An annoying PS5 bug will be fixed in a new update for Resident Evil 4

During my third year at university, I and my housemate were completely consumed by Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 on Nintendo’s GameCube, to the extent that it almost jeopardized my degree. The game’s perfect blend of horror, action, melodramatic dialogue, and exaggerated boss battles captivated us, causing us to play for hours on end and switching the controller back and forth every time one of us died. After completing the game, we would start all over again without any hesitation.

While it was an incredibly enjoyable experience, I eventually had to set aside the controller and attend to my academic responsibilities. So when Capcom announced the game’s remake, I was ecstatic. While I knew that it was unlikely to surpass the original masterpiece, I was thrilled to revisit a game that I knew so intimately and witness how contemporary technology could enhance the experience.

Both conventional and distinctive

Upon launching the game, a rush of memories flooded back as I found myself in the familiar setting of an undefined rural Spanish forest. While not the most visually stunning game I’ve played, the updated graphics of the remake provided a level of immersion that surpassed my returns to the original game.

Resident Evil 4 was an impressive graphical showcase upon its initial release, allowing the Gamecube to flex its graphical capabilities in comparison to the PlayStation 2. However, like many games from that era, it has not aged particularly well.

The PC version of the remake offers a plethora of graphical settings to experiment with, including ray tracing. Curious to see how our Nvidia RTX 4090-equipped gaming PC would handle it, I set the resolution to a whopping 8K (7680 × 4320) and cranked up the preset to ‘Ultra’.

While there were numerous options to choose from, I noticed one glaring omission that sparked concern about the performance of the Resident Evil 4 Remake at 8K.

The DLSS is absent?

At the moment, Nvidia’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) feature cannot be enabled in Resident Evil 4 Remake. This tool uses the machine learning capabilities of Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards to intelligently upscale resolutions, resulting in more impressive visuals without sacrificing performance. DLSS has proven to be essential for enjoyable gameplay in 8K resolution, where it can turn an unplayable slideshow into a 60fps wonder.

However, the absence of DLSS in Resident Evil 4 Remake is not a complete disappointment because the game supports AMD’s alternative: FidelityFX Super Resolution. This tool has similar capabilities to upscale graphics and reduce the load on the GPU, especially at extreme resolutions like 8K. Unlike Nvidia’s DLSS, FidelityFX is not tied to specific GPUs, so both AMD and Nvidia hardware, as well as the Xbox Series X, PS5, and Steam Deck, can run it.

When the game is set to maximum graphics without FidelityFX Super Resolution turned on, our 8K test rig averaged 39.6fps while playing through the initial town scene, which features many infected characters and the odd chainsaw-wielding maniac. While this is not a bad average frame rate, there were some significant drops, with one point hitting just 11.9fps. These drops negatively impact the gaming experience, even if the average frame rate seems high.

Resident Evil 4 Remake requires a massive 17.25GB of video memory at native 8K resolution on the highest settings, which puts it out of reach for all but the most powerful GPUs. Our 8K test rig uses the Nvidia RTX 4090, which has 24GB of video memory, and we received a warning about possible glitches. AMD has partnered with Capcom for Resident Evil 4 Remake, which may explain why DLSS is absent at launch. Therefore, if you want to go with Team Red, you would need the AMD Radeon RX7900 XT with 20GB of GDDR6 memory to play at these settings.

Upon activating FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 in “Quality” mode, which aims to maintain image quality while upscaling from a high resolution, the demand for video memory decreased to 15.18GB, and the average framerate increased to 51.9fps, with a minimum score of 46.6fps. This resulted in a smoother gaming experience with less stuttering and frame drops, even though Resident Evil 4 has always had clunky controls.

Moreover, there seemed to be no discernible difference in image quality between native and FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 with the quality setting turned on. I usually found FidelityFX Super Resolution to blur moving objects, but I was impressed by its performance with the new version.

Switching FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 to “Balanced” mode decreased memory usage to 13.23GB, which could make it slightly more affordable for GPUs like the RTX 4080 to run the game at 8K. The average framerate increased to 56.9fps, with a low of 50.8fps.

In addition, I tested FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 in “Performance” mode, which prioritizes performance over graphics quality and, therefore, upscales from a lower-resolution image. Memory requirements decreased to 12.86GB, and the average framerate was around 59.8fps, achieving the desired 60fps at 8K. However, the framerate dropped to 52.6fps, and some graphical issues, especially with reflections in puddles, appeared from a distance, which were not present in the other modes.

Lastly, I experimented with FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 set to “Ultra Performance.” Although the average framerate was around 59.9fps, the game only dropped to 56.3fps at its lowest point, leading to a much smoother gaming experience. However, the puddle issue persisted, and objects in the distance, such as trees and buildings, became noticeably fuzzier.

No DLSS? No problem

Yet, our findings demonstrate that DLSS is not necessary to enjoy gaming at 8K, while a more sophisticated upscaling technique undoubtedly helps. While I found that AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 performs admirably as a substitute for DLSS 3 (and that it lacks features like Frame Generation), it is certainly commendable that AMD has made FidelityFX Super Resolution available to a much wider range of hardware and platforms than just its own.

You can get the identical high-end setup I used here from Stormforce Gaming(opens in new tab) in the UK if you’re as thrilled about 8K gaming as I am.