Why is the Xbox Series X/S so rediculously slow?

SmullFF · Mar 10, 2025

So my roommate got an Xbox Series X a little while back. I honestly have wanted a console, but not because it's a good device, but because I have a friend with an Xbox One and I wanted to be able to play with them. But now that we have one, I am extremely disappointed in the performance of this console. And I am not just talking about in gaming, because I already knew that games run awful on the console. But I am really talking about the Network and Processor speed.

When downloading a game, depending on the game it will rarely get up to 500Mbps, which doesn't make a lot of sense considering I am in northern Oregon and there is a server in Washington. And I also have Fiber Optic internet with 2Gbps, so I should be getting around 1Gbps or 1000Mbps at least. What I find even more confusing is when this console was launched, AMD motherboards had 2.5Gbps Ethernet controllers, maybe not on all of them, but if you got one of the better Motherboards then it was very likely to come with 2.5Gbps. But even on my 1st Generation Ryzen 7 1700 computer, I get an average of at least 800Mbps on most of the games I download. I even have an Intel 9th Generation i7 9700f and it gets about the same.

A console this new should not be so slow to download games, if I bought a computer from 10 years ago it would download faster. Even the network transfer is so limited that it is only going 5Mbps faster. On every computer I have ever used, this isn't the case. Once it's switched to network transfer then it is either as fast as your router can go, or as fast as your Processor can go. I would go as far to say that the Original Nintendo Switch is a better console than the Xbox Series X/S and it has far, far worse hardware inside. But at least if I am downloading a game, I know that I am hardware limited because you can feel the hot body of the console, or the hot exhaust coming from the console. The company that made Windows should at least be able to put a processor or network meter on the in queue screen so you know what the bottleneck is. But I imagine that Microsoft won't do that because they know that the console is just poorly engineered and the software is so poorly made that even if the console was made well it would still be limited.

The worst part of it all is that the console is about as good as computers were back when the Xbox One had launched. So if you need to get your hands on an old 4th or 6th Gen intel computer with a 970 then go for it. If you buy it used, it will probably be less then the Xbox Series X/S, it's almost like Microsoft went back in time to make this console. But we all know what really happened here. They made the console back then and waiting to release it for almost 10 years.

:)

SwordofWhedon

Xbox downloads are typically capped to 250 Mbps because Xbox services share resources with all Microsoft online services. This speed is sufficient to download most games in under an hour

A game console is not a PC and since you cannot affect any of those resources, the resource meter is not necessary

High end electronics get hot, the fact that they are hot does not mean that they are too hot and out of spec. Your average GPU runs between 70 and 80 C under load. This is not a design issue, this is a law of physics. Take a 100 W incandescent lightbulb and leave it on for half an hour and touch it you will find it is very hot. Modern consoles run in the 2 to 400 W range, and high-end computer computers closer to 1000. What you have to worry about is if there isn't hot air coming out the top

you should also check that you don't have an Xbox one X, the Xbox series X is 12 times more powerful than. a launch xbox one.

ngocphi

Fyi series consoles are just xboxes series x or s

Not xbox one series

Just to reduce the confusion

You gotta remember people mistake xbox one x for a series x when it comes to requirements for example flight simulator

With xbox one games they don't have a listing for s or x they are all compatible

Where series s or x just means digital or disk

Disk games don't work with series s or one s digital edition

Back to your problem.

Are you using an external hdd ?

Also when it slows down again is it because you are filling up your hdd?

As space becomes less computers do slow down

It would be better to get an external drive and put infrequent games on there so you don't too much things on your internal drive

Tezzerrific

series x has disc drive and the series s does not

smart delivery is so it downloads the content for the specific console

hence why the game case has series x and xbox one advertised on it. the disc can be used in series x and xbox one consoles, the series s does not have a drive therefore requires digital purchase.

StuartATrueRed

I'm assuming you mean Optimized for Series X|S games. If so, it's because it would be too slow to load the assets in on an external drive, hence why you need the internal SSD drives or the external Western Digital or Seagate external storage cards.

Obsessive Power

Hi,

Your drive will work the same on Series X as it does on Xbox One and you won't need to format it.

However, Series X games or Xbox One games with Series X enhancements will not run from that drive and will either need to be installed internally or to an external SSD designed for Series X/S.

Your hard drive will be too slow for Series X games. They can be stored there, but not run from there.

Why is the Xbox Series X/S so rediculously slow?