Is 40 fps going to become the new standard for current-gen consoles
Recently, there has been a rather unpleasant trend in which some modern games are released on the current generation of consoles, all only at 30 FPS and without performance modes. Many players who have purchased a new generation of consoles do not fully understand what is happening and why they are again faced with the mandatory lock at 30 FPS.
Developers call this a few reasons, the main one of which is, of course, “limited console power”. In addition, for compatible monitors, some developers offer a new standard FPS — 40 FPS. But how realistic is it that it will be used everywhere, and how may it affect the modern gaming industry? Let’s deal with everything one by one.
Why don’t modern games run at 60 FPS on new consoles?
Recently, there have been two big game releases — Plague Tale: Requiem and Gotham Knights. Both of these games run at 30 FPS on new-generation consoles. And they can’t turn on a low resolution, high FPS performance mode. However, why does this situation arise?
The fact is that developers have stated that modern consoles have limited technical capacity. If the games are released only on PS5 and Xbox Series, achieving more than 30 stable FPS is impossible. Also, one of the reasons is the presence of the Xbox Series S, which is a weak and very slow industry development.
However, this does not explain why these games run smoothly in 4K/30FPS and can not run in 1080p at 60 FPS. Many technical experts say there is a significant issue with optimization, and the developers just don’t want to spend extra time and money on it.
After all, in the case of Plague Tale: Requiem game looks perfect and has excellent graphics. Gotham Knights look even worse than Arkham Knight, which came out almost seven years ago. So it’s really not clear how exactly the developers are hampered by technical limitations if for example the upcoming God of War Ragnarok will run at 60 FPS, but the game looks much better than both of these releases.
Why 40 FPS may become the new standard instead of 30 FPS
An interesting feature of these releases is that if your monitor or TV has a refresh rate higher than 120Hz, games run at 40 FPS. This is explained by the high refresh rate making it easier to achieve extra frames per second.
I agree it sounds strange. However, this is the answer we got from the developers. It turns out that now if you want to get more FPS, you have to spend money on a monitor with a high refresh rate and a console. This does not sound quite fair.
However, some journalists and technical experts have noted that this practice may be observed in many future games. It is because the transition to more advanced technologies such as engines such as Unreal Engine 5 achieving a stable 40 FPS is much easier than a steady 60 FPS. So developers can start to move to this exact standard.
How is 40 FPS better than 30 FPS?
With the emergence of the 40 FPS trend in games, many players are wondering, is there a big difference between 30 FPS and 40 FPS? The thing is that it looks as if the difference is minimal, but during the game, you will feel it.
I would say that 30 FPS is just the minimum number of frames you will be comfortable playing. If the FPS drops below 30, the game becomes more of a challenge than a pleasure, even with the gamepad control.
40 FPS does feel much better than 30 FPS. Of course, it’s nowhere near 60, but it’s better than nothing. I can tell you that playing single-player games with a gamepad at 40 fps can give you a comfortable experience that is noticeably better than 30 fps.
Is the Xbox Series S stopping developers from making quality games?
It also raises questions about the statement of some developers that the power of the Xbox Series S brakes the production of games. Allegedly the console is much weaker than the PS5 or Xbox Series X. There is some truth here.
The console is indeed weaker than the two older versions. However, it does not offer running games in 4K and maximum graphics. I don’t understand why the same game can run at 1080p at 30 FPS on the Xbox Series S and stably can’t run at 60 FPS on the Xbox Series X in performance mode.
So far, it looks like an attempt to get Microsoft to drop the requirement to necessarily release games on the Xbox Series S. This would make video game production cheaper since they wouldn’t have to spend extra resources to optimize games for the Xbox Series S.
Is it worth the switch to PCs instead of consoles?
Those who want to get a high FPS wonder if they should switch to a PC for this. There is no definite answer to this question because the situation with the PC is also not the best.
The two recent releases of Plague Tale: Requiem and Gotham Knights show volatile performance on weak and medium PCs. In the case of Gotham Knights, the game does not work stably, even on RTX 3090. So upgrading to a PC probably will not solve the problem with low FPS. It looks like it is a problem of video game developers and a lack of good optimization.
On the other hand, indeed, a powerful PC will give you a higher FPS and a better and smoother picture. But it would be best if you considered that, in this case, you have to spend on your PC and its accessories quite a lot of money. For a comfortable game on a PC in 4K, you need a system for at least 1000–1200 dollars, which is more than double the price of a console. The choice is, of course, yours, but I would not advise you to give up consoles and run to buy a PC immediately. So far, the best tactic is to wait and see how the video game market will evolve and how developers will show themselves in the future.
