Horizon Zero Dawn Patch 1.02 Favor Resolution vs Performance 1080p Screenshot Comparison

Giuseppe Nelva February 24, 2017 2:23 PM EST

Horizon Zero Dawn Patch 1.02 Introduced a new visual toggle allowing users to favor performance or resolution. Here is what it does.

Today Guerrilla Games and Sony Computer Entertainment released patch 1.02 for the upcoming RPG Horizon: Zero Dawn, offering a toggle between “Favor Revolution” and “Favor Performance.”

You’re probably asking yourself what exactly it does, which is why we prepared a screenshot comparison.

First of all, do not expect the option to unlock the frame rate on the “Favor performance” setting, let alone reaching 60 FPS (which would be science fiction even on the PS4 Pro, given the visual quality of the game). The frame rate is still firmly locked at 30 FPS, but it appears to fully eliminate the very rare and very small frame rate dips that affected the game before the patch.

Below you can see how the setting affects the game’s visuals on a 1080p screen, with the “Favor Resolution setting rendering at 2160p checkerboard internally, and then supersampling to 1080p.

As usual with our screenshot comparisons, all images were taken via an Elgato capture card, keeping camera angle and lighting as close as possible between the two versions. Incidentally, in this case things are made easier by the fact that you can change graphics settings on the fly, just by accessing the main menu during gameplay, unlike for instance in NiOh, that forces you to go back to the main menu to make the change.

Of course, all screenshots are lossless PNG in order to provide the best possible comparison.

As you can see, the difference is quite small, which is understandable, considering that the difference in frame rate is small as well.

There is a limited difference in detail and aliasing, visible mostly in vegetation and rocky surface. One good place to look at in order to spot the discrepancies is the snow on the rocks, and you’ll see that it’s slightly more detailed on the “Favor Resolution” option.

Distant trees are also a bit more detailed on “Favor Resolution,” and that’s pretty much it.

Basically, the “Favor Peformance” option is for those gamers that are bothered by even the slightest drop in FPS, since 30 FPS performance of the unpatched game on PS4 Pro was already close to spotless. On the other hand, if you prefer higher resolution (or supersampling if you don’t have a 4K screen), and very small occasional FPS drops don’t impact your experience, you can keep the game on “Favor Resolution” with no regrets.

That said, options are always great, and it’s awesome that Guerrilla took the time to implement this in a game that is already technically outstanding.

You can check it out below, and if you want know more about the game, you can give a look at our review. You can also watch the Accolades trailer from yesterday and the launch trailer released just today.

Horizon: Zero Dawn is scheduled to release exclusively for PS4 on February 28th in North America, and on March 1st in Europe.