Home Gaming Shadow of War shows just how far ahead the Xbox One X is next to the PS4 Pro

Shadow of War shows just how far ahead the Xbox One X is next to the PS4 Pro

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Shadow of War looks insane on Xbox One X

The Xbox One X is just weeks away from launch (and a little longer, locally), but already the power differential between it and the PS4 Pro is being picked apart in recent releases. Shadow of War is one such example – a game that is full of intense details and massive draw distance that bring even the most powerful PCs down to a crawl at high resolutions. The Xbox One X then should put in a good showing, and Digital Foundry found it to exceed expectations.

There are two key differences here when you take Microsoft and Sony’s two best consoles. The PS4 Pro already puts in a good showing with Shadow of War, hitting around 1620p and injecting improved visual settings with the game overall. It’s a dynamic resolution that changes too, but one that also struggles to load good textures in. Memory is to blame here, and it’s where the Xbox One X’s 12GB of GDDR5 comes into play. Loading 4K texture packs is no issue for the console, and even an early Gamescom build of the game shows a massive leap forward in visual quality via textures alone.

Resolution then only services to widen this gap, and the Xbox One X features some interesting configurations here. Unlike on the PS4 Pro, dynamic resolution scaling can actually be turned off here, which pushed Shadow of War to a native 4K (2160p). From there you can enable settings that prioritise this resolution or visual quality settings, with Digital Foundry actually finding the latter to be the better option. In fact, Shadow of War has so many visual options that a dynamic resolution with all of these dialled up makes for a better experience, but having the ability to decide is neat.

Simply put, the Xbox One X is managing to hit 4K at a mostly solid 30FPS with a bunch of high-end visual settings turned way up, making the difference between it and a high-end PC almost negligible. There isn’t a PC on earth that costs nearly close to the Xbox One X that could output what’s happening here, which is really the head turner in this story. PC might offer a better experience overall if you have the money to pour into it, but the Xbox One X is standing (so far) well ahead of the pack in this bracket.

There’s much more to dissect when the console launches, but this is a very promising start indeed.

Last Updated: October 20, 2017

23 Comments

  1. EyeGodZA

    October 20, 2017 at 12:42

    HA! In your FACE stupid $ony fanboy lo$er noob$! Microsoft FTW!!!1!

    Reply

    • Ottokie

      October 20, 2017 at 13:04

      I don’t think the letter S is banned here, though I might be mistaken.

      Reply

    • Original Heretic

      October 20, 2017 at 13:05

      Yes, MS does ftw as often as they can. And the fanboys take it with a smile.

      Reply

  2. Ottokie

    October 20, 2017 at 13:03

    “mostly solid 30FPS”

    You say it like that’s a good thing xD

    Reply

    • Skyblue

      October 20, 2017 at 13:10

      Lol. The difference is rather stark though and I must say, watching the Xbox One X running the game side by side with 35k PC setups at r@ge, it really is impressive for a 7.5k console.

      Reply

  3. Guild

    October 20, 2017 at 13:23

    Pieter Kruger hasn’t commented yet with accusations again that Sandy is a Pony fanboi? He on holiday or something?

    Reply

  4. Admiral Chief

    October 20, 2017 at 14:38

    Looks like Xoon(TM) is NAO

    Reply

  5. Viper_ZA

    October 20, 2017 at 15:21

    Will wait for GOTY edition. One X already ordered.

    Reply

  6. Fweds

    October 20, 2017 at 16:28

    Great news, good to see console power improving so quickly now.

    Reply

  7. Mr. New Vegas

    October 22, 2017 at 07:05

    Xbox One X is 100% useless Box, it has Zero exclusives so why should I choose X over PC?
    The only reason I own consoles is for the Exclusive games, otherwise PC does everything MUCH MUCH better.

    Reply

    • Alessandro Barbosa

      October 23, 2017 at 08:19

      “it has Zero exclusives so why should I choose X over PC?”

      It’s R7.5k and does things a PC of that price could never do. At least one compelling reason

      Reply

      • Nikola

        October 23, 2017 at 10:06

        No exclusive’s I agree rather have a PS4 and play rest on PC. I see zero value getting Xbox One X unless you upgrading from an original Xbox…

        Reply

        • Mr. New Vegas

          November 3, 2017 at 09:59

          Thats my situation, PS4Pro for exclusives, 1080Ti for everything else, playing Demon Souls in almost 8K downscale to 4K on PS3 emulator, amazing.

          Reply

      • Mr. New Vegas

        November 3, 2017 at 09:58

        In glorious 30fps? Nope thank you.
        I agree about the price, somewhat . Because for 200-300$ more you can build a PC that will do 4K/30 but it will be a PC that can do everything PC does and have no backwards compatibility issues, plus emulators, internet and all that.
        With this trick you can have a 1000-1200$ PC for price of Xbox one x.
        Everyone needs a PC, so people buy a basic PC, thats 400-500$ right?
        Now you want xbox one x? Thats 500$
        Merge them (Thats USD prices in USA, convert to any local currency and its same deal)
        You have 1K for a PC

        I have 1080Ti, so to buy a console i need a actual reason to buy inferior product, i own PS4Pro +PSVR because of exclusives, thats it. I only care about Exclsuives

        BTW i had OG X1 it also cost 500$, i had it imported and paid almost twice as much
        Eventually i played 2 games on it Ryzen and that Zombie game, i kept it for quantum break and gears, until the day they said we will be selling them on PC, I sold my xbox for 300$ and kicnect for 50$

        What they can offer me, is if Xbox one x forces all x360 game into 4K (I would like to play Lost Odyssey in 4K) and if they announce that they keeping Halo and gears on xbox only, no more windows, than ill buy Xbox one x

        Reply

    • Tiaan Basson

      November 2, 2017 at 11:42

      “Zero exclusives” – Are you stating facts?

      Reply

      • Mr. New Vegas

        November 3, 2017 at 09:59

        Well you right, Halo 5 was never ported to PC and so is Halo HD colelction

        Reply

  8. Steffmeister

    October 23, 2017 at 13:03

    I would be tempted to jump back to the Xbox side, but after experiencing all of Naughty Dog’s games, I will always have to have an PS console as well.

    Reply

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