If you believe in “sources” and such, then you’ll believe IGN when they report that they’ve learned the Xbox 360 successor will be six times more powerful.  According to their sources, mass production of the system’s GPU will begin by the end of 2012 and will be based on AMD’s 6000 series Southern Islands GPU.  You can expect support for DirectX11, multidisplay output, 3D and 1080p HD output.

I’m sure the next console will be more powerful but what will it really matter when developers will likely take a year or two after its launch to even utilize the power.  That’s how these things go.  Towards the end of the console’s lifespan, developers will finally be tapping into its power.  So I expect the first round of games on the next console to be nothing more than Xbox 360 ports and nothing that will be significantly better than current games.

Does the fact that they’re reporting it will be 6 times more powerful impress you?