The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 1.04 update brought some noticeable performance improvements on Xbox Series, reducing screen tearing issues as well.
A new analysis from Digital Foundry confirmed that the Xbox Series X version can now outperform the PlayStation 5 version thanks to the changes introduced in the latest update.
Where there has been change is with Xbox Series X, where Ubisoft has made great strides in addressing the performance deficit, significantly reducing the intrusive screen-tearing. It’s not completely gone, but it’s certainly hugely improved and in the most stringent of our stress tests, Xbox Series X can now outperform PlayStation 5. How Ubisoft has achieved such a huge turnaround in so short a time may sound like a technological miracle, or the result of some gigantic optimisation push, but the solution is simpler than you might think.
The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla performance improvements on Xbox Series X have been achieved by widening the dynamic resolution scaling window, going from 1400p to 1728p to 1188p to 2160p. The lower resolutions, according to Digital Foundry, are only used when needed, and pixel count is higher for the majority of the time.
However, widening the DRS window is how Ubisoft has achieved its objectives here and it’s a good solution: momentary lower resolution is a fair trade to make against far more noticeable screen-tearing. In fact, it’s good enough to roll out for PlayStation 5 too in order to eliminate its own tearing issues, and I’m surprised the same solution wasn’t deployed on both next-gen systems. But in the here and now at least, PlayStation 5 runs with a higher resolution, while Xbox Series X generally runs a touch smoother.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One worldwide.