
Sony has mentioned this before, but the potential benefits of backwards compatibility are now in bold text over on the official PS5 webpage. Listed under the system's features, one bullet point, titled 'Game Boost', reads: "Enjoy faster and smoother frame rates in select PS4 and PS VR games."
It's still a vague description, but it's fair to assume that a lot of PS4 titles will benefit from the improved PS5 hardware right off the bat. Of course, some PS4 games are also getting full next-gen upgrades β many of which will be made available for free. For more information on that, be sure to check out this article: PS4 to PS5: All Games with Confirmed Free Upgrades.
In any case, it'll be interesting to see how certain PS4 games perform on PS5. For example, can we expect Bloodborne's frame rate to improve when it's running off the PS5's super fast SSD? We'll have to wait and see.
[source playstation.com]
Comments 46
Faster framerate from not smooth 30 fps to smooth 30 fps or from 30 fps to 60 fps? I hope it's the later π
Sounds great! I'm assuming games that offered "unlocked frame rate" will benefit from this - looking forward to revisiting Killzone Shadow Fall!
I remember the early model PS3s made my playing of Odin Sphere (back when it was just on PS2) more enjoyable due to faster loading times. I guess smoother frame rates can be beneficial to some games. A friend told me Last Of Us on PS4 fixed up my issues with aiming due to the 60fps.
@wiiware You likely won't see PS4 games jumping from 30fps to 60fps because of the PS5. Games that run at 30fps are capped at that frame rate β they won't be able to go over 30fps unless they're updated to do so.
With that in mind, removing the 30fps cap is what a lot of these full PS5 upgrades will be doing.
@helbertpina Yeah, that's a good point. There are a number of games on PS4 that already offer a 'performance' mode that unlocks the frame rate. Monster Hunter World, for example. In theory, on PS5, these games should be more stable.
The question is, which gamesβ have key gameplay mechanics designed around a 30FPS frame rate? Some games, especially older ones, get somewhat wonky when you uncap the frame rate!
Before you all rise your hopes up. Only games that will benefit with much smoother frame rates are the ones that are capped at 60fps but couldn't deliver it on PS4 and the ones that have unlocked frame rates. The 30 FPS capped games won't have 60fps magically, they will however get smoother 30fps without dips if it was the case on PS4. Some games have toggle in option to go from locked to unlocked FPS , other games don't. Those which don't, need a patch to be made to unlock framerate.
Im hoping Sony give us a full teardown of the console like Mark Cerney said they woukd at some point soon. I cant see any reason why they need to delay doing it any further. Hell, people have already bought them.
Sounds like Boost Mode from the PS4 Pro.
Here is what it will mean:
Games that target 30/60fps, but not locked during heavy scenes, might get a locked framerate.
Games using dynamic resolution scaling might lock at the target resolution (or at least hit the target resolution more often/not have as drastic of a resolution drop)
Games with an unlocked framerate might see improved framerates
I say "might" not to diss PS5, but because one ever knows how things are programmed behind the scenes. It's a very safe bet that we will see these improvements, but, much like Sony, saying "will" could lead to backlash if something doesn't work as expected at the game level.
How does this compare to Microsoft's approach?
It's very similar, except that Microsoft is also adding in some enhancements into it's BC capabilities - texture filtering (which X1X already does), Auto HDR (for games that don't support HDR). Microsoft is also going to work with developers to make games run at higher native resolutions (much like X1X already does for select X360/OG Xbox games), and doubling the framerate - but slight modification is necessary to do this.
I guess the difference is that Sony isn't modifying anything, it's just letting games run their PS4/Pro base games with the full PS5 hardware.
Microsoft is adding some tweaks - some that require no work at all, and some that would require some manual changes.
@ShogunRok I hope sony removing most of their 1st party games framerate cap, it will be cool to play uncharted 4, ghost, and others with smoother framerate.
@wiiware The fact that there appears to be no apparent difference between the two modes in Ghost on the Pro definitely leads me to think that was done with PS5 in mind.
Arkham Knight, Witcher 3 and The Last Guardian are all I want. Going from a frankly terrible framerate on base PS4 to 30-60fps would be fantastic.
@wiiware For sure. I think Sony will have some plans in place for its first party games β I can definitely see The Last of Us: Part II and Ghost of Tsushima getting full PS5 upgrades, for example.
@helbertpina I recently went back and finished Killzone on the PS4 Pro. There is a menu option for uncapped framerate π
Really hope games like Nioh, Bloodborne, Final Fantasy XV, Ghost of Tsushima and Jedi Fallen Order get to benefit from this so those games can perform more stably.
Crazy lack of clarity from both companies at various stages of the build to launch. Hoping that we get clear and concise info in the next few weeks about stuff like this.
I hope life of black tiger will get a boost.
Hopefully this will sort out the problems in Knack 1 & 2.
Hopefully Control is on that list. That was rough on my PS4.
@ShogunRok But probably not free ones, if Spiderman is anything to go by.....
@JapaneseSonic yeah I mean, the games run fine and it's not constant dropping off, but with AK it's hugely noticeable with the frame drops and tearing whenever you're in the batmobile or fighting more than 3 enemies. With the Witcher, it's never hugely as smooth as it is on the Pro. TLG - let's not go there haha.
@ShogunRok @phil_j I hope so, I just hope it's a free patch at least for 2019 and 2020 games, and not paid remaster version like spider-man.
Any news on loading times for ps4 games? I'm itching to be able to play Xcom 2!
So i wonder what happens with uncapped games like God of War struggled to hit 60 FPS most of the time but can this mean it could possibly go to the 120 FPS / Hz or are they gonna be lame and make PS4 stuff only go up to PS4?
@TechaNinja I believe this was addressed during the PS5 deep dive - games with a PS4 Pro enhancements will run the PS4 Pro profile on PS5 - so if a PS4 Pro game had an unlocked framerate option (but base PS4 didn't), the game will have the unlocked framerate option running on PS5.
Regarding unlocked framerate and 120fps - it depends on if the unlocked framerate has an actual cap. In many cases a framerate might be unlocked, but cap at 60fps. However if the game is completely unbound, then the framerate will run as high as the hardware will let it go barring any kind of vertical sync that could also force a cap.
Dark Souls 3 might be a good case for Boost Mode as the PS4 Pro patch unlocked the framerate up to 60fps. It's possible DS3 could run at 60fps on PS5. Sekiro is another one - unlocked framerate up to 60fps, but the game hovers in the 40s on PS4 Pro.
Can we find out whether it will play games that are pro enhanced like a pro already??
As pointed out earlier you will not see improvements on capped games (fps/resolution) untill they are patched, and that can mean more work for the game developers, maybe the engine can't handle just a uncap frame rate. Not to many games running uncapped frame rates, even pro enhanced versions. Remember that boost mode on PS4 Pro didn't make a big change for older games even with uncapped frame rates. I remember second son with uncapped fps on ps4 pro was terrible, the engine didn't handle that very well.
Here's hopping for Uncharted 4 and Last Of Us II @ 60fps π€©π€© - comm'on Naughty Dog .. do it .. do it
PS: and less aggressive checkerboarding (no flickers)
@ShogunRok theres no way those games were developed and released without a PS5 upgrade in the works. Im hanging off playing TLoU2 again based on my belief of that haha
Playing PS4 games on PS5:

@Weebleman I tend to agree, especially when you consider the tech that's used in both!
Hopefully I can enter towns and Saint Denis without that minor frame drop in Red Dead Online.
I just want Kingdom Come Deliverance to load in less than five minutes.
So will the PS4 Pro's Boost Mode be supported on the PS5, or is this considered a separate bump?
@nessisonett I can't see things being a thing any more - it's about the way an event loop is programmed. It used to be that you'd have one loop that did all the logic, immediately rendered a frame and then looped again - old games in the MS-DOS end of the loop for a given processor speed, with the idea being that there was no multitasking, so the length of the loop was predictable.
Then when multitasking came in, you needed to check how long had passed since the last loop, and so you'd set the frame rate, and the logic would run the same number of times per second as the frame rate. This was a fairly efficient way to do things when you had a single processing core, as the delay would allow other processes to act, and then at the end of the delay the operating system would resume the game's process.
Then we got multi core systems with hyperthreading and the rest of it, and generally your game logic, physics, rendering logic and everything else are run in separate threads or even processes which communicate. This generally means that timing rates are independent. If you play KSP you might know that there are multiple 'frames' or 'ticks' of physics simulation to every frame rendered to screen in order to more closely approximate a continuous simulation using discrete mathematics.
@TeapotBuddha that'll likely depend on Firaxis or whoever made the port. I played on PC and loading times saw some benefit of installing to SSD for the vanilla campaign, but not as much as the optimisations for WOTC
Even the ps4 pro offered better performance for games that came out before 2016 and they look great! Im not getting a ps5 until horizon comes out for it though!
@Wormold ps4 is going down to 299 soon!
If you install a PS4 game on the PS5 will it at least be the PS4 Pro version of the game?
I just want clear confirmation that titles with a PS4 Pro mode will use it on PS5. I guess that will probably be the case especially with this vague news, but a definitive "yes" would be great.
@Stuffgamer1 in Mark Cerny's presentation he said that the console will have 3 modes of operation. Native PS5 legacy PS4 and PS4 Pro. So if the game was PS4 Pro enhanced you will play that version on ps5. But all this changes if the games will get PS5 patched.
@SilkySmile89 Oh, sweet! I didn't see whatever presentation that was so I missed that news. Thanks for the info. @conman15 Seems to be a yes.
@Stuffgamer1 the "tech spec" presentation from March :-? When they first announced BC.
Anyone have a list of games that either have a performance mode or runs at an uncapped frame rate? I can't wait to play these games once i got a PS5.
@TeapotBuddha To be fair the Vanilla PC game is terribly optimised. There's no real excuse for releasing it in the state they did. They seem to be doing better now though as WOTC performed a lot better even with loads of mods loaded, and Chimera Squad performed as you'd expect a game of that genre to (i.e. very well)
I still haven't played Spiderman or Days Gone or TLoU 2 or Death.S or Ghost.o.T so hopefully they will run better etc etc even tho I'm not to bothered because they look AMAZING now anyway
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