For anyone who isn't aware, there have been quite a few leaks relating to a updated/more powerful/probably more expensive version of the PS5 coming out probably around Nov-Dec 2024. Apparently dev kits and specs have gone out to many developers. I am wondering if this hardware will lead to any changes or performance improvements on TSW? As it stands TSW is one of the more demanding games for whatever reasons even on 9th gen consoles. DTG might not be able to "officially" comment yet but here are what the apparent improvements are, the CPU is quite similar but it seems to have a lot of power added to the GPU: Spec Analysis: PlayStation 5 Pro - the most powerful console yet | Eurogamer.net
The cumulative increase in performance of the Pro will be about 10%, a little more depending on how CPU intensive a particular game is. There is nothing in the PS5 Pro specs that give developers a reason to make 2 versions of their title, at most this will give you some more breathing space on performance. The gap between the PS5 & PS5 pro is much, much smaller than that of the PS4 & PS4 pro.
Thats basically how things worked when I had my PS4 Pro. Some games had a "PS4 Pro" mode that would bump resolution a bit and then there was a general "performance boost" in the Playstation settings that would use the increased power to squeeze a few FPS out of any game (even without a PS4 Pro mode). It was a nice noticeable boost in some games (like Battlefield 1) but in others wasn't all that noticeable.
I read that some developers are wondering whether a mid gen upgrade is necessary for the PS5. Many people are rather skeptical, but of course a performance boost is always a good thing in the end. Sony is holding back a bit when it comes to upgrading the CPU and is not installing even more performance, as in older leaks where a clock speed of over 4GHz was predicted. Probably because you want to save such a boost for a future PS6. Since such hits like GTA 6 are coming up exclusively for consoles in 2025, you can really use more graphics performance and games will be labeled that have been optimized for PS5 Pro. Microsoft also wants to further develop its X series. So it remains exciting. BTW: as long as we stay on PS5, whether slim or Pro, you can transfer your player profiles. With the PS6 I'm afraid it'll start from scratch again, while the X-box fans have reached level 1000 and more.
Looking at those specs, it seems to me that both versions are short on memory. Going forward, 16GB of RAM is gonna be a bare minimum for most games, including TSW. I have 32 in my PC and thinking I should have 64 for future proofing.
16gb is perfectly fine. At this point we have no specific plans on the PS5 Pro, it may be that once we are able to look at it we might find options for tuning config to take advantage of it a bit as we did on the PS4 Pro. Matt.
In a way I hope there aren't any upgrades for the PS5 Pro should it come out. While I haven't played the PS5 version of TSW4 I have tried the PS5 version of TSW2 and the performance was unacceptable. I've been told that performance on PS5 for TSW3 and 4 is improved, but I don't know if that's 30fps 'improved' or 60fps 'improved', which is what it should be. 60fps really is the baseline for performance for all games now and there should not be a game released on the PS5 or Series X that doesn't have at least a 60fps mode. Let's say that TSW4 hovers at around 45fps on PS5, and obviously at 60fps if you're playing the PS4 version on PS5. Similar to how the PS4 version runs at double the framerate on PS5, I'd like to imagine that without any upgrades the PS5 version will run at a locked 60 on the PS5 Pro, which really it should do on the regular PS5 anyway but I digress. The PS5 version already looks very similar to the PC version and I've not seen any complaints about how it looks, as opposed to the truly horrendous PS4 and Xbox One versions that are easily beaten by PS3 and 360 games both in performance (on their native consoles) and visuals. How Gran Turismo 6 runs at ~50fps (and often reaching 60fps) at 1080p on PS3 and TSW runs at less than 30 (with jumps to around 45fps based on my experience) with the same resolution I really can't figure out.
Nothing additional will need to be done for the PS5 Pro, it should theoretically give TSW a welcome boost to frame rates, which the base model struggles with on some routes.
How much is your PC actually using though? Whenever I've checked my PC most of the time it is below 16GB despite having 32GB, even in regards to demanding games like MSFS I've rarely seen it go above 20. Plus a PC isn't really a fair comparison, consoles really don't do all the multi-tasking that you can do on PC. 16's fine in more limited settings like you see on console, hell the rumored next-gen Switch last I heard is only gonna have 12GBs of RAM, and the Steam Deck's at 16 despite having a full Linux OS. Frankly if anything due to the limited amount of "next-gen" games that are worth a damn the PS5 Pro's overkill for most general use cases IMO. PC-first titles like MSFS & TSW are probably some of the only games that I could actually think might benefit from it, fine and dandy, but frankly those are niche compared to say GTA6. Most popular games are made with the lowest common in mind, which often means Xbox Series S or PS5. No sane developer's gonna exclude half your audience and force them to upgrade to PS5 Pro just to get a playable 30FPS. Frankly with how much popularity 60FPS has gotten this gen I think many people might not even take the lack of that too well either. Not to mention when Sony's saying the PS5's at the halfway point I really don't see the point in upgrading to a new PS5 when you can wait just three more years and get a PS6. Xbox One X last gen shows you're kind of screwing yourself over in the long run getting these half-gen upgrades over just waiting for a true next-gen machine. Probably the reason Microsoft are aiming to go straight to a next-gen machine instead of doing another half-gen upgrade.
Neither the PS4 Pro nor the Xbox One X had exclusives only available for the more powerful versions. Only Nintendo has actually done this ironically, most recently with the New Nintendo 3DS (with exclusives like Xenoblade Chronicles), the DSi, and the GameBoy Colour, which is not a separate system but an enhanced GameBoy with a couple of exclusive games. It's also worth noting that certain games could not be played on the Nintendo Switch Lite without buying accessories for it, although this is not really relevant.
Last gen the xbox one desperately needed the mid-gen refresh, the one x was a huge step up over the One. The PS4 Pro was, imho, much less beneficial and also much less needed - the PS4 was always a pretty stonking machine and always played TSW better than the One did, where as the One X vastly outperforms the PS4 Pro. This time around, for me personally, the Series X and PS5 are both top of their game, brilliant machines. Where I think PS5 Pro comes in is purely for those who want to step up their game to minimum 60fps at 4k or 8k and keep everything else the same. Interesting times. Matt.
I'm very aware actually, in fact I've got a New 3DS XL on the shelf above me that I'm typing this from, and a copy of Xenoblade for New 3DS another shelf behind. I used the term "playable 30FPS" very purposefully. yes they can't make games that require it. Doesn't nessicarily mean you can't technically make the game a unplayable mess on lessor hardware to the point it's practically unplayable. Hardly a smart idea, but then sometimes companies get themselves into stupid situations. See Cyberpunk 2077's initially release base Xbox One & PS4 as example of what I'm talking about. I'm also talking purely on the console level, the Guitar Hero's and Steel Battalion's of the world require accessories as you note. But it's nothing to do with those games stretching the CPU or GPU thin like I'm talking about.
I remember tons of rumors prior to launch about how underpowered both were, Xbox more often certainly, but PS4 had its share of complaints. All sorts of rumors that developers behind the scenes really weren't fans of them and felt they were underpowered compared to prior console gens. Obviously just rumors, but considering we did end up with said mid-gen refreshes I imagine there must've been some truth to them. That said even the OG Xbox One & PS4 at the end of the day are both capable in their own right, just depends on the type of game and optimization. In comparison everything I've heard on the next-gen machines was much more positive, Series S to a lessor extent, but even that from what I understand is really only in comparison to Series X & PS5. The Series S from everything I've seen and heard is great for a budget machine, just not great at 1440p or above, which really isn't the point of it in the first place. It's like dissing a Steam Deck for having bad visuals on your 4K screen when it's only mean for sub-1080p gaming in the first place.
That's because the PS4 and Xbox One really were underpowered at launch. The CPUs (well, APUs, but that's not as specific) were not intended for systems like it, and so when the consoles launched they were already several years behind what they should have been at launch. The Xbox One was allegedly going to be even less powerful, but luckily this didn't happen. The Xbox 360 and PS3 were more up to date, especially the PS3, which was theoretically more powerful than a number of PCs (particularly laptops) until a few years ago. Unfortunately because of the PS3's weird design it took developers a long time to use its power properly and so for most of its life games run and looked worse on the PS3, but by the end that was not the case. GTA4 ran at 640p on PS3 compared to 720p on the Xbox 360, but GTA5 ran at 720p on both with the PS3 version featuring slightly better graphics, albeit not by much.
