Ghost of Tsushima on PC and its version for PlayStation 5

Following its PC debut on May 16, Digital Foundry presents an extensive graphical comparison Ghost of Tsushima compared to the PlayStation 5 version. Keep in mind that this game originally debuted four years ago on the PlayStation 4. The PC version was developed by Nixxes Software, which specializes in porting PlayStation games to PC.

Ghost of Tsushima debuts on PC with good reviews, and this is not surprising. This is why Sony bought this studio in July 2021, as all its ports always appeared on PC with good performance and optimization. When porting to PC, they took into account the advantages that this platform offers, making additional optimizations or increasing the graphical ceiling of the game compared to the PlayStation 5 version. It even boasts of this. the most modern technologies (AMD FSR 3 and NVIDIA DLSS 3) to help improve performance for users who don’t have powerful hardware.

Here’s what Ghost of Tsushima looks like on PC compared to the PlayStation 5 version

To begin with, it is stated that the port of Ghost of Tsushima on PC is quite demanding. at VRAM memory consumption level. This implies that depending on the resolution and quality of textures having GPU with 8 GB VRAM This may cause sporadic performance issues. This is why for high resolutions and quality you need at least a GPU 10 or 12 GB video memory. Or, of course, reduce the resolution or graphics quality to avoid memory saturation and negatively impacting game performance. Since the game has many graphical options, it is indicated that finding a balanced configuration will not be difficult.

At the performance level of PC and PlayStation 5, this is obvious. Arrival of the Ghost of Tsushima 30 fps limit and on PC it can run at any frame rate per second. Although it is stated that some elements of the game, such as particle effects such as dust on the ground, and others more distant, do not run at the same refresh rate, being animated on lower frame rate.

The image quality is also much higher. Ghost of Tsushima on PS5 is stated to have “ghost effect» using temporal anti-aliasing (TAA). It looks better on PC because it has more advanced scaling solutions than rendering. Not to mention NVIDIA DLSS, which even in performance modeprovides a much more visible appearance.

On PlayStation 5, the game plays very similar to high graphics settings on PC.

Ghost of Tsushima on PC has higher quality shadows. Where is the least improvement? by texture quality, which seem identical, and this was already the weakest aspect of the game. It is stated that many textures become blurry, especially those used for terrain. at least we have drawing distance increased foliage or significant graphical improvements in key areas.

In general terms, the game for PS5 looks like this on PC in high graphic qualitysomething that on PC requires a GPU with 8GB of VRAM to run forward at 1440p resolution and high texture quality.

In short, I think we’re looking for a competent PC port of this game. I especially like that there are significant graphical improvements in key areas, such as the level of foliage detail that the PS5 lacked. The shift away from checkerboard rendering in favor of more modern reconstruction methods is huge. Otherwise, it shares many of the hallmarks of Nixxes, which generally offer a quality experience.

This is the studio’s fifth PC port since acquisition, and perhaps it’s time for some more general improvements: a VRAM counter, or better yet, an automated system, as well as fixes for the PCI Express bandwidth issues I highlighted. My impression is that this is a very GPU intensive game on ultra settings given the visual performance, although I think most will be happy with high settings or alternative optimized settings.