Rumour: PS4 Update to Add Pro 'Boost Mode', Upping Frame Rate of Unpatched Games

Awesome.

Cool is Good Being Pro!

That would be awesome if true

I'd love an excuse to go back and finish Bloodborne... this might do it!

This...sounds good on paper but some games are built for specific framerates. Animations and the like to run at 30. Remember what happens when you emulate StarFox without considering OG hardware and how the game was made to be playable at that FPS? I agree with @get2sammyb that letting games do this is fine, but in some it will definitely be a negative due to how they were made with constraints in mind

I'm assuming this won't bypass existing existing frame rate caps? So for the most part it'd just make games run much closer to them anyway and outside of Nintendo not many developers actually tie in framerates to gameplay. It'll be fun to see what happens but as digital foundry found out with the Arkham City patch the Pro is limited by the cpu, meaning we'd only see small fps gains when left to its own devices if it can unlock the framerate

If it's true and is noticeable then I would probably upgrade at that point. Though since I won't have a 4K tv for a while I would also like more system level controls for performance e.g. downsampling to 1080p if not supported by the game or the option to activate "base" mode for any game with pro performance issues.

My guess would be that this would just enable the faster CPU clock and not much else. Even with just the CPU, this would be a big help for some older games! For it to use the other GPU would likely require weird emulation, which seems unlikely.

So does that mean that I can finally play Bloodborne on 60fps?

I guess there is a god out there.

I can already see the benefits in games like the Witcher and Bloodborne. Hopefully this is true.

I hope this is true, I've heard that kinda works on 360 BC games on the Xbox one. I am like you a bit wary though, I'll keep my eyes peeled at Digital Foundry.

I'd rather see more specific Pro patches for all big selling games.

But I guess that's asking too much and companies often count on remaster releases on the next system.

This is probably as good as it will get for older PS4 games.

@BLP_Software the games will still run at 30 - they won't magically become 60fps - it just means the second gpu can be used to stabilise it - so a game like just cause 3 which barely hits 20 may now achieve a constant 30 (which is what the game was made for) without needing a patch

@SoulsBourne128 no. The game was created for 30fps - you will just have a much stable 30fps with little to no drops (if the process works correctly)

I expected this at launch and was a bit surprised it wasn't there, I guess it was down to not wanting to make old PS4 users feel more like second class citizens. As others have said though, without an official patch you'll probably find most games locked to 30 fps without a patch which will have been put there to prevent choppy gameplay from unstable framerate and screen tearing. Any well optimised game will not benefit from this patch, but things like Fallout 4 and Jus Cause may well see improvements.

get ready for all those click-bait articles when this feature makes some games play worse!

@get2sammyb Has that been proven? Xbox One S does it & none of their games have suffered from any buggy performance from the boost to frame rates.

People should temper expectations, this is NOT going to make 30fps instantly run at 60fps. I would expect Xbox One S type improvements where games will run at a steady 30fps above with no dips, tearing etc.

@carlos82 Nah, you won't be seeing frame rates exceeding caps or anything like that. I imagine that this will primarily help games keep a stable frame rate - stuff like The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 might end up really benefiting from this.

A little boost can make a big difference, one piece pirate warriors 3 would benefit massively!

This will make me at least consider a Pro. I'll wait for the tested results though. And a price drop probably.

Nice 'option' 😊 ... gives me another reason to upgrade from vanilla!

Now finally I can play bloodborne and the witcher 3 at stable 30 fps.

@SoulsBourne128 There's no way this feature can double frame-rate on games, the best we can hope is stable 30 fps.

@Dreamcaster-X But their 4k scaler introduces some serious lag.

@ShogunRok Exactly though Fallout 4 is supposed to be finally getting Pro support next week. Witcher 3 and AC Unity should greatly benefit from this though if true.

@GBMatthew Whoops, you're right, Fallout 4's getting a Pro patch anyway so that should run better regardless.

@slampog THIS!

Hmm I have almost agreed with my wife that my tech purchase for this year is a PS4 Pro to 'agument' my VR... and Argos now has a new batch of stock...

Hopefully this makes games load faster due to SATA 3? Maybe...

@adf86 Controversy! Find Todd and burn him at the stake!

Perfect use of the unpatched on disc version of Assassins Creed Unity, which was unlocked fps until patch.

Wow, Wow and wow ! This is what I was dreaming about! Bluray 3D in vr, pro in all games and external disk (I solved this already with purchase of seagate firecuda 2TB).

Great job Sony! I'm going to try it today ( beta 2).

Never understood why this wasn't in from the start. At most I expected the GPU to be 'halved' but still keep the slightly higher clock speed and CPU clock speed too.

Instead of only a few games to actually benefit from the extra power, so many more could be improved without the developers needing to lift a finger. Of course it would be nice if they could/would optimise their games for the Pro - Increase the resolution above 1080p, improve the quality of the visual settings and/or raise the frame rate cap - games that run at 30fps won't suddenly run at 60fps but what it will mean is that all those games with unlocked frame rates and/or dynamic resolutions should run more consistently at their maximum capped rate - like 1080/30 or 1080/60 depending on the game instead of having drops in either/both areas.

Anyway, along with the Internal HDD support, this has been a day of great news for me...

And there is also psvr new software version online. Must have something to do with bluray 3D maybe?

Awesome hopefully the bog in the witcher 3 will get a benefit

Not sure if this is allowed but here is a nice video showing AC Unity running in the Pro Boost Mode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFxs-Kdkn1I

@ShogunRok this has been confirmed now too as part of the update. I still haven't played the Witcher dlc yet so this may be the best time and maybe Tomb Raider definitive edition might run at a solid 60 fps, I can't wait

I'm currently testing 4.50 beta 2 and can confirm boost mode on the Pro in system settings.There are videos of Evil within and Just cause 3 running with enhanced framerates🙂

Very interesting. This could tempt me into getting one if it works well on a lot of games.

If this gives me 60 fps Bloodborne, I'm in 100%.
If it gives me locked 30 in Bloodborne I'll get a Pro when the price comes down a bit more.

@TheGZeus It can't make games run better than their 'capped' level. Bloodbourne was capped to 30fps and so it will only run at 30fps. The point of this 'boost' is to enhance games with unlocked frame rates and/or dynamic resolution scaling to run xconsisently at their target level.

That means games like Bloodbourne and Dark Souls 3 can ONLY run at 1080/30 but unlike the PS4 version, will not suffer frame rate drops. It could also remove texture streaming and screen tear issues too.

For a game to run at more than their 'capped' rate, a developer would need to patch that in. The whole point of the 'boost' mode is to help all those games with performance issues on the PS4 and help them run closer, if not at the target performance. That means NO game will run above 1080p or above the maximum frame rate the base PS4 could reach - at least not unless the developers patches in Pro support or increases the frame rate cap.

Games that run perfectly at a locked resolution/frame rate and don't have a Pro patch will run identically to the PS4 regardless - maybe less screen tear, texture streaming, pop-in if any of that occurred. What it means is that games that are supposed to be 30fps (or 60fps) but can drop to 20fps (or 40fps), games that run at 1080p but can drop to 900p (or lower) should run far more consistently, maybe even perfectly depending on how much of the Pro's extra power is utilised.

@hadlee73 There is quite a boost from 1.6ghz to 2.1ghz per core - around 30% overall. RAM bandwidth also has a 30% boost and if they allow the whole GPU to be used at the 'Pro' level, that's over 200% boost.

The games that have CPU bottlenecking, may not bottleneck as it can handle 30% more information per second. Even if it does, it won't be anywhere near as impacting or last as long. Bottlenecking occurs when the CPU can't work fast enough and some workload backs up. The game slows until the CPU can get through that workload. If frame rates are directly related to CPU limitations, you would see a 30% boost in these. Identical games running on the xbox show a 9% boost over PS4 due to the faster CPU where certain aspects are CPU bound - usually areas with high numbers of AI NPC's.

Biters

So I can finally have stable 60fps on ffxiv and hopefully no frame drops at all?

Awsome new's I could never go back to the old model, we have 2 regular PS4's running upstair's for the kids and in comparison to the Pro they suck, and the noise, THE NOISE!