Xbox Series X just beat PS5 in the hottest game of the year

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By Tom Pritchard
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Want Cyberpunk 2077 in high resolution? Better have an Xbox Series X

Cyberpunk 2077 keanu reeves
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

Cyberpunk 2077 finally arrives this week, putting an end to an extended production cycle and countless delays. The question now is, of course, which next-gen console plays it the best? 

Well, we have some good news or some bad news, depending which side of the console war you’re on. Because it turns out that the Xbox Series X has an advantage over the PS5.

VGC has uncovered one key difference between the PlayStation and Xbox versions of the game when you’re playing on a next-gen console. The PS5 has a performance mode in the settings, and when activated the resolution takes a minor hit to give the console what it needs to try and hit 60 frames per second. 

The Xbox Series X has this too, but it has an extra “quality mode” that does the exact opposite. If you’re willing to play at 30fps you can boost the resolution to its uppermost limit.

A lot of people would argue that frame rate is more important than resolution, and they make an excellent point. But not everyone's the same, and at least the Xbox Series X gives you the option of choosing between prioritizing resolution or trying to hit that sweet 60fps cap. 

As for the PC version, it seems like it performs better than the console versions. According to Tom’s Hardware you’ll need the latest Nvidia RTX 3090 GPU if you want any chance of hitting 4K 60FPS. Even downgrading to 1440p 60FPS is going to need something akin to an RTX 3080. That said, it seems like you can get one or the other with slightly less advanced hardware.

One thing we should note right now is that the current version of Cyberpunk 2077 is a last-gen game, playing on the PS5 and Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility. A next-gen upgrade isn’t due until sometime next year, which means it hasn’t been optimized for the more advanced hardware and can’t take full advantage of what’s on offer. 

The only question is whether it will be enough to hit the coveted 4K60FPS level. Or possibly even 120FPS at lower resolutions. We won't know for sure until someone at CD Projekt Red gives us more information.

Of course, right now the question of which next-gen console to buy is mostly arbitrary. And no we’re not going to be the annoying people that insist all games should be played on PC. No, the truth of it is that since the Xbox Series X and PS5 are in such short supply, the console wars are basically dead right now. When a few seconds is all it takes to fail at buying a console, you can’t afford to be that picky.

Plus, we’re still technically in the pre-release window and we know Cyberpunk is getting a big day one patch. That may well unlock quality mode on the PS5.

Tom Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • russell_john
    People are so dumb, they turn everything up to Ultra and then whine because they can't hit 60 FPS when they could just take a little time customizing the graphics by turning down a setting or two, hit their 60 FPS target and barely notice any difference in looks, especially when you are playing the game rather than just staring at a static screen ...... RDR2 PC was the same way ..... But .... but .... but I can't play with all the settings on Ultra which isn't even a technical term it's mainly a market gimmick .... I dare anyone to define Ultra as it relates to the actual hardware measurements such as TFLOPS or memory bandwidth or pixel rate or texture rate .....

    Instead of low, medium and high you have high, very high and ultra because it sounds better .... It's all just marketing BS
    Reply
  • amfahlsing89
    The next gen versions of the game aren't out yet, so this is just running in back compatibility mode. This is more reflective of the advantage Xbox One X has over the PS4 Pro. I think we need to wait until they release the next gen versions before making any definitive claims about performance between PS5 and Series X.
    Reply
  • kylekey
    Clickbait article. Like amfahlsing89 said, these are only backward compatible versions, and they both still look really bad compared to PC, which is itself hardly the standard bearer for AAA polish.
    Reply