God of War Ragnarok’s graphics modes revealed on PS5 and PS4

God of War RagnarökSanta Monica Studio has revealed that the graphics options offered by this game are almost equal to those of Norse gods. Wednesday night on Twitter. There are more options available in the PlayStation 5 version than on PlayStation 4, and if you want to get the best possible experience, you’ll need to have your PS5 hooked up to a cutting-edge TV. Polygon staffers are enjoying the game. God of War RagnarökFor the last few weeks, our technical analysis article has been in progress. We can however give some brief thoughts to help you choose between the various graphics settings.

Let’s start with the PS5 version, which offers two graphics modes: “Favor Resolution” (which prioritizes image quality over frame rate) and “Favor Performance” (the default, which prioritizes frame rate over image quality). There’s also a separate “High Frame Rate Mode” toggle, which will be available only if your console is connected to a display that has an HDMI 2.1 port and a 120 Hz panel. The HDMI 2.1 feature works automatically if the TV has a variable refresh rate (VRR). God of War Ragnarök as long as you’ve enabled it in the PS5 system settings.

There are fewer options on PS4, since the last-generation console doesn’t support VRR or HFR. Only PlayStation 4 Pro users can access Favor Resolution and Favor Performance. The launch PS4 and the slim model don’t have any graphics settings at all.

Image: Santa Monica Studio/Twitter

Here’s a full breakdown of the resolution — which often varies, since God of War Ragnarök uses dynamic resolution scaling to maintain its target frame rate in most modes — and frame rate for each of the options:

Favor Performance mode

• Standard mode 1440p-2160p resolution @ locked 60 fps
• Mode with high frame rates:Unlocked 60 FPS @ 1440p
• HFR mode combined with VRRUnlocked 60 FPS @ 1440P

Favor Resolution mode (PS5)

• Standard mode 2160p (native 4K) @ locked 30 fps
• HFR mode1800p-2160p @ Locked 40 fps
• HFR mode combined with VRR1800-2160p @ 40 unlocked fps

Favorite Performance mode (PS4 Pro).

• Unlocked 30-fps 1080p-1656p

Favor Resolution mode (PS4 Pro)

• 1440p-1656p @ locked 30-fps

Standard PS4

There’s technically one more situation available, a Sony representative told Polygon last week, after we inquired: If you’re playing the PS4 version of God of War Ragnarök on a PS5 via backward compatibility, you’ll get the resolution of the PS4 Pro’s quality mode (1440p to 1656p), but with performance doubled to a locked 60 fps.

I have spent many hours combinating the PS5 and PS5 versions of God of War RagnarökWe at Polygon can recommend Favor Performance mode regardless of your TV set-up. A 60 frame per second frame rate is a huge benefit in an action game like this. It has screen-filling boss battles, challenging combat and fluid response times. And although the resolution drops from the resolution mode’s native 4K to a minimum of 1440p in the performance mode, the image quality remains almost as high; the trade-off here is a no-brainer.

You can play with the PS5 Performance Mode by itself. God of War RagnarökYou can, however, enjoy the best experience with a HDMI 2.0 display capable of supporting HFR (i.e. a 4K/120Hz input) or VRR. Enabling HFR runs the game in 1440p and removes the 60 fps cap, and VRR eliminates any judder by synchronizing your display’s refresh rate to the frame rate. This allows you to enjoy the game with frame rates that typically fall in the 80-90 fps range — it’s the way to go, if you can swing it.

Our article contains more information God of War RagnarökReview now. Keep an eye on our technical analysis that compares the different graphics modes of PS5.