Face-Off: Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition [Digital Foundry]

Thomas Morgan from Digital Foundry at Eurogamer writes:

"In terms of frame-rate metrics, the Xbox One does show flickers of strain in meeting its recent 1080p upgrade - something never elicited by the PS4, which holds at 60fps in likewise tests. These drops, as infrequent as they are, make it harder to call the Xbox One release a purely locked 60fps experience in pragmatic terms, but it's clearly a solid performer. So much so, that it begs the question: could the PS4 release have been pushed any harder to take advantage of its own GPU headroom?"

[Evilsnuggle]

Digitalfoundry " PS4, and instead, we're thrilled to see a perfect 60fps during all our test sections."

Digitalfoundry " There are oddities here and there though. We spot spider-webs in the Skeleton King's crypts that seem dialled down in sharpness on Xbox One - but curiously, "

Digitalfoundry " reaches as low as 52fps on Xbox One, whereas with the rendering glitch now fully attended to on PS4, Sony's hardware never drops a frame in these areas."

Digitalfoundry " However this stands at odds with the prolonged stretches of 50-60fps play possible on Xbox One. "

As most non crazy people knew the PS4 is the superior version of Diablo 3 locked 60fps no frame rates drops.

X1 average 52fps in Diablo 3. Microsoft pushing for 1080P took a game from lock 900p locked 60fps . To 1080P 50fps just to keep up with the Jones trying to get parity against the superior hardware of the PS4. This is a 2 year old 3D top down game . That most weak laptops can run Diablo 3 in 1080P 60fps. But x1 a brand new "Next Generation console" is struggling to run at 1080P 60fps . This is a bad signal for x1
X1 will lack the power to run next generation graphical engines for true next gen games.

[Axios2]

"Given how infrequently we bumped into the issue, even during frenzied sand dune battles with two allied AI players in tow, the issue is surprisingly rare. Most drops tend to be imperceptible, and in the end, we resorted to scanning hours of footage to track most shifts downwards from the 60fps mark. A screen filled with effects-spewing creatures isn't necessarily the ticket to a frame-rate drop - even at its extremes the Xbox One holds up well save for a few choice moments."

"Going by the PC-side menus, there aren't any higher graphical presets to reach for on console, making the latest console editions very straightforward renditions of the maxed-out experience - Blizzard reached for the top-level Diablo 3 experience and essentially achieved it on both consoles"

"In terms of frame-rate metrics, the Xbox One does show flickers of strain in meeting its recent 1080p upgrade - something never elicited by the PS4, which holds at 60fps in likewise tests. These drops, as infrequent as they are, make it harder to call the Xbox One release a purely locked 60fps experience in pragmatic terms, but it's clearly a solid performer."

"In other words, comparing the two editions of Diablo 3 typically highlights elements that are randomised by the engine, rather than significant per-platform advantages."

"It isn't quite a faultless display from the PS4 version, but close; in our full playthrough, the auto-save causes the odd a hiccup, as does occasionally streaming in new segments of a just-loaded area"

As usual Evilsnuggle lies and 52fps is the absolute low not the average.

Next update, DX12

"With no rift in texture asset quality, shadow rendering, effects-work or its lighting model, it's clear Blizzard has no mandate to push either console out of the parity deadlock. Rather, it appears to be a point of continued attention, with the Xbox One receiving a 1080p resolution bump to bring it neck-and neck with PS4 in the image quality stakes. Outside of randomised item placements across each stage, these two games are now practically identical."

@ ABizzel1, agree, history has shown that the graphics just keep getting better as developers master their tools. D12 should also provide something of a boost.

[ABizzel1]

I've already talked to Evilsnuggle in a PM, about trolling. But I have to agree with him on one part. These consoles shouldn't be struggling with Diablo 3 at all, and by struggle I mean this game should be 1080p @ 60fps locked on both.

What this means is that on the PS4 at least the game is running well above 60fps if there isn't a dip (which EG didn't encounter).

Meanwhile the XBO performance is between 52 - 60fps, most of the time at 60, which puts it once again on par with the HD 7750 / 7770 (undeniable now).
http://www.techspot.com/rev...

One thing to notice is that the resolution of the PCs is 1920 x 1200 (not 1080) meaning they're pushing out a bit more. The 7790 is missing from that list, but I'd assume that's what the PS4 is sitting around (GTX 560 / HD 6870 / GTX 560 Ti).

There's no need to debate this any further, but it's nice to see where these console are right now and we have a minimum we can predict ahead of time for many future PC ports / sequels (remember most of these games are still just fast ports so performance will improve over time).

[UltimateMaster]

Who honestly cares about digital foundry?
Stop being obsess about those tiny details.
Even tough PC trash talker will always gloat about it.

[gfk342]

I have 2 things to say:

1. For me it's no surprise to see PS4 wining this Face off. According to DF the PS4 is equal in every way with the PC version. So taking this into account and the fact that PS4 has also some exclusive content it's clear that PS4 version is the way to go.

Even Blizzard said that the PS4 version of Diablo3 is the best version.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

2. I'm not totally satisfied with the DF's performance test. They only made a test on the single player campaign very early in the game.

From this we only saw that Xone version dropped to 52 fps while the PS4 (being locked) stayed at 60 fps.

This gives the FALSE impression that the difference between the consoles is only 8 fps.

So, DF should have made a more in depth test, by playing the game in 3-4 players. This will definitely give a clear understanding of how both consoles perform.

Please remember that playing the game locked at 60 fps, this means that the PS4 could go higher if the frame rate was unlocked.

In other words, if we see the XOne limits (by dropping frames in some scenes), the PS4 clearly doesn't use all its power in this game (as no frame was dropped).

The question is how much power is not used by PS4 in this game?