Some PS4 Pro Titles Running Slower Than Base Hardware

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
This is really too bad, but apparently developers didn’t take Sony’s guidelines for consistent experiences between the PS4 Pro and base models as seriously as everyone would have liked. People are seeing dips as much as 20fps in games like Deus Ex.

…for games like Skyrim, The Last of Us and Mantis Burn Racing, gameplay will actually be smoother overall on base PlayStation 4 hardware. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a little more complicated: we find that some scenes play at a noticeably lower frame-rate, while others hand in more consistent performance overall. For 1080p support, the Pro down-samples the 4K mode for all of these titles, offering enhanced image quality via super-sampling. However, the areas where performance is degraded remain impacted when running on a full HD display - meaning that there's nothing that Pro owners can do to get a smoother experience overall on these titles. In fact, the base PlayStation 4 will run these releases at a higher performance level overall at the expense of some image quality.
 
Not surprising. A developer shouldn't just decide to allow the game to render at 4K without adjustments. It'd be like a PC gamer upgrading from a 960 to a 1060 and deciding they can now set Battlefield to 4K.
 
This is what happens when you have 2 different hardware sku's for the same generation console, whodathunkit this type of fragmentation would actually happen?
Lemme guess the ps5 will come in lite(1080p), normal(1080p@60fps) and pro(4k) versions on its release?
 
I had a Pro for a day and quickly realized it was a joke. Tried several games I had that were Pro compatible and was left very unimpressed. Everything felt very slow and dragging on my 4K HDR TV. I'll stick with my launch PS4 for those PlayStation exclusives. I returned the Pro and jumped right back to my PC for some Dishonored 2 action in real 4K.
 
This is what happens when you have 2 different hardware sku's for the same generation console, whodathunkit this type of fragmentation would actually happen?
Lemme guess the ps5 will come in lite(1080p), normal(1080p@60fps) and pro(4k) versions on its release?
i was thinking about this as well. early on i heard some developer did not like the fact about to optimize for two different hardware in one console platform. considering console rely heavily on low level API there obviously going to be some hiccup with PS4 pro which using different hardware. just because the architecture is the same developer can carry over optimization they have done on PS4 to PS4 pro. i still remember Hitman dev mention stuff like Async compute need to be tweaked per card basis because different card have different compute to bandwidth ratio.
 
As others have mentioned, I'm not too worried about this, but I do think it's stupid to force a render resolution if it gives worse performance. The biggest concern is something like World of Final Fantasy, where the actual graphics look worse: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1312485

That's a bug though, and with fragmenting the player base, it's not really a surprise that this could happen. (A company doesn't fully test their own software? Say it ain't so!)

Finally, SSD performance has been a disappointment, and isn't twice as fast, despite being on SATA 3, but it is faster. And I'm upset that I still need my Samsung UHD Blu-Ray player, because the Pro doesn't support the discs, nor does the Xbox One S support Dolby Atmos, and both consoles decided to only have one HDMI out, so my audio got downgraded both with the One S and the Pro.

That said, I do enjoy the Pro though and have hope for it. This is more of the console that we should have gotten from the beginning.
 
not surprised, I think they released the PS4 Pro too soon for everyone to adjust quite comfortably. (MS decided to release and fine tune theirs til next year for example)
 
I had a Pro for a day and quickly realized it was a joke. Tried several games I had that were Pro compatible and was left very unimpressed. Everything felt very slow and dragging on my 4K HDR TV. I'll stick with my launch PS4 for those PlayStation exclusives. I returned the Pro and jumped right back to my PC for some Dishonored 2 action in real 4K.

I read Dishonored2 runs like crap on PC so that wasn't a good idea.
 
I got a pro, and it doesn't run at 4k on my vizio tv. Apparently both vizio and LG are having issues with HDCP and the ps4pro after the latest sony patch. So far I have only been able to play in 1080p. Still a nice system though, im sure it will be fixed.
 
The PS4 Pro is a huge disaster out of the door. Its never going to be a 4K console. And its pretty much already obsolete again.

Sony will have to rush a real nextgen console and drop compatibility.
 
I got a pro, and it doesn't run at 4k on my vizio tv. Apparently both vizio and LG are having issues with HDCP and the ps4pro after the latest sony patch. So far I have only been able to play in 1080p. Still a nice system though, im sure it will be fixed.

Somehow these industry standards on protecting content are slowly going to be fixed, DRM sucks ;)
 
This is the result of growing pains, there will likely be patches or additions for various options going forward. Infamous is the ideal implementation as it provides;

4k / HDR Unlocked
4k / HDR 30fps
4k Unlocked
4k 30fps
1080p HDR Unlocked
1080p HDR Supersampled
1080p Unlocked
1080p Supersampled

From what I've played on the Pro (1080p 65" W950B) the increase to IQ in Ratchet and Clank, Shadow of Mordor, Tomb Raider and increase to FPS in games like Infamous, First Light, BF1, and even Knack provides all the insight I need to know on what this hardware can provide.

I will always choose FPS over IQ coming from the PC. These issues are likely oversights, all the developers need to do is patch them for 1080p with the added benefit of Pro hardware. They don't need to add anything just change the internal resolution or give players the option to choose.

Now I have not seen the PS4 Pro on a good 4k TV like the B6 LG OLED or Z9D Sony models but I don't believe I could see myself buying one just for this. As a 1080p owner I just wanted the added benefits that more powerful hardware provides. Ratchet and Clank is insane even on a 1080p screen.
 
Rachet and Clank is gorgeous in 4K with HDR. I've got a 65" Sony 930D.

Infamous I don't like the HDR effect. It blows the darkness way out of proportions. Colors are good just too dark and makes it hard to see. Colors are still good in non HDR though.

I tested out a small bit of TLOU and performance seemed fine to me. Unlocked framerate and HDR. The colors were a tiny bit brighter, nothing extreme.
 
PS4 Pro works great for me and looking amazing on my LG OLED 65" curved 4K. Last of Us? Much better. BF1? Much better. Uncharted 4? Much better, HDR is amazing on it. Not at all disappointed in the quality of graphics or the FPS. These alleged dips are not drastic, and the OG PS4 dips too in frames. Acting like the Pro is dropping much more than the OG is silly, especially when the graphics look so much better on the Pro.
 
PS4 Pro works great for me and looking amazing on my LG OLED 65" curved 4K. Last of Us? Much better. BF1? Much better. Uncharted 4? Much better, HDR is amazing on it. Not at all disappointed in the quality of graphics or the FPS.

It's just a few games which have issues, and it's not the hardware's fault. There will be some growing issues as developers make some wrong choices. Outside of that, I find it a decent system overall.
 
I'm not too surprised that some games run a little worse on the PS4 Pro since it's new but hopefully they'll be fixed soon since the Pro is supposed to be a "premium" console. I picked up the Pro for my LG OLED C6 and I'm very happy with it so far. Some games look better and run better on the Pro like Modern Warfare: Remastered and Infamous: Second Son (even in the "4K" mode it runs better than on the original PS4 as I far as I remember) so it might be more of a software issues than a hardware one why some games don't run as good on the Pro.
 
I just don't get spending 5-10k on a nice OLED HDR TV and plugging in a pathetic 400$ console that can't even support the display or play movies on it that aren't compressed streaming garbage. It's like buying a Bugatti and replacing the engine with a golf cart motor. Wtf.
 
I just don't get spending 5-10k on a nice OLED HDR TV and plugging in a pathetic 400$ console that can't even support the display or play movies on it that aren't compressed streaming garbage. It's like buying a Bugatti and replacing the engine with a golf cart motor. Wtf.

First, OLED has dropped in price significantly. Only 2 models LG sells are over $5k. Are the models still more expensive than LCD TVs? Yes.

Second, and this is LG's fault, you need to enable Deep Color for HDR, which initially starts in the off position. Why they did this, I don't know. You figure a TV which is suppose to have the best picture quality, you'd want to start with the best picture quality.

I have an e6 OLED. The PS4 Pro works fine for supporting 4k and HDR. Most of the issues I notice people with OLED having happen to be because of their audio system. I still think it's stupid to only have 1 HDMI out. If you're buying an expensive TV, you probably are not going to live with cheap TV speakers.
 
Will you be able to upgrade the regular PS4 to PS4 Pro with the patch disc. I was able to upgrade my PS3 to play PS4 games using this one weird trick.
 
As others have mentioned, I'm not too worried about this, but I do think it's stupid to force a render resolution if it gives worse performance. The biggest concern is something like World of Final Fantasy, where the actual graphics look worse: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1312485

That's a bug though, and with fragmenting the player base, it's not really a surprise that this could happen. (A company doesn't fully test their own software? Say it ain't so!)

Finally, SSD performance has been a disappointment, and isn't twice as fast, despite being on SATA 3, but it is faster. And I'm upset that I still need my Samsung UHD Blu-Ray player, because the Pro doesn't support the discs, nor does the Xbox One S support Dolby Atmos, and both consoles decided to only have one HDMI out, so my audio got downgraded both with the One S and the Pro.

That said, I do enjoy the Pro though and have hope for it. This is more of the console that we should have gotten from the beginning.

Xbox one is adding dolby atmos in the next update. They announced it 3 weeks ago
 
First, OLED has dropped in price significantly. Only 2 models LG sells are over $5k. Are the models still more expensive than LCD TVs? Yes.

Second, and this is LG's fault, you need to enable Deep Color for HDR, which initially starts in the off position. Why they did this, I don't know. You figure a TV which is suppose to have the best picture quality, you'd want to start with the best picture quality.

I have an e6 OLED. The PS4 Pro works fine for supporting 4k and HDR. Most of the issues I notice people with OLED having happen to be because of their audio system. I still think it's stupid to only have 1 HDMI out. If you're buying an expensive TV, you probably are not going to live with cheap TV speakers.

actually curious here... There are systems that have two HDMI outputs? In software im guessing you pick one for audio and one for video? I'm very surprised by this. Never seen that before. I'm used to just using an HDMI receiver/amplifier.
 
actually curious here... There are systems that have two HDMI outputs? In software im guessing you pick one for audio and one for video? I'm very surprised by this. Never seen that before. I'm used to just using an HDMI receiver/amplifier.

HDR is a tricky subject. When talking about HDR, The Xbox One and PS4 Pro use HDR 10, which was announced only about a year ago, and really was only started to be properly supported with 2016 television sets. The latest audio was Dolby Atmos on the other hand, which came out in 2014 for home theaters. There's DTS:X, but I view that similarly to Dolby Vision. You do have television sets and receivers which support them, but there's really no media at the time which supports them.

HDCP also requires that you send an audio and video signal together. Unfortunately, if one of the devices, such as your receiver, doesn't support HDR, you're going to lose it. As people also tend to upgrade their televisions far more often than they upgrade their audio system, most UHD players come with two HDMI outputs for compatibility, one for your television, and one for your receiver. This way, if you bought your 7.2.4 surround system last year which doesn't support HDMI 2.0a & HDCP 2.2, you're not going to have to spend several thousand more to replace it, just so you can get HDR.
 
Last edited:
Maybe they should just upgrade their hardware.

Oh that's right, they can't, it's a console.
 
Maybe they should just upgrade their hardware.

Oh that's right, they can't, it's a console.

You would have the same problem regardless even with a computer. Also, upgrading the computer hardware carries it's own form of headaches.
 
Second, and this is LG's fault, you need to enable Deep Color for HDR, which initially starts in the off position. Why they did this, I don't know. You figure a TV which is suppose to have the best picture quality, you'd want to start with the best picture quality.

Similar to this are Sonys own 4K sets. You have to go into the settings and switch the HDMI inputs from "Standard" to "Enhanced". The tv warns that normal HDMI signals won't display on the enhanced setting and it requires the TV to reboot after setting.

Doesn't fully make sense to me, but until I made the switch my color output was YUV420 with 2K HDR, PC RGB and 4K HDR.
 
Back
Top