God of War Ragnarok graphics mode revealed on PS5 and PS4

God of War Ragnarok offers almost as many graphics modes as there are Norse gods and goddesses, as developer Santa Monica Studio revealed Wednesday Night on Twitter. There are more options in the PlayStation 5 version than the PlayStation 4, and if you want the best possible experience, you’ll need to connect your PS5 to an advanced TV. Fortunately, some Polygon employees played God of War Ragnarok over the past few weeks, so while our full technical analysis is coming, we can give you some quick thoughts on how to choose from a variety of graphic settings.

Let’s start with the PS5 version, which offers two graphics modes: “Resolution Priority” (prioritizes image quality over frame rate) and “Performance Priority” (defaults to speed-priority). frame rate than image quality). There’s also a separate “High Frame Rate Mode” toggle, which will only be available if your console is connected to a monitor with HDMI 2.1 and a 120 Hz panel. And if your TV also supports variable refresh rate (VRR), that HDMI 2.1 feature will automatically work in God of War Ragnarok provided you have it enabled in the PS5 system settings.

There are fewer options on the PS4, as the last generation console doesn’t support VRR or HFR. The aforementioned Priority Resolution and Priority Performance modes are only available when playing on PlayStation 4 Pro. PS4 launch and slim model without any graphics settings.

Picture: Santa Monica Studio / Twitter

Here is a full breakdown of resolutions – which often change, as God of War Ragnarok use dynamic resolution scaling to maintain target framerate in most modes – and framerate for each option:

Priority Performance Mode (PS5)

• Basic mode: 1440p-2160p resolution @ 60fps lock
• High frame rate mode: 1440p@unlocked 60fps
• HFR mode with VRR enabled: 1440p@unlocked 60fps

Priority resolution mode (PS5)

• Basic mode: 2160p (4K native) @ locked 30fps
• HFR mode: 1800p-2160p @ locked 40fps
• HFR mode with VRR enabled: 1800-2160p @ unlock 40fps

Priority Performance Mode (PS4 Pro)

• 1080p-1656p @ unlock 30fps

Priority resolution mode (PS4 Pro)

• 1440p-1656p @ locked 30fps

Standard PS4

Technically, there’s one more scenario available, a Sony rep told Polygon last week, after we asked: If you’re playing the PS4 version of God of War Ragnarok on PS5 via backward compatibility, you get the resolution of the PS4 Pro’s quality mode (1440p to 1656p), but with double the performance to 60 fps locked.

Spent dozens of hours composing with the PS5 version of God of War Ragnarok at Polygon here, we can definitely recommend your preferred Performance mode, whatever your TV setup. In an action game like this, with full-screen boss battles and challenging combat, the 60fps frame rate’s benefits in flexibility and responsiveness are undeniable. take. And even though the resolution drops from native 4K in resolution mode to a minimum of 1440p in performance mode, the picture quality is still nearly as high; The trade-off here is a no-brainer.

Its own PS5 performance mode is a great way to play God of War Ragnarok, but if you have an HDMI 2.1 display that supports HFR (i.e. 4K/120 Hz input) and VRR, that combination should provide a clean experience. Turning on HFR runs the game in 1440p and removes the 60 fps limit, and VRR eliminates any judder by synchronizing the monitor’s refresh rate with the frame rate. This allows you to enjoy the game at frame rates that typically fall between 80-90 fps – that’s the way to go, if you can manage it.

For more you can our reading God of War Ragnarok review now. And stay tuned for our detailed technical analysis comparing different graphics modes on PS5.