Guardians of the Galaxy PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Ray Tracing Upgrades Tested

Digital Foundry : Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - perhaps unexpectedly - is one of the best games of the year... and now it's even better. In addition to quality and performance modes, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X also benefit from a new ray tracing mode. So what does it do, how does it change other elements of the game, and how does it rate against the PC version's more fully featured RT settings? Oh, and since Guardians of the Galaxy has been patched, what's the score with the somewhat lackluster Xbox Series S version... has it improved?

[jznrpg]

Pretty fun game . It’s not perfect (combat could be better and skill tress could be more diverse ) but it’s enjoyable . I hope they do another one and add some more rpg elements to it and enhance combat . . Story wise it’s great and the dialogue is very well done

[CaptainHenry916]

I have to agree with you. I'm playing it on PC and I must say it's optimize very well on PC. I was really surprise by that.

[blackblades]

No game is perfect, also guess Marvel avengers is the worse game out of the Marvel releases recently. They should be a shame for being the studio.

[Godmars290]

When so much emphasis has been placed on graphics yet not only is "no game perfect" its often months post release a high end game gets patched to a high graphical level, and in some cases made playable, how do you get off saying studios should be ashamed of putting out bad games?

I mean they should, but thanks to too many accepting poor quality, allowing such to become standard and giving away their money on pre-orders, that ship sailed long ago.

[CrimsonWing69]

This is my Game of the Year. Some of the most fun I’ve had with gaming due to the characters, the story, music, environments and all the Easter eggs they crammed into it. I don’t find the gameplay to be bad, either… just not anything revolutionary. Still, one of the best damn games in my opinion.

[gravedigger]

Resolution in this new RT mode is dynamic, 1620p-2160p at 30 fps for both PS5/XSX. Series S didn't get this new mode,

Interesting, XSS didn't get that update, but MS claimed that XSS is the same as XSX, just at lower resolution.

[BenRC01]

Why anybody watches these is beyond me. It just ruins the fun when they point out every little flaw and comparison.
Played perfect dark n64 in release and didn't care it was 12fps and 240p lol.

[Profchaos]

It's made for a very specific crowd some people enjoy this stuff.

[porkChop]

Some people watch because they're interested in the tech behind the games, and with how certain features affect performance/optimization. I like to see how games perform on Series X because that's the system I have. It's no different from someone liking a genre of games or movies that you don't like. And pointing out a blurry texture or different quality shadows shouldn't change how much fun you have with any given game.

[Lexreborn2]

I used to watch these back in the day because there was always talk of “superior” versions. Honestly, there hasn’t been “superior” versions since early PlayStation/n64 days and before when you could legit get two different games with the same name.

Ever since ps2-now though it’s always been what difference is the frame rate or resolution. They would legit zoom in 400-600% to show the flaws and proudly boast a winner.

Even then I used to call them out for being disingenuous. They used to compare hd content on CRTs and not show full in-depth videos of them on both.

They frequently didn’t mention the hardware specifics from PC to console alike. It used to just always be PC was better but they didn’t talk specific cards, ram or anything.

Places like lens of truth are gone and DF has come a long way. But they still have a lot of flaws as they continue to pick “better versions” on arbitrary reasoning. In my eyes if you have to zoom in beyond 100% then there’s no point drawing a difference.

If coregameplay is the same and it’s smooth resolution typically means nothing. Because we played games that looked FAR worse then anything developed today the standard needs to be between the prior gen resolution with current gen goals.(1080p - 4K XsX/PS5, 720p-1080p PS4,xbone etc.)

[iplay1up2]

Playstation 4 games looked and preformed better than the OG Xbox One. The OG Xbox One didn't support HDR, and PS4 often had higher resolutions, and framerates than the OG XB1, because of the power difference. If back when they came out, you had a full HD TV with HDR the difference between the way a game looked between PS4 and XB1 was very clear.

[Lexreborn2]

Yet my nephew had an xbone the entire last gen no PS4 and it meant absolutely nothing to him he was playing a “weaker” version because it ran and play more or less the same and there’s a ton of gamers who don’t care.

[lio_convoy]

Hey Boomer, nobody says "legit" anymore. That's so 2015.

[HardKnockKid24]

@iplay1up2, examples? I had a launch XB1 and PS4 and I don’t remember there being significant differences in how games looked between the two.

[CrimsonWing69]

DF goes into detail about the tech and effects games use and who pulls it off better. I’m extremely interested in knowing and keeping up with the latest graphical techniques and applications. It’s also nice to see who does it the best.

[LoveSpuds]

"Why anybody watches these is beyond me. It just ruins the fun when they point out every little flaw and comparison."

It's fuel for those who still partake in the console wars squire. I guess I have similar feelings to you, the moment you have to zoom in to pick out minor differences, or use software to count frames etc., then the comparison is rendered moot.

I played loads of games on PS3 which were purported to be weaker versions of games, but I never noticed or cared, I wasn't running side by side versions to know better.

[ChubbyBlade]

How does understanding what’s going on under the hood make it less fun?

[Harryvok]

1080p to get 60fps on consoles was all it took for me to skip this game.

[Jin_Sakai]

1440p or 1800p at 60fps would’ve been the sweet spot.

[Harryvok]

Yeah would have been happy with some reduced settings to get 1440p.

[moriarty1889]

Having a lot of fun with this game.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

The PC version can also go well beyond the stock game or consoles if you add in reshade. I do in almost all PC games. An example at 8k with reshade + ray tracing. https://www.youtube.com/wat...
But for me a personal preference is not 4K as I really don't like 60 FPS unless it's probably a MMO then that usually taxes the CPU more than the GPU. I like 1080p and all settings maxed, and FPS in the 100s it just feels so much smoother. Got myself that ASUS 360hz LCD it's amazing. 1440p I will upgrade to but not now as some games can even tax 1080p a lot with settings maxed as you can see as an example here with Dying Light 2 https://wccftech.com/dying-... "RTX 3080 GPU Needed to Run Ray Tracing at 1080p@60"

[hiawa23]

Love this game