Frame-rate "modes" turn off all the next gen features like ray trace even in 720p?

Enough has been said about the fact that these new consoles still make you chose between graphics and FPS as if they were half-step consoles again.

But I'm wondering if, and if so why, that these frame rate modes that turn all the best features in order to make these consoles handle 4k60, will be the ONLY way to get higher-than-30 performance even if you don't use 4k?

TV review experts frequently state that resolution is the least noticeable/important part of UHD, unless you're painfully close to the screen... behind HDR, bit-rates, wide color, and 120+hz. I'd totally be willing to sacrifice resolution to get both 120 or 60fps and beautiful special effects. Scaling has gotten way better than the PS3 days, either with the systems or TVs themselves.

They could even make dynamic resolution mandatory increasing the sharpness in all games when they need it (cutscenes, pivotal moments).

I know most games won't need a performance mode, like Madden etc but, a lot of the biggest ones seem like they will, Miles being the first that comes to mind. What do you all think is gonna become of this?

I think that it will depend on the specific games and what the console manufacturers permit.

A lot of people still have 1080p TVs, and the Xbox Series S is clearly designed as a 1080p box, so I'd imagine there will be options for people who want effects on and 1080p resolution even though the makers are pushing 4K. On the other hand we don't really know what the resource costs of resolution vs effects is, or what the games makers themselves will want to do so I think that we'll just have to wait and see what the systems do. But I would imagine that a fair number will allow for you to sacrifice resolution and not effects. After all the resolution trade off is what the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X did, and a lot of the effects have hardware acceleration (like ray tracing) so turning them off might not actually save as many resources as a resolution drop would.

I would be supper happy if full efects at 60fps in a dynamic res. would become the norm as we settle into this gen. And I have an awesome 4k TV, but as said above, hitting full res. is the least impresive aspect of modern graphics, pushing for 4k at the cost of effects or framerate is never worth it in my opinion.

The first thing i would sacrifice for better frame rates is ray tracing, but that's mostly because in its current form i don't like the way it looks.
I feel like if this keeps going on eventually console games will just have a variety of graphics options to adjust like a PC port would :P.

Console games having all these options like half step consoles out of the gate really sucks. I know you said much has been said about that already but I feel like it hasn't lol.

Especially if you don't care about certain aspects like 4k. And if you keep adding options like its a PC game things have really gone off the rails to me.

Right now there is so little about actual genuine next gen games so we'll have to see how it goes for a bit.

@toughshed: I don’t follow how your statements aren’t in contradiction. You don’t want “half step” consoles, ok fair. So Microsoft and Sony should only release their top end $500 USD consoles. But then you posit that someone doesn’t care about 4K, which is exactly the type of person who would want the half step Series S. Or am I missing something here?

For what it’s worth, Eurogamer has a great interview that goes into why the Series S exists in the first place. Basically, Microsoft does not anticipate the same cost reductions we are accustomed to in previous gens and therefore tried to capture the low cost spec right out of the gate:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-xbox-series-s-big-interview

I don't understand why people are bothered by there being more options present on consoles. If you don't like it, just leave them at the defaults, the devs obviously picked the defaults for a reason. I appreciate the option to opt for 60fps over slightly better visual fidelity, and I am happy that I am now being provided that choice. I think it is a bummer that games like WD: Legion don't provide options, and force everyone to run at 4k30.

@navster15: I don't want graphics options on the menu of a console game. Is it that hard to understand? I also don't expect my lack of care about 4K to inform how the whole console works.

Between that and half step consoles and the rest they are ruining the console experience.

I think 4k 60 is something they are just stating as market speech, so far I would expect upscaled 4k 60 with no ray tracing. Ray tracing is pretty demanding so I doubt they could get 1080p 60 with it either. So far 1440p 60 seems doable on the series X, not sure about the ray tracing. Judging by the spiderman games I assume it's 1440p upscaled but it could be lower. Seems like they can get a stable locked 30 at 4k with ray tracing though, so that's something at least.

I think when AMD gets their version of DLSS things will improve, but I still doubt 4k and ray tracing will be happening on the consoles.

I wish they would just give us three options for games on the PS5 and XBX:

1. 4K at 30fps with Ray Tracing
2. 4K at 60fps without Ray Tracing
3. 2K at 60fps with Ray Tracing

On a recent podcast, I heard Jeff talking about this and the one thing I wanted to scream to everybody was "can't you just ignore them?" It's not like the console is going to have problems running these games. If you're happy with the way games are right out of the gate without fiddling, then just ignore that they are there and let those of us who will sacrifice anything for that sweet 60FPS enjoy that ability?

Beyond that, some people have real issues with chromatic aberration, motion blur, film grain, and some other effects. Having the option to turn those on and off isn't a bad thing and, again, can be totally ignored if you're happy with the way the game is out of the box.

How is it any different from changing your control options (sensitivity, inversion, mappings) or turning on subtitles/changing audio balance when you start a game?

Agreed, and in each of those cases, drops to 25 or 50 wouldnt be a big bummer, especially if PS5 adds VRR. Also big AAA games could offer 1440 or at least 1080 without RT but 120fps much more often that it doesnt end up being as redundant as the iLINK or gamecube's modem.

And thats why I think dynamic resolution, which works wonders on PC, would be the right solution. Put a setting like Sonys "normal vs inverted" stuff that says "I want the games to look good..... I want the games to run well.... I want both. Players set their default preference and the rendering resolution adjusts to deliver.