PlayStation 5's new firmware update brings marginal performance improvements
What's the story
Sony's PlayStation 5 recently received a firmware update which impacts both the console's 1000 series launch model and the newer 1100 series revision.
The new firmware delivers a performance bump, making the gaming console approximately 3% faster.
However, only some games run slightly faster and it can't be said that the improvement would be visible on every PlayStation 5 title.
Here's more!
Control
Baseline tests included measuring framerate on 'DMC5SE', 'Control Ultimate Edition'
As seen in a new Digital Foundry video, its founder Richard Leadbetter played Control Ultimate Edition and Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition on the older PlayStation 5 firmware. This served as a baseline for the now-current September system software update.
Specifically, DMC5SE cutscenes and Control's photo mode were tested because the latter unlocks the game's framerate that's otherwise capped at 30fps.
Test
Both games delivered around 3% better framerates
During testing, the frame-graph footage showed both DMC5SE and Control running at a fluctuating one to two frames per second higher on the new PS5 firmware.
Leadbetter observed that each game was running approximately 1-3% faster, with a 1% margin of error. Additionally, he noted that ray tracing and unlocked framerates were a "common component" in their occurrence.
No comment
Sony hasn't specified update's impact on gaming performance
Digital Foundry did not make any mention of other games that have unlocked framerates below 60fps because the PS5 doesn't have many of those, to begin with.
Sony is yet to comment on the firmware update and its impact on game performance.
However, this isn't the first instance where we've seen firmware updates improving in-game performance.
Insignificant?
Previously, Microsoft unlocked performance improvements with firmware updates
For instance, in 2013, Microsoft had reserved 10% of the original Xbox One's GPU processing for "system processing." This earmarked space for mandatory Kinect integration as well as Snap mode, a hardware-level feature used to jump between apps.
Moreover, we believe that a 3% increase in framerates on games for the PS5 won't be a noticeable improvement, save for competitive gamers.