Contributors: Alex Le Boulicaut (Producer), Spencer Kopach (Senior Tech Artist), Andrew Nolan (Graphics Engineer), Trista Patterson (XBOX Director of Sustainability) 343 Industries was XBOX’s first pilot for A/B experimentation on energy consumption and carbon emissions in game development. Using PIX Power Monitor, the team established a baseline (XBOX Series X at 4K/60 FPS: ~92% GPU, 67.5% Power Load) and iterated from there.
Armor Hall menus
The team profiled the Armor Hall in four stages.Stage 1: 4K @ 60 FPS (baseline)
- Average GPU: 96.2%
- Average Power Load: 67.5%
Stage 2: 4K @ 30 FPS
- Average GPU: 49.2%
- Average Power Load: 42.2%
- Power savings: 37.5%
Stage 3: 1080p @ 60 FPS
- Average GPU: 34.7%
- Average Power Load: 43.5%
- Power savings: 33.6%
Stage 4: 1080p @ 30 FPS
- Average GPU: 27%
- Average Power Load: 30%
- Power savings: 55.6%
343 shipped resolution reduction only for the Armor Hall — lowest risk to the player experience with meaningful savings.
Gameplay pause menu
During investigations the team realized the pause menu still rendered a full 4K image behind the blurred settings overlay — assets the player couldn’t see. Lowering the pause menu to 1080p produced:
15% power saving with a change invisible to the player.
2.5D menus
As part of a broader menu overhaul, 343 tested a 2.5D approach: a 2D backplate with camera-correct perspective plus a 3D character in the foreground.Merits
Pros- Minimal components; easy to upgrade.
- Full support for UGC characters.
- 2D backplates author in Unity, Unreal, Maya, or any DCC.
- Backplates can be authored in-house or outsourced.
- Load times improve.
- Lower power draw for players.
- 3D avatars must be lit to match the 2D backplate.
- Background cannot support motion.
- No DOF on UGC avatars (bake DOF into the backplate instead).
Power savings (versus a locked 3D baseline of 64.8%)
Locking the resolution upper limit and switching to 2.5D delivered ~30% savings; further reducing internal resolution unlocked more.
Development cost
- 8 people required for evergreen support (11–17 fewer than the previous 3D setup).
- Total time to completion: 3–4 weeks.
- Estimated time cost saved: 2–3 months.
Takeaways for other studios
- Start with resolution. Lowest player-visibility risk in still or minimally animated scenes.
- Look for hidden rendering waste. 343 was rendering 4K behind a blurred pause overlay.
- 2.5D menus can reduce both team and hardware cost. Fewer people to maintain them and lower GPU load.
- Protect UI accessibility. Keep UI on its own buffer at native resolution.