Retesting Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 • TECH GAMING REPORT

Thursday’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 1.0.4 patch is the first major update and important update to Ubisoft’s latest major open world. Huge number of gameplay improvements There are bug fixes, but of course, Digital Foundry’s focus is on technical validation of what’s most controversial in the next-generation launch lineup. The Xbox Series X ran with a performance penalty for the PlayStation 5 for all its spec advantages, but the Xbox Series S launched without signature next-generation 60fps support. The 1.0.4 patch aims to address all of this and, in fact, also adds a 4K30 quality mode.

First of all, we need to address the interesting wrinkles that arose from the arrival of new patches. There’s widespread consensus that the Xbox Series X will significantly improve performance, but another story has emerged that suggests that the PlayStation 5 version is currently running. bad Than that. To clear this quickly, I’ve found only one example where this really applies-in the introductory cutscene, the frame rate may drop slightly. did not do it See the first test. In all other stress tests, the PlayStation 5 runs at the same frame rate and gives the same dynamic resolution results as before.

The change is in the Xbox Series X, where Ubisoft has made great strides in addressing performance shortfalls, significantly reducing annoying screen tearing. It’s not completely gone, but it’s certainly a big improvement, and in the toughest stress tests, the Xbox Series X can outperform the PlayStation 5. The way Ubisoft achieved such a big turnaround in a very short amount of time may sound like a technical miracle. It’s the result of some huge optimization pushes, but the solution is easier than you think.

All versions of Assassin’s Creed Valhara support dynamic resolution scaling, adjusting the amount of pixels drawn per frame to reach the target frame rate. At startup, the potential resolution “windows” on both consoles were scaled from a minimum of 1440p to a maximum of about 1728p-67% to 80% of the full 4K resolution on both axes. This also applies to the PlayStation 5 version of the game, but the Series X lower limit has been reduced to 1188p. This is 55% of full 4K. For clarity, Series X takes advantage of these newly introduced low resolutions only when needed. In most plays, the number of pixels is quite high.

However, widening the DRS window is the way Ubisoft achieved its goal here, and it’s a good solution. Momentary low resolution is a fair trade to counter the much more noticeable screen tearing. In fact, even on the PlayStation 5, it’s enough to deploy it to solve its own tiering problem. I’m surprised that the same solution hasn’t been deployed in both next-generation systems. But here and at least now, the PlayStation 5 runs at higher resolutions, while the Xbox Series X generally runs smoothly on the touch.

Patch 1.0.4 also introduces a 4K quality mode on both machines. This seems to work as expected. The PS5 and Series X’s 60 fps frame rate is swapped for an even frame pace of 30 fps, with all measured pixels running in full 4K for both versions. Dynamic resolution scaling cannot be ruled out (arguing it definitely needs to be ruled out) Domination (To ensure consistent performance in all scenarios), but in this mode you can effectively swap both consoles. All of this leads to the Xbox Series S. It initially boots with some graphics downgrades and low resolution (DRS, but usually around 1296p), and thanks to a new patch, it has its own 60 frames per second performance mode.

This is a welcome addition to the Series S version and shows that enough CPU overhead is available and is enough to run the game perfectly at full 60 fps, but the problem is: Whether the reduced 4 teraflops GPU can catch up. In general, the answer there is positive, but there is a clear warning. First of all, the resolution is a big hit. A dynamic resolution window opens, with a lower limit of only 720p, usually running at that resolution, or up to about 800p in normal gameplay. It works and usually outperforms the released version of the Series X Valhalla, but it can’t exactly match the liquidity of the latest patches. Overall, it’s a brave effort, but even a 720p game isn’t enough to lock the game to 60 fps and run, and screen tearing is noticeable. It’s clear why the game only launched at 30fps, but it’s still welcome to introduce options in updates.

In summary, this patch is a good patch for the Xbox Series console, and while compromised, it’s worth the reward. For the Series X, the stress points may be running at a much lower resolution than the PlayStation 5, but the frequency of unpleasant screen tearing has been significantly reduced. There seems to be little reason to worry about the PS5 slowing down, but expanding the DRS window can improve the overall experience of the Sony console, as it did for the Series X. Please remember. The resolution only drops to maintain 60fps. Otherwise, it will run on the number of pixels that the GPU can manage. On the other hand, the options for 60 fps games in Series S are good, but very low resolution can be offensive. Overall, there’s progress here, and while it’s tempting to further optimize where Ubisoft goes next, we also hope that more bugs will be fixed. The camera stutter issue that affected the Xbox Series X has not yet been resolved.