can continue playing past Xbox Minecraft games.

Right out of the box, you can play older Minecraft games on your Xbox Series X because of the console’s backward compatibility feature.

While playing Minecraft games you’ll experience faster loading times because of the Xbox Series X Ultra-fast SSD, higher frame rates, and resolution, the Series X performance target is up to 120fps at 4K, and better stability when multiple fights, explosions, etc., are happening on your screen.

I particularly like the Xbox Series X Quick Resume feature, which allows you to continue playing Minecraft from where you left off, even if you have played other games or turned off the console, without having to reload the game.

These and other performance improvements made possible by the new tech on the Xbox Series X will give you a much more pleasurable Minecraft experience when compared to older Xbox consoles.

Nick Sinclair

Nick Sinclair, a gaming aficionado since the Commodore 64 era, studied Creative Computer Games Design in university before founding his own gaming company. Discovering a passion for content creation, Nick now helps gamers squeeze every drop of fun out of their favorite gaming hardware

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