Xbox One Call of Duty Offers Better Framerate than PS4, Say Reviewers

The furor that kicked up two weeks ago over Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ native resolution on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One appears to have gotten its sequel. With reviews of the Xbox One version trickling in today, some are saying the Xbox One does not suffer the framerate drops that were reported in the PS4 version.

Both IGN and Polygon updated their reviews of the game to note Ghosts consistently held at 60 frames per second, where the PS4 suffered noticeable framerate drops in multiplayer, as had been earlier mentioned by these publications and others.

“The Xbox One release’s framerate was far more noticeable,” wrote Polygon “As mentioned in the initial review, Call of Duty: Ghosts suffers from consistent framerate drops on the PS4, especially during multiplayer when action got especially hectic. The Xbox One version suffered no such drops, maintaining a steady 60 frames per second throughout.”

IGN‘s reviewer said he dealt with “occasional framerate issues during the single-player campaign on PS3 and PS4, whereas my time with the Xbox One version was stable throughout.”

Videogamer.com said “at least the [Xbox One version] ran stable enough to keep me blaming myself and not the frame rate for any kills I may have suffered.” The reviewer noted he did not have framerate issues when he played the PS4 version but acknowledged some users are reporting just that.

Today, also, The Sixth Axis published this five-minute comparison video, though it does not describe framerate problems (or virtues) of either version, focusing more instead on the visual details offered by the next-gen version.

GiantBomb‘s Jeff Gerstmann today wrote that the Xbox One has a smoother frame rate, but called the difference between the two versions “a toss up,” saying that he’d rather play the game on a Dual Shock 4. “I’m told that Infinity Ward is working on a patch to correct the performance issues,” he notes.

We reached out to an Activision representative earlier this afternoon to request comment, either from the publisher or from Infinity Ward, about the framerate problems being described for the PlayStation 4 version, and whether they can be corrected by patch. If we hear anything back we will update here.

Console comparisons are a longstanding parlor game for video game enthusiasts and blockbuster third-party titles like Call of Duty are frequently compared to find a leg up for one side or the other. Two weeks ago, Activision confirmed that Ghosts ran at 1080p resolution on PlayStation 4, where the game was 720p, upscaled to 1080p output, on Xbox One. A subsequent explanation from developing studio Infinity Ward said that Xbox One’s resolution had to be lowered in order for the game to run smoothly at 60 frames per second on that console; 60 fps is a bedrock feature long touted by the series.

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