Quake II RTX hits 60 FPS path tracing on PlayStation 5 Linux
Digital Foundry has tested path tracing on the base PlayStation 5, but not through a normal console release. The test uses PS5 Linux , which works on older consoles running firmware up to version 6.02, released in October 2022.
The setup allows users to install Linux, Steam and Proton on compatible PS5 units. This means the console can run PC versions of games , including titles with hardware ray tracing support. Digital Foundry tested Quake II RTX, Portal with RTX and Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive.
The three games show different levels of path tracing load. Quake II RTX is much lighter than Cyberpunk 2077, while Portal RTX sits between both tests but still suffers from poor denoising and low internal resolution.
Source: Digital Foundry
Path Tracing in Cyberpunk 2077, yes but no
At 1080p output with XeSS Performance mode, RT Overdrive averaged 22.6 FPS with an internal resolution of 470p. Moving to a 1920×800 output dropped the internal resolution to 348p and raised performance to 26.9 FPS.
Source: Digital Foundry
Digital Foundry then used a path tracing optimization mod, which reduces ray bounces from two to one. Combined with raster settings similar to the Switch 2 version, the benchmark reached 35.5 FPS.
AMD Frame Gen on PS5
Interestingly, PSSR tech does not support frame generation yet. However, since they were basically running the game on Linux, Cyberpunk enables AMD Frame Generation, which raised the benchmark counter to around 70 FPS. One thing to note that working, doesn’t mean working well. Digital Foundry said the generated frames looked like a “wobble” rather than proper motion improvement.
Quake II RTX is the better fit
Quake II RTX produced the best result in the test. At native 4K with path tracing, PS5 Linux reached only 11.4 FPS and 10.7 FPS in two built-in timedemos. Using TAAU from 1080p to 4K raised the averages to 40.4 FPS and 37.8 FPS. Dynamic resolution scaling with a 25% minimum, meaning 540p, allowed the game to run close to a locked 60 FPS.
Source: Digital Foundry
The PS5 Pro would be a better candidate for experiments like this because it has stronger ray tracing hardware and PSSR. Digital Foundry still does not expect Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive to become a priority for CD Projekt Red on PS5 Pro, since the current PS5 Pro version already targets higher output resolutions with more conventional RT settings. There’s currently no Linux distro for PS5 Pro, but I guess that will change at some point.
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