Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2024]

Interesting moment. Before Xbox One X release, Phil Spencer said what MS will not let concurrents have more powerful console than MS console starting from Xbox One X release or in future. And now PS5 Pro will have more power. What do you guys think about that?
 
Interesting moment. Before Xbox One X release, Phil Spencer said what MS will not let concurrents have more powerful console than MS console starting from Xbox One X release or in future. And now PS5 Pro will have more power. What do you guys think about that?
Priorities have changed at MS HQ for Xbox.
 
I don’t expect this console will sell more than a few million units at best. I also find the 75% performance mode claim suspicious. I wonder what % of console users are even aware of such things.
 
What if that 75% number means 75% of people don't care how a game looks.
Console gamers like nice graphics, it just manifests differently then is the norm for a B3D type community.

Something else that just dawned on me, do games on PS5 typically default to quality or performance mode?
 
Console gamers like nice graphics, it just manifests differently then is the norm for a B3D type community.

Something else that just dawned on me, do games on PS5 typically default to quality or performance mode?
I think they default to the mode you select in the PS5 system settings?
 
I don’t expect this console will sell more than a few million units at best. I also find the 75% performance mode claim suspicious. I wonder what % of console users are even aware of such things.
True.
1) Some games when you launch them at default are with performance mode at start, so many gamers can not even turn other mode on, they just start game and play it. But that works both ways.
2) 75% playing in performance mode, doesn't mean those players never turn graphics mode in some games or in some moments playing game.
3) This can be just marketing phrase, and no one except some people in Sony can check that statistics.

You guys can say I'm wrong, but I always was against 60 fps on consoles, at least till moment then graphics will be on par with CGI. First console makers used mid gen consoles for resolution, now Sony will use mid gen console for fps. I'd prefer that additional power would've been used also for better graphics, as an option. Like if you have mid gen console you can choose:
1) Higher resolution.
2)Hoigher framerate.
3) Better graphics.
I wonder what developers could've achieve on Xbox One X in 1080p and 30 fps. But due to already hight cost of assets that haven't happened, and both MS and Sony started their promo campagnes for how resolution is important, or how fps is important. And if they would've also made better graphics mode, that would've mean also higer cost of development. It's a lot easier to add resolution and fps, because it's cost almost nothing.
 
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At some point in the bideo Richard says that the weak yen could have had an influence on the pricing. I thought that was the opposite? I'm not really sure how it works, not an economist 😅 but does someone know?
 
At some point in the bideo Richard says that the weak yen could have had an influence on the pricing. I thought that was the opposite? I'm not really sure how it works, not an economist 😅 but does someone know?
I m not sure how they are handling their currencies. But if they are held mostly in Yen and they need to pay for costs of production overseas, the conversion from yen to a different currency when the yen is weaker will be the equivalent of more yen paid in expenses. But if the costs of production happens within the country itself they will be cheaper to export.

But this is confusing for me because they give conflicting reports every time. Sometimes companies, and I think it also happened with Sony, report higher revenue due to their weaker local currency, as the sales overseas are converted to more yen. Or sometimes their already paid/collected revenue might be equivalent to more in dollars or euros if their yen gets stronger at the end of their fiscal year and that may be reported in their books. Or sometimes the opposite might happen. Whatever revenue they received and converted to yen will be equivalent to less if the yen loses value

🤷
 
To be fair, these days when comparing a 500 dollar Series X game with a 5000 dollar gaming pc running the same game but with everything at ultra, with 8xMSAA and whatever, there need to be videos with 200-300% zooms, slowed down footage to point out the difference.
That difference is the smallest it has ever been in the entire history of videogames probably; you could tell if the 300 dollar PS1 was running Red Alert or a 3000 dollar PC. No need to slow down anything or zoom in. You would see the difference even zoomed out to 0.3% sitting across the room.

Anyway, why would anybody expect to see a real visual difference between a PS5 and a premium PS5 pro with some added hardware?
 
To be fair, these days when comparing a 500 dollar Series X game with a 5000 dollar gaming pc running the same game but with everything at ultra, with 8xMSAA and whatever, there need to be videos with 200-300% zooms, slowed down footage to point out the difference.
That difference is the smallest it has ever been in the entire history of videogames probably; you could tell if the 300 dollar PS1 was running Red Alert or a 3000 dollar PC. No need to slow down anything or zoom in. You would see the difference even zoomed out to 0.3% sitting across the room.

Anyway, why would anybody expect to see a real visual difference between a PS5 and a premium PS5 pro with some added hardware?
Totally.

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Have to zoom in 300% to spot the difference!
 
Have to zoom in 300% to spot the difference!
Perhaps it's that you zoomed 300% out that allows us to see the difference. It isn't the in/out variable that matters, but the 300. Because this is Sparta.

To answer the question asked in the video "What games should they have used to show of PS5Pro", I wonder if Sony had meant to show off Concord. Concord's removal from the market means they would have to lose that game from the presentation. 9 minutes is an odd amount of time, maybe it was only supposed to include 1 minute of Concord to make the time 10 minutes, or maybe 6 minutes to make it 15.

I think the mistake they made was showing so many cross gen games, like Horizon and TLOU. Maybe concentrating on a PS5 exclusive like Spider-Man 2 (though I think many people still associate that game with PS4 because the previous 2 were available there), or their most recent smash hit Helldivers 2, or their just released AstroBot. AstroBot would be my choice. Show off the game and show off the promise of the future.
 
To be fair, these days when comparing a 500 dollar Series X game with a 5000 dollar gaming pc running the same game but with everything at ultra, with 8xMSAA and whatever, there need to be videos with 200-300% zooms, slowed down footage to point out the difference.
That difference is the smallest it has ever been in the entire history of videogames probably; you could tell if the 300 dollar PS1 was running Red Alert or a 3000 dollar PC. No need to slow down anything or zoom in. You would see the difference even zoomed out to 0.3% sitting across the room.

Anyway, why would anybody expect to see a real visual difference between a PS5 and a premium PS5 pro with some added hardware?

Why do people who have never built a gaming PC always default to saying it costs $5000?

You can build a PC with a 7800x3D and a 4090 for well below $5000.

And not only is there easily to spot visual differences as per the above, but you feel the difference too.

30fps Vs 60fps
60fps Vs 120fps

120fps+
 
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I just ordered a custom PC build for my sister, with a 7800X3D + AIO cooler, 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM, case + power, etc. for around US$950. That includes assembly and shipping. It does not include SSD and GPU because my sister already has them, but you can add a reasonably good 2TB SSD for ~$150 and a 4090 for ~$2,000. That means you can get a top of the line PC for less than $3,500. If you settle for a 4080 which is ~$1,200, you can get one for less than $2,500.
 
I just ordered a custom PC build for my sister, with a 7800X3D + AIO cooler, 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM, case + power, etc. for around US$950. That includes assembly and shipping. It does not include SSD and GPU because my sister already has them, but you can add a reasonably good 2TB SSD for ~$150 and a 4090 for ~$2,000. That means you can get a top of the line PC for less than $3,500. If you settle for a 4080 which is ~$1,200, you can get one for less than $2,500.

Or if you don't care all that much about RT and happy with FSR2, you can pick up a 7900XTX and have 4080 performance for a lot less.
 
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