It’s been a bit since the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles launched, which means we’ve had plenty of time to compare the two consoles to see which one is better in terms of performance. So far, there’s no clear winner, and the contest doesn’t get any clearer when comparing the next-gen consoles using Watch Dogs Legion.
In Digital Foundry’s latest comparison video, they found that both the Xbox Series X and PS5 looked and played almost identically. Both versions of Watch Dogs Legion played at a consistent 30fps, both versions' dynamic resolution scaling kicked at the same time for roughly the same graphical output, and both versions had basically the same draw distance, textures, and reflection thanks to ray tracing.
There were a few notable differences, however. The Xbox Series X seems to have noticeably poorer anisotropic filtering, while the PS5 version did not display puddles of water in reflections off of glass. These both appear to be bugs, though, as Digital Foundry notes that both versions of Watch Dogs Legion have the exact same settings in their configuration files.
Loading times were also a major difference, with the PS5 taking a full 8 seconds less to load into than either the Xbox Series X or S. That said, all three consoles took surprisingly long to load into, which will hopefully be addressed in upcoming performance optimization updates.
The Xbox Series S was the standout for having lower resolution, lower LOD distance, lower ray-traced reflections, and more obvious texture pop-in, but that's to be expected on the lower-spec console.
Also buried in the configuration files appears to be options for a 60fps version (commonly referred to as a "performance mode"), but Watch Dogs Legion only has a 40fps mode currently. This might get changed in an upcoming update now that multiplayer mode has been delayed to 2021.
When playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the PS5 seemed to edge out both Xboxes in terms of performance. While the PS5 and Xbox Series X had nearly identical frame rates, the PS5 had less screen tearing and faster loading times. The Xbox Series S did surprisingly well but was less of an obvious upgrade over an Xbox One X.
Source: Digital Foundry