When Anthem was first revealed at E3 2017, it was shown running on an Xbox One X, supposedly in real time. That naturally led many to believe that BioWare was focusing on consoles, and the Xbox One X specifically, when it came to Anthem development. The game’s currently-ongoing demo seems to contradict that. The game simply doesn’t run very well on consoles, and according to the tech heads at Digital Foundry, the game actually performs better on the PS4 Pro than the Xbox One X. If you’ve got 15-minutes to spare, you can check out Digital Foundry’s Anthem Xbox One X/PS4 Pro comparison, below.
Per Digital Foundry, both the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro “4K” modes run at a native resolution of approximately 1800p, with both games using a form checkerboard rendering to get to 4K. On the performance front, the Xbox One X has an upper limit of 30fps and can drop into the low 20fps range when things get too intense. The PS4 Pro, on the other hand, has an unlocked framerate that hovers around the mid-20 to mid-30fps range and generally performs a bit better than the X. Interestingly, you can bump the Pro version of Anthem down to 1080p in the hardware system settings, resulting in performance as high as 40 to 50fps. There’s no such option on the X.
Related Anthem Demo Shows Visual Parity On PS4 And Xbox One; Runs Better On PS4 Pro
Overall, Anthem’s performance on consoles definitely doesn’t measure up to the “next gen visuals on current gen consoles” promise of its debut trailer. Hopefully BioWare can at least get the game’s performance sorted for release, or via updates soon after.
I recently got a chance to try out Anthem at an E3 preview event – do check out my thoughts on the Anthem’s early-to-midgame, endgame, and interview with BioWare producer Scylla Costa.
Anthem boosts onto PC, Xbox One, and PS4 on February 22, with Origin and EA Access subscribers being able to get a head start on the game on February 15. The second leg of the Anthem demo is currently in full swing on all consoles.
