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Digital Foundry: Anthem PS4/PS4 Pro vs Xbox X Analysis
- Thread starter chandoog
- Start date
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Summary:
Visuals:
- Base PS4 presents more smoothly than the demo.
- PS4 Pro: 1080p mode and 4K mode still present. 30 FPS cap enforced on all versions (including base). No more unlocked frame rate.
- HDR support has been restored.
- Dynamic res confirmed across all consoles. (including base PS4)
- Can vary from 80% to full buffer (whether it's 1080p on base PS4 or 4K on mid-gens). PS4 Pro likely relying on checker board rendering.
- CB rendering commended as 'outstanding' with CB evidence only visible upon zooming in.
- Texture quality is a match, however in some instance X shows higher quality art.
- In some select scenes, Pro has reduced shadows compared to X, but mostly they're same.
Performance:
- Frame rate gap between 4K modes on Pro and X is much closer but Pro is still a touch smoother than X
- Pro 4K mode vs Base PS4: Performance is very similar, 30 FPS target but neither is 100% locked with small dips.
- Standard PS4 more heavily impacted from streaming issues.
- Big explosive effects can cause bigger dips on Pro compared to Base.
- Pro's 1080p mode is effectively locked through out. Performance dips from 4K mode are gone.
- Entering new areas can cause streaming related hitches even at 1080p, but much less so than other PS4 modes.
- Pro @ 1080p "only console model where I (Rich) wasn't bothered by hiccups"
- "It's the best way to play Anthem on consoles, but not visually the most pleasing"
Ranking:
- Base Xbox continues to be the worst performing version. Base PS4 is third.
- X and Pro are trade offs, X has visual advantage but Pro has smoother performance (in 4K mode).
- Pro's 1080p mode is Rich's favorite way to play the game on consoles.
Visuals:
- Base PS4 presents more smoothly than the demo.
- PS4 Pro: 1080p mode and 4K mode still present. 30 FPS cap enforced on all versions (including base). No more unlocked frame rate.
- HDR support has been restored.
- Dynamic res confirmed across all consoles. (including base PS4)
- Can vary from 80% to full buffer (whether it's 1080p on base PS4 or 4K on mid-gens). PS4 Pro likely relying on checker board rendering.
- CB rendering commended as 'outstanding' with CB evidence only visible upon zooming in.
- Texture quality is a match, however in some instance X shows higher quality art.
- In some select scenes, Pro has reduced shadows compared to X, but mostly they're same.
Performance:
- Frame rate gap between 4K modes on Pro and X is much closer but Pro is still a touch smoother than X
- Pro 4K mode vs Base PS4: Performance is very similar, 30 FPS target but neither is 100% locked with small dips.
- Standard PS4 more heavily impacted from streaming issues.
- Big explosive effects can cause bigger dips on Pro compared to Base.
- Pro's 1080p mode is effectively locked through out. Performance dips from 4K mode are gone.
- Entering new areas can cause streaming related hitches even at 1080p, but much less so than other PS4 modes.
- Pro @ 1080p "only console model where I (Rich) wasn't bothered by hiccups"
- "It's the best way to play Anthem on consoles, but not visually the most pleasing"
Ranking:
- Base Xbox continues to be the worst performing version. Base PS4 is third.
- X and Pro are trade offs, X has visual advantage but Pro has smoother performance (in 4K mode).
- Pro's 1080p mode is Rich's favorite way to play the game on consoles.
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Damn shame the game isn't great but the visuals are gorgeous.
Looks like they did a great job on the Pro version, looking very close to the more powerful X version in 4k mode and even running a little better, plus the 1080p locked 30fps is a nice bonus too.
Looks like they did a great job on the Pro version, looking very close to the more powerful X version in 4k mode and even running a little better, plus the 1080p locked 30fps is a nice bonus too.
Sounds like visually it's all really similar to each other, the enhanced consoles that is. Kinda expected that BioWare would do more with the X. At least should have made the performance just completely smooth on both. And in that regard the X certainly shouldn't be worse.
Yeah that's my takeaway from this as well, especially since they're using motion blur which blurs out that resolution gain. Plus, 30fps in a fast shooter??
Devs, start including graphics settings on console please!
With Anthem and Red Dead Redemption 2 we now have two games with pretty surprising results in that regard.
Anthem had a marketing deal with Microsoft and was promoted to take extra advantage of the X's capabilities, but overall the Pro version seems to be better optimized.
Red Dead Redemption 2 had a marketing deal with Playstation, only Pro footage was used to promote the game, but after release it turned out the Pro optimization was rather disappointing while the X optimization was great.
End of next-gen open world games and mid gen linear games will look incredible based on what is currently possible.
Maybe those two developers invested more time in greater optimization due to the pro have greater installbase compared to the X?
OP
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I think this would be the last one, Richard started off with "rounding off our Anthem coverage".
Unless there is a major patch which makes some fundamental changes.
Much larger scale, much more effects kicking off etc. Probably some of the reason why it has issues.
DF is correct, the 1X needs a performance option like Pro.
This isn't an optimisation issue, they just wanted to tick that native 4k box. If they simply lowered the resolution slightly on the X then performance would be fine or better. They really should provide options and at the very least a performance more. Even on the Pro, it's a PITA having to change your display options to 1080p, should be a menu option for this in the game.
Than BFV? It is 64 players in a map and all kinds of crazy effects everywhere. It seems much more complicated than anthem
Yeah good point. RDR2 was quite the surprise in terms of that.
But not even on X it's constantly native 4K. They say in the video it's dynamic across both enhanced consoles. Ah well.
Vertical scale is much bigger, so its probably the streaming that causes performance issues.
Yes but whilst it's dynamic it's still locked to a higher range. They really should have made the dynamic resolution more aggressive or set it to a lower resolution range.
OP
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When they're talking about the Pro's 1080p mode, they mention there's still some hitches even there but those are more likely because of CPU bottleneck or storage related concerns.
So, I doubt making the dynamic resolution threshold will 100% eliminate the issues.
No but it would bring X performance at least in line with Pro's 4k mode performance.
Very disappointed the uncapped 1080p mode was removed, but it was to be expected given the patch notes ahead of release. Was great to play on the Pro but obviously suboptimal for it's intended platform, the base PS4. Hopefully they can add it in again via in-game options before it gets a half price discount.
It's a shame BW removed the unlocked fps, I was looking forward playing this on Pro with 1080p forced.
The blur? What about 4K, can you turn that off as well on the X?