Elden Ring Last-Gen PS4/PS4 Pro vs Xbox One/One X: Do You Really Need A Console Upgrade?

Just how good - or indeed, bad - are the last-gen console versions of Elden Ring? With current-gen consoles hit by supply issues, can you still get a decent Elden Ring experience on an older console? By and large, the answer is 'yes', to varying degrees. With one exception.

[variousthings]

As a lowly last-gen Deprived Wretch, this is the DF Elden Ring video I've been waiting for!

[Narniak]

Number of Elden Ring reviews on MetaCritic:
PS5 - 68
PS4 - 0
God bless Digital Foundry, seemingly the only site that acknowledges the fact that millions of players still cannot get the new hardware. The rest of clown world just pretends the old hardware doesn't exist.

[ShaneDeLury]

For what it's worth, upgrading to a SSD in my PS4 Pro helped significantly. I measured load times at a few different fast-travel sites. With the internal HDD they averaged at 20.8 seconds. With a Samsung 870 QVO SSD in external mode they averaged at 10.2 seconds. With the same SSD as the internal drive load times averaged at 9.5 seconds (over a 50% reduction in load times). Well worth it.

[Allmageddon]

This really is a love letter to the Souls series, it's bringing back that nostalgia of DS1 Blighttown on the 360

[iparzz]

The base PS4 is still punching along at 1080p30 even in 2022. This console never fails to surprise me especially when you see Horizon FW running on base PS4 and still manages to look good.

[griffgames]

I really dislike half frame-rate distant enemies. It kinda' freaks me out -- like stop motion mutants parading around.

[pops]

I m 60 hours in this game on the base Xbox one. I can agree on everything including the low frames on this console. If you haven’t already bought it on this console, I recommend choosing any other platform.

[ajackson]

Absolutely massive kudos to digital foundry for testing the XB-ONE, XB-OX, XB-SS, XB-SX, PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5 & PS4/PS5 back compat AND XB-OX back compat versions of the game. That's an insane amount of work, and grinding through what can be at times a frustratingly difficult game to give us these results. DF are the FromSoft of journalism (in that they knock it out of the park constantly). Stellar work.

[MoonSarito]

I wasn't expecting a video about the last generation consoles at all, it's nice to see you guys still care about the old gen consoles.

It's very strange to see that even though the Xbox One and Playstation 4 consoles that were released in the same year have such big differences on the latest games, the PS4 still manages to keep up pretty well, but I noticed that the Xbox One has been suffering a lot in the latest games in terms of performance or graphics and resolution.

[ReviewTechUSA]

I find it mind boggling that the Steam Deck runs Elden Ring better than base 8th generation consoles. Technology is amazing. Great analysis Digital Foundry!

[Sapphire]

Dumbest idea ever from the devs to force the Pro at 1800p30 instead of 1080p60

[NevanDove]

32 hours in on base PS4 (upgraded with an SSD) and having a blast! If you were fine with Bloodborne or DS3's performance on PS4, you're safe to pick this one up! The only major issue I've run into is some unusual audio clipping when a lot of dynamic sounds are happening at once, such as lightning striking a group of foes or those flamethrower wagons spinning in a circle. Other than that, I don't feel especially compromised on this console, even with slightly trimmed grass

[scoobertdoobert]

Such a great studio, masters of their craft and always make such masterpieces but its insane how they think no one will bat an eye at the clear performance issues and outdated engine in their games.

[essencialreal]

In fact, Frowmsoftware needs an upgrade in its technical department. Unacceptable for a game with such technically simple graphics to run so poorly on PS5, XBoxSX and advanced PC cards. The way the grass appears before your eyes, that skybox in very low resolution... man, 2022... The game itself is a masterpiece, I can't stop playing, but it's time for the developer to improve your technical department.

[권용대-bv]

This is the analysis I needed. Seems like my PS4 could live longer :)

[Pruflas-Watts]

PS4 PRO load times with a SSD had an average load time of 7 - 9 seconds for me, using a 1tb Crucial MX 500. A SSD in PS4 PRO is highly worth it to extend its life. Textures load and stream in faster and load times are way better most of the time

[leonthesleepy]

Miyazaki: "poor performance is part of the challenge"

[RiftFishing]

Next gen has obviously spoiled me, I can't imagine waiting 30 seconds to respawn after a death. I can eventually adjust to lower framerates and/or bad framepacing, but man that loading would frustrate me to no end especially given many will die a LOT in the game.

[Joaaaaaaaaaaa]

OG Ps4 once again showing its probably one of the best console ever . A 2013 399$ console running at native 1080p/almost stable 30fps 2022 game, near TEN YEARS after its release damn ...
1080p was the target, 10 years after its still here.
4k was the target of Ps5, it already cant do it on new games...

[majdsaadems]

So uh i think there's something wrong with my ps4 pro then. My game definitely chugs whenever there's transparency effects and it feels like it's gone to slow motion. I've cleaned it and have an ssd installed but still my performance in this game and a lot of others isn't in line with your reports ever weirdly enough.