The Witcher 3 - DF Tech Review - A Stunning PS5/Xbox Series X Visual Upgrade With Performance Issues

The verdict on this Complete Edition of The Witcher 3 - with a focus on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. The ray-tracing upgrades seriously impresses here, as does the boosted foliage setting when compared to the last-gen PS4 Pro. And yet there are glaring issues with this release's frame-rate - which goes well under 30fps in the ray-tracing mode on PS5 especially. Add in the higher input latency and crashes on both premium consoles, and it's clearly a project with room to improve.

[Orchard]

Series X has higher framerate and resolution
PS5 has higher LOD

[mandf]

Ps5 his higher frame rates in performance. Mode

[Aloymetal]

Regardless it will sell a zillion more on PS5 even though it should be the opposite since xbox fans are craving for diverse and quantity of great games. Maybe next gen...

[darthv72]

...in novigrad city.

XB has higher frame rate everywhere outside of the city in both performance and RT modes.

[StarkR3ality]

@aloy @Mandf

I agree with Sony having a much better 1st party output, but you can't keep lying to yourselves when the better CPU and GPU is showing through in a lot of 3rd party games now that tend to perform better on Xbox compared to the start of the gen.

It's just Xbox's ass doesn't know what to do with it. Like having a big dong but thinking it goes in the belly button.

[Eonjay]

@StarkR3ality
Xbox doesn't have the better GPU. The PS5 will be be better in some games and the Xbox will be better in others. It's just the way it is. It the difference between one application favoring high frequency and another favoring parallelism. No has to accept that one is better when that isn't the case.

[mandf]

Stark
Ps5 constantly has better framerates in a lot more games.

[Orchard]

@Aloy The free upgrade will sell a zillion? What’s a zillion times zero?

@Eonjay The X does have a better GPU overall. When comparing throughput, it has a higher TF count.

Situations may vary, but that’s true for all GPUs

[Babadook7]

Both Ps5 and XSX; performance (+ a good VRR screen) is the best way to play.

@Orchard.
The SX GPU is wider. Ps5s is faster. In some situations the ps5s gpu will be better utilized. It’s not just about tflops, and the games so far show this.

[Orchard]

@Babadook overall TF is how you determine the power of a GPU. Yes, they will vary in different scenarios.

But if you're talking about which GPU is 'more powerful' - there is only one metric - flops.

[IRetrouk]

Hasn't really been true for years now🤷‍♂️
https://adoredtv.com/opinio...

[Orchard]

@IRetro

One mans opinion piece is irrelevant when the entire industry is still using TFlops (including Sony and Microsoft).

Nvidia were still using it as recent as their 40XX series announcement: https://www.nvidia.com/en-u...

So yes, it’s still very much true.

[IRetrouk]

What they use to advertise their "power" doesn't make the fact that it has little to do with actual "vs" performance anymore any less relevant, which was the point of my link, and it's far from one person's view, how many more links to experts explaining this would you like🤔

[Babadook7]

@Orchard.

Where in your link does nvidia claim this?

“a better GPU overall… [because] When comparing throughput, it has a higher TF count. ”

Notice the opposite from nvidia. They clearly referenced much more than TFLOPS as factors in that link. They claim 4x the performance. It’s not 4x the tflops.

[ironmonkey]

yeah, finally,

[repsahj]

I watched the whole video, I think PS5 has a better framerate performance than series X. But you are right about the resolution is higher than PS5.

[S2Killinit]

Finally xbox has a game with better performance lol

[darthv72]

Im finding myself using the quality modes less and less this gen and instead using performance mode. Its hard to go back to less than 60fps, even if the image quality is improved.

[andy85]

Same to be honest. On Ragnarok I really struggled to see a difference with the image at performance at 100fps or the 30 fps quality. And I flicked back and forward many times (obviously side by side you could probably point bits out but with the delay whilst switching there was nothing standing out) I suppose that's a testament to the developer

[MadLad]

I've been playing this game on PC since release, but I was happily surprised how great the game looked and played in performance mode on the Series S even.

[MadLad]

Lol 5 random dislikes, yet not a single reason stated for any of them.

Thanks for all the insightful input, guys. :)
This is why the voting system is a joke.

You really shouldn't be allowed to up/down vote without responding to the comment you're rating.

[CrimsonIdol]

You're not allowed to say anything positive about the Xbox Series S on N4G, it throws people into a blinding rage because they think their console is being held back by it somehow.

[Limitedtimestruggle]

N4G is pretty much a infinite Sony circlejerk session, but I suspect you already knew this ^^

[MadLad]

@limited

I've been on here for over ten years. Trust me, I know what this place is about lol.

It's sad, being it's a good place to get a lot of gaming information. It just has a highly toxic userbase that doesn't believe in civil discourse and takes gaming in a far too vitriolic, tribalistic mentality.
People use this place to as a safe space to reassure themselves on only their own opinions and biases.

[MrNinosan]

@MadLad

You've been here for over 10 years, and still crying and caring about likes or dislikes.
If you have anything important (or not important) to say, just say it and stop caring bout the arrows.
They mean shit because of fanboys.

The Sony-fanboys would upvote anything that sounds good on Sony and bad on MS, just like MS-fanboys do exactly the same.

There are better ways to measure you e-penis than likes on N4G.

[After10Ben]

I would do away with the like/dislike feature entirely. It's completely pointless.

[MadLad]

@ninosan

Nobody over here is crying; and I also couldn't care less about whether any of my comments get 100 up votes, or 100 down. I'm making fun of the mentality of the people who do, yet can't even put a few simple words in to accompany it.
I'm criticizing a useless feature that adds nothing to the conversation.

[StarkR3ality]

@darth

Yeah since the quality mode have RT normally but it's not really worth it compared to less frames and Less Res. Always knew these consoles would have barebones RT implementation from day one.

[blackblades]

Been on performance mode since the beginning if ps5. I once said I dont mind playing on 30fps but after playing so much on 60fps and then went back to 30fps and I realise why people always talk 60fps. 60fps is the way to go for now on, keep the options available. I'll take 60fps and more foliage/DD over resolution, 1440p would do

[SoulWarrior]

Performance really is the way to go, 30fps and heavy motion blur? No thank you.

[SyntheticForm]

If the image looks bad in motion and the only way to appreciate the quality of "quality" mode is to stand completely still, is it worth it?

I'll take a hit to resolution for smoother gameplay nearly always. I say nearly because there are a few games where performance mode drastically decreases detail and I'll opt for quality.

[blackblades]

Let's be honestly most people dont even see the difference unless they are looking for it like watching DF videos. Being at 30fps loses details because of the unsmoothness it is. It comes down to 3 things these days, resolution, fps/input and foliage/details. One or 2 has to be sacrificed for the other

[StarkR3ality]

Seems like a bug with the draw distance.. why would it be running at Nearly 25% extra resolution compared to PS5. Yes it's got a more powerful GPU and more and more games tend to have a higher Res on Xbox, but to say that Xbox is 1800p and PS5 is 1440p seems a bit of a drop from the PS5..

My guess is the extra Lod will be added in the next patch and Xbox will still be slightly higher but DRS will kick in more and be along the lines of 10% increase similar to CP2077's performance mode.

[Aloymetal]

''but to say that Xbox is 1800p and PS5 is 1440p seems a bit of a drop from the PS5..''
It has nothing to do with the PS5 but these devs. It's 2022 and some people keep comparing the power of new consoles based on a third party game/developer. Whenever you wanna see what these new consoles can achieve one have to look for the top dogs/devs from each console aka their 1st party developers.

[StarkR3ality]

@aloy

Which is why I said it's probably a bug or yes poor optimisation, but it would still run at a higher Res/frame rate on Xbox due to the better GPU and CPU. At the start of the gen this wasn't to case but more more games now run better on Xbox. It's not as important as PS's first party line up granted, but it's facts.

Might as well be a flat earther while you're at it if you're arguing against it.

[The3faces]

Sure when it doesn't fit your narrative blame the devs lol

[ChubbyBlade]

You’re so lost in the sauce

[StarkR3ality]

Just an FYI to the disagrees, you can't argue with statistical facts, if you do you're a moron.

[jznrpg]

Draw distance could be better with PS5 because it’s faster at streaming assets .

[StarkR3ality]

I doubt it's faster SSD would come into a 2015 game. The assets just simply aren't high enough quality. If everything else was the same and yet the LOD was still better fair enough, but it's got better performance and much higher Res, doesn't make sense for it to not be anything but a bug.

[ChubbyBlade]

@stark

Thanks for sharing you have 0 idea about how games work.

[Babadook7]

The ps5 has higher LODs. That could be why it’s res is not as high.

[Nacho_Z]

Correct me if I'm wrong and I may well be, but is it not always the case that games originally developed for older consoles don't run so well on the PS5 compared to Xbox but games developed for current gen perform either on a par or better?

[Orchard]

That’s for backwards compatible games.

Xbox basically lets them access the extra resources of the new consoles with zero work (so dynamic res will be higher and framerate if it wasn’t hitting target before), while PS5 does not unless you update to the SDK they have for “PS4 games on PS5”.

That doesn’t apply to this situation - Witcher has been upgraded to be a native app on both PS5 and Xbox.

[Espangerish]

Not console but…for a frame of reference to console players on a rtx 3090 with a 5800x3d cpu if I turn everything up to max I get 20fps. That’s a GPU that alone costs as much as 2 PS5s. I actually cant get a solid 60fps with raytracing even with upscaling set to ultra performance. With that in mind the consoles deserve credit for what they do achieve.

Although the patched version looks good there is nothing there visually to justify the crazy hardware requirements needed to run it. But I guess it was free so can’t complain too much.

[Destiny1080]

quality mode is laggy and not even a locked 30 fps, xbox is a locked 30 fps outside the city but constant screen tearing inside the city, performance mode seems to be the way to go, the PS5 has a considerable advantage with framerate, and draw distance of foliage and shadows and quicker loading

[Orchard]

I think you watched the wrong video, what the experts actually said:

“In performance mode, Series X has a frame-rate advantage - albeit with more limited draw distance vs PS5. In the RT mode, Series X is also more performant, only facing issues in CPU-intensive scenes like Novigrad, where PS5 also struggles.”

As for the “quicker loading”:

“ this wait is reduced to just over 13 seconds on PS5, and 16 seconds on Series X”

A whole 2.something seconds!

[Binarycode]

I thought i'd chime in.
That increase in rez the xbox has is due to higher cu's and memory bandwidth. But PS5 has a higher pixel rate. 142gpixels vs 119gpixels for xbox. xbox is actually faster in other parts but slower in others.

The witcher 3 is serverly limited by it's CPU.

Hence why xbox wins, although it's not massive. 3.5ghz vs 3.8ghz for xbox.

I remember in CPU limited games, xbox one used to have a slight advantage in it's slightly faster clocked cpu.

In GPU driven games, It will depend on what part of the engine is being pushed.

52cu's for xbox @ 1.8ghz.

36cu's for ps5 @ 2.2ghz.

It's funny if the PS5's cu's were 2.6ghz. It would be classed as 12tflops.

Lastly this is an old game that's been updated, has bugs probably from legacy code and some newer ones from updates to the engine. I'm sure they'll update the game again to iron it out.

[Orchard]

I enjoyed reading this, very logical and well thought out! Upvoted.

[Aussiesummer]

They could at least manage a 40fps mode for those with 120hz screens.

[anast]

Is there a reason why the SX can't do better in performance mode? Losing out here is embarrassing for them.

[Orchard]

It sounds like you watched the wrong video or misunderstood. Or did you mean embarrassing for PS5?

“In performance mode, Series X has a frame-rate advantage - albeit with more limited draw distance vs PS5. In the RT mode, Series X is also more performant, only facing issues in CPU-intensive scenes like Novigrad, where PS5 also struggles.”

“There are key visual differences between PS5 and Series X. Firstly, it's clear Series X often runs at a higher pixel count on average than PS5, within theiir dynamic range. In particular on performance mode, a Novigrad run in puts us at 1440p on PS5, and closer to 1800p on Series X for a spell”

So higher resolution and higher framerate in performance mode.

Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/d...

[anast]

It should be better.

[Orchard]

The PS5 probably should do better, yes.

But don’t worry - they’ll hopefully patch it up.

[Orchard]

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