Digital Foundry Direct Weekly DF Direct Weekly #236: Xbox Ally X Review-In-Progress, Next-Gen Spec Leak Comparisons, New PS5 Pro!
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Oct 21, 2025 The hosts dive into their hands-on experience with the ROG Xbox Ally X, discussing its hardware feel and performance benchmarks in exciting games like Cyberpunk and Doom. They explore the implications of recent game updates, like how Black Myth: Wukong's new patch impacts PS5 performance. A lively debate ensues about whether older PC games stutter less than modern titles, linking it to design and streaming complexities. Rumors about next-gen consoles spark discussions on potential power gains and developer responses, alongside insights on upcoming AMD collaborations.
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Black Myth Patch Removed Lumen
- Oliver McKenzie tested Black Myth: Wukong patch and found a PlayStation performance mode that disables Lumen, degrading indirect lighting.
- A legacy performance mode retains Lumen at lower internal resolution, giving a preferable visual result for many scenes.
Prefer Balance Or Legacy Modes
- Prefer the balance or legacy performance modes in Black Myth to retain Lumen lighting if visual fidelity matters more than raw responsiveness.
- Test both modes because the new Xbox-style perf mode trades lighting quality for lower input latency.
Why Old Games Stuttered Less
- Older PC games often had far cleaner frame-time consistency despite lower average FPS due to simpler engines and precompiled shaders.
- Modern engines, dynamic streaming and massive shader counts increase visible stutter unless developers proactively mitigate it.