Digital Foundry Direct Weekly DF Direct Weekly #223: Cyberpunk 2077 VRR Tested, Space Marine RT Upgraded, New SNES Doom Wows
10 snips
Jul 21, 2025 Explore the thrilling advancements in gaming technology! Discover the VRR testing for Cyberpunk 2077 and how it impacts console performance. Uncover the newly added ray tracing features in Space Marine 2 and the intriguing issues with RDNA 4 graphics. Delve into the unique Nintendo SNES Doom cartridge, enhanced with SuperFX technology, and hear insights on Donkey Kong Bonanza's development challenges. Plus, enjoy a light-hearted debate on pizza preferences amidst discussions of GPU troubles and future gaming possibilities!
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 Pro VRR Boost
- Cyberpunk 2077's PS5 Pro performance mode unlocks frame rates up to 80-90 FPS, leveraging extra hardware horsepower effectively.
- Base PS5 shows minimal gains, but PS5 Pro offers significantly smoother and more responsive gameplay with VRR enabled.
Space Marine 2 RTAO Subtle Yet Costly
- Space Marine 2's new ray-traced ambient occlusion adds subtle shading improvements but is visually subtle due to heavy unshadowed lights.
- The feature imposes about 18-20% GPU performance cost, yet doesn't fully solve lighting issues from unshadowed lighting design.
Donkey Kong Bonanza Development Story
- John Linneman shares the lengthy development of Donkey Kong Bonanza starting on Switch 1 leading to a more detailed, higher-res Switch 2 release.
- He reflects on mixed community reactions and explains complexity behind the game's destructible environments and performance issues.