Xbox Series X BC Tested: Up to 2x the performance in the most demanding games | Digital Foundry

Xbox Series X back-compat tested: up to double the performance in the most demanding games

[LordoftheCritics]

Good Points.

[GamerRN]

This is without any specific optimisation. Looks like this gen is gonna change how generations work... Microsoft says no to generations while Sony says "maybe"

[GamerRN]

Second... Last gen had the same architecture also

[Mithan]

I am going to assume that generations will stick around, but it will follow the PC/iphone/ipad/android/smartph one formula, meaning... from now on all old games work on future hardware. However, who knows. The industry could easily switch to ARM in the future for example. That requires more work to get games playing on it.

[GamerRN]

@shaggy

Im referring to PS4 and X One as last gen

Also PS3 used custom Cell architecture

[GamerRN]

@mithan

I don't think Xbox will continue with generations. More like PC where you just but better hardware and it's considered all one generation. Better for the gaming industry because you don't have to start over each year with sales...

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

No more 30fps garbage in older games, thank god. Now hopefully that'll be the case with the new games as well.

[DarkZane]

Games that were capped at 30fps will still be 30fps unless the developer patch the game to unlock framerate. Of course, they only tested games with uncapped framerate. PS5 performance will be almost the same for older games with uncapped framerate, except they will load even faster.

[Tacoboto]

The PS5 SOC has compatibility modes to replicate the PS4 Pro and original PS4. Sony hasn't indicated what can/will happen with PS4 games that are not patched to be "PS5 compatible" (of which rumors say both TLOU2 and GoT already are, plus all games published after July or something are supposedly required).

The most they've officially said about BC is that 99% will be playable and that some are enhanced. But that may not necessarily mean all will be exploiting the more powerful CPU/GPU by default.

[Mr Logic]

@ Taco

Back when Cerny's presentation happened they were saying the top 100 titles are being enhanced. Could be more now, but it won't be less.

[GamerRN]

As of now, they have no backwards compatibility that does this automatically like the Series X

[S2Killinit]

@Gamer
PS5 will have the exact same thing as xbox. Its not like xbox has it because of some secret sauce. Better hardware leads to better performance as long as game’s Fps is not locked, thats all.

[Ashunderfire86]

30FPS for The Medium on the Series X is confirmed, sorry to break it to you. But don't worry the Series X run 30 FPS games at a locked framerate with no dips in performance! Your going to get 30FPS ray tracing with 4K as smooth as a baby's bottom and movies!

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

30fps isn't smooth and console ray-tracing is a bad meme. I'll be playing all Series X games at 60fps, because every dev now includes modes for that in their console games. Except bad devs like The Medium devs.

[ufo8mycat]

Complete over exaggeration. Most games do NOT need 60 fps as they do not need the added precision and response like games that do NEED it. Like competitive FPS games and competitive fighting games. And before you say 30fps looks 'jittery' or 'not smooth', that is only the case when you immediately have been playing a 60 fps game, then switch straight to a 30fps game, but after 15 minutes, your eyes adjust and it becomes smoother, not as smooth as 60, but still smooth enough.

If you are that brain washed about 60fps, then go play on PC.

[alb1899]

On certain games the developers will prefer 30 fps because of the effect they want to create. It doesn't have to be about power everytime.

[DJStotty]

Let's see what Ashunderfire86 says about the PS5 games running at 30fps in 4K, because there will be some.

[Ashunderfire86]

#DJStotty

I wouldn't mine if PS5 has some games that are only 30FPS. You have to remember that the reason why 30FPS is still a thing, because developers want to show off the graphical bells and whistles with ray tracing on priority TV sets that don't have 60FPS. Both consoles are capable to have every game type of game run 60FPS all the way up to 4K and upscale to 8K! Next gen consoles no longer have those bottlenecks thanks to better AMD RDNA Graphics and Ryzen 2 CPU better than the Jaguar CPU from the last generation. Demon Souls at 1440p 60FPS looks better than any 4K game release from last generation! That's befcause Bluepoint games used 4K assets in the new Demon Souls remake.

[jwillj2k4]

I believe forza horizon 3 is still 30fps on Xbox s x. I don’t care about it, just providing clarity.

[GamerRN]

No, it's gets framerate upgrade to 60fps just not 4k

[Marquinho]

Microsoft keeps delivering and remains trending in media outlets and social media.

[RgR]

Wouldn't call BC delivering... They already had that this gen. Continuation of what they were already doing is what we have here.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

"They already had that this gen. Continuation of what they were already doing is what we have here."

Which is a good thing.

[SpadeX]

"Wouldn't call BC delivering"

What does that even mean? delivering has nothing to do with things being new...

It's like saying your pizza isn't delivered today because you ordered before, it's "continuation".

[Sirk7x]

The point being, your entire Xbox library, and every game on Game Pass, which some people will just be getting into some of these games, will run better than they ever have on any console. Like they showed, you're getting twice the performance of the Xbox One X, WITHOUT any optimization patches whatsoever. I don't think it's going to be too hard for devs to do a bit of optimization for their games on the hardware, if they feel so inclined. MS might give them incentive to do so. Also, he was hinting that that the Compatibility division might have some things they are able to do as well, that he's not able to talk about yet.

[DJStotty]

@RgR

"Wouldn't call BC delivering... They already had that this gen. Continuation of what they were already doing is what we have here."

So why are Sony striving to do the same?

[JackBNimble]

Would you say sony isn't delivering when it comes to BC as well ?
I'm pretty sure gamers are happy to be able to bring their library forward to next gen, especially gamers who buy digitally.

Just because you don't care means absolutely nothing.

[RgR]

@Sophistacated

Yes it a good thing and completely expected

@ColeMacGrath

In the context of video games "delivering" means to deliver something new and well done. They already delivered BC this gen and had announced its continuation into next gen. They cant deliver the same thing a second time. Its not like they said they would try to have BC next gen.

@Sirk7x
Yes I am aware and that is great. Its also expected with xbox since they already did the same this gen and they said they would continue the trend into next gen. There was never any doubt that they would have BC and that obviously the games would play better due to the better hardware.

[aaronaton]

Do you think people outside of the US care about what's trending on twitter? Lol. Such a bubble.

[Marquinho]

Who mentioned Twitter?...

It's everywhere... YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and even mainstream media. You just can't understimate the power of social media and MS made sure the Xbox Series had an overwhelming presence through all the year.

[Ju]

Didn't do much for sales, though. If you go by that opinion, BC, it would have been the best thing since sliced bread. But yet, nobody bought an XBox One for that (well, and despite the superficial argument, all 360 games need to be patched to be "backwards compatible" which limits the library quite a bit).
That probably isn't needed for the XBox One to Series X games (and neither for PS4 games), but features other than the dynamic scaling (e.g. resolution or frame rate), those games will be exactly the same (1800p will be 1800p, a locked 30fps game will be 30fps). Framerate doubling needs to be patched in for example. HDR "upscaling" is free, though.

I am not that impressed, tbh. Some of those games struggle to hit 60fps; which I'd think a 100% faster GPU and a much faster CPU would not have a problem with. Or maybe that's just me (PS5 will have the same issues). I am a bit baffled why one would lead with that when trying to sell a $500 console without new content, though.

[galmi]

cant give xbox a win can you lol

[Ju]

What win?

[Sirk7x]

The entire industry seems pretty excited about the Series X. I don't think MS is paying off every website and tech-review Youtube channel lol.

[Ju]

Sure, First come first serve. And next week they'll be excited again.

[MecheSlays]

If you watched the df video the sx is using compatibility mode with BC games which doesn't use all the rdna2 gpu features as well as lower memory bandwidth.

[sinspirit]

Why are you so vested in the public perception of the box?

[S2Killinit]

Delivering what? PR?

[RaidenBlack]

First X360 BC title to try during the full review: Witcher 2.

[aaronaton]

Imagine if MS didn't have decent BC? People would next to nothing to play on their newly purchased next gen console.
This BC en-devour by MS has been out of pure necessity.

[Chris12]

Really, what will you be playing Day 1? A remaster and some DLC?

[BillyG0AT]

A collection of backwards compatible games xD

[mkis007]

Thats like calling every halo, just dlc.

[S2Killinit]

Next gen games is what we will be playing. On a console that has them out the gate.

[orakle44]

@S2Killinit
Please inform us of what next gen game you will be playing, because if your're referring to the PS5 there's an expansion to a 2 year old Spiderman game, and a remake in Demon's Souls.

[headshotfrosty]

Not like they just bought one of the biggest developers in the industry. I'm sure they'll be plenty ;)

[itsmebryan]

They have Bethesda. They have a game or two.

[Ju]

At launch?

[itsmebryan]

@ju
Why not? They have a big catalog.

[Marquinho]

Way to criticize positive things. Content is coming, you will also have the best version of multiplatform games on it and don't be surprised if Xbox has an equal or even better exclusive lineup for 2021 and beyond.

Some people deliberately ignore the fact that many newly acquired studios were announced just back in E3 2018. AAA games take longer to develop, but once they have all 23 studios (or more) releasing titles, the problem Microsoft will have will be to properly schedule their releases so they don't overlap between each other.

[Ju]

What makes you think it has the better multiplatform games? For one, loose 2 pixels in res but will load 2x faster. If that is what you guys are all so excited about (that is, e.g. 6sec vs. 12sec). Still can't see any "instant loading". I hold my judgement until we have things to compare. I still think there will be times where a 1440p game can look better than a 4k game, when you throw the exact same resources at it. But then, try to scale this down to 4Tf. Just saying. How is this supposed to work on an XX when it has to support its little brother? BC is not a problem. None of those games will run more than 1080p on the SX. So, that's not a fair comparison.

[sinspirit]

Well, if it weren't already obvious. In his above comment he's obsessed with XBox looking good on social media, and in this comment to claim it may have a better 2021 exclusive line-up?

Some people deliberately ignore the fact that many newly acquired studios still don't have games ready. Keep talking the far away future. But, why would you think that 2021 would have some secret release schedule that could possibly rival so many heavy hitters from PS5?

[S2Killinit]

You are in for a real disappointment I think. Maybe not as epic as this gen was for xbox, because well thats really hard to top, but similar.

[russo121]

I just saw current gen games below 60fps, someone care to explain? I thought 60fps would be bare minimum standard. Well, my guess is next-gen games we'll see some at 30fps mark.

[dumahim]

Sounds like Series X GPU runs in a compatibility mode and doesn't use any new power to boost BC games, so the improvements we get are just from the CPU. Sounds like MS will enhance select games further, but I don't think there was anything further said about that.

[DJStotty]

Why do people p*** in the summer and expect it to freeze?

There will be games running 30fps, on PS5 and Series X, along with BC games on both consoles that are capped at 30fps.

Go back to school

[russo121]

Do you think there is a problem processing BC games (current generation) at 4K and 60FPS minimum?

These are the specs:

CPU. 8X Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz w/SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU
GPU. 12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @1.825 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU

Why some BC games are capped?

[orakle44]

Some games are dev locked at 30fps, like No Mans Sky, has nothing to do with the consoles.

[Ashunderfire86]

The best video showing off the Series X1 My favorite game they show off for performance was Hitman. Wow that look butter smooth with stable 60FPS! Man I hope games like Deus Ex Invisible War for Xbox can work on the Series X when I get the console next year. Yes I am going to wait on getting the Series X with all these scalpers buying up the systems left and right soldout smh! At least I beat them to the punch with the PS5 on Gamestop website. Going to get it 2 weeks after but I secure a preorder which is great though.

[FanboySpotter]

I'm interested to see the doubled frames feature for older games that are currently capped at 30

[dumahim]

That quick resume switching isn't looking as fast as it did previously.

18 seconds to switch over to Modern Warfare Warzone. 12 seconds for Xbox 360 version of GTA IV and about the same for Doom Eternal. Richard even pointed out that it seems significantly slower than he saw when he was in the MS offices. Still, it's a pretty cool feature.

22 seconds to load Ballad of Gay Tony from the start compared to 55 seconds for One X and 65 for 360.
FFXV saves load about 4 times faster than One X.

Bummed he didn't test external SSD for current gen games.

[crazyCoconuts]

I would think the most memory that is used by these BC games would be around 10gb? At 2gb/sec it should theoretically take about 5 secs to deserialize that from SSD assuming no other bottlenecks. But first it's got to write (serialize) the data from the existing game when switching, so that's another 5 secs at least, maybe more if writes take a bit longer. So at least 10 seconds unless some great compression/decompression magic was built into the pipeline

[DJStotty]

So average 17 seconds, to save the current game, suspend the data transferring through the CPU/GPU, start data transferring from a separate game through the CPU/GPU, all whilst keeping all progress frozen at a certain point across multiple games (at least 5)? Yeah quite quick to be honest.

Say, have they shown something like this on PS5 yet?

[dumahim]

Except my point was that it's quite a bit slower than what they showed before. If the PS5 has a similar feature or not is relevant.

[SyntheticForm]

Impressive.

[PurpHerbison]

Of course Monster Hunter is dropping frames with hardly anything going on.

[Sirk7x]

Dude, it's hitting 4K/60fps, and that game still looks incredible. That's really impressive for a console, especially at the price point. Also gotta factor in the cost of a controller. You'd be really hard-pressed to build a PC that could run it that well at that price.

[PurpHerbison]

It is impressive when you consider the game isn't optimized very well. But one does have to wonder if the game is dropping frames in those tame situations, what are the frame drops like during a chaotic boss battle?

[sampsonon]

more old games.

[orakle44]

They'll be using the same "old games" to test out the PS5 too. The PS5 has nothing next gen releasing in the launch window either.

[sampsonon]

Sony showed game play, as usual, of their launch titles with RT.

Spider -RAY TRACING -MAN.
Remake -RAY TRACING- Demon's Souls.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Godfall

Are all launch games.

So now what? you gonna say they aren't?
In 2021 two AAA games will launch.

What does MS have in the next 2 yrs that are Next gen?

[orakle44]

@sampsonon
Adding ray tracing to those two games doesn't change anything. Xbox games are getting ray tracing too.

Sackboy is also coming to PS4. Godfall is a launch title, I'll give you that, but its a timed exclusive so that will be coming to Microsoft.

Realistically neither have a very strong launch lineup, but that's ok, they'll be around for quite awhile.

[Harryvok]

I'm quite disappointed at no resolution bumps. Just because and old game might now play at 60fps, doesn't mean i want to put up with old jaggy graphics. Bummer.

[isarai]

It's all games with dynamic properties. So games with dynamic resolutions will now have the power to maintain/reach higher average resolutions, and ones with dynamic framerates will have higher average FPS count. That is unless it get next gen specific patch

[Harryvok]

Yeah i understand, it just doesn't have the 'wow factor' i was looking for with the hype for backwards compatibility they were pushing. If i can't play a game like Dead Space with upscaled resolution, then i've kind of lost any interest in the backwards compatibility. Improved frame rate in a small number of games just isn't enough of an incentive for me to care about their backwards compatibility.

[Sirk7x]

Most of these games were running at 4K lol.

[Harryvok]

Not 360 games

[deadfrag]

Too bad Sekiro is not actually lock at 60fps i was expecting it to be.Thank God my LG CX has VRR support.Also since this games are running in emulation on Séries X and not actually using the complete power of the Zen 2 Cpu maybe Microsoft Backwards team can actually optimize the games better by unlock more power and deliver better results latter on.

[Sirk7x]

Amazing as From games are, they haven't always been the best optimized...
Most of them have always run janky as hell on base consoles. Except Scholar of the First Sin, that game was beautiful at 60fps.

[OB1Biker]

I dont know why current gen games with unlocked framerate only getting a bump to 60fps is 'extraordinary'.
Not the double framerate and res on all games they were hyping.

[Sirk7x]

As the video showed, pretty much getting double the GPU performance on dynamic games over the One X on resolution mode. That's pre-release without any sort of per-game optimization.

[weissmuller]

Up to 2x times... Is not impressive. Both Xbox and ps5 should brute force 60 fps locked in these games.

[Mithan]

This is great to hear. I wont have an Xbox (buying the Playstation 5) but it is nice to hear that Microsoft is going for this full tilt. I wish Sony would do the same.