Topic: PS4 Pro - Boost Mode and what it could mean for games....

Copy and pasted from NeoGAF! http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1340529&page=78 This has links to videos too...

Howdy, thought everyone might like a summary for this long thread. Here's all the impressions posted here, along with some video links. As with all individual impressions, keep in mind that people have differing views of what constitutes a framerate improvement, and sometimes are wrong that there is one at all. (This is especially true since a very large portion of the below impressions come from one user.)

TOTAL GAMES: 64
GAMES WITH NO IMPROVEMENT SEEN: 8
GAMES REPORTED TO CRASH OR RUN WORSE: 3*

*Note that crashes may be unrelated to Boost mode

GAME LIST
Arcania - Framerate improvements
Assassin's Creed Black Flag - No visibile improvements
Assassin's Creed Unity - Large framerate improvements
Assetto Corsa - Framerate improvements
Attack on Titan - Framerate improvements
Batman Arkham Knight - Framerate improvements
Batman The Telltale Series - Framerate possibly improved, still bad
Battlefield 4 - Framerate improvements in multiplayer
Bioshock Infinite - Framerate improvements
Bloodborne - Framerate improvements in the rare cases where it drops far, but little visible difference during regular gameplay. Much faster load times.
Broforce - Improved framerate, but still not smooth
Call of Duty Ghosts - Better hold to 60fps in multiplayer
Contrast - Framerate improvements
Costume Quest 2 - Framerate improvements
Dark Cloud 2 - No visible improvements
Darksiders 2 - Framerate improvements, tearing gone
Dark Souls III - Framerate improvements, still framepacing issues.
Daylight - Framerate improvements
Dead Island - Still stuttery, no visible improvement
Dead Nation - Framerate improvements
Destiny - Slightly faster load times
Dishonored - Framerate improvements
Dragon Age Inquisition - Maybe minor framerate improvements
Dragon Quest Builders - No visible improvement
Driveclub - Framerate already locked 30fps, no improvement. Motion blur sometimes slightly improved.
Dying Light - Framerate possibly improved, but also report of added stuttering
EDF 4.1 - Framerate possibly improved
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture - Framerate improved, but still issues
The Evil Within - Framerate greatly improved, especially when not letterboxed. Faster load times
Final Fantasy XIV - Improved framerate in populated zones
Furi - Framerate improvements, much less tearing
Grand Theft Auto V - Improved framerate in city driving
Grow Home - Very stuttery, no visible improvements (possibly worse?)
Homefront Revolution - Framerate improvements
Just Cause 3 - Framerate greatly improved, especially during explosive chaos.
Killzone Shadow Fall - Minor framerate improvements
Legend of Kay - Framerate improvements
Lords of the Fallen - Framerate improvements, tearing much reduced
Mad Max - Framerate improvements
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Framerate improvements. Faster loading times.
Oddworld New and Tasty - Framerate improvements
Project Cars - Framerate improvements, though still some issues in crowded wet conditions
Pure Pool - Framerate improvements
Rainbow 6 Siege - Framerate greatly improved in uncapped Terrorist Hunt mode.
Resident Evil 5 - Framerate improvements
Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Framerate improvements, but also report of crashing
Saints Row 4 - Framerate improvements, but still not consistent
Shadow Warrior - Large framerate improvements
Sleeping Dogs - Framerate improvements on foot, but still issues when moving quickly in cars
Soma - Crashes, or runs inconsistently and worse than without boost
Star Wars Battlefront - Framerate improvements
Street Fighter V - Faster load times
Table Top Racing - Framerate improvements
Tales from the Borderlands - No comparisons given
The Talos Principle - Framerate improvements
Tembo the Badass Elephant - Crashes. May be unrelated to boost mode
Tomb Raider - Framerate improvements
Trivial Pursuit Live - Still stuttery, no visible improvement
Until Dawn - Framerate improvements
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - Framerate improvements
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate - Framerate improvements
War Thunder - Framerate improvements
Witcher 3 - Framerate improvements in previous problem areas. Much faster load times.
Yakuza 0 - Framerate improvements, most tearing eliminated

Little Big Planet and Rocket League are also improved as well according to other posts after this...

This gives some indication on what the 'Boost' mode on PS4 Pro could bring to 'older' non-patched games.

Great stuff.

Hopefully we still see bespoke upgrades from now on (1440 / 1800 / 4k etc) and this isn't the normal route AA and AAA companies go down with just relying on boost mode.

@themcnoisy I don't know if too many developers will bother with 'Pro' enhanced modes on 'old' games. Sonys studios are most likely as its in their parent company's best interest. I guess it would depend on whether or not those games are still current and/or could generate sales by adding it. Why would something like 'Thief' for example get an upgrade? Why would developers spend time optimising the game for the new hardware? They could do a 'token' resolution increase but with Sony stipulating that frame rates can't (or shouldn't) be worse, they would have to take the time to ensure that the boost is set at a level to make a visible difference, without affecting the way textures look, ensure that it 'plays' as well as it did on PS4 (or better) etc for a game that's unlikely to generate any extra income for them when they could use the time/staff to make something new.

A game that's still selling, still on peoples play list, still getting 'developer' support etc makes more sense. CD Project Red already stated that they have moved on from the Witcher 3 and won't be adding any 'Pro enhanced modes' because their team are now working on their next Project - Cyberpunk 2077.I can see the majority of new releases getting enhanced and certainly all of Sony's exclusives.

In an ideal world, we shouldn't have to rely on 'Boost' mode to get games to run at their 'target' level. Games should release and play at that 'target' level on day 1. This gen though seems to be the gen of dynamic scaling and checkerboard rendering and we still can't keep a locked frame rate. I still prefer a 'locked' 30fps to a game targeting 60fps and running anywhere between 40 and 55fps.

I am still glad they have added this. Nothing is worse than having all that power sat doing nothing and games not running well. This was one of my biggest complaints about the Pro. Why spend £350 to play a few games better than the PS4 can? Why buy something with all that power and then see games struggling to run consistently and exactly the same as 'inferior' hardware?

Nice list, Thanks for putting this together!

@Mega-Gazz I can't take any credit at all - its purely a cut and paste from a poster on NeoGAF. I thought though it would be of great interest to members of this community who may not read NeoGAF's forums. Unfortunately we don't have any technical details like exactly how much of improvement or what the Pro's configuration for the Boost mode. Most of it seems peoples impression rather than any concrete evidence so we will have to wait until Digital Foundry do their analysis.

Street Fighter V has improved loading times and according to one tester, these are the figures they had
Launching the game to SFV Logo screen:
Normal: 42.3 s
Boost: 35.6 s

Main Menu to Stage Select (for Versus):
Normal: 20.2 s
Boost: 14.4 s

Character Select to Match in Hillside Plaza (Ryu and Ken selected):
Normal: 20.7 s
Boost: 17.3 s

Loading times aren't a 'big deal' to me - certainly not if they are less than a minute. The only time its really annoying is during a game when you die - reloading a checkpoint - especially on 'hard/brutal' difficulty settings. If you spend more time in loading screens than gaming, then its a concern but I am not bothered about saving a few seconds here and there.

I don't have many of those games on my PS4 and the few I have are not 'currently' on my playlist. Batman (for example) I have beaten the story to 100% (all side quests and riddler challenges) so not ready to replay yet.

I keep thinking about buying the Witcher 3 (GOTY) edition as I didn't get the DLC (yet) for XB1 but with Horizon and Mass Effect out next month, its not high on my priority list. I am more inclined to buy it though now because of the boost - had it had Pro support, it would definitely have been bought again but was deciding whether to get the PS4 GOTY or just buy the DLC on XB1. Seems like I may have a good reason to buy on PS4 now...

@BAMozzy I absolutely hate loading times! Even saving just 3/4 seconds per load is a big difference to me. I game usually for between 1 and 2 hours a night. So time is valuable and that again is great news. Especially as I die alot lol.

@themcnoisy As someone who can still remember the days of cassette loading, the loading times of modern games are almost instantaneous by comparison. The only ones that bother me are the checkpoint ones which seem to take ages considering most of the assets should be loaded up. I can understand them taking a while (by modern standards) on the first loading but not the 2nd, 3rd etc.

In a perfect world, I would certainly prefer no loading times. However in terms of the 'boost' mode, compared to the benefits to game performance, saving a few seconds of loading time is not a big deal to me. If games took 2 or 3 mins to load (or longer) and load times were cut in half (or more) then it would be more significant but saving a few seconds isn't that big of a deal. That doesn't mean I am 'not happy' to save a few seconds and prefer to have that than not but the main reason I want 'boost' mode is to improve game performance.

I don't play games like Bloodbourne or Dark Souls so I don't tend to be staring at load screens to often. Playing games like CoD, TF2 etc on hardest difficulty can lead to a few checkpoint restarts but sometimes that 30secs break can be a good thing to prepare for the hectic battle. Long load times after 'cheap' deaths (like frustrating platforming sections with no enemies) are more annoying than long load times after hectic combat deaths in my opinion.

As far as I am concerned, Boost mode is important to me to improve game performance. If it also improves loading times, bonus but I wouldn't be upset if load times stayed the same.

Witcher 3 - Framerate improvements in previous problem areas. Much faster load times.

Nice to see I might actually be able to play Just Cause 3.

@BAMozzy I was lucky enough to be accepted for the beta today so I've been having a little play on Fallout 4 which is much smoother than before. I haven't noticed any significant loading gains but outdoor areas are very smooth and I can even walk around my over built Sanctuary without it resembling a bad stop motion video.

Just tested Witcher 3 loading times using the share button and it took 8 seconds less to get to the title screen and then 10 seconds less to load my file which happens to be some underground dungeon at the moment so this gap could be wider if outdoors. Also couldn't test framerate due to been indoors, I'm going to do more testing tomorrow when I have extra free time but the results are promising so far

@carlos82 That's great to know. It would be nice to know exactly how much of the Pro is used for Boost mode and then maybe we could predict the amount of improvements and whether or not there is any likelihood that some drops may still be experienced. Either way though, its great that Sony have at last given us a console befitting of the PS4 Pro name. Only enhancing a few games is 'hardly' a Pro console and having all that power sitting there doing nothing is a waste...

Digital Foundry have some information about Boost Mode...

It seems that the Boost mode still halves the GPU but doesn't downclock the CPU and GPU to PS4 levels.

This means that we get the 14% GPU boost, a 30% boost in CPU and (maybe) increased RAM bandwidth whhich helps with texture loading!

Racing games can have upto 38% improvement in performance - less screen tear too

@BAMozzy you beat me to it, I've just been watching these with great interest and I'm curious as to why the gpu still isn't fully uterlized, even if I suspect it's because most games will hit the cpu limit long before the gpu comes into play. Project Cars in particular looks transformative, so much so I may pick it up in the sale.

From my end The Witcher 3 is even more of a joy to play now especially in the likes of Novigrad, I wish this had an HDR patch and now that I've finished Resident Evil 7 I'll be back on Yakuza 0 hoping that the screen tearing has almost gone

@carlos82 Using only half the GPU keeps exactly the same core structure as the base PS4 - the same number of cores etc. The only difference is the higher clock speeds. This maybe less likely to cause issues with games that aren't patched and literally using the extra clock speed to process the data quicker and thus improve the frame rate.

It also means that we will see a variety of improvement depending on where the bottleneck was occurring that caused the drops. Games that were restricted by the limitations of the GPU will see up to 14% increase in performance but those limited by the CPU should see up to 30% improvements. Those affected by both - such as Project Cars are seeing a bigger boost because of the combined improvements. The RAM boost appears to be helpig with Texture Loading/streaming too.

One thing I noticed is that not only are we seeing frame rate improvements but also frame pacing too...

Its not enough of a boost throughout to completely eradicate all issues entirely across all games but its certainly better than nothing and appears to transform a number of games into being actually playable now... AC:Unity for example

@BAMozzy that makes a lot of sense just using the clock speed and bandwidth to boost performance, this update has been one of the best for both versions of the console so far. With this new mode just been that nice little extra which has given me a reason to dig through my library and enjoy some games that I may never have gone back to otherwise.

Now with the likes of the apparent FFXV 60fps mode and especially Horizon coming soon, I feel like this is the time that we'll start to see what the Pro can really do when it's advantages are considered during the development cycle as opposed to simply been patched in afterwards.