If you've got the Xbox Series X, expect a significant performance boost for the games you currently play. According to some hands-on testing, most older Xbox One games will run at 4K and 60fps on the Xbox Series X.

Microsoft has shipped Xbox Series X prototypes to some technical testers, but so far they have only been able to test older games on the next-generation console. However, since the backwards compatibility of the Xbox Series X has been trumpeted loudly by Microsoft, we are now getting an idea of how it will perform.

Currently, the Xbox One X is Microsoft's most powerful console, capable of running select games at native 4K resolution. However, many of these titles, like Red Dead Redemption 2, are limited to 30 fps, hardly the smoothest way to play games.

However, the AMD-based chipset in the Xbox Series X offers significantly more graphics and processor power, so even 4K games can almost certainly maintain 60 fps; games like "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" and "Final Games that struggled on the Xbox One X, such as "Fantasy 15," ran very smoothly on the Xbox Series X, essentially doubling the performance of the still-powerful previous model. The Digital Foundry staff was very pleased with the Xbox Series X's very detailed breakdown of its performance in current games.

60 fps at 4K may not seem like much, given that the PC can already run some games at 60 fps and is the target for the next generation of games on the upcoming Microsoft console. It is worth noting, however, that much of the power of the Xbox Series X will be held back by the game's frame rate cap. And many of these older titles are not optimized for the Xbox Series X, but simply run on Xbox Series X hardware.

So if Microsoft encourages developers to go back to Xbox One games and rework them for the Xbox Series X, we may see even bigger performance jumps. "Gears 5" is expected to run at 120 fps on the Xbox Series X.

"Gears 5" is expected to run at 120 fps on the Xbox Series X.

"Gears 5" is expected to run at 120 fps on the Xbox Series X.

There are a lot of very impressive games on the Xbox One, and they still look pretty good. So the idea of being able to play them in 4K at smooth frame rates is very appealing. Older Xbox games dating back to the original Xbox are also expected to run on the Xbox Series X, possibly at 120 fps.

All of this sets the standard for backwards compatibility that the PS5 should compete against. Sony has stated that the PS5 will run 99% of PS4 games at launch, but older PlayStation games do not appear to be supported. Few details are also available on how well the PS5 will run. Sony plans to offer the PS Plus Collection, a series of PS4-exclusive games, on the PS5 as part of a PS Plus subscription, but it is not yet known if these will be specifically enhanced.

Combined with Xbox Game Pass, which offers access to a huge variety of games for an affordable subscription fee, the backward compatibility of the Xbox Series X helps make the console look very attractive. New exclusive games will be needed, but with the delayed release of Halo Infinite, they are likely to be a bit scarce at launch. However, Bethesda is set to become part of Microsoft in 2021, which could bring a huge number of games to the Xbox.