Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin Console Performance Analysis

Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry has published a console-focused performance analysis for Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, a remaster of Dark Souls II aimed primarily at the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (though a PC version also exists). Their conclusions favor Sony’s console because it manages to maintain a more consistent framerate, though the Xbox One presents a very similar visual setup:

Xbox One pays a persistent price for matching the PS4’s visual standard. Both formats target 60fps and engage v-sync at all times, but Microsoft’s platform suffers the greater drops between the two in each scene of our frame-rate analysis. The Forest of Fallen Giants area is a good example, where a barrage of enemies causes a read-out of between 40-50fps on Xbox One, while PS4 operates within the 50-60fps range. Even while uncontested beneath the giant, arching trees of Things Betwixt, a regular margin of 10fps exists between the two – PS4 operating at a near perfect 60fps, while Xbox stutters along at 50fps.

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Xbox One pays a persistent price for matching the PS4’s visual standard. Both formats target 60fps and engage v-sync at all times, but Microsoft’s platform suffers the greater drops between the two in each scene of our frame-rate analysis. The Forest of Fallen Giants area is a good example, where a barrage of enemies causes a read-out of between 40-50fps on Xbox One, while PS4 operates within the 50-60fps range. Even while uncontested beneath the giant, arching trees of Things Betwixt, a regular margin of 10fps exists between the two – PS4 operating at a near perfect 60fps, while Xbox stutters along at 50fps.

Eurogamer confirmed in the article that they’d be analyzing the DirectX11 PC version in the near future, and they intend to analyze whether the graphical improvements go beyond those already present in the console versions and what kind of improvements over the original PC version will be offered.