Since being announced by Codemasters earlier their year, we’ve seen a number of official videos of Dirt 5 in action, but it hasn’t always been entirely clear what hardware the game was running on. Well, today a number of previews showing Dirt 5 running specifically on Xbox Series X hardware have gone live, and they paint a fairly impressive picture!
The Dirt 5 footage we’re showing you here comes courtesy of the tech heads at Digital Foundry. Developed by Codemasters Cheshire, Dirt 5 is running on an updated version of the tech that powered the studio’s underrated Onrush arcade racer, and offers dynamic weather, detailed mud and snow deformation, and volumetric fog, although the real focus of the engine is performance. Digital Foundry checked out the game’s Image Quality, Framerate, and 120Hz modes, and came away impressed. You can check out their full assessment below, provided you have around 15 minutes to spare.
Framerate mode runs at a dynamic 4K resolution and targets 60fps. The resolution mostly sticks to true 4K, although can occasionally drop to around 3328×1872. Performance is mostly a locked 60fps, although there are small dips into the mid-50s at times.
Image Quality mode is once again dynamic 4K, and like Framerate mode, can occasionally drop to around 1800p. Rather than resolution, the focus is on improved visual bells and whistles, like higher-quality shadows, better texture filtering, and increased detail in some areas of certain tracks. Performance mostly holds steady at 60fps, but can drop to the low-50s at times.
Finally, we have that intriguing 120Hz mode, which Digital Foundry demonstrates using slow-motion footage (YouTube doesn’t do 120fps videos). The mode runs at a dynamic 1440p, with occasional dips to as low as 1080p. Performance mostly sticks to 120fps, although when it does stumble, the drops are larger than in the other mode – dropping as low as 90fps at times. That said, despite some inconsistencies, the DF guys were generally impressed with the 120Hz, finding it made for a noticeably smoother, more responsive experience.
Dirt 5 races onto PC, Xbox One, and PS4 on November 6, and Xbox Series X/S on November 10, and the PS5 on November 12.