There are cracks in the PS5 and XBOX Series X. The status quo for performance on current-gen consoles was challenged over the past week with the launch of two games.
There are contents.
When the Xbox Series X and PS5 were released, players were able to choose between a high resolution of 30 or 60 frames per second. Over the past two years, the expectation has been that the PS5 will deliver a smooth 60 frames per second. Going forward, the situation won't improve for these third-party releases.
The PS5 and XBOX Series X are not next-gen. The consoles are showing their age two years from now. When the PS5 and the Xbox Series X were released two years ago, they were already out of date with the semi-custom system-on-a-chip developed by Advanced Micro Devices.
The architecture of both consoles is the same as that of the Ryzen 3000 desktop processor from Advanced Micro Devices. It is roughly the same as a Ryzen 7 3700X desktop processor. The same architecture is used for both of their graphics cards. It is more difficult to find an equivalent for the graphics card than it is to find one for the PC.
Despite the fact that the PC's power was lagging behind, the console's graphics power was very competitive. Developers are willing to use more demanding features in order to take advantage of more powerful hardware. If you look at the recommended system requirements, you will see that is correct. The PS5 and Xbox Series X are not compatible with the recommended PC requirements, which include a minimum of 60 frames per second and 4K resolution.
It isn't a one-for-one comparison, but it is a good example of the demands of modern games and where "next-gen" consoles fit in that dynamic. The people are behind.
It doesn't help that consoles are older than they are. The PS5 is sold out at most retailers and can be found on the secondhand market for between $700 and $800. We could see a PS5 Pro around six months from now, even though many can't afford a base PS5. Even though the PS5 is outselling the PS4 it is still not selling as well as it could.
Games are being developed for both consoles and PCs. The PS5 and Xbox Series X don't always have access to the more intensive graphics features that are pushed by that.
Upscaling is the secret to the best performance in a game. For years, consoles have done it, and they continue to do it, and even obscenely powerful graphics cards like the RTX 4090 benefit from upscaling features. There are features that aren't available to consoles.
Unreal Engine's Temporal Super Resolution is one of the features most consoles are using. It is possible to get FSR on the Xbox Series X, but it is not free.
If you're looking at FSR 2.0 as an example, you'll find a recommendation to upgrade to 4K. The game is rendered at a lower resolution but you aren't getting the same performance as just running the game at that lower resolution. In the game, we saw a 62.6 frame rate with FSR 2.0's Quality mode. We saw 79.2 frames per second. The overhead of the upscaler is that gap
The overhead of the consoles is very important. The RX 6700XT can only run at 30 frames per second at 4K, and that is with a more powerfulCPU than the consoles have access to. If you want to push the frame rate up into the high 40's, you need to make the tough call of having a bad experience with a highly variable frame rate between 40 and 50 frames per second.
It doesn't help if you have a processor that's too big. Although most games are limited by the graphics card, there are elements that can hit your computer hard. It makes sense for Sony and Microsoft to go with the less powerful Zen 2 architecture since they don't usually represent a big increase in gaming performance. Recent generations with Zen 3 and Zen 4 have offered improvements in gaming performance, and you can't fake them with up scaling.
At launch, consoles are usually very good. Unlike a PC, consoles are locked and pack in more power. There is only so far the hardware can go, and as visual fidelity increases in games, performance suffers.
The benefit of close access to the hardware in consoles allows first-party games like God of War to run at higher frames per second. I wouldn't be surprised to see many more 30 frames per second console games because developers targeting multiple platforms don't have that kind of access.
Good news for console players is that gaming PCs continue to evolve throughout the console's lifespan, offering better performance for lower prices over time. If you don't like the performance of the PS5 or Xbox Series X, you should read our list of the best gaming PCs.
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