Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2020]

Status
Not open for further replies.
Yea the design of ps5 the outer fins create an additional air pocket outside the plastic that must also heat up to heat up the outer fins. Making it impossible to hold it and feel the heat. Removing the fins and measuring the black would be an interesting experiment but not reflective of how people would use it. That being said; don’t use it with fins offs imo.

DF really should do a naked PS5 test. For science!
 
Yeah, I mean my Samsung goes into game mode automatically with the PS4 Pro and so did my Sony tv before that I think so you’d assume something like that should be easy enough with PS5.
TVs are often programmed to recognise consoles and switch automatically. ALLM is allowing the console to drive the display which makes more sense. When I got my LG it recognised my consoles and my PC and put them all in game mode.
 
If you have devices connected directly to your TV, all modern TV's remember the last used display mode for said input. I think it's when you use the console for media play, that's when ALLM is very handy, as you'll propably want to use a more accurate display mode for streaming apps and movie discs.
That is, if I've understood correct how ALLM works. Does it automatically switch the TV to game mode when you exit netflix and start a game, and back to movie mode as you start netflix again?
 
That is, if I've understood correct how ALLM works. Does it automatically switch the TV to game mode when you exit netflix and start a game, and back to movie mode as you start netflix again?
Presumably.... ?
 
A refresher on how things stood before this became special: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...l-may-cry-5-tech-analysis-all-consoles-tested

Curiously, the standard PlayStation 4 seems to be the only version rendering at a native resolution - in this case, 1080p. The vanilla Xbox One achieves a similar look, but uses a reconstruction technique to get the job done - but despite this, the impact to quality up against PS4's native presentation is slight. Reconstruction techniques are also used on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, delivering 1800p and 2160p respectively. Anti-aliasing quality seems slightly improved on the X, and the Pro can shimmer slightly in some spots, with an interlacing-style artefact.

For gameplay, 60fps is the target and three of the four consoles mostly deliver here. PS4, PS4 Pro and Xbox One X are mostly locked, but screen-filling, bandwidth-sapping alpha effects can see the game falter. It's Xbox One X that is impacted the most, though the effects are fleeting, while the Pro and base PlayStation 4 are a touch smoother.

The Sony machine runs a touch smoother, while X boosts resolution and anti-aliasing quality. Where it matters though - in terms of the fun factor - either is highly recommended.
 
The saving of resources compared to the quality of some reconstruction techniques are really disproportionate in some cases. I hope devs keep chipping away at this. The more resources you can generating high native resolutions, the more you can use elsewhere. I think this will one of the big developer arcs this generation.
 
I can't understand the fucking point of having these limited settings profile modes in console games. If you are going to allow this many options why the hell wouldn't they just paste the PC settings menu into the game. They are already giving users a confusing choice to make so why not just let them have full control over the rendering settings so at least the user can pick and choose... Else you get this weird grey area between PC and console where you get none of the benefits but all of the pitfalls.
 
Wait so there is; a native 4k/60 mode, Reconstruction 4k mode with RT@30-60, RT performance mode@1080p/60, and a 120fps mode with reconstructed 4k....do I have that right?
 
It's been a long time coming but here it is: the first frame-rate test between PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X running what we're pretty certain to be identical content with the same visual feature set... and running with an effectively unlocked frame-rate to boot, all the way up to 120fps. And with optional ray tracing too! It's only one game - and a launch game at that, with far from final developmental environments. But still, the results are fascinating - and some might say, somewhat unexpected...
 
Based on the separate console video from earlier, it looks like such a hot mess of a game, especially when a significant portion of that video is entirely complaints about the very peculiar decisions made.

Emphasis are mine on very peculiar decisions made with respect to 120 Hz mode.

DF Article @ https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-devil-may-cry-5-ps5-xbox-series-x-comparison

Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition - the first PS5 vs Xbox Series X platform comparison
Which machine is faster? It's complicated.

...

Ultimately, this is just one game from one developer, using an upgraded version of an existing engine and while it's difficult to tell, it does seem as if the more forward-looking features of RDNA 2 such as variable rate shading are not being used. With that said, based on the software we have in front of us, the overall outlook is that the experience between both systems is broadly equivalent in pure performance terms. Xbox seems to have a consistent - if very small - advantage in three of the four modes, while its inconsistency in the high frame-rate mode is puzzling to say the least.

However, the fact that we can use Devil May Cry 5 as a 'benchmark' at all is mostly down to the fact that the developers have targeted 120Hz as the standard refresh rate output. This is great for seeing top-end performance metrics, but it's bad news for the experience - especially on PlayStation 5. This is because 120Hz output is locked to any screen that supports 120Hz, no matter the resolution. So consider a highly popular 4K screen - the LG OLED B8. PS5 sees that it is 120Hz-compatible, and overrides 4K resolution. All modes will run at a 120Hz refresh rate, at 1080p resolution - which is absolutely not ideal. Another popular screen is the Samsung NU8000. It's a 4K screen but on PS5, Devil May Cry will force through the 120Hz refresh rate instead, resulting in a downscale to 1440p that the user has no control over.

And this is where Xbox Series X has an advantage that's crucial. Users can simply dip into the video settings, select 60Hz and Devil May Cry 5 runs in a generally stable way - a locked 60 frames per second is very much preferable to the fully unlocked set-up on a 120Hz screen whether you're gaming on PS5 or Xbox Series X. We have shared our findings with Capcom a while back, and fingers crossed there'll be a solution to the issue, but the tl;dr version is simple enough on paper: allow PS5 users to select between 60Hz and 120Hz output resolution.

In the meantime, the results seen here in the cross-platform comparison are fascinating. In terms of correlating on-paper specs to the actual experience on-screen, PlayStation 5 is either punching above its weight, or Xbox Series X isn't delivering on the full potential promised by a bigger silicon investment and a much more substantial memory interface. It'll be interesting to see to what extent the results seen here extend to other titles, and we'll be reporting on that as soon as other games are available.
 
It'll be more telling how the game is patched up over time. It's such a hot mess. I'd like to think this was more about hitting development timelines than about anything next-gen. They would have benefited greatly from having an extra month or two of development time.
 
Based on the separate console video from earlier, it looks like such a hot mess of a game, especially when a significant portion of that video is entirely complaints about the very peculiar decisions made.

Considering the engine is this basically a BC game? I know on the XBSX BC games do get the whole 12TF of the GPU but none of the RDNA2 features are enabled. Not sure if that's how things work on PS5 but would be curious to know.
 
The RE engine just seems bloated in areas. While uncapped framerate is commendable in the general sense of viewing raw performance numbers, but in DMC5 case, its best to VSYNC this to either 60fps or 30fps for better stabilized gameplay and performance.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top