Call of Duty Cold War: A Comparison of Frame Rate and Ray-Tracing on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S

A video analysis posted by YouTuber VG Tech shows the frame rate and ray-tracing comparisons between next-gen consoles. The consoles used were PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Series S. Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War was the game being compared. The game was played on 120 FPS and with ray-tracing mode for both the high-end models.

Overall, the game performs in an extremely optimized fashion on both the top tier consoles. The Xbox Series S was supposed to have about a third of the specifications of the Series X. Even with that, the performance on Series S is nowhere less optimized to the common eye.

Below is the description of the versions used for this test by the YouTuber.

“The versions tested were 1.004.000 on PS5 and 1.0.3.0 on Xbox Series X|S (both were using the latest version at the time of testing). The 120fps mode was captured at 1080p. Ray tracing was enabled in the 60fps mode tested on PS5 and Xbox Series X which uses a form of ray tracing for certain shadows. Xbox Series S doesn’t have a 120fps mode or a ray tracing mode.”

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Observations after playing Call of Duty Cold War

We will first discuss the observations on PS5 and Xbox Series X at 120 FPS. The game runs smoothly in both cases. Furthermore, on the PS5, we hardly see any drops in FPS in the combat scenes. On Xbox, though, the bar flickers a lot more and even drops below 110 sometimes. Essentially, both consoles held fairly constant at 120 FPS in most cases.

During the cut scenes, the FPS dropped on both the consoles but not stop significantly. To the general eye, there will be no difference. The video showed us that the PS5 flickers between the range of 110 to 105 frames. The Xbox however drops below 100 frames in some cases.

In addition, both the consoles showed a considerable drop in frame rates during aerial combat scenes. According to the video, the PS5 flickered between the range of 110-93 frames. The Xbox however did a better job by not falling below 105 frames.

RT mode on the consoles

In the ray-tracing mode on PS5 and Series X, both the consoles were able to hold a constant of 60 FPS at most times. However, VG Tech reported an anomaly on the PS5 in the video description.

“There was an issue on PS5 where the frame rate could randomly drop below 60fps during scenes that it previously ran at a solid 60fps. This issue wasn’t encountered on Xbox Series X. ”

Following are screenshots from the PS5, which he provided.

Here is his observation of the resolution fluctuations on the consoles while running the RT mode.

“Both PS5 and Series X in the ray tracing mode use a dynamic resolution with the highest resolution found being 3840×2160 and the lowest resolution found being 1920×1800. PS5 at 120fps, Series X at 120fps and Series S use a dynamic resolution with the highest resolution found being 2560×1440 and the lowest resolution found being 1280×1200.

“PS5 at 120fps, Series X at 120fps and Series S use a form of temporal reconstruction to reconstruct the horizontal resolution up to 2560 when the horizontal resolution is below this figure.”

Anyone interested can check the frame rate statistics here in further detail. Watch the video below.