Dark Souls 3 now runs at 60fps on Xbox Series X/S thanks to FPS Boost

Digital Foundry : Dark Souls 3 has just received a new lease of life on Xbox Series consoles, thanks to the transformative powers of FPS Boost. The From Software classic now targets 60 frames per second on the new wave of Microsoft consoles, replacing the somewhat wobbly 30fps of the Xbox One rendition of the game. We had early access to the FPS Boosted rendition of the game and it certainly does the job, delivering nigh-on flawless performance on Xbox Series consoles.

[DJStotty]

Such an awesome feature to breath new life into games is FPS Boost, will have to give this a try.

[darthv72]

wel im out of luck on this one. I have it on disc for the one x and dont have the series x just yet. It is cool when they do this for games that did not get post release dev support.

Im still holding out hope for arkham knight to get this as well.

[Kurt Russell]

I never beat this game on xbox. It has been on my shelf a few years, this is a great excuse to try and "get gud" again.

[John_McClane]

I love the FPS boost feature, currently trying it on BF4 and it's awesome! Auto HDR is pretty nice also.

[waverider]

But running at 900p on 4k tv isnt that good.

[DJStotty]

I'll be good, i'm still on a 1080p TV

[iplay1up2]

1080p? You might as well just have a base PS4 and Xbox One. Games still look great @1080p. Look at Switch games!😁

[Mr Logic]

This blows my mind. My last 3 phones have had higher resolutions. I bought a 1080p TV in 2006. Gamers still using this ancient technology is baffling.

[ufo8mycat]

Yeah quite baffling. Now you know how PC gamers feel about people who game on PS5/SeriesX

[Vegamyster]

Mr Logic

There is plenty of pro players that use high refresh 1080p panels, it’s not like 1080p is blurry assuming your using a decent AA solution.

[PS-Gamer-1986]

@ufo8mycat

"Yeah quite baffling. Now you know how PC gamers feel about people who game on PS5/SeriesX"

Who, the large percentage of pc gamers with their fortnite-/ minecraft-/ indie-/moba-/ rts- machines ? Or the way fewer ones that actually mind buying or upgrading PCs that outmatch ps5 and Series X, even to the extend they are able to become "baffled" about people playing on new gen consoles? Just asking.

[CML2]

@iplay1up2

"1080p? You might as well just have a base PS4 and Xbox One"

Wat no. I still game on a 1080p plasma and the upgrade from PS4 to PS5 was still enormous.

[Mr Logic]

@Vegamyster

Using a 240 or 360hz display to play eSports is not the same as playing console games at 60, or even 120 in some cases.

@ufo8mycat

Stop. Nobody needs your stupid snark. And FYI this is coming from someone with a PC more powerful than PS5/Series X.

@CML2

Thank you captain obvious. A 360 looked better on a 480i TV than a Xbox did (except for reading text). A PS4 looked better on a 720p TV than a PS3 did. A PS5 will obviously look better on a 1080p TV compared to a PS4. None of that means you aren't literally missing out on detail by holding the system back.

[Vegamyster]

Mr Logic

The vast majority of console games were not 1080p 4x MSAA with the settings cranked at 60 fps, they were sub 900p-1080p 30 fps with PC equivalent settings from low to high in most cases which usually resulted in crappy image quality. There is also a difference between a 1080p TV released in 2006 and one released 10 years later ect, a high end 1080p TV panel was still better than those crappy $500 Vizio 4k TV's from a few years ago, panel quality is far more important than pixel density.

[DJStotty]

Yep, i wanted the next-gen games, as well as the other benefits next-gen brings to the table.

Same reason there will be some PS5 owners gaming on a 1080p TV, for the games and Dualsense, and other features.

I see no rush to waste £500 on a panel that can only display 4K @ 60hz, and to get a 4K/120hz panel TV in the UK, the bottom line is around £800+, so yeah still on 1080 until 4K @ 120fps is viable.

[fitofficial]

It ran at 60fps on the PS4 Pro like four years ago.

[Orchard]

I’ll read the article for you I suppose 🤦‍♂️

60 on Pro was done with a developer patch to support the Pro.

FPS boost is done 100% without developer involvement - and this game had no X1X upgrade - so they’ve upgraded a 2013 XB1 game to run at 60fps with no code change.

[fitofficial]

That doesn't change the end result. Why is this news? Also, DS3 came out in 2016, not 2013. You should check your own words before reading things for everyone else.

[Tacoboto]

When did consoles do this before without any developer support going into it? Heck, when in PC does this even happen, you fool?

PC games are typically unlocked by developer intent, and if they're not, you've got a horrible PC port (like Dark Souls 1 is with its 30fps cap) or a user-developed mod to unlock it (which DS1 has). Not at all the same concept as FPS Boost.

[Orchard]

@fitofficial 2013 was referring to the console model, not the game release date. Blame Microsoft for giving consoles terrible names.

@knightedHollow Terrible take. That's not how console games work. PC games are unlocked (or can be unlocked) and allow players to tweak visual settings - console games do not, whatever it ships with is what you're stuck with.

So yes, it is quite new and exciting that they're able to do this by intercepting at the driver level - and their work so far with the FPS Boost program has been very impressive.

[fitofficial]

@Orchard You said "they’ve upgraded a 2013 XB1 game". If you were referencing the console that's poor wording on your part. Don't blame Microsoft.

And as far as game boost goes, it's wonderful they can increase fps at the driver level but if you attempted that with a game like DS1 for example it wouldn't behave normally which is why DSFix was needed to ensure the game performed properly at higher FPS in the early days on PC. Some games use FPS internally as clocking mechanisms / etc., so there's no telling what it might do in some cases.

In other words Microsoft is putting the onus on themselves to ensure each game is compatible, so the "devs don't have to get involved" point is half right. In reality it's just shifting responsibility around.

[Lexreborn2]

@tacoboto

Well if you want to consider when hardware level improvements started that would be PS4 pro with boost mode. Then now FPS boost with series X.

But even still with last gen boost mode the developer patches were still superior then using boost mode. So the same can be said for FPS boost on series X.

Although it is cool hardware based improvements. The original code clearly still has restrictions that limit what the hardware can actually improve. 900p at 60 FPS hardware based on Xbox but 1080p 60fps on ps5 due to developer patch?

It would be really nice if devs just patched the titles to unlock the source code. But, beggars can’t be choosers.

[Imortus_san]

That's good for that dozen geeks that will replay this.

[AriesBear]

It’s great on ps5 just brace yourself for the xbox 900p. Still looks nice just really soft.

[Donjune]

More Yenta's flapping over what seems to be an improvement in a great game! Good job cupcakes!

[Pego]

I prefer 30fps as the original version. In fact, I wish they made it for the PS1 so I can see teh jaggies once again.

[FanboysKiller]

They're not lazy by any means, I smell a next gen version down the way , I'm surprised to see a very profitable title from a well known studio unable to upgrade the xbox version, it's just isn't possible to be this way , they just wanna milk the consumers for a next gen version.

[archibold]

Wow! All thanks to FPS Boost™. This incredible technology is unique to Xbox!

All our games will be held back by the common denominator which is the Series S, but let me tell you - FPS Boost™ is the future of backwards gaming.