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PS4 firmware 4.50 add Boost Mode for PS4 Pro.

Pantz

Member
Played Watch Dogs with boost and I'd like to say it was better but then again it could be my imagination. Looking forward to more official results.
 

eshwaaz

Member
The difference in Just Cause 3 is transformative.

I was having fun with the game at launch, finding the slowdown frustrating but playable, until I got to the largest island. The framerate became totally unbearable even when just gliding over settlements and bases, with no action going on.

With Boost turned on, I flew over those same areas now with no slowdown, and it remained playable even when I started wreaking havoc. I'm not going to claim that it's silky smooth, but the difference is huge. I'm kind of amazed.
 

Paz

Member
Well of course being PRO patched is ideal, it will always be, but then not all pro patches are made the same. Are you implying that's it's impossible for a very basic pro patch game to be boosted?

Yes, absolutely physically impossible, by by boosted you mean 'perform better with boost mode enabled' as you suggested at the start of this conversation.

Any game that is already pro enabled is already telling the PS4 Pro to not run in its base mode configuration, which is at best what boost mode is doing, native pro supporting games might also be further code optimized to take advantage of any hardware differences as well, which boost mode would be incapable of doing..

There is a literal physical impossibility of boost mode being more performative than native pro support in a like for like scenario. Of course, a game might do something like double the resolution or add additional visual elements with native pro support, but that's not a like for like scenario.

Boost mode is not magic, it is not overclocking your PS4 pro.
 

nakedeyes

Banned
Yes, absolutely physically impossible.

Any game that is already pro enabled is already telling the PS4 Pro to not run in its base mode configuration, which is at best what boost mode is doing, native pro supporting games might also be further code optimized to take advantage of any hardware differences as well, which boost mode would be incapable of doing..

There is a literal physical impossibility of boost mode being more performative than native pro support in a like for like scenario. Of course, a game might do something like double the resolution or add additional visual elements with native pro support, but that's not a like for like scenario.

Boost mode is not magic, it is not overclocking your PS4 pro.

You are mostly right. But it's not "physically impossible" to be more performative like you say over and over. "Performative" is not a straight forward word, but typically it is associated more with frame rate than Image Quality ( I would guess most people would agree with me here, but if you don't, then my argument holds less water ).

Games like Watch Dogs 2, TLOU, and Skyrim remaster, all run at way higher resolutions and IQ on Pro, but all of these examples suffer from reduced frame rate to their ( lower IQ ) PS4 amateur counterparts. I know, I know, Sony is supposed to be demanding that no PRO versions run at lowers frame rates than BASE versions, but there are existing proven examples of it happening.

So if there were way to play skyrim in BASE mode on a PRO, and turn on this boost thing. You might get better frame rate than a PRO version. Just sayin'

Edit: correct that the physical hardware is no more powerful ( well duh, no one though boost mode added magic ram or clock cycles lol ), just saying that different software implementations could allow for it. I would personally prefer if Sony gave us all configuration options on PRO, but I am just thankful for the boost mode right now.
 

leng jai

Member
I can understand boost mode not being available at launch. What is baffling is that there still isn't an option to run Pro models in base mode and how downsampling isn't an OS level option. These are basic features which should have been available at launch.
 

Paz

Member
You are mostly right. But it's not "physically impossible" to be more performative like you say over and over. "Performative" is not a straight forward word, but typically it is associated more with frame rate than Image Quality ( I would guess most people would agree with me here, but if you don't, then my argument holds less water ).

Games like Watch Dogs 2, TLOU, and Skyrim remaster, all run at way higher resolutions and IQ on Pro, but all of these examples suffer from reduced frame rate to their ( lower IQ ) PS4 amateur counterparts. I know, I know, Sony is supposed to be demanding that no PRO versions run at lowers frame rates than BASE versions, but there are existing proven examples of it happening.

So if there were way to play skyrim in BASE mode on a PRO, and turn on this boost thing. You might get better frame rate than a PRO version. Just sayin'

Edit: correct that the physical hardware is no more powerful ( well duh, no one though boost mode added magic ram or clock cycles lol ), just saying that different software implementations could allow for it. I would personally prefer if Sony gave us all configuration options on PRO, but I am just thankful for the boost mode right now.

I said like for like, comparing the performance of a game in 1080p + boost mode versus 4k with native pro support is not like for like.

The person I was responding to was earlier suggesting that it should be possible to get a performance boost in pro enabled games by using boost mode on top because they believe some pro patches are not using the full GPU & CPU power but (direct quote) "Boost mode is basically hit the ceiling......"
 
The difference in Just Cause 3 is transformative.

I was having fun with the game at launch, finding the slowdown frustrating but playable, until I got to the largest island. The framerate became totally unbearable even when just gliding over settlements and bases, with no action going on.

With Boost turned on, I flew over those same areas now with no slowdown, and it remained playable even when I started wreaking havoc. I'm not going to claim that it's silky smooth, but the difference is huge. I'm kind of amazed.

Yup, definitely rebuying (^_____^)

We confirmed boost mode DOES NOT make the fans go apeshit, correct?
 
Okay, so I've been messing around with Dying Light and switching between Base and Boost Modes, and I'm pretty sure in some interiors the Base Mode runs a lot smoother compared to in Boost. Currently making a quick comparison video and will post in the video thread once its uploaded.
 

-hadouken

Member
Can't wait for this update to come out.

First thing I'll do is play a lot of Conquest Large on BF4.

You're in for a treat - patch has completely transformed 64 player matches. The 45fps, headache inducing jankfest is at an end!

It's butter smooth. Looks a bit aged though.
Shame we can't get a bump to 1080P. 900P scaling artefacts and smear are unfortunate, but assets are still great.
 

Tubie

Member
It's butter smooth. Looks a bit aged though.

You're in for a treat - patch has completely transformed 64 player matches. The 45fps, headache inducing jankfest is at an end!


Shame we can't get a bump to 1080P. 900P scaling artefacts and smear are unfortunate, but assets are still great.

Oh fuck yes.

I can deal with the dated visuals (although it will probably be a bit jarring if you play it right after BF1 lol), but solid 60fps must feel incredible.
 
I don't know if this is in the right thread or if it's related to either the Pro itself or Boost Mode but I tried Slender: The Arrival cause I was bored and I noticed that the lighting and shadows were way off. Like you could see the borders when a different shading occurs.
 

Listonosh

Member
Okay, so this thread is getting me to go out and get a PS4 Pro today.

I have one problem tho, I want to trade in my current PS4 for the Pro (to make up some cash). However, I have a 2 gig drive in the PS4 right now. Can I just pull that one out, put it into the PS4 pro without issue?

I won't have both at any moment to make the transfer.

Likewise, what about if I backup the current PS4 drive to a hard-drive, can I restore that onto the Pro? (All of this for P.T. and my trophy screenshots)?

I literally thought the same thing without doing any research and yeah... now have to re-download everything and goodbye PT. Ah well, wasn't ever gonna play it anyway
 

Gradly

Member
Okay, so this thread is getting me to go out and get a PS4 Pro today.

I have one problem tho, I want to trade in my current PS4 for the Pro (to make up some cash). However, I have a 2 gig drive in the PS4 right now. Can I just pull that one out, put it into the PS4 pro without issue?

I won't have both at any moment to make the transfer.

Likewise, what about if I backup the current PS4 drive to a hard-drive, can I restore that onto the Pro? (All of this for P.T. and my trophy screenshots)?

I literally thought the same thing without doing any research and yeah... now have to re-download everything and goodbye PT. Ah well, wasn't ever gonna play it anyway

You can remove games and things you can download later, and keep those you wanna keep like PT etc then take a backup to external HDD or USB stick depending on the size. Later you can just restore that without loosing PT for example. I mean you don't have to backup everything if you don't have that space, you still can do it for only one game if you want
 

hawk2025

Member
Just Cause 3...

It's finally fucking playable and a blast to boot!

I went to a massive camp takeover and it's a whole new game. I would not be surprised if the average framerate has nearly doubled when taking over bases.
 
You can remove games and things you can download later, and keep those you wanna keep like PT etc then take a backup to external HDD or USB stick depending on the size. Later you can just restore that without loosing PT for example. I mean you don't have to backup everything if you don't have that space, you still can do it for only one game if you want

This. I posted a guide as to how I moved PT to my new Pro a few pages back. Will try to find it and quote it.
 

renzolama

Member
It's really surprising that Sony has been sitting on this through months of loud complaint about opt-in-only Pro enhancements and unfavorable comparisons to the Scorpio project. It almost feels borderline irresponsible from a marketing perspective considering the long term impact it will have on the messaging for the product. I'd love to hear some explanation down the road for why they didn't feel comfortable discussing it more openly if it was this close to deployment. It wasn't even included in the major firmware update features on the NA Sony blog, was it? It seems bizarre.
 

Gradly

Member
It's really surprising that Sony has been sitting on this through months of loud complaint about opt-in-only Pro enhancements and unfavorable comparisons to the Scorpio project. It almost feels borderline irresponsible from a marketing perspective considering the long term impact it will have on the messaging for the product. I'd love to hear some explanation down the road for why they didn't feel comfortable discussing it more openly if it was this close to deployment. It wasn't even included in the major firmware update features on the NA Sony blog, was it? It's bizarre.

I believe Sony wanna release new features when they are ready. Plus the hype now is better than hype 3 or 4 months ago (or whenever FW 4.0 was released), announce something cool every time and then to keep the good news in circulation
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
It's really surprising that Sony has been sitting on this through months of loud complaint about opt-in-only Pro enhancements and unfavorable comparisons to the Scorpio project. It almost feels borderline irresponsible from a marketing perspective considering the long term impact it will have on the messaging for the product. I'd love to hear some explanation down the road for why they didn't feel comfortable discussing it more openly if it was this close to deployment. It wasn't even included in the major firmware update features on the NA Sony blog, was it? It seems bizarre.

They may have had to address something on the backend in order to make more games work with it. Could be the result of AMD giving them more info on it working well. I also have a theory that they knew it caused issues in a couple major titles and wanted to avoid the issue entirely until they were was Pro patched or would run properly.

It likely wasn't detailed in the initial 4.5 announcement because if it caused widespread issues, they could pull it before going public with it. The beta is NDA'd, despite the fact that there is a lot of info out there about it now.
 

Crayon

Member
When sony allows boost mode for pro patched games, I'll try to trade up. The higher framerates are worth it.
 

Listonosh

Member
You can remove games and things you can download later, and keep those you wanna keep like PT etc then take a backup to external HDD or USB stick depending on the size. Later you can just restore that without loosing PT for example. I mean you don't have to backup everything if you don't have that space, you still can do it for only one game if you want

Yep, I actually had done that when I was upgrading to the 2TB. I only transfered some games (like PT) and my save files. However, I was so sure that taking my 2TB hard drive from one PS4 and putting it in another was going to work, that I didn't bother backing anything up, and by the time I did the hard drive switch, it was too late. Gamestop had my old PS4 =/ It's OK though, I wasn't nearly as heartbroken about it like I thought I'd be.
 

Stranya

Member
It's really surprising that Sony has been sitting on this through months of loud complaint about opt-in-only Pro enhancements and unfavorable comparisons to the Scorpio project. It almost feels borderline irresponsible from a marketing perspective considering the long term impact it will have on the messaging for the product. I'd love to hear some explanation down the road for why they didn't feel comfortable discussing it more openly if it was this close to deployment. It wasn't even included in the major firmware update features on the NA Sony blog, was it? It's bizarre.
It's astonishing how uninformative Sony has been with the Pro generally. This thing is being marketed as providing an enhanced experience on Pro-enabled games, yet Sony is not providing details of what those specific enhancements are to each game. Neither is it requiring devs/publishers to do so.

This lack of communication is particularly egregious given that the Pro benefits can vary wildly from one game to the next. It's being left to users to find that information for themselves: people are doing their own pixel-counting (thank you OP of the Pro games thread!) - it's insane.

It's bordering on misleading that, for example, the Pro is advertised as enhancing Pro-patched games, but that - on my 1080p TV - I get no tangible benefit at all from the Pro version of AC Ezio Collection (because it doesn't have downsampling, and somehow is still locked to 30fps).

Sony needs to:

(1) mandate that specific, detailed Pro enhancement info is provided as standard; and

(2) enable downsampling on a system level.

Boost mode seems a big step in the right direction though, so I am cautiously optimistic!
 

Bishop89

Member
Has anyone tested the framerate for a pro patched game vs unpatched and in boost mode.

Curious to see if there would be much difference with framerate and other technical stuff like load times
 

DBT85

Member
When sony allows boost mode for pro patched games, I'll try to trade up. The higher framerates are worth it.

mal-speechless.gif
 

//DEVIL//

Member
I want to ask. did anyone try final fantasy 15 and check the fps etc ?? its strange no one tried it so far lol.

or it doesn't work because it already has a pro mode ( which is worst that normal mode mind you )
 

renzolama

Member
When sony allows boost mode for pro patched games, I'll try to trade up. The higher framerates are worth it.

This is a really interesting idea. I'd also almost always prefer increased framerates over enhanced effects, and theoretically most games that were built with a pro patch should already be able to tolerate framerate increase/stabilization. I'm not sure they'd be able to allow the user to choose such fine-grained options without running the risk of making the messaging and UI for the Pro even more confusing to regular consumers though. One of the big narratives around consoles is that they make it easy for gaming consumers who don't want to deal with figuring out how to choose and optimize between a bunch of technical options, so that has to be a concern for Sony.

Edit: Some folks are responding that the above statement "isn't how it works", but I'm not sure I understand your logic. Is there some confirmed technical evidence that the PS4 Pro firmware doesn't have a logic switch to ignore the Pro Patch and run the base game? If not, then there's nothing stopping the ability to select boost mode and ignore the Pro Patch enhancements aside from Sony's willingness to allow that choice, rigtht?
 

Crayon

Member
Which game with a Pro patch isn't hitting its framerate cap?

In some cases the boosted vanilla ps4 game may be preferable to the pro version. And it would be able to compare the two setting in future games as opposed to the boost mode kind of fading into obscurity as all future games have a pro patch.
 

KyleCross

Member
I want to ask. did anyone try final fantasy 15 and check the fps etc ?? its strange no one tried it so far lol.

or it doesn't work because it already has a pro mode ( which is worst that normal mode mind you )
FFXV has pro support so boost is deactivated for it.
 

Crayon

Member
This is a really interesting idea. I'd also almost always prefer increased framerates over enhanced effects, and theoretically most games that were built with a pro patch should already be able to tolerate framerate increase/stabilization. I'm not sure they'd be able to allow the user to choose such fine-grained options without running the risk of making the messaging and UI for the Pro even more confusing to regular consumers though. One of the big narratives around consoles is that they make it easy for gaming consumers who don't want to deal with figuring out how to choose and optimize between a bunch of choices, so that has to be a concern for Sony.

It's actually a little cumbersome. Given that they were willing to not make a big deal about the boost mode, they may be willing to let it be a little rough around the edges as it may be just aimed at a small number of the most finicky users like us.
 
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