New PS5 firmware update improves game performance

While it is common to see games get updated with stability improvements, better framerates and more, it is rare for a system software update to increase frame rates. Such is the case however with the recent PS5 2.0 update, which sees a flat improvement in performance across many games.

Last week, we reported that the PS5 had gotten its first major update, bringing with it a number of features including SSD expansion support, 3D audio updates and more. One lesser advertised improvement brought about by this update however was a flat increase to performance across many different games.

As discovered by Digital Foundry, the PS5’s 2.0 update brought with it a small but notable increase in performance across a plethora of games. They tested the new system software with four different titles: Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition; Control; Godfall and Resident Evil Village.

While not concrete, the data does seem to suggest that games with ray tracing may see benefits to performance in the range of around 3%. While nothing major, it helps make for a smoother and more consistent experience – and free performance, no matter how small, is free performance.

While we are no longer in the wild west eras of the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation (when frame rates could vary wildly and games running at 25 fps consistently was common), small drops in performance can be noticed in a number of games – and due to the fact that the PS5 does not yet support VRR, every extra frame helps. Hopefully they do add the long-promised VRR support sooner rather than later though.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the 2.0 update? Do you use ray tracing in games? Does your monitor support VRR? Let us know down below.

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