Red Dead Redemption 2 Graphics Comparison: Xbox One vs. Xbox One X vs. PS4 vs. PS4 Pro

A detailed look at the visual fidelity of Red Dead Redemption 2 on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

[sammarshall102]

I'm only on the base PS4 so I'm glad that version still looks amazing

[mrmikew2018]

They really did do a great job on all platforms.

[sammarshall102]

They really did and it seems they've raised the bar on being a detailed open world

[Ceaser9857361]

I read R* was wanting to make this game for last gen even but probably back off due to hardware...

[Hardiman]

It looks amazing on my 65 KS9000 running on the Pro! I tried it on my kids base PS4 running on their 55 E series 4K HDR tv and it looks great as well! Just a beautiful game!

[thrust]

According to reports it looks much better aswell with a Xbox one X, they did a great job by the sounds of it push all consoles to limit!

[gravedigger]

Textures quality are the same on both Pro and X, but Pro looks blurry because bad implement of checkerboard resolution.

[thrust]

Yeah native 4k is amazing and also better performance is very nice, it’s good they pushed all consoles 👍

[Donnie81]

Actually you are right reports do say it looks much better on the 1x. This guy bellow is kidding himself of he thinks the difference is minor. The difference in native res alone is a huge difference. These people on n4g can tell the difference between 1080p and 900p but 1440p and 4k are the same. Take your L buddy...... Just take it

[Gaming4Life1981]

Downvotes because the xbox one x version looks better lol. Well it's TRUE but the game looks good on all consoles.

[Hardiman]

I see you missed the "amazing" part of my comment! Amazing is good enough for me and games like AC Origins, Odyssey and Red Dead 2 look amazing on the Pro so there's no need for me to spend $500. because again amazing is good enough for me!

It'd be different if it looked and ran like shit but it doesn't, it looks amazing and as long as I get amazing I'm good!

It also appears others feel the same because last night at pickup everyone I saw got the PS4 version or Pro bundles. No one is denying the X is a superior piece of hardware but for most that isn't enough to pull the trigger on $500. even if we could afford it when we can get amazing with what we have.

[CyberRekkr]

Lies, Doesn't look much better! You just an Xbox Fanboy. I have all the systems in my house & I have compared the Pro and X & there's not a big difference.

[rainslacker]

I know we plan on doing comparisons at work today. But for technical curiosity reasons.

It's a nice advantage of my job that they get all these games in to see how things work.:)

[crazyCoconuts]

What kinda company do you work for, out of curiosity?

[rainslacker]

We make engine tools for developers and engine makers. Mostly graphics renderers/shaders and portability tools. We have professional reasons to look at the game, and see how well they did, although I won't go into our reasons for that. Just one of the perks of the job.:)

[alb1899]

The X versión is the one I'm gonna buy. Native 4K and better frame rate 😍

[BrettAwesome]

Great tv! I had one of those! Unfortunately it died, so now I'm on a 65 SONY X900E

[Hardiman]

How's the Sony? I'm gonna be shopping late this year or early next year.

[BrettAwesome]

It's a great value for money tv. Very accurate color reproduction. Full array local dimming too. If you end up with a Sony TV, just be sure to get a 900 series or better. The 800s aren't quite as impressive

[sprinterboy]

I do scratch my head when they do these analysis videos and kinda laugh when they do the zoom 50/100X comparisons. I agree the X is the better version but you shouldn't have to do a zoom in to see it.
I think DF do go alittle too deep sometimes. I'm 2hrs in so far and it looks great on my launch ps4

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

Zooming in shows better detail of differences. I dont get why you wouldnt want to see that

[BLUEKNIFE]

Can you spot the difference between 2 butterflies?, Probably not and that's the point, zooming in at that level doesn't make any sense.

[Razzer]

His point is that you don't notice any of this stuff DF points out while in game.

[rainslacker]

All that really matters is what you see while playing, and sometimes, videos on the net don't really express just how much of a problem it is, and I would also posit that many people wouldn't really notice many differences if you didn't have the guy going, "Hey....look here, look here....it's not as good!!!". Particularly true since most people will only play on one console.....maybe two if they get a remaster next gen.

[uth11]

my eye can't see it when I'm
playing the game, so I really don't care what it looks like zoomed in.

that's for fanboys trying to justify their purchase

[mcstorm]

Tbh this will always happen people get off that the game o there console looks far better when you zoom in 50%.

At the end of the day we will know the ps4 has more power than the Xbox one and games should look better on this console and the x has more power then the pro so should look better on this console.

I've never got a game on a console because xyz said it looked better on it I get it on the console I want and that's it.

RDR is not for me but gta is not to but this game looks like it's going to be massive and a joy to play so enjoy it eveyone on which ever console you own.

[rainslacker]

@mc

When I was younger, and had both a Sega and Nintendo console(across a couple gens)....which was rare for a kid back in the day, I would consider which one looked better. Depending on which gen we're talking about, and the style of the art, I generally felt one console did better than the other. So, back then, I can say it was important to me. But back then, we didn't have a lot of this nitpicking, and games generally ran fine, or like crap. Nowadays, I'm not really fussed either way. I prefer Sony consoles, and I'm not ashamed of it. I play there because as of now, its the best console I have, and if I had an X1X, I may play my multi-plats there, although I'm not anywhere near as invested in the ecosystem there. Otherwise, most games still don't bother utilizing the mid-gens properly, so I see no reason to get another mid-gen, when I haven't even been overly impressed with the one I already brought.

[sprinterboy]

I play the game, I don't go up close to every tree, leaf, zoom in on the horse testicle details lol.
My mate used to do that back in the half life days and I'd be like you gonna play the game or what.

[Razzer]

I think it is hilarious that we have to have labels to tell us what console each video segment is from.

[rainslacker]

I thought it would be more hilarious if one of these sites maybe one day mixed up the labels, then came out a couple days later and said "oops....sorry about that".

Only because I can imagine the sudden changes in people's opinions when it happens.

[gangsta_red]

Yeah, it's been like that since the beginning of of this gen. That's why we would always people patiently waiting for DF articles even when gameplay was already available to compare.

@rain

Didn't something like that already happen with CoD where they accidentally put the higher res label on the a low res version running the game and nobody noticed?

Also it happened with the new Killzone where it came out later that the MP was running at a lower res and no one knew or could tell until it was reported.

[rainslacker]

I can't remember. But if it was COD, it was probably because I don't really follow that series much, and comparing the different releases of those games seems pointless since Activision doesn't exactly push the envelope of graphics, and don't spend much time optimizing either way.

KZ was a different scenario. But yeah, I think people didn't know, but they also didn't have it hammered in their heads at the time what checkerboarding was, or how it could affect graphics. I believe I even mentioned as much during my many comments about how people often can't tell the difference, and it becomes even less noticeable the higher the resolution becomes for what's being compared.

[alb1899]

The thing is that almost everyone watch DF on screens that are too small or don't support 4k and HDR so that's why you don't need the difference until DF make that zoom

[Razzer]

ok.....so "almost everyone" is lying then. Guess that goes for those who are praising the superior Xbox One X version as well then. But even if you are on a 70" TV and standing close to the screen, most are not going to know what difference to detect. You still have to have DF stop the video and draw a circle around the area that is different.

[HonestGamer5]

My understanding was that they zoom in bcuz if you are watching it on a small screen that's the only way to see the difference (phone/monitor). But on a tv screen you can see the differences without zoom.

[rainslacker]

zooming in changes the native pixels, so that makes no sense. If you change one pixel to four pixels, or more in some cases, you're immediately introducing variances to the picture. That variance can exaggerate what is being shown. A murky texture becomes more murky as the "murk" is stretched across a great area. Aliasing become more pixelated because instead of a few pixels showing crawl, you now have double or triple the pixels showing crawl in not just one direction, but two. Shadows which are defined well enough in a non-zoomed image, suddenly become undefined because you add in excessive edge dithering. So on and so forth.

On a screen, a pixel is a pixel. There is no truer unit of display. Doesn't matter the resolution. So, if they wanted to show it properly, they'd show a cropped part of the image, unaltered in resolution, which would fit on a person's screen, without the image being stretched or compressed in any way. If the difference isn't readily apparent without zooming in, then the difference is probably minimal, and likely would go unnoticed except maybe in side by side comparisons, which are extremely rare in the home...so a person is likely to feel the same about either version if they were to play it.

The zooming in thing sounds more like an excuse to show off things which really aren't readily apparent.

[KickSpinFilter]

Ya it’s kinda funny since most play at at least 8ft from their screen. 4K vs checkerboard rendering is of diminishing returns. Sure if your playing from 2 feet away ya XB1X is much better. But we can see from sales of consoles resolution really doesn’t matter all that much to folks

[conanlifts]

I will play it on the X, but while it is the better looking version ultimately the experience and enjoyment would be the same whether I played it my X or standard PS4.

[Hardiman]

Yeah the fact they have to zoom in so much to show the "difference" has always come kinda silly to me. If it was a major difference I could see all the fuss. As it is I'm playing on the Pro and I haven't experienced any slow down and it looks magnificent! I also played it on my kids base PS4 and it looked awesome as well so really in the end it's all good!

[Rhythmattic]

Its a technical analysis so this approach is expected and appreciated.
In the end, whats important is if you enjoy the game, no matter the platform.

[MikeNike310]

I appreciate their attention to detail but your right, the extra curricular zoomage doesn't necessarily translate to what the average consumer will experience. It actually still looks good from normal viewing angles no matter the console.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

Not seeing the considerable difference DTF referred too.

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

Thats because IGN shouldnt be doing comparison videos

[mad-dog]

I have a PS4 Pro and the game doesn't look as good as it can look on it. There is something wrong with the checkerboard rendering in this game. It's a real shame. Let's hope that a patch can fix this a bit.
Now you can dislike this post but that doesn't mean it's not true. I think this site should remove the likes and dislikes. It's toxic and just brings out the worst in a lot of people.

[gobluesamg]

I gave you a DISAGREE. I hope you can get through this trying time.

[mad-dog]

Oh i'll manage. But neither your disagree or your post has anything constructive that i can work with. So while i know you disagree with something in my post, i have no idea what it is.

[michaelknight35]

I agree with you on that n4g should remove likes and dislikes because people on here will dislike a person comment because they know can

[rainslacker]

I felt on the Pro they looked a bit faded compared to the X1X. I don't know if this is an effect of the checkerboarding, or just a byproduct of the lighting effects. I didn't really dive too deep into this this morning when we were checking out the different versions at work.

Overall, I wouldn't really have a problem with either version, as they both look fantastic.

As far as the likes/dislikes, I sometimes wonder why people disagree with innocuous comments, or statements of fact...even when they're not console war related, but I try not to let it get to me. If people want to disagree that's fine. If they can't bother to discuss it, then their opinion doesn't really matter to much to me.

[EverydayGuy]

Why not just make 20 word lock on the like and dislike, so you would have to make a comment?

[King_Noctis]

Most sites don’t even have dislike button. They remove that and keep only the like button. I wish this site would do the same.

[MikeNike310]

I kind of like the dislike button. It lets you know what kind of audience your dealing with. It shouldn't be something that affects you at all but act as more of a barometer.

[mad-dog]

A barometer for insecurity?

[Neonridr]

ironic how the differences now suddenly aren't so great and only if you zoom in a lot. Really makes me wonder what people were seeing at the start of this gen with all the PS4 vs XB1 comparison articles.

[Razzer]

As resolutions get higher the differences become less and less noticeable. That is just a fact.

And what about all those who claimed they could not see differences early in the generation? That argument works both ways you know.

[Neonridr]

I guess.. but the pixel count difference is much, much higher in this case. I agree that they become less noticeable, but to act like they don't exist is just silly. Look at any screenshot comparison and you can clearly see that the Pro version has a layer of blur added because of the checkerboard technique whereas the X version looks sharp all the time.

I am not saying that it's not the same game, nor is it somehow unplayable now. Just accept it and move on I guess.

[Razzer]

Uh....I didn't see anyone say the difference "don't exist". The fact is that you have to use screenshots and labeled videos in order to identify the differences. That in itself shows that they are not significant.

[King_Noctis]

The different is not just only the resolution if you watch the Digital Foundry video.

[Stanjara]

Because resolutions are now so high that you need to zoom in to notice the difference. Also PS4 pro is doing checkerboard rendering so still image isn't complete. You have to compare the video.

[Gamist2dot0]

For me, it was cost. Both consoles were the same price except one has better specs and performance.
Now, the battle between Pro ands X, the X may have better specs and performance but for the price difference? No.

[Neonridr]

yep that's fair.

[rainslacker]

The argument goes both ways my friend.

On that note...while I know its fun to point out a hypocrite, keep in mind that the generalization of hypocrisy only keeps the ball rolling as each side keeps pointing to the other as to who started what and when.

Of course, we'll all keep doing it though.:)

[Neonridr]

yes, you speak the truth. I am no saint myself. I just don't understand. It's to be expected that the X is the definitive version as it's on the most powerful hardware.

[MikeNike310]

Yup

[RDOUBLE]

Regardless of what platform or model we all play on, this is the type of work we should demand from developers. Make the best possible version on all console. Max out all the hardware.

[mad-dog]

It's not the best possible version on the PS4 Pro though.
It's certainly the best possible version on the XboxOneX. That version looks insanely good.

[rainslacker]

I'd put forth that the best possible version could still be better.

While optimization does reach a point of diminishing returns, I feel that R* still could have squeezed more out of the hardware...on both Pro and X1X.

But given the time they had, they did a remarkable job. PS4P problems I'm thinking may not be so much the checkerboarding, as it is the lighting techniques used not working well with checkerboarding, but even then, the game looks pretty damn good on PS4P.

We had them both running together next to each other at work, and I can say that if someone plays it on either of the mid-gens, they're not going to be disappointed in the graphics or performance. Game play may be a different matter, but I only got about an hour to play it during our comparison.

[Father__Merrin]

I've just seen this running in a Currys store looked like a 50" lg 4k telly it looked amazing running on a PS4 pro the textures look very clean. if you stand right Infront of the TV and try to look into the image you can see some shimmering but at play distance it's a non issue.

I've not seen it on an X no doubt it will be sharper but on the pro I seen today it looks incredible

[Artemidorus]

With a game like this it really doesn't matter the experience alone is enough.

[frostlatch]

Im sad that the PS4 Pro isnt as up to par as Xbox One X but I dont see myself picking one up because I dont think Id want to play anything else. Maybe some of the Play Anywhere games I have like Gears 4 and Killer Instinct but otherwise there is a huge backlog of games I still want to play on PS4 along with all the games I have on PS+. Gah. I might find a way to get both at least lol.

[Skankinruby]

Such minimal differences if any at all. Only spec numbers on a piece of paper

[MikeNike310]

For the most part. I guess thats all that matters these days.

[akaFullMetal]

Sounds like it's going to be fun on the bun for everyone!

[Sieden]

I have a Pro and had the PS4 version preordered, canceled and picked up the One X after watching digital foundry's break down, definitely wanted to experience the best possible version of this masterpiece. That said, Gamestop is offering $250 trade in + $100 off if your buying red dead, insanely good deal if anyone is on the fence about it.

[Razzer]

Funny. Gamestop gives the same trade-in value for both the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro. Supply and demand.

[andibandit]

hahahaha

[FyBy]

So these few details really justify selling pro and buying X? I really don't get it. I think that on my high end pc I get much better performance but I never thought to play all the multiplats on pc because of better details. So marketing really works. It's your choice, but I don't think your experience will be any different. In God of war, there is much more difference between PS4 and pro but it doesn't ramp up your experience much. It's good if you make photos or if you stand near trees and rocks and trying to spot a difference. But that's it!

[Donnie81]

If this graphical showdown was a mma fight the 1x would tko the pro when they touch gloves at the beginning of the round

[MikeNike310]

Lol more like a photo finish. Zooming will have to be involved

[Negativecool]

I didn't see much of a difference between any of the versions unless there was a close up still shot of jaggies. I must be too old for this s***.

[Glak18]

The fact in 2018 people are still doing "graphics comparisons" without including any other information is just sad.

Hey here's a picture on a 16 megapixel camera and here is another picture of it on a different 16 megapixel camera...thanks derper.

[TheCryptKeeper]

Xbox is just the way to go with this one unless it's the OG model. It might only be 900p with the Xbox One S version, but you get HDR with the XB1S. You would hard pressed to tell the difference between 900p/1080p. HDR will impact the visuals more than that small of resolution difference.

[Realms]

Wanting maximum performance on consoles it's hilarious that is what PC is for, I game on consoles for ease of use the Pro is more than adequate plus I have played some of the best exclusives this generation so I'm not missing out on anything other than a few pixels. Let fanboys do what fanboys do I will enjoy the game all the same.