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Digital Foundry: Final Fantasy 16 PC - This One's Heavy - Tech Review + Optimised Settings

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?



Final Fantasy 16 has arrived on PC - and let's just say that it's a demanding game. Built with dynamic resolution scaling in mind on PS5-class hardware, it's a port that pushes PC hard if you stick to fixed resolutions. Alex and Oliver share notes on the game, then move onto the optimised settings and PS5 equivalents put together by contributor Mohammed Rayan.

00:00 Introduction
00:43 Midrange PC impressions
06:48 High-end PC impressions
12:44 Other issues
15:29 Optimised settings and PS5 settings
20:59 How could FF16 be updated for PS5 Pro?
24:02 Conclusion
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
PS5 version uses FSR1.


IC1wC1n.png
 
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I have the same specs as Ollie (13700k and 4090) and my experience mirrors his. The installation of the custscene mod is required at this point and it really makes the game sing.

At 4K, DLSS Quality mode, and with frame generation off I'm averaging in the 80-90fps range. Frame gen on gives me a locked 120fps on my display and is my preferred way to play. Its a fantastic looking game.
 
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RagnarokIV

Battlebus imprisoning me \m/ >.< \m/
I really want to get this again on PC, does anyone know if this game has DualSense features on PC?
 

Bojji

Member
Square/Sony will have a hard time to get this to a good performance on the Pro, if they even try, it seems.

Yeah. Without the patch 60fps mode will be around that 1080p target most of the time and FPS should be close to 60. Definitively much better. For GFX mode that means stable 1440p and stable 30fps (it was dropping hard in some areas).

With Pro patch they can add reconstruction with PSSR but that would mean leaving base resolution alone and maybe performance wouldn't improve by much. Cost of adding reconstruction to 4k is quite high.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Yeah. Without the patch 60fps mode will be around that 1080p target most of the time and FPS should be close to 60. Definitively much better. For GFX mode that means stable 1440p and stable 30fps (it was dropping hard in some areas).

With Pro patch they can add reconstruction with PSSR but that would mean leaving base resolution alone and maybe performance wouldn't improve by much. Cost of adding reconstruction to 4k is quite high.
Yeah, this game has no ray tracing so it wont get a big boost from the newer RDNA4 rt cores.

It also uses FSR1 which has little to no cost on the GPU so if they add PSSR to the performance mode which already dips to 720p then it will likely stay there but have better IQ thanks to PSSR.

Same goes for the quality mode which already drops to 1080p so they will probbaly be able to do 4k PSSR performance which should look way better than the FSR1 mess that we had at launch. But you are definitely not getting fidelity mode at 60 fps.
 

Bojji

Member
Yeah, this game has no ray tracing so it wont get a big boost from the newer RDNA4 rt cores.

It also uses FSR1 which has little to no cost on the GPU so if they add PSSR to the performance mode which already dips to 720p then it will likely stay there but have better IQ thanks to PSSR.

Same goes for the quality mode which already drops to 1080p so they will probbaly be able to do 4k PSSR performance which should look way better than the FSR1 mess that we had at launch. But you are definitely not getting fidelity mode at 60 fps.

Many people don't seem to get it. For them raw 1440p game is the same as game that has native 1440p but reconstructs that to 4k using DLSS/XeSS/PSSR/FSR3.

Game using reconstruction is way more heavy and have to use some native 4k buffers (post processing?) to look correctly.

The Last of Us2 is like that raw 1440p game, adding PSSR to that costed them a lot of performance most likely from that 45% overhead (we will see unlocked framerate comparison in the future), same is true for FFVII Rebirth - raw 1080-1200p image on base console.

With those games PSSR have base resolutions to work with but FFXVI is sub 60fps/720p mess. I needs A LOT of performance to run correctly first and even more so to have decent IQ with that.
 
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Bojji

Member
1080p native vs 4k reconstruction using DLSS with 1080p native as base resolution:

WGBPe8S.png
KeAQF8m.jpeg
EVmHC5G.png
lyhSXWb.jpeg


24% more fps on base raw 1080p. So out of that 45% more performance of the console it's quite a lot for just adding reconstruction.
 

Lysandros

Member
So how is their 2070S/R5 3600 equipped mid range PC comparing to PS5 directly performance wise, what is the differencial?They switched to 4070 TI for their comparison shots in the context of 'mid range' (!) optimized settings advice.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
1080p native vs 4k reconstruction using DLSS with 1080p native as base resolution:

WGBPe8S.png
KeAQF8m.jpeg
EVmHC5G.png
lyhSXWb.jpeg


24% more fps on base raw 1080p. So out of that 45% more performance of the console it's quite a lot for just adding reconstruction.
I have done quite a few tests on this. including for 4k dlss quality. i dont have that post bookmarked but i recall a massive 30-35% hit at times.
 

Bojji

Member
I have done quite a few tests on this. including for 4k dlss quality. i dont have that post bookmarked but i recall a massive 30-35% hit at times.

Pretty much. FSR2 can be swapped for PSSR for free only if all that work was already done with FSR2, with this there will be 45% power left to increase framerate/gfx/resolution. Adding reconstruction won't left much power on the table but for sure it will improve IQ.
 

sachos

Member
They have an interesting conversation about what could be possible in a PS5 Pro patch and yeah, the game is insanely GPU heavy.
The game is running at 59fps on a 7700XT at 1080p Native Max settings, 50FPS 1% Low.
The PS5 appears to be running a mix of High/Medium/Low settings, on PC jumping from Max to High gives around 7% extra perf, jumping from High to Med is another 13% increase.
Since the PS5 is running a mix of those settings being optimistic it is a 20% boost in performance over the results on this benchmark.
1% Low of 50FPS x 1.2 = 60FPS, but you need to be extra 2ms faster for PSSR upscale so you need 68FPS (1/0.01466) to actually keep a locked 60 if you want to upscale to 4K using PSSR Performance.
So yeah, they are most likely going to upscale to 1440p Quality/Balanced and then do basic scaling to 4K.
If we are lucky they either optimize a little bit to squeeze out those last 8FPS needed for PSSR or the jump in raster is stronger than the 7700XT. It would need to reach a little below 7800 XT levels.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Pretty much. FSR2 can be swapped for PSSR for free only if all that work was already done with FSR2, with this there will be 45% power left to increase framerate/gfx/resolution. Adding reconstruction won't left much power on the table but for sure it will improve IQ.

This game used FSR1 on PS5, not even 2.
 

sachos

Member
Many people don't seem to get it. For them raw 1440p game is the same as game that has native 1440p but reconstructs that to 4k using DLSS/XeSS/PSSR/FSR3.

Game using reconstruction is way more heavy and have to use some native 4k buffers (post processing?) to look correctly.
Genuine question here, we know the PSSR reconstruction takes around 2ms, do you think those native 4K buffers add to that cost or is that cost included in the 2ms?
If it is only 2ms max then the Pro should be able to do 4K Quality 30FPS at Max settings since the 7700XT is already running the game at 1% Lows of 37FPS at 1440p.
Also checkout how badly the 6600XT runs it even at 1080p, seems to match the PS5 base experience.
 

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member
Shit, man. No wonder I skipped this. My 3090 can't even break 60 FPS... I can probably drop some settings, but I refuse to compromise on textures. >_>
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Sounds like the best PSSR can do for this on the Pro is a reconstruction from a base resolution 720p > 1440p.

If they could pull that off and lock the fps down to 60fps it would be worth it. (whilst also upscaling the quality mode to 4k!)
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
So how is their 2070S/R5 3600 equipped mid range PC comparing to PS5 directly performance wise, what is the differencial?They switched to 4070 TI for their comparison shots in the context of 'mid range' (!) optimized settings advice.
I'm not sure how possible it is in this game given how badly it runs on PS5's performance mode and how aggressive the DRS is. But yeah, their analysis of this was lazy as hell. Didn't even say what kind of frame rate we can expect with any range of cards except that a 4090 can get a locked 60 with 4K DLSS Quality, which is useless for 99% of the users.

The DRS in performance mode on PS5 only seems to really work during combat as during gameplay, the fps drops way way below 60 and often well into the 30s. It's not much better on mid-range PCs at least since even at 1080p DLSS Ultra Performance (360p) the 2070S can momentarily drop frames and we see the GPU usage plummet. The DRS in the game just cannot keep up with what's going on as it seems to shift too frequently and rapidly.
 

daninthemix

Member
Running this on a 4090 at 4K/DLAA on an OLED, 240hz. Image quality and frame-rate are flawless. That said, the game has a very flat look to it, presumably due to its lighting model. Badly needs ray tracing.
 

Bojji

Member
Genuine question here, we know the PSSR reconstruction takes around 2ms, do you think those native 4K buffers add to that cost or is that cost included in the 2ms?
If it is only 2ms max then the Pro should be able to do 4K Quality 30FPS at Max settings since the 7700XT is already running the game at 1% Lows of 37FPS at 1440p.
Also checkout how badly the 6600XT runs it even at 1080p, seems to match the PS5 base experience.

Native 4k 30fps? No way.

4k 30fps using PSSR from 1440p: absolutely and it should look really good.

DF speculated that devs could have use PSSR reconstruction to 1440p (and then upscaling) for performance (from 720-1080 base res) mode and this is probably the best way for such heavy game, but how will it look on 4k screen?
 
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Skifi28

Member
It's inexplicable why the game is so heavy on the gpu. I wonder if they're using some sort of in-house RT for the shadows that runs on software mode or something that kills performance. The game just doesn't look good enough to justify how it runs.
 
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Bojji

Member
It's inexplicable why the game is so heavy on the gpu. I wonder if they're using some sort of in-house RT for the shadows that runs on software mode or something that kills performance. The game just doesn't look good enough to justify how it runs.

Yeah, there is no real time GI or anything like that. It has high level of geometry and good art but that's it basically.
 

Mister Wolf

Gold Member
Huh? You sure?

performance-3840-2160.png


4090 averages 54fps and DF needed DLSS Quality to hit a stable 60. That's without frame generation, but even with it, you're looking at 80-90fps, certainly nott 100+ with DLAA.

"Worst port ever" makes me laugh, this game is just that super heavy for whatever reason. It was like that on PS5 as well.



You probably have dynamic res turned on. Or it just depends on places of measurement.

The benchmarks are right. I forgot I was using DLSS Quality and Frame Gen.
 
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