Gears of War: E-Day on Xbox Series X vs Series S

Graphics modes and internal resolution

These are internal rendering resolutions. Both consoles then upscale the image with Unreal Engine’s TSR. Pure Xbox’s summary of the same test prints 729p for Quality mode on Series S; Digital Foundry’s own article says about 792p.

How each console holds its frame rate

On Series X, Digital Foundry found that linear levels ran consistently well. The larger open districts were less steady, with occasional frame-time spikes when moving through them quickly. It traces those to the processor, not the graphics load.

Series S was worse overall. The 60 FPS mode showed frequent drops, while the 40 and 30 FPS modes were more stable. The outlet also saw brief pauses on Series S that could last close to a second. It describes them as infrequent, and as a concern.

Its verdict is that performance is “rocky” in the more open segments, especially on Series S. That testing predates the Day 1 patch, which the outlet said might bring a small boost. The October 5 update lists stability and performance improvements without figures, and we have not found a retest of the patched build.

What Series S gives up

In the August beta the outlet also noted lower-quality textures, simplified shadows and reduced foliage animation on Series S. That was pre-release code, so treat those three as beta observations.

Why Series S still gets the whole city

Series S has 10 GB of memory against 16 GB on Series X, and Kalona is dense: Digital Foundry reports about 1.6 million objects in the world. The Coalition’s answer, built with Xbox’s platform engineers, is to treat the console’s SSD as an extra tier of memory.

Data the game has not used recently is moved to the drive and brought back when it is needed. The trade is a couple of gigabytes of storage for about one gigabyte of usable memory. Studio technical director Kate Rayner told the outlet that the technique spared the team from heavily lowering the game’s quality on Series S. She also said that overusing it costs performance, so it had to be tuned with care.

Choosing a mode

1. Check your display first. Digital Foundry says a 120Hz screen with variable refresh rate helps with the dips on Series X and smooths out most of the 60 FPS drops on Series S.
2. On Series X, start with Performance. In the beta the outlet called the visual difference between the modes subtle.
3. On Series S with a VRR display, Performance is still a reasonable default, above all for multiplayer.
4. On Series S with a 60Hz television and no VRR, try Quality for the campaign. The 30 and 40 FPS modes were the steadier ones in testing. A 40 FPS mode only divides evenly into a 120Hz refresh, and our sources do not say how Balanced behaves on a 60Hz screen.
5. If a long session starts to hitch on Series S, fully quit and restart the game. That was the official workaround for Quality mode hitching in Horde Siege during the beta.
6. Expect 30 FPS in split-screen. Pure Xbox’s review reports that cap on Series X.

Multiplayer frame rates

The only multiplayer measurements are from the August beta. In Performance mode, Digital Foundry recorded a steady 60 FPS in Versus on Series X, with dips into the 50s during intense Horde Siege fights. It said Series S followed a similar pattern at its lower resolution.

A June press report cited 120 FPS in multiplayer as a target. Digital Foundry’s console testing lists no mode above 60 FPS.

Display options both consoles share

Launch added several options after beta feedback, and they apply on Series X and Series S alike.

• A field-of-view slider.
• Toggles for film grain and chromatic aberration. In the beta neither could be turned off, and Digital Foundry criticised both for softening the image.
• Improved HDR calibration. The Xbox Store lists HDR10.
• Variable refresh rate, also listed on the Xbox Store.
• An eco mode and a VRR mode, which the beta analysis noted but did not test in depth.

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