Despite its 10.28 teraflops of power the PS5 might struggle to run games at true 4K, whereas the Xbox Series X won’t have that problem.
That’s according to a Twitter leaker called AestheticGamer, who has a reasonably solid track record in PS5 leaks, who said they’d heard from developers that the PS5 tends to struggle with running games at 4K.
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“I've heard from other devs that PS5 struggles with 4k games in particular so you'll see a lot of fake 4K,” AestheticGamer said in response to a question asking about the PS5’s performance when running the Capcom graphics engine that will power Resident Evil 8. “That doesn't matter to some, but get ready for that too. Xbox [Series] X doesn't have the same problem.”
(3/3)the less expensive and more powerful console. I used RE8 as an example, but I've heard from other devs that PS5 struggles with 4k games in particular so you'll see a lot of fake 4k. That doesn't matter to some, but get ready for that too. Xbox X doesn't have the same problemAugust 12, 2020
What AestheticGamer refers to as “fake 4K” is likely to be checkerboard rendering, whereby the PS5 wil render an image at the less demanding 1440p resolution, or thereabouts, and then use a filter to fill in the unrendered parts if a scene when it’s blown up to 4K. The PS4 Pro has used this technique for a while and its results are pretty solid on the whole.
But there are likely many PlayStation fans expecting the PS5 to be a native 4K console, and deliver games at that resolution at 60 frames per second. However, with graphically demanding games, such as the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, hitting that 4K at 60fps target might be a little ambitious.
The extra power of the 12 teraflops GPU in the Xbox Series X would appear to give it enough grunt to run games at 4K, though whether it will target 30fps or 60fps in demanding titles has yet to be seen.
It’s worth noting that AestheticGamer doesn’t explain which developers he’s spoken to, so we need to take such claims with a pinch of salt. And it’s very early days for the PS5 as well, with some developers still likely getting to grips with the console’s architecture.
Over time we can expect better optimization of games and ways to extract more performance out of the PS5; just look at The Last of Us 2 and how graphically impressive that game looks on the PS4 jut as it enters the twilight years of its console generation.
Set to be revealed at the end of the year, likely in November alongside the Xbox Series X, we’ve not got too long to wait before we get an idea of what exactly the PS5 can do in the real world.
