If one thing is very clear from this comparison, it's that Sony really needs to get VRR working in the PS5 for the HDMI 2.1 TV crowd. This is IMO the gravest omission in the console's launch.
Maybe the patch with VRR will be available next week for the European launch
I actually disagree that it is all over the place. They tested 4 modes:
Normal mode with "old graphics" + forced native 4K rendering + 60FPS:
- Series X gets a ~8% advantage due to higher memory bandwidth and compute throughput.
High Framerate Mode, again "old graphics" with lower resolution + reconstruction and no RT, 120Hz output:
- Both consoles get same average framerates but PS5 gets more stable framerates. Perhaps due to higher fillrate on the PS5 side.
High Quality Raytracing, with RT + reconstruction + 60FPS "target":
- SeriesX's compute and bandwidth advantage again disappears because neither console needs to render at 4K. There is a very slight lead on the SeriesX but it seems to be around 5% or less.
High Performance Raytracing, RT + 1080p rendering:
- A wash, again the PS5 doesn't lose as much because there's no forced 4K rendering pushing for memory bandwidth.
In loading times, the PS5 is ~64% faster, which I'd attribute simply to the PS5 having higher raw I/O throughput and similar CPU performance.
As expected, the difference isn't remotely close to the 17% difference in compute or the even larger difference in memory bandwidth. Faster caches, faster single-thread, higher fillrate, etc. are partially making up for the narrower GPU like Cerny explained. Seems mostly like a wash between the two consoles with this title, which I'd bet it's not making use of any console-specific features like VRS, SFS, Geometry Engine, hardware decompression, etc. all of which could require deeper changes to the engine than what the release date would allow.