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

[chandoog]

C'mon- most people don't have 120 hz TVs and the tearing reports are rampant. It's clearly a huge issue for 60 hz TV users.

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I have neither (An Xbox or a 120hz TV) at this time so couldn't verify myself, but that comparison on the last page made it sound like that guys eureka moment. Was just curious.

Better framerate and less screen tearing on Sony consoles.

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Yeah, the profiles seem to be very similar on the last-gen consoles as well.

I wonder if it's just Ubi's tools, or the engine revision for this game that isn't sitting well with the Xbox architecture for some reason.

Both PS4 models have no tearing, and still have better average frame rates and frame times compared to their respective Xbox counterparts.

However, in this case at least the Xbox One X has some visual advantages over the other consoles like improved LoD, textures and draw distances in some instances.

 

[schnozberry]

Better framerate and less screen tearing on Sony consoles.

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Hopefully Ubi can get it patched for Xbox players. Screen Tearing especially is just a bitch to experience, and I doubt 120hz VRR TV's are going to have large scale market penetration anytime soon. Since all the Xbox Consoles now share the new API tools developed for Xbox Series and they all share similar performance shortcomings, I have to imagine it's an optimization issue that wasn't caught and fixed in time for launch.

 

[Abominuz]

One other thing just popped into my mind... On Series X, if you have games running download speeds get reduced significantly, I've found.

Is it possible that Smart Resume games or downloading in the background could affect in-game performance? I imagine that the system would not have a shared pool of memory/cpu resources and that wouldn't be an issue, but I don't know definitively. Maybe that's why some people are having a worse experience than others?

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I have noticed that when i close my game running in the background my downloads go faster. But i haven not really noticed when i am downloading games perform worse, or when multiple games are in quick resume. I think it just puts the games in a save state, but like windows i dont know if the games still use a % of memory or cpu?

 

[Deleted member 46804]

I have noticed that when i close my game running in the background my downloads go faster. But i haven not really noticed when i am downloading games perform worse, or when multiple games are in quick resume. I think it just puts the games in a save state, but like windows i dont know if the games still use a % of memory or cpu?

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Literally a save state stored on the SSD. It should have no bearing on performance.

 

[foolishoptimist]

Weird. The Xbox One X has been better than the Pro almost the entire time. Makes it seem like it's partially an Ubisoft issue at the very least

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It's not uncommon for Pro to outperform the 1X, but it's usually due to devs not pushing the resolution as hard on that console.

Is there not a resolution difference here?

 

[Deleted member 46804]

I have neither (An Xbox or a 120hz TV) at this time so couldn't verify myself, but that comparison on the last page made it sound like that guys eureka moment. Was just curious.






Yeah, the profiles seem to be very similar on the last-gen consoles as well.

I wonder if it's just Ubi's tools, or the engine revision for this game that isn't sitting well with the Xbox architecture for some reason.

Both PS4 models have no tearing, and still have better average frame rates and frame times compared to their respective Xbox counterparts.

However, in this case at least the Xbox One X has some visual advantages over the other consoles like improved LoD, textures and draw distances in some instances.

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This is really interesting, especially the 0 torn frames on the PS4 and bunches across the One. It does make you wonder about the development process here although seeing the One X have worse performance than the Pro has become quite common.

 

[Mahonay]

Is there not a resolution difference here?

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Nope.

 

[Deleted member 46804]

It's not uncommon for Pro to outperform the 1X, but it's usually due to devs not pushing the resolution as hard on that console.

Is there not a resolution difference here?

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No resolution differences on the SX and PS5. The resolution differences have always been blamed for the lower frame rates on One X games versus the Pro but maybe there's more to it. It could be that optimizing frame rate is just really hard with the tools Microsoft provides while Sony makes it much easier. A random thought to ponder at least.

 

[WastedDeer]

DMC, Dirt5, COD and now AC (which MS has marketing rights for by the way), and I won't be surprised if Watchdogs lands in that list too.

These are all the biggest multiplats releasing in the launch window thus far, with the exception of cyberpunk. If it were the XSX performing better in all that, wouldn't that be considered a pattern?

Or we gonna be making excuses for MS till they have one game where they perform better in?

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if XSX doesn't perform better in 6-12months for every game then yeah they messed up. But with the new tools I wouldn't be making stupid claims like only 1 game will run better yet.

 

[entrydenied]

Oh man, what a strange turn of event from that glorious "4k AT 60fps" thread. lmao

This was rather unexpected, considering Ubisoft partnership with Microsoft for the game. That PS5 hw is really doing wonders for third parties titles

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Yeah this is the weird part for me. And given how only Xbox review codes were given to reviewers.

AC games have had good post launch support, so i hope they fix the screen tearing eventually, especially for the PS5 since I will be playing this on that.
It seems like my TV has Freesync but the PS5 doesn't support VRR :(

 

[Pantato]

Consoles =/= PCs (where hardware is hidden away behind multiple layers of software API abstraction)

Any trends seen in PC benchmarks for discrete GPU cards don't really apply here. Performance bottlenecks on PC are wholly different to consoles.

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Exactly, it's still baffling that some people are only looking at a number, see that X>Y and draw conclusion out of it without considering anything around.
Regarding the numbers of CUs, yes the PS5 has only 36 active of them vs the XSX 52 actives. But they both have only 2 shading engine, 20 CUs per shading engine for the PS5, 18 actives, and 28 CUs per shading engine, 26 active for the XSX. And of course the shading engine on the PS5 is clocked much higher than the XSX. The higher number of CUs on the XSX may be more prone to saturate the SE downstream. There is a reason why the rx6800XT has 80 CUs spread over 4 shading engine, 20 CUs per SE, like the PS5.

PS5 performing better on 120fps mode may be due to the higher triangles thoughoutput of the PS5. A 1080p/120fps game has half the pixels to draw than a 4k/60fps game, but require double the amount of triangles per seconds.

 

[Rockstar]

 

[nib95]

It's not uncommon for Pro to outperform the 1X, but it's usually due to devs not pushing the resolution as hard on that console.

Is there not a resolution difference here?

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They both use dynamic resolution scaling, and basically push the same resolutions the majority of the time, though Alex does mention in one matching scene the Series X version was 1440p whilst the PS5 version was 1728p.

In NXGamers initial comparison he states the Series X for him had a lower lowest resolution (eg dropped further than the PS5), but I don't think he was that far in the game at that point.

 

[True Prophecy]

I played multiplatform games all through the Xbox One era and that likely won't change this gen, but it is disappointing that these issues exist. Not that I have a ps5 yet anyway.

The series X subreddit seems to not be dealing with it well.

I'll just keep trying to enjoy the game as I was... depressing threads though.

Side question who is this matt person I keep seeing named dropped?

Edit: at least I hope this stops those that always used to claim having marketing rights means the Devs would put less effort into one console over the other... Clearly not the case.

 

[schnozberry]

No resolution differences on the SX and PS5. The resolution differences have always been blamed for the lower frame rates on One X games versus the Pro but maybe there's more to it. It could be that optimizing frame rate is just really hard with the tools Microsoft provides while Sony makes it much easier. A random thought to ponder at least.

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John Linneman over at Data Foundry has mentioned that the Xbox tools are still rather immature, and that some developers haven't been able to completely optimize for them yet. I'm sure some have done better than others. Sony kept pretty much the same familiar environment moving from PS4 to PS5, and it's given them an early advantage. That's absolutely to their credit, as it's paid off.

Just about every developer that's gone on record has said there might be slight advantages in different scenarios for both consoles, but it ultimately won't affect development too much.

 

[Abominuz]

if XSX doesn't perform better in 6-12months for every game then yeah they messed up. But with the new tools I wouldn't be making stupid claims like only 1 game will run better yet.

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Can we stop the tool bit. Yes tools matures, but blaming everything on tool is denial and how it will magically increase a systems architecture or power. The devs are not idiots and people act like its an alien GDK. Its probably more development time and maybe not enough time for optimisation and it was easier to smooth out on the PS5. And the PS5 is probably better build then we all thought, but we will see in the coming time. Again from the Dirt 5 dev.

Person: ''I am hearing that GDK is basacilly in its infancy and there is a lot of stuff in on the table''

David: ''It's in its infancy, because it's new, but it's not particurly lacking...''

Person: ''Like barebones''

David: ''It's not barebones, they brought a lot, no, most of the tools over from of SDK in terms of familitary and how it works, in fact stability and speed improved a lot on GDK, but yeah, I am happy with it, if anything there is very little small things I would like, I have weekly meetings with XBOX and my account manager get a lot of feedback from me, I am actually very happy with it''.

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By the way just enjoy your games, there is not enough difference to worry. I have no problems with AC:Valhalla on my series X and look beatifull.

 

[Linus815]

Can we stop the tool bit. Yes tools matures, but blaming everything on tool is denial and how it will magically increase a systems architecture or power. The devs are not idiots and people act like its an alien GDK. Its probably more development time and maybe not enough time for optimisation and it was easier to smooth out on the PS5. And the PS5 is probably better build then we all thought, but we will see in the coming time. Again from the Dirt 5 dev.



By the way just enjoy your games, there is not enough difference to worry. I have no problems with AC:Valhalla on my series X and look beatifull.

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I mean, I'd feel pretty shitty about AC:V if i had it on XSX, the tearing seems incredibly annoying.

 

[foolishoptimist]

They both use dynamic resolution scaling, and basically push the same resolutions the majority of the time, though Alex does mention in one matching scene the Series X version was 1440p whilst the PS5 version was 1728p.

In NXGamers initial comparison he states the Series X for him had a lower lowest resolution (eg dropped further than the PS5), but I don't think he was that far in the game at that point.

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Well that's definitely unusual.

Could it be IO/compression related? We know PS5 has the advantage there. All those PS4 games got patches recently, dramatically improving loading on last gen consoles.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I was referring to the resolution of Pro vs 1X. Not sure if you were confirming they were same or only referring to current gen.

 

[Abominuz]

I mean, I'd feel pretty shitty about AC:V if i had it on XSX, the tearing seems incredibly annoying.

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Honestly its weird, i really dont see that much tearing. And if its there its not bothering me enough. I really dont know if its hyperbole from some people?

 

[nib95]

Honestly its weird, i really dont see that much tearing. And if its there its not bothering me enough. I really dont know if its hyperbole from some people?

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Maybe some people notice it more than others, but the early comparisons and reading tweets like these is why I swapped my copy version. My guess is it gets worse the further into the game you get.

 

[schnozberry]

Can we stop the tool bit. Yes tools matures, but blaming everything on tool is denial and how it will magically increase a systems architecture or power. The devs are not idiots and people act like its an alien GDK. Its probably more development time and maybe not enough time for optimisation and it was easier to smooth out on the PS5. And the PS5 is probably better build then we all thought, but we will see in the coming time. Again from the Dirt 5 dev.

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The "tool bit" is an important point. It's well known at this point that Microsoft was late in delivering tools. They waited for the full feature set for RDNA2 to be finalized, and then had to wrap that all up in the final API spec for DX12 Ultimate. Developers didn't really even get a chance to get their hands on the final spec until the Summer of 2020. It's to Sony's credit that they were on time, and completely on Microsoft that they were so late, but it's relevant to the discussion.

https://www.thurrott.com/games/237476/the-latest-on-xbox-game-core

 

[Dictator]

Maybe some system level settings alleviate it. Like a comparison on the last page says if you put your Xbox on 60hz (instead of 120hz) on the system level, it reduces tearing ?

Dictator any chance you may be able to check/verify this ?

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My TV for this Review was Set to 60 Hz... Changing the refresh rate of a game that tears should change tear location, not the fact that it tears.

Unless I explicitly mention testing 120 fps, I am always recording at 60hz.
There is currently not even a way to record 4K at 120 hz.

 

[DjRalford]

My TV for this Review was Set to 60 Hz... Changing the refresh rate of a game that tears should change tear location, not the fact that it tears.

Unless I explicitly mention testing 120 fps, I am always recording at 60hz.
There is currently not even a way to record 4K at 120 hz.

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Thanks for the clarification, and a big thank you for all the work you and the other guys do at DF.

 

[Abominuz]

My TV for this Review was Set to 60 Hz... Changing the refresh rate of a game that tears should change tear location, not the fact that it tears.

Unless I explicitly mention testing 120 fps, I am always recording at 60hz.
There is currently not even a way to record 4K at 120 hz.

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Is it then some parts in the game, like some mention its later on in the game? Because i dont see that much tearing and i am on a LGC9 and my setting is at 120hz on SX. And you would think i would notice a frikin tear in the screen everytime. Its weird that some people have so much tearing its unplayable and some dont even notice it. I am not oblivious to it because in other games in the past i have noticed it.

 

[jolenar]

Honestly its weird, i really dont see that much tearing. And if its there its not bothering me enough. I really dont know if its hyperbole from some people?

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I have my XSX connected to a 4k display with Freesync and turned off VRR and noticed a lot of tearing after a few minutes. Then again I sit very close to the display so mabye that makes a difference in perception as well?

Even with VRR on I noticed strange stuttering/freezing during a certain event in Ledecestre, gonna see if I can replicate it.

 

[k1x-]

Changing the refresh rate of a game that tears should change tear location, not the fact that it tears.

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Good to know! Thank you.
And good job with this detailed comparison. I really enjoyed watching it.

 

[nib95]

Is it then some parts in the game, like some mention its later on in the game? Because i dont see that much tearing and i am on a LGC9 and my setting is at 120hz on SX. And you would think i would notice a frikin tear in the screen everytime. Its weird that some people have so much tearing its unplayable and some dont even notice it. I am not oblivious to it because in other games in the past i have noticed it.

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The LG C9 has VRR, so provided you have VRR on you shouldn't be noticing tearing afaik.

 

[unic0rn]

The "tool bit" is an important point. It's well known at this point that Microsoft was late in delivering tools. They waited for the full feature set for RDNA2 to be finalized, and then had to wrap that all up in the final API spec for DX12 Ultimate. Developers didn't really even get a chance to get their hands on the final spec until the Summer of 2020. It's to Sony's credit that they were on time, and completely on Microsoft that they were so late, but it's relevant to the discussion.

https://www.thurrott.com/games/237476/the-latest-on-xbox-game-core

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Related, if true: https://twitter.com/Kirby0Louise/status/1328386952224247810

 

[chromatic9]

How does the XBX version stack up to the Series S?

 

[robinium7]

Is "I'm a software dev" this generation's "My uncle works for Nintendo"?

Anyway we should all be happy these X and the PS5 are performing as well as they are right now, bodes well if this is the first few weeks of these consoles.

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People should learn to read. I said "I'm a software dev" in relation to me finding Mark Cerny's deep dive talk very interesting as I have an interest in this stuff, and in relation to nothing else. Point me to where I used it to try to justify any argument... I'll wait. That comment was literally only used in direct conversation with another forum member about the deep dive talk.

 

[behOemoth]

The "tool bit" is an important point. It's well known at this point that Microsoft was late in delivering tools. They waited for the full feature set for RDNA2 to be finalized, and then had to wrap that all up in the final API spec for DX12 Ultimate. Developers didn't really even get a chance to get their hands on the final spec until the Summer of 2020. It's to Sony's credit that they were on time, and completely on Microsoft that they were so late, but it's relevant to the discussion.

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Almost no crossgen game uses any new RDNA2 feature, except for raytracing in some games or VRS in Dirt 5.

 

[nib95]

Related, if true: https://twitter.com/Kirby0Louise/status/1328386952224247810

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Yea, not the best source. Also, this is hilarious in retrospect. My how the narratives change.

 

[FairFight]

I'm sure a patch can solve this. Does anyone know if Ubisoft committed to an update?

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To my knowledge on their forums there has been no official statement. It is listed as an issue ina mega thread created by a forum user though and there is a thread specifically dedicated to it.

 

[dlauv]

Yea, not the best source. Also, this is hilarious in retrospect. My how the narratives change.

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That was specifically in context of XDK compatibility, or whatever x-compilation is.

 

[robinium7]

Maybe some people notice it more than others, but the early comparisons and reading tweets like these is why I swapped my copy version. My guess is it gets worse the further into the game you get.

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I have an XSX and an LG CX but I turned off VRR to test it and the tearing was EXTREMELY noticeable and distracting in some areas. I would absolutely understand people who don't have a VRR display being a bit annoyed that they got this on Series X and were given this performance, whether it be on Ubi, Microsoft's dev tools, whatever.

I also found the cutscene judder they mentioned in the video to be very noticeable at the start of the game particularly.

 

[nib95]

That was specifically in context of XDK compatibility.

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No, it was in the context of why Codemasters was not able to extract more from Dirt 5 on the Series X. Kirby's response essentially being "blame the devs, it's not the dev tools"

 

[dlauv]

No, it was in the context of why Codemasters was not able to extract more from Dirt 5 on the Series X. Kirby's response essentially being "blame the devs, it's not the dev tools"

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They're no doubt a fanperson ("cheated bvh" vs a cost-saving alternative to pathtracing), but I don't think they've just made something up out of nowhere. Anyway, I don't like this person's negativity so I'm gonna stop posting their tweets.

 

[nib95]

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Yes, that's what we refer to as back peddling after you get found out lol.

The actual context is clear as day in the original thread and responses, including the very tweet she's responding to.

 

[Thorrgal]

This is a last gen game ported to new consoles. Sony's tools are a continuation of last gen and devs had earlier access. It should make for a much easier porting job.

Microsoft is rewriting its toolset and devs got access later which makes things harder and you're seeing that reflected here.

Nothing will ever change Microsoft's hardware advantage no matter how much you want it to. Well unless Microsoft leaves the kit as slop but it would be foolish to think that. AC needs patches to fix various issues and those patches will come. In a patch or two I doubt there's will be a performance difference between either console.

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We don't know if the difference we are seeing is due to the tools or due to the tools and the hardware. The tools narrative is just that, a theory without proof at the moment

Not only that, as people have said is not as if Sony's tools won't improve...

And regarding the Xbox hardware advantage is not really a question of "will", or "want", or marketing or PR. Should be a question of showing that advantage. At the moment the only sure thing is that it has more TF, but it doesn't seem to make an enough difference in the few games we've seen.

Nothing morez nothing less

 

[unic0rn]

We don't know if the difference we are seeing is due to the tools or due to the tools and the hardware. The tools narrative is just that, a theory without proof at the moment

Not only that, as people have said is not as if Sony's tools won't improve...

And regarding the Xbox hardware advantage is not really a question of "will", or "want", or marketing or PR. Should be a question of showing that advantage. At the moment the only sure thing is that it has more TF, but it doesn't seem to make an enough difference in the few games we've seen.

Nothing morez nothing less

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Noone from the outside will know for sure when it's down to the tools and perhaps some hardware quirks, because tools are behind NDA.

We'll just have to wait for some properly optimized games, especially exclusives. Assassin's Creed series isn't exactly known for stable framerates, yet a comparison shows up and everyone goes crazy. It's just silly.

 

[Deleted member 46804]

We don't know if the difference we are seeing is due to the tools or due to the tools and the hardware. The tools narrative is just that, a theory without proof at the moment

Not only that, as people have said is not as if Sony's tools won't improve...

And regarding the Xbox hardware advantage is not really a question of "will", or "want", or marketing or PR. Should be a question of showing that advantage. At the moment the only sure thing is that it has more TF, but it doesn't seem to make an enough difference in the few games we've seen.

Nothing morez nothing less

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I mean the people who are responsible for the comparison said it was tools based on the info they are hearing from developers. That's also the simplest explanation. In regards to Sony improving their tools, sure that will happen. But improvements to a mature toolset are different from improvements to an immature toolset.

 

[Optmst]

Yea, not the best source. Also, this is hilarious in retrospect. My how the narratives change.

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Good catch

 

[nelsonroyale]

It will be similar to the X and Pro difference in the fact that the differences will be small frame rate and resolution differences. If developers have to rethink how they implement large portions of their code for one console and not the other that absolutely explains the weird performance gap.

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Yeah sure, the gap will likely be smaller than that which ever way it is. And it seems likely that it won't necessarily always go the with of the XSX, as is the case now for instance. On your second point, optimising for multiple devices in the way that MS has implimented it, does seem to have brought up some issues according to some devs. However, obviously PS5 software is going to improve as well.

 

[Oliver James]

People should learn to read. I said "I'm a software dev" in relation to me finding Mark Cerny's deep dive talk very interesting as I have an interest in this stuff, and in relation to nothing else. Point me to where I used it to try to justify any argument... I'll wait. That comment was literally only used in direct conversation with another forum member about the deep dive talk.

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Actually it was a response to another poster and not you, sorry if it came off as offensive

 

[Beer Monkey]

The Falconeer on XSX has literally the worst tearing I've ever seen in a game (1080p/120hz no VRR). It's fine at 4k/60hz.

Something is surely amiss.

 

[OneBadMutha]

The Xbox version is clearly in need of more optimization. While disappointed, I'm finding the internets reaction to be insanely disproportional. We are during a pandemic in which almost every other developer decided to delay their games or next gen patches. That alone, should be telling.

A missed story beat is how well the PS5 version is running relative to high end PCs. The talk about how good the PS5 dev environment is seems to be validated. Pound for pound, it's very well optimized. Xbox games will simply take longer to develop right now if they're going to be optimized well.

That said, it's like trying to determine if your favorite team will win a Championship based on a pre-season game in which your bench players got most of the minutes. This is very early and likely doesn't tell us much about the prospects of the Xbox hardware right now. We can likely be confident in the PS5's dev environment.

 

[robinium7]

Actually it was a response to another poster and not you, sorry if it came off as offensive

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Oh ok, my apologies for the misunderstanding, I did not see anyone else who claimed that that's why I thought it was directed at me, but no worries anyway :)

 

[Abominuz]

The Xbox version is clearly in need of more optimization. While disappointed, I'm finding the internets reaction to be insanely disproportional. We are during a pandemic in which almost every other developer decided to delay their games or next gen patches. That alone, should be telling.

A missed story beat is how well the PS5 version is running relative to high end PCs. The talk about how good the PS5 dev environment is seems to be validated. Pound for pound, it's very well optimized. Xbox games will simply take longer to develop right now if they're going to be optimized well.

That said, it's like trying to determine if your favorite team will win a Championship based on a pre-season game in which your bench players got most of the minutes. This is very early and likely doesn't tell us much about the prospects of the Xbox hardware right now. We can likely be confident in the PS5's dev environment.

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Like i said multiple times, i dont believe its the tool only. I really believe its time and devs needing to optimise multiple sku's. And if its true that the PS5 is easy to develop for i can see that the optimisation also is a bit smoother. Another option is that the GDK for SXS came in late so there was liitle time, but that does not mean the tools itself are incomplete or barebones. And maybe a dev can chime in on if the optimisaton is also more costly and time consuming for different modes where one has 4k/60 and the other 4k/30/RT and the another 1440/120 etc.

 

[Torro]

The idea that you just have to set a different build target to get good performance across different platforms is an old promise. So far, it has never been implemented satisfactorily.

 

[brawndolicious]

Consoles =/= PCs (where hardware is hidden away behind multiple layers of software API abstraction)

Any trends seen in PC benchmarks for discrete GPU cards don't really apply here. Performance bottlenecks on PC are wholly different to consoles.

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There are different types of overhead, bottlenecks, etc since it's running an OS dedicated to gaming but the job of rendering a frame still lends itself to being parallelized. I'm not sure what this has to do with how low-level the coding is, I'm just talking about the most efficient pattern of operations rather than how abstracted the game code is from the silicon.

Haha!! Thanks for catching that lol. Blasted keyboard.

And yes, we don't really know why this is happening. So this is all just conjecture.

Not if the system is designed specifically to take advantage of it.

In these cases u speak of, what you have a a GPU clocked at say 1500MHz, and then some tinkerers go in there and overclock it to 1800Mhz or something. Then talk about how they aren't seeing the expected performance gains. That happens because that GPU wasn't designed to run at those clocks.

If you design hardware from the ground up to run at higher clocks, that's going to be reflected in everything down to how your traces are run in the chip. Memory timings...etc.

The reason you see processors getting bigger instead of faster, Is because it's just easier to do and manage. It's not because going bigger is inherently better. I mean with every new GPU we hear the same thing. Go bigger instead if faster. Then the next GPU is released two years later. And not only is it bigger. It's over 50% faster. And we just write that all off to fab processes lol.

Oh... I did put the CU count difference. And then some. Because the bullet points I made touched on multiple components found inside the CU. Stream processors, texture mapping units...etc. The whole point of that post was to demystify this notion that all u need to do in a GPU is look at the CU count and TFs... Cause there is more to a GPU than that.

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I think you mentioned it as a max theoretical number but that's my point, you're mentioning individual specs but ignoring the fact that the most efficient way to saturate a GPU when rendering a frame is by having a more parallelized workflow. Now I'm not a graphics programmer but I believe this probably involves some level of redesigning your code to utilize all these resources which I think even Cerny mentioned as one of the perks of the PS5 high clock approach, it's quicker for devs to reach the max potential even if the theoretical performance ceiling is lower.

Now of course, all that matters in real life is how good the actual games look. Maybe what we're talking about is important from a spec-wankery standpoint but I guess we'll know with approach ended up better in the long run once we see how big, multiplatform engines like UE5 or the new revision of Frostbite perform as devs will have had probably a couple years to work with both systems by then.

Also, I just really want to point out that based on spec sheets, I feel like this and other multiplatform games should be performing better on PS5 than they actually are so it shows that even when devs have the "easy" platform to work with, this holiday season hasn't been easy as far as optimization for the third-party devs. There does seem to be an unusually large gap compared to previous gens in how good the first-party games look relative to the third-parties. Maybe it's confirmation bias on my part though.