Digital Foundry has tested the pixels and frame rates of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and came to a result; the title is currently better on the PS5 compared to Xbox Series X.
We already reported that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on the PS5 benefits from shorter loading times. But the pixels and frame rates have also been tested in the meantime, and it turned out that the Ubisoft adventure achieved comparable results on both new-gen consoles. There are still differences.
On the PS5 and Xbox Series X, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla uses a dynamic resolution scaling system, according to Digital Foundry. The lowest measured pixel count is 1440p (67% of native 4K), while the maximum is 1728p (80% of native 4K). In almost all scenarios, the measurement of the number of pixels in similar scenes on both systems led to the same DRS result.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla frame rate more stable on PS5
The frame rates were also measured. While Assassin’s Creed Valhalla does not run smoothly on both systems, the Xbox Series X does worse. The game aims at 60 FPS. But if the engine is under heavy load and cannot render a new frame within the 16.7 ms target, it will present the new frame as soon as it is ready, which leads to visible screen tearing, especially on the Xbox Series X.
Screen tearing can also occur on the PS5, but not as massive. “The key takeaway is that PlayStation 5 is much closer to the 60fps target more of the time, while Xbox Series X can struggle. In fact, at its worst, we noted PS5 delivering a 15% performance advantage over its Microsoft equivalent in identical scenarios,” said Digital Foundry.
According to the publication, the Xbox Series X version of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla shows a clearly poorer performance on a standard 60Hz display. However, the title was also tested with activated VRR on an LG CX display on which the tearing could not be seen. The PS5 cannot (yet) offer VRR (Variable Refresh Rate).
Ultimately, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on the PS5 provides a solid gaming experience with 60 FPS, but with a somewhat intrusive tearing. “Some tweaks to the dynamic resolution scaler are required – dropping lower than 1440p would be preferable to the tearing,” said Digital Foundry.
Meanwhile, there are “clear issues” on the Xbox side that clearly need to be addressed: “The frame-pacing on cutscenes along with the bizarre performance drops are disappointing,” said Digital Foundry. You can read the full report here.
You can see the corresponding analysis of the video below: