When The Last Of Us Part 1 came out a month or so ago, I wrote about the fact that I really loved that it was first major PlayStation game to launch with a 40 FPS mode alongside a bunch of other graphical options, and spoke about how I really hoped we’d see this in more major releases going forward (instead of getting patched in months later).
After spending the first few hours with God of War Ragnarok, I’m really happy to report on the fact that there are four different graphic modes, which I know people will be even happier to hear after certain discoveries in other games this week.
Now, I’m not bothered by a 30FPS mode, if it’s done well, but thankfully, there’s a lot more on offer here. Whilst I’m not Digital Foundry (and I’ll update this article if there’s a DF video live after this goes live), but here’s how I understand God of War’s Ragnarok graphics modes to be on PS5.
GOD OF WAR RAGNAROK GRAPHIC MODES
- Favour Resolution – 4K/30FPS Locked
- Favour Performance – 60 FPS Locked
- Favour Resolution (High Frame Rate On) – 4K/40FPS Locked
- Favour Performance (High Frame Rate On) – Unlocked Up To 120 FPS (mostly around 90-100 FPS so far)
Now, obviously, you’ll need a HDMI 2.1 TV to take advantage of the high frame rate modes which takes advantage of the full 120hz display to bring 40FPS and up to 120FPS into play, and so far, I’ve been playing on Favour Resolution with high frame rate turned on which looks absolutely stunning, and feels like a really fluid experience at 40FPS especially with VRR turned on, but even dropping to the performance mode, there wasn’t that huge noticeable drop in visual fidelity like we saw with titles such as Horizon Forbidden West at launch, so if you do want 60 or up to 120 FPS, that’s totally viable without feeling like you’re losing any of the visual spark and feel in super fluid.
I think one thing we can agree on after this week is having your game’s performance be stable is the number one priority, but then if you’re able to lock that in, providing other options, and then utilising HDMI 2.1 as an extra step to provide even more flexibility.
God Of War launches on November 9th for PS5 and PS4. You can read Kieron’s preview of the first 6-7 hours or so HERE. Amazon currently has the cheapest prices at $98 for PS5 and $79 for PS4.
An earlier version of this article listed performance mode (high frame rate) as targeting 120FPS, but PlayStation has confirmed that it is syncing to 120hz mode on TVs/monitors with frame rates unlocked.
