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God of War Ragnarök PC - DF Tech Review - PC vs PS5 - Optimised Settings

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter


So, a number of issues in this port, which otherwise is quite good.

  • PS5 Quality Mode and PC's Ultra are a visual match with DLAA obviously providing better image quality
  • Did not go into the details of Performance Mode but the shadows there are between Low and Medium
  • Almost no shader compilation issues. Spotted two places where there were brief frame time spikes, otherwise, it's the smoothest PS5 port yet
  • PC has some missing effects such as the fog in the dream sequence with Faye
  • Cube maps tracing on PS5's Quality Mode missing on PC entirely (devs mentioned they wish to add this later)
  • Effects works missing on PC in the Realm between Realms (such as the garbled haze)
  • Textures on High/Ultra look the same but Ultra reserves a larger cache. Even Medium textures look alright
  • Portal transitions on PC take a bit to load details, resulting in pop-ins that don't even happen on the PS4 version. Likely a bug
  • Tessellation in the Realm between Realms still tanks performance but not as badly as before. The ground deformation fades in and out of existence now, unlike with consoles where it is stable. It only happens there. Otherwise, the performance impact in the rest of the game is negligible
  • Zen 2 CPUs (or at least the 3600) run terribly in this game. The 5600X, which is usually around 30-40% faster than the 3600, performs up to 99% better in Ragnarok. The 7800X3D, which is generally 100% faster, performs up to 247% faster in Ragnarok. Performance metrics reveal that the 3600 is poorly utilized as many of its threads have low usage. Could be a bug
  • Ultrawide's frame times are not smooth compared to 16:9
  • Upscaling solutions have problems with water reflections, they're all very flickery except for XeSS that resolves them with no issues
  • An audio bug sometimes causes the audio on PC to be muffled
  • Game needs more polish in some ways as highlighted above. The PS5's Quality Mode is superior in terms of graphics settings
 
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Bitstream

Member
Christian Bale GIF by PeacockTV

Now lets see the PS5 Pro comparison
 
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ChiefDada

Gold Member
@7:00 He compares PS4 using lowest settings vs PC using max settings to make the case that the PS5 SSD i/o isn't contributing to the faster asset loading.

Anyone else see the problem with that logic?

Also hilarious that he deviated from his traditional practice of showing PC optimized vs PS5 Performance mode settings and head to head framerate comparison.
 
@7:00 He compares PS4 using lowest settings vs PC using max settings to make the case that the PS5 SSD i/o isn't contributing to the faster asset loading.

Anyone else see the problem with that logic?

Also hilarious that he deviated from his traditional practice of showing PC optimized vs PS5 Performance mode settings and head to head framerate comparison.

Did you expect anything less (or should I say more?)
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
@7:00 He compares PS4 using lowest settings vs PC using max settings to make the case that the PS5 SSD i/o isn't contributing to the faster asset loading.

Anyone else see the problem with that logic?
Well, it's a tablet CPU with an HDD vs a 7800X3D and a fast SSD. Lowest settings or not, it has absolutely no business loading things faster than the PC version.
 

Xyphie

Member
Zen 2 perf could be some sort of cross-CCX latency issue perhaps? Would've been interesting to see if it runs better just pegged to 4C. Or if a dual CCD Zen3-5 with cores disabled per chip has the same issue.

Starting this this weekend, sites said its GPU heavy but perf vs the PS5 seems pretty good to me? This section right at the beginning of the game looks to run at about ~80-ish FPS. Tried 3440x1440 TAAU High and runs at about ~140 FPS on my 3080, solid ~70% extra perf with wider FOV and horizontal pixel res.
 
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@7:00 He compares PS4 using lowest settings vs PC using max settings to make the case that the PS5 SSD i/o isn't contributing to the faster asset loading.

Anyone else see the problem with that logic?

Also hilarious that he deviated from his traditional practice of showing PC optimized vs PS5 Performance mode settings and head to head framerate comparison.
Oh yes. They have started the defcon 2 full bias mode against PS5. They keep defcon 1 bias mode for PS5 Pro.

NXGamer will give us an objective comparison (at least less biased) as usual.
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Zen 2 perf could be some sort of cross-CCX latency issue perhaps? Would've been interesting to see if it runs better just pegged to 4C. Or a dual CCD Zen3-5 with cores disabled per chip.

Starting this this weekend, sites said its GPU heavy but perf vs the PS5 seems pretty good to me? This section right at the beginning of the game looks to run at about ~80-ish FPS. Tried 3440x1440 TAAU High and runs at about ~140 FPS on my 3080, solid ~70% with wider FOV.
I think it could be cards with lower bandwidth that get immensely impacted. While the 4060 is often a close match to the PS5, the PS5's GPU has bandwidth more in line with the 3060 Ti (even considering it shares it with the CPU, it wouldn't drop to 4060 levels). The 4090 seems like it scales as it should or thereabout, but hard to exactly compare without matched scenes.
Oh yes. They have started the defcon 2 full bias mode against PS5. They keep defcon 1 bias mode for PS5 Pro.

NXGamer will give us an objective comparison (at least less biased) as usual.
You guys are a riot. You call DF biased and then turn around and bring up NXGamer. Come on lol.
 
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simpatico

Member
Any gaffers want to give impressions on this game? Not the perf so much, but the actual game itself. Me, I like 2016 well enough, but am not over the moon about the new direction like some people. I liked it well enough to buy a sequel, I've just heard some mixed reviews, especially from people who felt the same as me about 2016.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
The PS5 base has a high frame rate mode that looks better than the quality in terms of IQ, I'm suspicious why Alex didn't use that to prove there was a tangible difference in IQ.
What? The High Frame Rate Mode runs at 1440fps with much lower settings. Where did you get that it's better than the Quality Mode that is 4K with Ultra settings?
 
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XXL

Member
Any gaffers want to give impressions on this game? Not the perf so much, but the actual game itself. Me, I like 2016 well enough, but am not over the moon about the new direction like some people. I liked it well enough to buy a sequel, I've just heard some mixed reviews, especially from people who felt the same as me about 2016.
It's great. If you liked the first one you'll most likely like this one. The story and "newness" the better stuff in the first game.

I never really understood the hyperbole surrounding the discussions around this sequel.

Everyone I know IRL loved it.

It's kind of like the Horizon series in that regard. There is a massive disconnect between what people think on forums and what people think IRL.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Well, it's a tablet CPU with an HDD vs a 7800X3D and a fast SSD. Lowest settings or not, it has absolutely no business loading things faster than the PC version.

The asset size absolutely makes a difference. At the lowest LOD and texture settings, it's possible the PS4 doesn't need to stream in much of anything. And of course unified memory would help. But we had confirmation from Santa Monica developer long before Ragnarok launched on PS5 that they were heavily leaning on SSD to stream in assets.

He should have simply used the lowest settings on PC if he wanted to make his point.
 

shamoomoo

Member
@7:00 He compares PS4 using lowest settings vs PC using max settings to make the case that the PS5 SSD i/o isn't contributing to the faster asset loading.

Anyone else see the problem with that logic?

Also hilarious that he deviated from his traditional practice of showing PC optimized vs PS5 Performance mode settings and head to head framerate comparison.
I'm not sure about that. Alex is comparing into the PS4 Pro. My only gripe is the PS consoles has unified RAM, going by Mark Cerny's reason for an SSD,may be the geometry is kept in ram for the older PS and possibly uses the SSD on the fly for the PS5.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
What? The High Frame Rate Mode runs at 1440fps with much lower settings. Where did you get that it's better than the Quality Mode that is 4K with Ultra settings?

He is talking about the ML texture upsampling used on PS5. DF made the same observation of it looking better than native mode during the original PS5 tech review.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
He should have simply used the lowest settings on PC if he wanted to make his point.
I could try this myself later and report on the results. 4090s running at low settings don't exist on youtube, so it can't help us there.
He is talking about the ML texture upsampling used on PS5. DF made the same observation of it looking better than native mode during the original PS5 tech review.
But doesn't the ML texture upsampling also happen in the Quality Mode? That's odd.
 

shamoomoo

Member
What? The High Frame Rate Mode runs at 1440fps with much lower settings. Where did you get that it's better than the Quality Mode that is 4K with Ultra settings?
I might be confusing modes,but it is between ultra performance and the quay mode.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
I could try this myself later and report on the results. 4090s running at low settings don't exist on youtube, so it can't help us there.

Would be much appreciated, I'd be interested to see if this alleviates the loading issue on PC.

But doesn't the ML texture upsampling also happen in the Quality Mode? That's odd.

I think performance mode specifically for some reason but not 100% certain.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
I might be confusing modes,but it is between ultra performance and the quay mode.
There are 4 modes on PS5.

Performance Mode: 60fps cap, resolution varies between 1440p-2160p with an average of 1872p. Settings unknown besides that shadows are between Low and Medium.

Quality Mode: 30fps cap. Resolution locked to 4K. Settings comparable to PC's Ultra.

If you have a 120Hz screen. You get two additional modes. A 40Hz mode, and a high frame rate mode.

High Frame Rate Mode: Unlocked fps that varies between 70-90fps. Resolution stays at 1440p. Same settings as Performance Mode.

40Hz Quality Mode: 40fps cap. Resolution varies between 1800p to 4K. Similar settings to Quality Mode.
 

SolidQ

Member
Tessellation in the Realm between Realms still tanks performance but not as badly as before. The ground deformation fades in and out of existence now, unlike with consoles where it is stable. It only happens there. Otherwise, the performance impact in the rest of the game is negligible
only for NV tanking, on AMD cards is fine
 

Vick

Member
Missing effects and other things in the PC version…
Which wouldn't be enough to make a 30-40fps mode the "better" version.

Although if none of this gets patched on PC and Pro version in 60fps mode happens to retain all of those superior settings over Performance Mode, which I wouldn't take for granted, and all the additional effects over PC version.. well that's another matter.
 
Which wouldn't be enough to make a 30-40fps mode the "better" version.

Although if none of this gets patched on PC and Pro version in 60fps mode happens to retain all of those superior settings over Performance Mode, which I wouldn't take for granted, and all the additional effects over PC version.. well that's another matter.
Bingo
 
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