Coming This Week to Digital Foundry (Week 40 2025) (Patreon)

Sorry this one's been a bit late - was hoping to hear from John on what he plans to do when he returns from Tokyo, but he's been in transit so I didn't want to delay the update any further. The top image? I've been trying out the leaked FSR 4 INT8 DLL on RDNA 2 devices and it's good, but heavy! Probably no surprise to see it's heaviest on Steam Deck and the image above demonstrates the cost.

Native 720p rendering with Cyberpunk 2077 in the benchmark at medium settings is 35fps native vs 31.9fps with FSR 3 Native AA. FSR 4 Native AA? 28.06fps. By using FSR(s) for anti-aliasing only, we can ascertain the computational cost of each technique compared to native: +2.8ms at 720p for FSR 3 - which is expensive! And +7.1ms for FSR 4 - which is astonishingly high for this paltry resolution. So, to see any benefits at all you need to reduce native resolution and actually upscale to claw back over 2.8ms/7.1ms of rendering time, depending on the scaler. There's a lot more in the video I'm planning, including a projection of how Series X could work with it - PS5 doesn't have the required INT8 support, but obviously Pro does...

Anyway, on with the content update:

John may well be away but there's a ton of stuff we need to sort out - the conclusion to the Tony Hawk 3+4 saga, plans for the Xbox 360 20th anniversary and, of course, actualising our plans for the DF Retro podcast! I guess more next week?

Alex is on the final stretch of the long awaited Switch 2 DLSS analysis. Beyond that, some input into the PC Battlefield 6 review and some actual sponsored #content we've sorted ourselves. No spoilers here except to say it's PC and it's retro, which always delivers solid entertainment.

Tom is working flat-out on the Super Mario Galaxy 1+2 Switch coverage! Beyond that? Possibly Battlefield 6, possibly the Control: Ultimate Edition patch upgrades which are promising unlocked performance. Since I've just kitted him out with our VRR capture solution, that might be a good one for him. Then again, no early access for Control and we're still not aware of when the upgrade will ship - only that we must cover it!

Oliver is deep in production on his iPhone 17 Pro hardware review which is looking verrrry interesting. And I guess it'll be a coin toss with Tom to figure out who is on Battlefield and who is on Control.

Rich (ie me) finishes off this FSR 4 INT8 project then moves swiftly onto a big handheld review period. I'm hoping to receive the ROGGGGG Xbox Ally X at some point before launch and I'm happy to report that GPD has shipped me a GPD Win 5 which I'm extremely excited about. Strix Halo in a handheld? Sounds nuts but yes, there will be some FSR 4 testing in it.

I've dropped some hints in the past, but I'm hoping to be able to provide a full update on everything Digital Foundry has accomplished since we announced independence. We're over the hump of start-up costs and beyond the retro podcast, we're now looking to execute on our objective of expanding DF into everything it should and could be.

It's no secret that we're looking to produce a website and we have chosen a fantastic partner that is more than delivering on our vision for it. Right now, all of the Eurogamer #content has been ported over (yes, including the bespoke zoomer screenshot comparison tool and our interactive benchmarks) and a key part of this endeavour is to provide extra value for Supporters - so look forward to that.

For now though, feel free to comment and to suggest projects for us to look into. In the meantime, have a great week!