It took Microsoft eight years to update Xbox 360 to a next generation hardware so we will be surprised to see the Polaris based GPU in the Xbox One anytime soon. The Xbox One has been on hte market for just over a year now, and this is not the time Microsoft updates its  hardware – it normally does it five years into the console lifecycle.

Xbox One Polaris

However, an overclock.net forum member has found a leak from a twitter user "blueisviolet" got his paws on a screen dump as proof. The screen dump indicates that there is a hardware and software version of the Xbox called Polaris. The device model of the mysterious device is called Xbox One Polaris with platform version NRDP 15.2 Polaris-222. The software running on that console is called Polaris-222.

Xbox One to slim down in 2H 2016

This sounds like a prototype and there is a big chance that this prototype will never end up in market. There is still a chance that Xbox One Polaris will end up in the slimmed down version of the Xbox One.

Even if Polaris becomes the Radeon 4000 generation with 14nm transistors as we suggested a long time ago, AMD would need the time install this on  the 14nm APU.

Some people still think that a 14nm APU based on Polaris might happen in the second half of 2016 but we will have to wait a bit and see. Have in mind that 14nm APU inside of the slimmer Xbox One would produce less noise and will run with notably less energy.

Of course it is possible that Microsoft is worried about the domination of the console market by the new Playstation and wants to fight back.  Issuing a surprise console with a new chip towards the end of the year might actually do that for Redmond.  With the changes at Microsoft lately, anything is possible.