Stray PS5 vs PS4/PC: A Superb 4K 60FPS Rendition on PS5 - But What’s Up With PC?

[@Tech-Nostalgic]

Time Stamps Introduction 0:00 Gameplay and Story 1:29 PS4 and PS4 Pro Comparison 5:55 PS4 Pro and PS5 Comparison 7:23 PC Steam Version and PS5 Comparison 8:43 Performance on PS4 9:48 Performance on PS4 Pro 11:23 Performance on PS5 12:28 Performance on PC Steam 13:47 Conclusion 15:25

[@greatkunglajos8287]

A Hero we need.

[@МухаммедАли-б7д]

Huge thanks, brother! 👍👍

[@dildojizzbaggins6969]

*time-stamps It's not a verb. I don't think time can stamp, in that sense :'D

[@honda56221]

God

[@cun7us]

@Selo because it's not that big a deal?

[@Aristowi]

I love slow paced smaller scale games that focus on level design and artistic presentation, it's perfect to stop for a moment, think about the puzzles and admire the environments in the process.

[@HugeBigness]

THIS - Not every game has to be COD, this is a unique wonderful game and I can not wait to play it. If you love and appreciate kitty cats this game is something special.

[@johndodo2062]

This game is amazingly good.

[@dux3644]

After playing twelve minutes a week ago and now playing this I can say for sure these are the best games I've played in years, I'm so tired of open world that takes 50 hours to finish, sometimes I just need these kinds of games, feels super fresh and it's fun from start to end.

[@sonks336]

@@dux3644 Couldn't agree more. Best thing about games is getting immersed in a different world, story and characters and it's nice to have more shorter games that let you experience the whole thing without putting in 30-100 hours to get the whole picture. This desire to have games be as long as possible needs to die. Stop counting how many hours per dollar the game gives you and just enjoy the experience the devs crafted for you.

[@JustFun-ho6qy]

I just wished it was a little more in-depth from a mechanical point of view. I mean the incredibly automated Parcours in Assassin's Creed is as deep as the ocean compared to this. Calling this a platformer is just ridiculous. Mechanically this has more in common with a point and click title.

[@2ndyear934]

Just a correction. Stray isn't available on Playstation Plus Essential, only on Extra and Premium

[@emons9]

This. I was sad to see it wasn't free.

[@LordRaydenTube]

Ah thanks. This made me so confused.

[@Celestial-Idiot]

It also isn't 10 hours long, closer to 5

[@marcohagen6993]

@@Celestial-Idiot took me 8 hours with most collectibles and beating the game, stil not 100% id say im about 70% into it and suspect ill be 100% by 13 hours in and this is through alot of fucking around, but the game can be beaten within 2 hours, theres even a trophy for finishing the game in 2 hours, honestly though the game is super worth it, i love it

[@daysgone2997]

@@Celestial-Idiot depends how you play

[@manny655321]

These shader compilation issues really are becoming a serious problem for PC gaming. I invested in expensive high end PC hardware, only to resort to playing this game on a console or the Steam Deck.

[@theanimerapper6351]

I agree it's like devs just don't care about optimizing on PC. Hope I'm wrong and there's work to fix this happening

[@crescentmoon256]

Steam deck deosnt has a sperate version it's the same steam version running on Linux based os that's all

[@Lead_Foot]

@@crescentmoon256 It comes with precompiled shaders because everyone with a deck has the same hardware and drivers.

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

i really want to return to pc gaming properly but stuff like this is seriously putting me off building a high end rig. i basically use a series s for most of my gaming now with my old 1050ti for esports gaming.

[@crescentmoon256]

@@Lead_Foot yes but it varies with release not all games do that yet, idk if this game has it yet

[@itsd0nk]

It looks like we finally have another studio that properly scaled the depth of field and motion blur between the different resolutions and frame rates. The only difference I really saw between any of the versions is the much higher quality DoF effect on PC at Max settings.

[@vgnvideogameninja2930]

PC at max settings looks no better than PS5. However, the frame rate on PC at max settings is inferior to that of PS5.

[@TeleportRush]

@@vgnvideogameninja2930 Shadows.

[@somnia3423]

@@vgnvideogameninja2930 shadows are much better on pc

[@A-ZoneG4ming]

@@vgnvideogameninja2930 The density of the fur It is way higher on the PC Verison, also it plays at native 4k. Better shadows, ambient occlusion, depth of field & motion blur.

[@MaNameizJeff]

I wasn't seeing and dof on ps5 actually. Was not any mention of the scene with the 3 cats where there was clearly a backdrop blur on pc that was completely absent on ps5.

[@KBABZ]

1:44 This is incorrect; here in SCIE territories at least, Stray is only on the Extra and Premium tiers.

[@SushiCombo]

In North America it's also not included in Essentials.

[@KBABZ]

@@SushiCombo I see. An unfortunate slip of the tongue there, then.

[@turbosix]

Thanks for confirming this.. I was wondering if it was just one of those stupid ps store things where it was showing a cost on my PS5 but if I tried on my PS4 it would be free

[@goldenretrogames]

It was a bit disappointing that this game wasn't released with HDR support. It would look absolutely stunning in HDR.

[@betonman9]

looks beautiful even without.....on oled

[@Etheral101]

It has HDR on PS5. Probably only because theres an option to make every game play in HDR

[@goldenretrogames]

@@Etheral101 Auto HDR is not the same as the game having native HDR support

[@DuckAlertBeats]

Agreed!

[@Cruxis_Angel]

@@Etheral101 that makes most games look washed out and disgusting. If the game doesn’t natively support HDR it’s better to play in SDR

[@jimengab]

This isn't free on PS Plus Essential. Just Extra and Premium.

[@mathias2277]

@@jcdenton41100 how do you get this trial if you already have Essentials?

[@gdoumit]

This game is such a pleasure to play on PS5. I'm really enjoying it and taking my time with it. It's so great to relax and play this.

[@MrTurtle15]

Absolutely love this game i wish it was longer

[@manygatos885]

must be nice to have a ps5 even if I got the money its not for sale

[@BigBoss-kq8mb]

@@manygatos885 I got one this week by going to a local gamestop. Impossible to get online without an invite.

[@manygatos885]

@@BigBoss-kq8mb man I love cats 🐈 it would work on my pc but I rather have it on console

[@BigBoss-kq8mb]

@@manygatos885 Its pretty nice on my 4K Sony Bravia

[@Lucas_McCain]

You state that Stray is free to play with the "extra" and "essential" levels of PS Plus. This is incorrect. It is only included with the "extra" and "premium" levels. That said, thanks for this vid. I've been trying to decide whether to get this on PC or PS5. Perfect timing.

[@carpetfluff35]

You need to edit your first extra to essential there, or you're just partially compounding Tom's mistake.

[@KH-fv3vq]

That part got me confused.

[@maxhoughtonmusic]

@@carpetfluff35 no Lucas is right, he just put "extra" and "essential" in the opposite order to how tom said them. What he's saying is still correct

[@carpetfluff35]

@@maxhoughtonmusic His original post didn't say what it says now, which is why I said he ought to edit it. So it's right now, but wasn't before.

[@maxhoughtonmusic]

@@carpetfluff35 well if it was edited, it would say "(edited)" next to it, that's how KZbin works. So no what it says now is originally what he said. See? Both of our comments say it

[@teddy4548]

I see 2 ways of fixing shader compilation issues. The simple one would be to make an optional screen to compile them before going in game. the other would be to occupy a single core on systems with a high thread count to compile shaders before they are needed but while playing the game

[@Waffle4569]

The problem with the "thread" approach is you can never guarantee a shader will be compiled in time, and you'll either have to not render the missing shaders, or halt the game like it does currently. Also attempting to predict what shaders will be needed may be difficult to do without incurring more overhead.

[@theblah12]

I think the biggest issue with UE4 itself, the engine’s built-in solution “PSO Caching” is a very manual process: you a can see how many steps that takes if you look up the UE4 documentation, plus I’m also not sure how effective it is anyway. Ultimately the reason why devs use off the shelf engines like UE4 or Unity is to make the development process a lot easier, as devs only need to focus on the high level gameplay programming. Shader compilation is a lower level problem that should be handled by the engine without devs needing to put much thought into it, so really it’s Epic Games which needs to step up and offer a better solution.

[@ryo-kai8587]

@@theblah12 Either way, I agree with Teddy that there should always be a manual Compile Shaders option. That could be Epic's solution: a smart compilation tool that detects your system specs (if necessary) and auto-compiles everything. You'd only need to run it once unless files were changed or DLC was added, and even if it was slow, you could choose when to do it. This is a ridiculous issue to have on hardware that can cost thousands of dollars and should offer a buttery-smooth experience.

[@servare2599]

Lol what a nightmare, welcome to the “PCMR”

[@somnia3423]

@@servare2599 nightmare?

[@_Refurbished_]

PC will always have more issues than consoles, overall. I was a PC gamer for 15 years, built my own PCs, and grew frustrated with games having issues that could only be fixed by altering a config file, found months later by a forum user. Console gaming, while not perfect let’s me focus on gaming and not tinkering. I loved the mod aspect of PC gaming, but it’s issues as found here that really turn me off to PC gaming as my primary setup.

[@AraFrances168]

The soft purring of the Dualsense controller when the cat sleeps has to be my favorite use of the controller thus far

[@PenguinYayOne]

1:42 not on essential, only on premium and extra

[@denisruskin348]

Curiously enough, this might be one of the few titles I did not notice much shader compilation on PC. Like, it was there when loading a new area, but since the game is short and once you load a big area you are there for like an hour, it was fairly decent....compared to Fallen Order where I saw stutters like every 30 sec, night and day difference. Also, we need to talk more about that OST...it's so good.

[@SolidBoss7]

The only game I’ve even seen this be worth complaining about on PC is Shadow Warrior 3x but for the most part even with the games that have the problem, it’s very minimal, especially on high end hardware

[@sushimshah2896]

Idk, I didn't see much of it in SWJ:FO, maybe because I wasn't hitting too high framerates or because I played the cracked version🤷🏻‍♂️

[@Ozziw162]

Same, barely noticeable on my machine, and only when entering new areas. And many seem to gloss over the fact that you can uncap the framerate in the options menu. I game on a 120hz 1080p monitor, and it stays essentially locked at 120 at that resulotion target. Silky smooth.

[@JB.zero.zero.1]

@Boinz Yep.

[@denisruskin348]

@Boinz I’m not defending it, clearly something is wrong with UE4 on Windows…but I wouldn’t go that far. Back in the 90s we were happy with most games being sub 30fps. It’s annoying yes, but I’ll get over it if a game is really good, like in Stray’s case. But I get your take.

[@Majsz]

Why people say it's a platformer? "Press X" is not platforming imo, it's more of a light adventure game.

[@olivierpeartnoy]

I guess that's true but at many points you still have to figure out how to get somewhere. I guess you could call that puzzles more than platforming but idk. Feels a little bit of both. Just because something is easy doesn't necessarily it isn't something.

[@Wylie288]

Its a modern point and click adventure game. Idk why people think its a platformer.

[@TeleportRush]

I would agree. The stressing how the stutter would 'interfere with platforming' was funny because you literally can't fuck up the movement

[@someawesome7984]

@@olivierpeartnoy Half Life have puzzles and platforming too, in the way that in this game btw, but nobody call it platformer.

[@neamraven]

People are stupid. They also say it's a game, which it is not. Like you said, 'press X' is not platforming. It's not really anything, it's like navigating a DVD menu. So a DVD menu is all you need to make to be a GOTY contender these days.

[@jonesy3000]

I feel the ps4 pro needs a update something like 1080p 60 / 1440p 30 or even 1800p/4k checkerboard. The pro is a fair bit faster than the base ps4 regardless of the age of the hardware.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

I agree, but each version requires its individual testing, and extra specific code. The team is small and strategically decided to only do 3 platforms instead of 4: PS4, PS5, PC. So the PS4 pro is just the exact same version as the PS4, which still looks great, but for sure 1440p30 was possible.

[@kipters]

Yeah, I'm playing it right now on PS4 Pro and I was a bit disappointed to see it was 30 fps

[@SKHYJINX]

I'm having a blast the last few sessions in Stray, I've encountered some stutter on PC in new loading areas but its pretty minimal after the first level few subsections.

[@ronniewhitedx]

Yep zero stuttering on my 1050ti and 2600x. Very well optimized!

[@nithinrajendran3091]

@@ronniewhitedx gaming life must be hard for you

[@dradis1]

I got some heavy stuttering on PS5 in the battery room. Really smooth both before and after that.

[@Skylancer727]

Well if it's shader compilation the more you play the less they should occur. Still when new scenery objects are loaded it will happen again. I still can't believe this has been an issue for years now and Epic, Nvidia, nor AMD have seemingly attempted to fix it eventhough basically every UE5 game struggles with it.

[@sin15tar]

Having pretty stable stuttering rotating the camera in the scene with a tv set on the roof. The game obviously doesn’t load or compile anything. That’s odd.

[@MR-vg7yn]

Just this morning I thought "hey, it would be great to see a comparison between PS5 and PC for Stray, would like to know which version to get" and now here you are. Is the only visual difference between PS5 and PC really just the shadow quality? In that case, I'd probably go for PS5.

[@dildojizzbaggins6969]

Why though? PC will ALLWAYS be the definitive version of any game. Think of future mods and fixes, scalability, and so on.

[@lbozo9222]

@@dildojizzbaggins6969 bro what mods are u actually gonna get for Stray that would be worthwhile over an overall more consistent PS5 version. Gaming PC's are getting more and more frustrating as we get shitty port after shitty port.

[@mpforeverunlimited]

@@lbozo9222 play as a dog

[@mpforeverunlimited]

Just get the cheapest one

[@gibgun]

Just the sort of pointless arguing I’d expect. Idiots “correcting” people on their decision of how they choose to spend their money. Worry about yourselves you mongs.

[@XxXPerseus]

Thanks so much! I have a PS4 Pro and it's very hard to find this in-depth comparison between all of the consoles - really appreciate it and the commentary!

[@daftrok]

Really bizarre its capped at 30 on the ps4 pro. It almost seems like they didn't make enhancements for it at all.

[@krisk2466]

Honestly stray is an incredible game it looks beautiful and seems to run incredibly well on older systems.

[@jessewalters811]

I felt like I was playing art, experiencing someone's painting. The visuals and atmosphere are really beautiful. To me it was like a new genre of game.... A walkthrough of digital art.

[@whodatninja439]

so a walking simulator.

[@jessewalters811]

@@whodatninja439 you played it?

[@HiCZoK]

"60 fps greatly helps with precision platforming"... there is no platforming. You just press prompts edit: I got back to the game months later and now I realize I was playing it in a hurry and was too harsh to it. It's so nice and calming once you play it slow

[@codecthelios]

Anytime a game like this comes out I always look forward to the DF analysis.

[@artjink]

I’ve had mostly smooth experience on PS5 with small hiccups here and there as the Thomas pointed out in the video. But there was a section of the game, the factory puzzle section, where I noticed significant frame drops. It was a bit strange as I’ve not seen any significant slow downs like this anywhere else in the game.

[@tuckercruise1016]

Same

[@A-ZoneG4ming]

Another thing to mention is the density of the fur. It is higher on the PC Version. I noticed on a side by side comparison with the Ps5.

[@ammanus356]

And the ray tracing when the -dx12 command is added, adding in rt reflections, AO, and shadows

[@razor_no1]

The PS4 Pro could do 1080p/60 easily with the right amount of time & optimization, but still run the game @ PS4 base settings. I really don't understand why Sony doesn't push the Pro-versions more with developers. Its impossible to get a PS5 (399/499) and many people still use the Pro. 🤷‍♂

[@Ziplock9000]

You dont understand why Sony is not pushing cheaper systems that make them less profits?

[@mimimimeow]

in the end it's an indie studio that doesn't have much budget or manpower to throw for specific optimizations. The fact that the game looks decent is already amazing for indie standards. Not ideal but it is what it is.

[@cakeisamadeupdrug6134]

I'm not sure it could do 60fps at all. Those Jaguar cores were shit. The last gen was a firmly 30fps beast because the CPU just couldn't churn out 60 fps.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

It could do 1440p/30 100% sure, because it has double the GPU power, and 1440 has 1.778x the pixels of 1080, but 1080p/60 not guaranteed because the CPU is not twice as fast, but only 33% faster or something.

[@funcioguerra9998]

I do not see much difference between the maximum configuration of pc and ps5 unless I pause the image and you start to see the details in detail, however I did see annoying drops in fps in the pc version.

[@TacoDiceCosas]

I recently buyed a PS5 and this is one of the first games I booted in it. I'm glad to say it's a fantastic experience. An impressive showcase of the new hardware.

[@TheBassKitty]

Try Ratchet & Klank: Rift Apart to REALLY see what the PS5 hardware is capable of! 😉👌

[@edvardgal8878]

@@TheBassKitty or Returnal so you can see what ssd and dualsense can do.

[@MoonSarito]

For me, who only have the PS4 Slim as an option to play and won't be able to get a PS5 anytime soon, I'm very happy to see that the game runs surprisingly well on the base PS4.

[@donkeyy8331]

Bruh Unreal really needs to get it's shit together with these shader stutters.

[@leoon51]

Whats the background music name from around 4:34 to 5:50? Is it from Stray's soundtrack?

[@cun7us]

Clearly their focus was on PS5 which looks incredible. However, I'm surprised they weren't able to get the frame rate up to 60fps on PS4 Pro given that it's 1080p. At the very least, I'd expect a higher resolution. Something tells me it'll get an update soon with one of the two.

[@theindiediary5950]

Doubtful. The ps4 pro is ancient tech.

[@cun7us]

@@theindiediary5950 not really, it has a faster CPU, more than 2 extra teraflops and is able to output 4K on most games, so there's no reason why it shouldn't perform better than the base PS4.

[@mattyork7625]

I do think the Pro should easily be able to handle 60fps at 1080. This game isn't even demanding, its actually incredibly simplistic. I think they just spend more time on the ps5 version and the other versions kinda took the back seat.

[@cun7us]

@@mattyork7625 agreed. The graphics are quite detailed but there's no explosions or particle effects that are GPU heavy. I'm almost certain it'll get an update later on.

[@felipeozalmeida]

Assetto Corsa Competizione started like that, barely going up from 30 FPS. Nowadays you can get 60 FPS in most situations but only in 1080p.

[@ThomUnder]

Thanks for continuing to feature base PS4 comparisons.

[@Jambobist]

First time I've felt the haptics on the PS5 controller have really added to a game, haptic purring is great!

[@isandlaurius]

put dual sense on you chest while cat is purring. It feels real.

[@ebridgewater]

Tom puts comparison shots the right way around 👍🏻

[@more7642]

It's wonderful how 9 year old hardware of PS4 still manage to deliver 1080p 30 fps in most of the modern titles. And most wonderful thing is devs of the PS4 versions doesn't downgrade graphics to the potato mode like Switch devs.

[@MaxIronsThird]

It's almost like these devs seem to not be taking advantage of the new hardware.

[@MoonSarito]

For me, who only have the PS4 Slim as an option to play and won't be able to get a PS5 anytime soon, I'm very happy to see that the game runs surprisingly well on the base PS4.

[@Ziplock9000]

Its wonderful how 9 year old hardware can run a modern game at 9 year old resolutions, framerate an quality settings? no, its not. Its expected

[@cristi8183]

@ziplock9000 - For a console it is expected. Not for a 9 years old 400 $ pc.

[@cakeisamadeupdrug6134]

The Switch is a 2014 android phone... It's not comparable to the PS4.

[@gameskyjumper1721]

On PS5 you can feel a gentle vibration on the Dualsense when the cat purr.

[@madson-web]

Isn't there an option to pre-compile those shaders on pc? It would be nice.

[@TheBubbeloo]

Think it's limited to only OpenGL and Vulkan. Hence the issues with DX games which most games still tend to use.

[@joker927]

I seem to remember a couple games where you have to wait a bit on first load to compile shaders. I wonder if devs just did not do that here...

[@kendokaaa]

@@TheBubbeloo I don't think that's the case. A lot of directX games seem to compile shaders at first start (Forza Horizon 5 for example). This is a case of Unreal Engine not making it happen by default and a lot of devs simply not knowing how to do it as it seems to be a bit of an involved process. 100% Epic's fault

[@arrowknee7356]

@@kendokaaa Call of Duty also precompiles shaders, as did Horizon Forbidden West etc.

[@enriquedossantos3283]

It should be implemented by the devs and not optional, even if it takes 5 minutes for the game first run (a lot of games do it that way)

[@snowpuddle9622]

press X when it tells you to and it jumps exactly where needed. What platforming are you talking about?

[@theoldpcgamer77]

I was thinking the same thing.

[@XgamerdaveX]

It took me about 10 and a half hours to beat this. I was taking my time and tried to see/do everything. I missed a couple of things along the way though.

[@johndodo2062]

Same. Worth the money but I'm playing free on ps5

[@VuBeClan]

@@johndodo2062 how do you play free?

[@markusjohansson6245]

@@VuBeClan Playstation plus

[@Fake_Blood]

Thomas has such a relaxing voice. Years ago, as a non native speaker, I had some slight issues with his pronunciation, but now it’s perfect. Really enjoyed your video Thomas.

[@funbrute31]

The good thing about DX12 and the sttutering thing is that now You know exactly what developers are actually working and correctly using the API

[@vaggeliskosiatzis5487]

But Stray is using only DX11 on PC… you could force DX12 if you want… but the game is completely unplayable… stutters all the time… I don’t recommend it at all..

[@funbrute31]

@@vaggeliskosiatzis5487 So UE4 shitty streaming is also fucking the performance. Not an excuse tough, considering we have lots of great performing games on UE4

[@vaggeliskosiatzis5487]

@@funbrute31 it’s the engines problem and the bad optimisation of developers…. Because there are a lot of examples of UE4 games that play flawlessly, phychonauts 2, Kena to name a few… but at the end of the day, 99% of games play and look much better on a PC that a console anyway… Pc master race forever!!!

[@observer888]

I see no striking differences between the three systems at all. I'm happy I'm still with my PS4 slim. A huge collection with very affordable titles...

[@romanprokhorov3875]

This game's presentation and atmosphere are just awesome! And the cat animations with little details and smooth transitions. He (or she, I don't know) really is the best cat in video games.

[@AKSBSU]

My real life cat seemed mesmerized by it and sat in front of the television watching it for quite awhile.

[@Straw8erry]

Not a word on the game's awesome flashlight lighting, or how they make reflections... DF videos used to talk about such details.

[@machinefannatic99]

Mark cerny. My man spoke the gospel truth but ignorant people cancelled him. And know are crying about shader compilation and streaming. Sometimes you should keep quiet and listen to professionals.

[@machinefannatic99]

@Transistor Jump im stating facts. It’s ignorant experts who pretended not to listen to mark cerny that are now crying and remaining ignorant. Cause they think they know more than a computer engineer whose been in the industry before they even had pubic hair.

[@machinefannatic99]

@Transistor Jump it’s famboyism, they don’t understand engineering. Consoles are purposely crafted for specific functions. And it takes years of engineering to make a 400$ box do wonders unlike a PC which is all purpose!

[@TeleportRush]

@@machinefannatic99 I'd rather have the all purpose one tbh, but that's just me. Can't run a server from a long dead MMO on a console, for example.

[@machinefannatic99]

@@TeleportRush everybody wants an all powerful pc that’s not the point here. The point is even though pc’s are powerful they face a lot of bottlenecks aswell and a lot of configurational palavar. You basically need to be some nerd to configure pc gaming.. it’s the different api’s, drivers, dll’s and a lot of stuff where as consoles just work as intended

[@TeleportRush]

@@machinefannatic99 i didn't say all powerful, i said all purpose. I like my ability to do weird shit too much, i could never go back into the manufacturer mandated box of approved actions.

[@Corybander]

Good coverage. Classy review. Thank you.

[@redsky5440]

I thought the shader compilation thing was only an issue in dx12 games. This might be the first time I've seen it in a dx11 game.

[@imo098765]

Its an Unreal Engine thing

[@lulkLogan]

The Ascent had it really bad at launch even in DX11. Stray seems like it was shipped to reviewers as DX12, and then they switched it over to DX11 just before it was released on Steam, as far as I can tell. Not sure which version Tom played. You can switch it back to DX12 with the -dx12 launch command, but from what I've heard that makes stuttering worse

[@thumper5555]

10:38 I wonder if installing as SSD on the PS4 / PS4 pro would help?

[@liviutatarush1249]

The game also runs well on Steam Deck, with the default settings of 1280x800 and 30 fps, at a consumption of 15w. About three hours of gameplay!

That is actually damn good!

[@metacube9913]

Not spending 60 euros on games as long as devs don't give a fuck about players.

[@SirCrest]

Honestly, any stutters I've had on my 3090/3950x have been so minor to be unnoticeable at 120fps. I also barely could see them in the video, looked more like the lighting blinking than a frame drop.

[@darkcult99]

It’s such a great game. Clever move on Sony’s behalf to include it in PS+ Extra 👍

[@rinaa6865]

Still just a very short indie game at the end of the day.

[@TheManOnTheHill]

@@rinaa6865 stop crying Xbot xD

[@notafed2868]

@@TheManOnTheHill That hardly sounds like crying. Not that deep.

[@willjohnboy]

@@notafed2868 perhaps he checked the account the comments are anti Sony pro xbox 🤔

[@dradis1]

@@rinaa6865 a game can be good even if it is short or an indie title. Cuphead was a fairly short indie game, and that was a blast.

[@uum6]

We thought we were content role-playing petting cats and dogos. Now we're role-playing a cat petting a sofa.

[@duncanself5111]

Unique. Nice visual design. Cat creation tools would be good if there's a sequel

[@j.d.6915]

Groups of cats are called a clowder.

[@MN12BIRD]

I played it on an AMD 5800X and RX 5600 XT at 1440p High and for the most part it was fine. There is a little stutter every now and then but I didn't find it hurt the game. That is other than a few outliers. The paint can through the glass area they show here would TANK so hard every time I got there. I mean like 5FPS for a good 3 full seconds or so to the point where I thought the game was just going to straight up crash the first time! But that one spot is the worst (I think I got there 3 times and it did it equally as bad each time) and I only recall a few spots like that the entire game. Overall I felt it ran fine.

[@MrLangobard]

PS4 and PS4 Pro having the same framerate is weird. Or am I the only one thinking that.

[@sicparvismagna6526]

What a shame for the ps4 pro version.. I hope it will receive a patch soon. pretty sure a 1440p or a 4k checkboarded are totally possible

[@rodrigosantos-pe9rs]

1080p 60 fps too...

[@you_commentbackyourmomahoe]

@@rodrigosantos-pe9rs 60 fps is not possible only graphical improvement

[@rodrigosantos-pe9rs]

@@you_commentbackyourmomahoe maybe with dynamic resolution... sorry about my bad english :(

[@you_commentbackyourmomahoe]

@@rodrigosantos-pe9rs your English is 100% perfect but ps4 standard use dynamic so i don't think so they are gonna use the standard way probably a checkerboarded 1440p-1600p or even maybe 1800p close to 4k is possible after all

[@simonrockstream]

BRILLIANT CAMERA WORK!!! 0:05

[@fernandomartinez4486]

This game im so sure, could have run 1080p @60fps on ps4 pro. The game is not that heavy or intense in terms of graphics, it just isnt. Stray could totally run at 60 fps on PS4 Pro even with dynamic scaling if needed. Games like GoW, Blops 4, DS3, DMC 5, Doom and Doom Eternal, Gran Turismo Sport, Tekken 7, and a big etc run all at 60 fps at least 1080p. You gonna tell me that Stray runs more polygons on screen at a higher pace than all of those games? What a scam from Sony. Im sure Sony didnt like that, Im sure they "suggested" any kind of high performance exclusively for ps5.

[@ammanus356]

Most of those games dont run at 60fps on ps4 pro at all.

[@franzusgutlus54]

Weren't there ray traced reflections marketed at reveal? Maybe I misremember...

[@PanzerSAMURAI]

surprised you didn’t mention the ghosting, i played on ps5 and there’s was a lot of ghosting, particularly behind the cat, it was kinda distracting at times

[@phrozac]

Great analysis! I've been enjoying this game on PS5. It has a similar sort of indie "It" factor that Journey did on PS3. A kind of beautiful, relaxing, contemplative but brief adventure. How about a Steam Deck review? I plan on getting it for PC because it's a perfect commuting game. Hopefully the performance issues will be ironed out by then.

[@maxmaxneolit]

Contemplative AND brief. I am really starting to detest 100+ hours games that could have done what they do and said what they wanted to say in 20 hours, or 20+ hours games that could have in 4. Stray is perfect. Perfect length, perfect price, perfect protagonist animation. I should have said purrfect 🐱

[@phrozac]

@@maxmaxneolit So what you’re saying is you DON’T want to kill a checklist of Zurk bandit camps after unlocking a massive world map by climbing a checklist of towers while working through a checklist of copy+paste sidequests? That’s ridiculous!

[@maxmaxneolit]

@@phrozac LoL, exactly, my friend. I have enough Excel spreadsheets at work.

[@ArkaneStephanie]

I can't believe that a Playstation exclusive has come out where the Pro version wasn't enhanced at all. I know its never been a 4k console but I expected at least a bit

[@ConcasicoWoodworks]

I'm playing on a 5700XT Sapphire Pulse, Ryzen 2700X and 16 GB at High Settings 60fps 1440p. I'm really not having any issues and I was expecting to have more tbh, the only thing that I modified is the resolution scale, mostly because my gpu gets hot and I don't really like putting to much pressure on it, but the overall experience is solid 60fps with some minor dips to 55 even on 100% scale.

[@deletevil]

I am running this on Debian, Steam Proton, i7-5775C, RX 5700 XT, SATA SSD and 32 GB DDR3 2200 OC. Exactly same as you in 1440p everything high, I too didn't have any stuttering at all I don't know what are people talking about stuttering and stuff here lol. I too got dips to 55 fps on rare occasions only at those settings, although I have never seen dips below 60 at Ultra 1080p. I am running undervolted GPU at 1950 MHz at 1050v. Core temp maxed out at 73 (generally it's always below 70c), junction/hotspot temps reached max at 82c, memory at 84c max. This is here 28-32c ambient (post summer, early-mid spring, 50-90% humidity time).

[@raresmacovei8382]

5700 XT + R5 3600. Played at 1080p120 in DX12, enabled TSR in ini and played at 67% rez scale. It was a great, smooth experience.

[@MondoBodacious]

Great as always, but was a bit disappointed there wasn't a section discussing Steam Deck performance.

[@griffgames9538]

Tom may not have a Deck actually.

[@MondoBodacious]

@@griffgames9538 Very true! Let's hope the whole team gets one in the near future if that's the case 🙂

[@IuriFiedoruk]

I like to see comparisons that include the base PS4, so when I upgrade to PS5 the day the Slim is released, I can replay some great games, like Stray seems to be. Great review, thank you.

[@johannessguten2527]

If your waiting why not wait for rhe pro?

[@minus3dbintheteens60]

Pretty sweet, for sure worth a look. But I maybe missed where you pointed out the bokeh difference at 9:30 PC 3060Ti vs PS5

[@DavideDavini]

Sad the Pro doesn’t get any love. Besides that, I’m having a blast with it.

[@fx3channel356]

There is a specific moment in the latter half of the game where you need to steal a battery where I saw a very dramatic drop to 10-20 fps on my system, otherwise the PC experience was generally fine despite some smaller hitches. I think this big drop is also present on PS5 from what I remember reading. It's the battery room in the factory if you're curious. Lovely game overall otherwise. It's short length is almost a merit as I now remember it fondly and want more rather than stopping because I got stuck or tired of it.

[@HenriqueGalatiBR]

The same drop occurs on PS5, probably a bug or something with the stream of assets on background. Nothing important really, its only a second.

[@gaetanoisgro6710]

When I first heard about Stuttering on PC I thought it was almost Elden Ring level by listening to ppl but i honestly never saw an UE4 game with less hitches than this...which is incredibly sad but i wouldn't call it a bad PC port considering other games on the market rn.

[@AJ-xv7oh]

Stop giving them excuses!

[@gaetanoisgro6710]

@@AJ-xv7oh My comment tell quite the opposite but you should definitely not play on PC if you consider Stray a bad port these days

[@Tryton4551]

Yeah it's not a bad port, but this happens way too often, it becomes tiresome to see this. You're right, it's just sad at this point.

[@gaetanoisgro6710]

@@Tryton4551 Yeah i mean, basically 99% of UE4 games released this year are in worse condition than Stray. The main problem here is related to the shader compilation, which is bad but many other games are plagued by stutters deriving from the streaming of the assets, garbage collections etc. on top of that, which is far more annoying for the user and should be addressed asap. At this point it's not about a specific game, it's just too frequent and widespread.

[@tres2428]

The cats' animations are impressing me the most I gotta say. Love the game concept & gameplay looks solid so I can't wait to buy and play 😍

[@Fulle84]

You can get rid of the shader compilation hitches on PC by just forcing the game to run in DX11.

[@brandon_nope]

But it already runs in DX11

[@Fulle84]

@@brandon_nope The compilation stutter is a DX12 Unreal Engine issue. A lot of games have it on PC. Forcing DX11 avoids the issue, with no downsides I'm aware of. Digital Foundry forced DX11 in some other games with the issue, so I know they know it can be avoided. I have no idea why they left that out of the video.

[@Fulle84]

@@brandon_nope I'll have to check on this if I get the game later. I saw a youtuber add -dx11 -d3d11 launch options to the game in Steam, and it got rid of the stutter. The DX12 compilation stutter shouldn't be happening if the game runs in DX11 by default. I wonder if the reviewers have a slightly different build of the game that's running in DX12. But you're right, I've seen some benchmark peeps putting up information on the game, and it seems to be running in DX11 for them without adding any launch options.

[@ammanus356]

@@Fulle84 Nope you're wrong. DX12 Ultimate has compilation stutter, but Unreal Engine 4 can have it in any game, also has a lot of traversal stutter. You clearly don't understand hardware bro

[@Fulle84]

@@ammanus356 I made that comment 4 days ago. At the time I saw some youtubers putting in dx11 launch switches to try to avoid stutter, so I assumed it was the DX12 problem. Little did I know that it was just some people forcing DX11 on a game that was already running in DX11.

[@chexmixkitty]

I had that same hitching when you drop the paint can through the window on PC.

[@Kawacozy]

Welp I think I'll just get a ps5 at this point. I prolly wouldve enjoyed Elden ring alot more on ps5 rather than pc.

[@inas1100]

There is one particular moment where there is stutter issue even on PS5 which is when that battery comes down in the factory. It stutters everytime. My guess is fps drops below 30 from 60

[@nguxurr9667]

At this point majority of PC users has Weaker hardware than Ps5 Players.

[@HassanMohamoud-lg2xw]

lol sure

[@jemandetwas1]

@@HassanMohamoud-lg2xw I mean, it is true. The 1060 is still the most popular card. Not sure how the original comment relates to the video though

[@kiisseli1337]

Maybe, but not the viewers of this video. Poor countries drops the average. If I was PC gamer I would have much better PC.

[@zbigniewsmyk]

@@kiisseli1337 LMAO

[@VariantAEC]

@@HassanMohamoud-lg2xw Jenand Etwas is right. As per usual the most comprehensive PC gaming hardware survey suggests that as of June 2022 most PC gamers are rocking Windows 10 64-bit (71.26%) with a CPU that has 4 physical cores (32.74%) clocking in at 2.3-2.69Ghz (18.51%) per core 16GB of RAM (50.82%) paired with an Nvidia GTX 1060 (6.82%) with 8GB of VRAM (24.1%) displayed on a 1920x1080 resolution panel (66.72%) stats. Making matters worse is the fact that nearly half of all reporting HW has storage capacities between 100 and 999 GB in total. My laptop even without increased storage beats most of these specs and I picked it up 5 years ago now (hard to believe it's that old already). 49.91% of Steam users have more than 1 TB of total storage space on their machines. For comparison my 5 year old laptop has 16GB of RAM, a 4 core CPU at 2.8Ghz per-core with HyperThreading enabled (single thread performance increases without HyperThreading, but disabling it forces reverification of Windows OS & apps as I discovered adjusting that BIOS setting makes the system believe you're using new HW), a GTX 1070 (8GB), with 3TB of fast solid-state storage media some of that being Gen 3 PCIe speeds thanks to an upgrade to an 8x larger M.2 NVMe drive than what came with my laptop back in 2017. Basically... my 5 year old laptop is better than the majority of Steam users PCs which are all far weaker than PS5 and PCs as powerful as my laptop even those desktops with GTX 1080 Tis simply cannot handle RT. Basically if you want to play next-gen games now especially for a low price, buy a console... if you can find one.

[@yu4rn]

I was waiting for this only. Thank you Digital Foundry for everything that you do! ✌🏻💐 ✨

[@meisterli]

Would've liked to see the Steam Deck in this comparison, too. I think we can call it a platform somewhat seperate of "PC" at this point.

[@AltCutTV]

A Portable Console. ;) But yeah, there have been quite a few games now showing that some PC issues are either reduced or even absent on SteamDeck for various reasons. Not sure if Stray is one of those games that has the baking already done or not though.

[@Lolkork]

I love the soft shadows in this game, looks really nice.

[@Tectosaurus]

Loved every second of this game, played it on PS5 since it was cheaper with PS+ than buying it on PC. Other than some frame drops during auto saves and in the “battery” area, the game looked and ran very well.

[@smokeemifyagotem8851]

Lol it’s a walking cat sim. If it didn’t run well I’d be worried

[@iamarabicandiloveamericanp7137]

@@smokeemifyagotem8851 xbot in the wild

[@Tectosaurus]

@@smokeemifyagotem8851 that has nothing to do with the performance? The world is packed with detail, amazing textures and lighting. Coming from a small indie studio with a dozen employees, this is very impressive work.

[@smokeemifyagotem8851]

@@Tectosaurus lol it’s a linear game with not much going on give me a break lmao

[@Tectosaurus]

@@smokeemifyagotem8851 not much going on? Clearly you haven’t played the game lol. To me it sounds like you’re pissed that a “cat walking simulator” is getting so much praise. 🙀😺

[@jfsps15]

It's free en PS+ essential or just extra? 1:44 *It's just extra right?

[@mathesar]

I mostly play PC games but i've been playing Stray on PS5 and it really makes you realize how bad stuttering in general is with PC gaming. I hope they plan on addressing this as it's been going on for way to long and I don't even know if anyone at Epic / Nvidia / AMD has even acknowledged it.

[@A-ZoneG4ming]

It is a bit of a rare case most game runs better on PC.

[@domzzcardzz7985]

@@A-ZoneG4ming bro has pc gaming in his name lmao

[@klandu9]

Maybe you're just gaming on a cash register with all the settings cranked up?

[@OscarHazeGaming]

This makes me want to hug my cat every four minutes.

[@Anna_Rae]

PC gamers feel like a second class citizen with how prevalent these stutters are in games.

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

this problem is what is putting me off playing on pc, first you had elden ring with horrendous stuttering then ghostwire tokyo that was even worse and now this. all of those games on console do not seem to suffer with the same problems. it is a shame as i really want to build a pc as well.

[@nguxurr9667]

Ps5= High end PC It's hard for many to accept especially for those who build a 1.8K Rig and still get outperformed by 399 Ps5

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

@@nguxurr9667 1.8k pc would probably have a 3080ti which yeah the ps5 cant match obviously lol. in this video a 3060ti is beating the ps5.

[@nguxurr9667]

@@JudeTheKZbinPoopersubscribe 1.8$ in total is not a full Rig with a 3080Ti Nor did i say Ps5 is "better" than a 3080 Ti But stay hurt 😁

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

@@nguxurr9667 dude i don't even play pc i play on console lol.

[@ApotheosisDivine69]

Tom's reviews are always great!!

[@fh5kskalf]

This game is wonderful, everyone should play it. I really agree with the Studio Ghibli comparisons!

[@rodylermglez]

If only PS4pro went 60 fps it'd do wonderfully... Maybe they couldn't get it to work locked for release.

[@christopherscott934]

I've not had any issues thus far playing Stray on my PC. So far, the game has run really smooth.

[@starrims]

do you have gsync monitor?

[@Daigon95]

Same as well. I played through all of it in one day and hav had noticed very lil of the issues tht pop up. And I play on my Sony x800d 4k tv.

[@christopherscott934]

@@starrims Yes.

[@starrims]

@@christopherscott934 that’s why. I’m with 3070, even with 120 fps doesn’t feel smooth! There is always dips in frametimes. Gsync monitor helps in these scenarios where it feels smooth

[@Mako2x3]

Same. Playing with a LG CX + 3070 locked to 60. Barely any stutters for me personally.

[@mattcy6591]

@3:10 I definitely got those last guardian vibes also at first

[@Mde7FPV]

And my 10 year old self played starfox on single digit frames per second and thought it looked absolutely amazing😄

[@jedbaldwin]

Did the video note that Steam Deck doesn’t have the hitching? I didn’t notice any during my play through, at least. I also locked frame rate to 40 fps, which seemed to be very consistent.

[@Adaell90]

Played it and it’s a great little game. Though I noticed sometimes that some animations feels less fluid than the rest of the game on PS5. First I thought the cat ran at half-rate but it’s still too smooth for being only 30. Otherwise it’s a great and cute game.

[@changeling9821]

Yeah I noticed that too, very weird. I'm playing on PC

[@elenicerodrigues7900]

i noticed that too. some of the robots in midtown are definitely updating at half rate

[@Kreppi]

I played this on pc and really enjoyed it, but I did notice fps drops often, so it's good to know this is an issue others are having as well

[@000HHHWEE]

I played this game on PC and the game ran great…on steam the game reviews are overwhelming positive.

[@DanFarrell98]

Crazy the difference in power between PS4 and PS5. 4x the resolution and 2x the framerate

[@destebangm11216]

Man I still can't understand how Epic can't figure out a way to ensure their games to have a better shader compilation system... every freaking game in UE4 has this problem and they just ignore it entirely, and with more studios moving to UE5 is just ridiculous that this is still a problem. Man Epic just doesn't care at all.