Was too curious so obtained (cough) Spiderman RM for the PC to just compare on a technical level to the PS5 version which I've prob played through 3 times by now. This is on a i5-12400 @ 4ghz, 3060, 16GB. Latest patch. Game is installed to an Intel NVME, 1.8GB/sec, so def a middling drive but should not be a bottleneck. So a relatively modern budget (?) PC.
Config: Everything on High, except Crowd Density and Hair at Medium, and Dof at Low - the target from the outset was a solid 60 4k at DLSS Quality, but dynamic res was engaged at some points. Playing on a 60hz tv.
So, thoughts:
- 4k DLSS Quality for the most part is indeed 60fps at 4k running through the city with my settings, fighting and indoors are no issue easily, but some cutscenes can drop into the 50's.
- On that "for the most part": Even without a high CPU/GPU load (my CPU is 40-50 swinging through the city without RT), there are periodic frametime spikes of varying degrees which no settings can help with, as it doesn't look like any particular component is the bottleneck. Some of these are the aforementioned issue DF mentioned when rapidly switching views that can stress the culling system, so as running up a building then using a web to slingshot 180 degrees, it can cause a drop to 58/59 fps. The more annoying one though is just a ~60+ ms spike that occurs periodically swinging around, no obvious cause. Potential shader compiling, but there's no large CPU spike and they can occur running through the same area well after they're first encountered. Seen others with middling rigs complain about this on reddit threads too.
I'm definitely somewhat of an outlier with PC gaming as I play mostly on a 60hz TV, so this kind of thing has always been why I'm sometimes wary of PC benchmarks and how they might apply to my setup, even those that include "1% lows". A long enough data capture, especially with an uncapped framerate, and these hitches would barely register - but they are certainly noticeable during gameplay, especially on a fixed refresh rate display. I want consistency there, and I can't quite get it now - the fact that uncapped I could have a ~80 fps average or even a 60+ 1% low means little as these hitches announce themselves pretty prominently on a 60hz display. These aren't like every few seconds mind you, I have can have 2+ minute sections without seeing them, but they're frequent enough to be distracting.
(BTW on that note, should be mentioned as well that not until recently did I actually look at the benchmark video that computerbase.de was using for their CPU benchmarks, and it's largely an indoor environment with just strolling through the city - on foot - for the external portion. So uh, keep that in mind considering traversing the city can be a more stressful test for certain portions of this engine.)
- Dynamic res is interesting: It actually tries to maintain a ~95% GPU usage at all times, so it can actually end up producing a more detailed image than if it was disabled. I think this is how it works on the PS5 as well. For example, setting DLSS quality at 4K without dynamic res when the GPU load is ~75% will actually produce a slightly inferior image to having dynamic res enabled which is kinda neat!
....but, dynamic res, as noted by Alex, can also introduce some drops as it can't react quickly enough (can be a problem with some DR implementations on PC I've found). When it works it's great, can barely notice any res change when the performance is kept at 60, but it's definitely not as flawless as a dynamic res implementation should be for it to make sense. I mean you want it enabled to avoid those occasional load spikes, if it can't adjust quickly enough and you get stuttering then it somewhat defeats the purpose. As DF mentioned though I think this can be largely fixed by just being a little more aggressive for lowering res, Titanfall 2 on the PC for example allows you to set the dynamic res threshold to 1 fps increments. If you set it at 60 you'll get stuttering as it tries for too consistently high a GPU load and can't keep up when there's a big GPU load spike, but if you lock your framerate to 60 externally then set the game's dynamic cap to say, 65fps, it has no issue and scales perfectly without stutter.
- DLSS is noticeably sharper than IGT (Insomniac's temporal) on the PS5 or using it on the PC, but I'm not sure how much that is due to just being having the sharpening cranked up vs. actually reconstructing more accurately. I believe distant detail is definitely more visible and 'complete' with it, but it also produces more specular aliasing at times.
One of the reasons I loved Insomniac's implementation so much on the PS5 (at least in non-RT mode) was that it struck a great balance of being sharp but also cohesive. It produces an extremely stable image with very little reconstruction artifacts. DLSS seems to veer too much into sharpening atm, which can look better in some spots and does appear 'higher res', but can produce more shimmering when swinging around - this was evident even in youtube videos for me. Even at DLSS Quality, there are also a few instances where screen space reflections were actually slightly more accurately reconstructed on the PS5, such as seeing a wire structure reflected in a puddle - you could see more detail in the reflection on the PS5, albeit this is very slight though.
So over the course of many different scenarios throughout the city, using DLSS over Insomniac's scaling is actually not as cut-and-dried as I thought it would be. I mean I like sharp! That's why I usually played in Performance mode on the PS5 over RT, but specular aliasing really bugs me as well.
- Definitely some issues with periodically loading textures. Buildings in the distance will sometimes have a lower res mip, and some elements on cutscenes are obviously not loading their highest detail as they should. Relatively few occurrences but they do stand out.
So overall on the non-RT image quality front, I'd say it's a mixed bag on my rig. At first glance when you boot it up, it's "Wow, DLSS is so much sharper!", but when you visit more locations and jump back and forth with it on the PS5 it's not so clear-cut (at least without RT, more on that below). The exception though is with dynamic res enabled - if you have a more powerful GPU than mine and say, set a 60fps cap, DLSS would likely look much better. I can test this by setting a dynamic 30fps cap, and while it doesn't infinitely up-res (my fps was still ~45-50 with this low cap), it obviously is constructing DLSS from a higher res than 4K because it looked
noticeably better than the PS5 and even native TAA 4k.
As for RT, I only played around with that mode for about 10 mins, but with dynamic res at DLSS Quality/Balanced it actually holds 60fps surprisingly well, albeit with the aforementioned hitches explained above that occur without RT too. My CPU load was ~60% with a cap of 60, albeit I didn't explore every area (such as the notoriously heavy TImes Square). Compared to the PS5 RT Performance, DLSS provides a significantly more detailed image, dynamic or balanced DLSS without dynamic res enabled. But again, a downside too: DLSS with RT can also produce noticeably more flickering with RT reflections on some surfaces such as wet roads, especially if you're using DLSS performance mode. Surprisingly even FSR or IGT Performance mode doesn't exhibit these artifacts to the same degree. Compared to the PS5 RT Performance mode, it's
significantly sharper yes, but then with dynamic res or locking to DLSS performance to keep it around 60 you're getting even more specular aliasing too than the level which bugged me without RT. Still superior to the PS5 overall visually I think, but some drawbacks.
Overall, it's...ok? A lot of good quality of life features as mentioned by DF, such as being able to change nearly every graphic setting and have it reflected instantly (PS5 when switching to RT mode forces you to a checkpoint restart), loads very quickly,
can look superior to the PS5 version on my rig. But the framerate consistency in both RT and without is the most noticeable to me, so I'd have to still give it to the PS5 right now, which is actually somewhat rare when comparing versions of the same game on my PC vs PS5 when the PC version supports DLSS (Death Stranding is about the only other due to the frame pacing issue on the PC).
It's
good in many ways, but I'll revisit it for subsequent patches. Outside of the RT CPU load everyone knows, they just gotta fix those texture mip issues, get rid of those periodic hitches, and perhaps give a DLSS sharpening slider. If they can manage those it would be a clear choice and elevate it to an exceptional port.
(Edit: jfc what a long post I need a life)
