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Digital Foundry: Assassin's Creed Valhalla: PS5 vs Xbox Series X/ Series S Next-Gen Comparison!

chandoog

chandoog

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Oct 27, 2017
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Possibly the most eagerly anticipated of platform comparisons - and the results are perhaps not what users might have been expecting. Assassin's Creed transitions to 60fps for Series X and PS5, but the challenges in delivering full frame-rate are clearly considerable. Meanwhile, Series S is pegged to 30fps...

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bing

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New Digital Foundry video, nice!

Info on Differences:
Differences in game's visual make-up essentially disappear completely once we move onto PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, where Ubisoft aims for total platform parity and basically delivers that. After a range of tests, there's simply nothing to separate the two in terms of what the game is rendering: level of detail transitions in character quality, tessellation distance and trees and terrain are identical, while shadow resolution is similarly the same. We couldn't find any differences at all in fully matched scenarios and any variations that may have been reported may well be down to the time of day system, which sees lighting adjust dramatically according to the sun's position in the sky (or indeed its absence at night time).
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PS5 has 15% performance advantage at worst scenarios on XSX:
So, similar to our first Series X vs PS5 platform comparison, we're looking at feature parity - but again, performance is where there is a difference. With Devil May Cry 5, Xbox Series X enjoyed a small lead in most rendering modes, falling short against PS5 in 120Hz gaming. With AC Valhalla, there's only one mode and 60fps is the target. While there are problems on both systems, Xbox Series X obviously fares worse. To put things into context, Valhalla targets 60 frames per second, but when the engine is under heavy load and can't render a new frame within the 16.7ms target, it'll present the new frame when it's good and ready, while your screen is updating. This causes screen tearing. Both systems can have issues here, especially in cutscenes, and sometimes in gameplay. However, the key takeaway is that PlayStation 5 is much closer to the 60fps target more of the time, while Xbox Series X can struggle. In fact, at its worst, we noted PS5 delivering a 15 per cent performance advantage over its Microsoft equivalent in identical scenarios.
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Keep in mind this was developed during a pandemic for last-gen, next-gen, and streaming (Stadia/Luna):
Of course, it goes without saying that we should be patient with game makers who've had to work with development environments and console hardware that are new to them, while dealing with unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic. The basic idea that a project as vast as Valhalla - which releases on so many platforms - was possible at all in these conditions is astonishing. But with that said, our hopes remain high that in the coming weeks, polish and performance issues will be addressed.
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chandoog

chandoog

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Text Article:

www.eurogamer.net

Assassin's Creed Valhalla PS5 vs Xbox Series X - which copes best with 60fps?

For many, this is the most crucial of the next generation cross-platform comparisons. The new Assassin's Creed is a big…
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net


Series S:
but the key cutback here is a drop from 60fps down to 30fps, firmly pegging it with last-gen versions of the game. Not only that, dynamic resolution is rather elastic, operating from 1188p to around 1656p, often settling at 1296p
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Series X | PS5:
Both of the premium next generation consoles also use a dynamic resolution scaling system. The lowest measured pixel count is 1440p (67 per cent of native 4K on either axis) while the maximum is 1728p (80 per cent native) and in almost all scenarios
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However, the key takeaway is that PlayStation 5 is much closer to the 60fps target more of the time, while Xbox Series X can struggle. In fact, at its worst, we noted PS5 delivering a 15 per cent performance advantage over its Microsoft equivalent in identical scenarios
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Series X|S Are Buggier than PS5:
Beyond performance matters, it's pretty clear that Assassin's Creed Valhalla still needs a lot of work - especially on Xbox platforms. We encountered plenty of bugs playing this game: in addition to some weird performance bottlenecks on Series consoles, we also noted that camera motion doesn't update with a linear relationship to frame-rate during cutscenes, meaning some ugly looking stutter even with the engine actually running flat-out at 60fps (PS5 is fine here).
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Remeran

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Nov 27, 2018
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dope will watch! It runs great on my series X and my brother's ps5 barring the screen tearing on both. Seems like it happens a little more on the series x based on my limited time with the ps5 version.
 
Stacey

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Nooooooooo, I needed PC comparisons :(

*still watching

Edit: Damn, those results......this thread aint gonna end well.
 
Uzupedro

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So, similar to our first Series X vs PS5 platform comparison, we're looking at feature parity - but again, performance is where there is a difference. With Devil May Cry 5, Xbox Series X enjoyed a small lead in most rendering modes, falling short against PS5 in 120Hz gaming. With AC Valhalla, there's only one mode and 60fps is the target. While there are problems on both systems, Xbox Series X obviously fares worse. To put things into context, Valhalla targets 60 frames per second, but when the engine is under heavy load and can't render a new frame within the 16.7ms target, it'll present the new frame when it's good and ready, while your screen is updating. This causes screen tearing. Both systems can have issues here, especially in cutscenes, and sometimes in gameplay. However, the key takeaway is that PlayStation 5 is much closer to the 60fps target more of the time, while Xbox Series X can struggle. In fact, at its worst, we noted PS5 delivering a 15 per cent performance advantage over its Microsoft equivalent in identical scenarios.
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kft8xagh17r41.png
 
Nephtes

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"However, the key takeaway is that PlayStation 5 is much closer to the 60fps target more of the time, while Xbox Series X can struggle. In fact, at its worst, we noted PS5 delivering a 15 per cent performance advantage over its Microsoft equivalent in identical scenarios."

Yikes.
This really isn't how I anticipated this shaking out between the two consoles in 3rd party games given the performance differentials on paper and given Microsoft has the marketing on this game.

API issues or is the SSD/compression technique on the PS5 paying dividends?
 
WhtR88t

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May 14, 2018
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If this Series S performance becomes the norm going forward it almost feels like the digital PS5 at $399 is the better value in the long run unless you absolutely need to save the $100 (which its target audience might I guess).
 
Kolbe1894

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However, we tested Valhalla with VRR enabled on an LG CX display and the tearing is gone, and the presentation remains smooth: the console is fully in command of when the screen delivers a new frame and it's a game-changer, especially for this title. The omission of VRR on PlayStation 5 is a real disappointment, not just here in Valhalla, but also in other games like Dirt 5.
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Somehow this make me think could VRR cause some developers lazy to optimize XSX version lol.
 
Maturin

Maturin

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I think the difference is likely the state of Xbox dev tools rather than any hardware issue.

One thing's for sure. While I'm having a lot of fun with the game it is very janky and needs some work.
 
modiz

modiz

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Oct 8, 2018
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YuriLowell said:
Is the PS5 performance advantage down to having more mature tools available to devs?
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at the end of the day, its down to a lot of reasons, tools is one of them, but we lack some insight into the PS5 and what kind of subtle hardware advantages it has in terms of customizations and the like that will not show up in a TFlop metric, i suspect based on the higher clocks and the performance advantage in high refresh rate games that a lot of it has to do with caches being faster on PS5.
 
AndrewDean84

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I can't watch the video yet. Does the video explain why the PS5 runs better? Is it the SSD that's making a difference? Was the PS5 version optimized better? Is there a Xbox Series X bottleneck we haven't heard of yet?
 
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chandoog

chandoog

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Oct 27, 2017
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WinFonda said:
This would be like PS4 coming in below XBO after months of hearing about the TFLOPS delta. No matter the reason, this not a good look for Microsoft, especially since 3rd parties are basically all they got atm.
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And how heavily Valhalla has been associated with the Xbox platforms ..... and let's not forget all that kerfuffle about the "4K and/or 60 FPS" wording that happened a couple of weeks back.
 
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