The first The Medium PS5 vs Xbox Series X|S and PC comparison has been released, and the results are rather interesting.
The timed Xbox Series and PC exclusive is launching on PlayStation 5 tomorrow, and courtesy of YouTube channel “ElAnalistaDeBits”, we already have a video comparing the game running on Sony’s next-gen console to the game running on Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
The game was kind of a mixed bag when it launched back in January of this year, and the game’s PC could have used better optimization. So how does Bloober Team’s third-person psychological horror game look and run on PS5? Well going by this new analysis, the PS5 version could have used a bit more optimization as well as it, strangely enough, lacks Ray Tracing on Sony’s console.
Whereas the Xbox Series X version partly used the rendering technique for ambient occlusion and reflections, this isn’t the case on PS5.
In addition, the game doesn’t appear to run as stable as it does on Xbox Series X with more stuttering occurring on PS5 at 30FPS.
Luckily, it’s not all bad on PS5 – due to the lack of Ray Tracing, the team was able to increase the game’s dynamic resolution on Sony’s console with the resolution staying above 1260p in demanding areas. Also, anisotropic filtering has been slightly improved on PS5 compared to the XSX version. Check out the new comparison down below:
- PS5 does not use Ray-Tracing of any kind. In Series X they implemented Ray-Tracing (partially) in ambient occlusion and reflections, but in PS5 they have removed all this (Series S did not have RT either)
- The lighting and ambient occlusion on PS5 has been modified a bit (in places giving good results and in others not so good). In the area of the beginning, for example, they have changed the direction of the light by completely changing the lighting of the rooms.
- By sacrificing RT, they have had scope to increase resolution on PS5. It runs at dynamic 4K like Series X, but does not have peaks as low as those reached by Microsoft’s console. In areas where Series X fell below 1080p, PS5 remains above 1260p.
- In terms of performance, PS5 suffers more stuttering than Xbox (especially in cinematics) at 30FPS
- Shadows on PS5 have also undergone changes. In some areas, shadows appear harsher than other platforms (especially outdoors).
- Anisotropic filtering is slightly improved on PS5 over Series X.
- The textures are of the same quality in all versions.
- On PC, certain settings such as DOF, parallax occlusion, ray-tracing or the drawing distance are still higher than the rest of the versions.
- Loading times are twice as fast on Xbox Series compared to PS5. However, PS5 loads textures faster on startup.
The Medium is available globally now for Xbox Series X|S and PC (It’s also on Xbox Game Pass). The title launches tomorrow on PS5.
