Assassin’s Creed Shadows Runs 60 FPS Ray Tracing on PS5 Pro

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is out today, but if you happen to be a PS5 owner, you may wondering why your game looks so different than what you see from those on PlayStation 5 Pro. Digital Foundry found playing the game on “Performance” settings for regular PS5 results in what may be the worst way to experience Ubisoft’s beautiful but awkward stealth action title. If you’re one of those who ponied up $700 for a PlayStation 5 Prothen you can get both performance and pretty graphics.

For PS5 consoles, Assassin’s Creed Shadows offers three main graphics options: “Performance,” “Balanced,” and “Fidelity” modes. What setting you chose can have a drastic impact on how your game looks. A video breakdown of the game’s graphics by Digital Foundry shows that if you want to play at the max 60 FPS—which is considered the best baseline framerate for smooth gameplay modern gaming—playing it on PS5 results in a washed out, drab look compared to playing it on the console that costs $200 more.

This is down to whether Performance mode on either console supports ray traced global illumination, or RTGI. This form of in-game lighting creates a simulation of light bouncing off multiple surfaces before it comes to the player, as if the screen were the lens of a camera. This setting is available in Shadows’ Performance mode on the PS5 Pro, but not Sony’s base $500 console. Without those lighting settings Shadows can look flat and drab. On PS5 Pro, the lines around shadows appear more crisp than PS5. There is more contrast in the shadows inside buildings, and light reflects through objects like bamboo far more realistically.

The difference in graphics quality implies the game was built with that lighting simulation in mind. I can’t emphasize enough how important the visuals are to whether you’ll fully enjoy Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The game relies on its lighting for gameplay, such as the titular “shadows” players can hide in, and for its atmosphere. This is one of the first games to showcase such drastic difference in visual quality from PS5 to PS5 Pro. Invariably, those who spent more money on their PlayStation are getting a far better experience at 60 FPS.

That above image spells out the difference in visual quality. It’s far more dramatic a change than on other games, like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. I’ve played games on both consoles, like Star Wars Jedi: Survivorand while there are subtle difference in lighting, the game still maintains its overall look across both consoles at 4K resolution.

The difference in Shadows is much less dramatic when the game is set to the Balanced or Fidelity modes. On the PS5 those modes include much more of the lighting goodies found on the PS5 Pro at the expense of lower frames per second.

The distinct difference between the two versions of Sony’s latest console have never been more stark. We expect future games will make better PlayStation 5 Pro’s updated GPU architecture. Now, console gamers can feel the same FOMO pressure PC gamers have whenever they stare longingly at ray tracing toggles in a games’ options menu wondering “how much do I really need 60 FPS?”