Capcom's brilliant Pragmata ships on the standard PlayStation 5 in both "resolution" and "frame-rate" modes using a native 1080p pixel count, using FSR 1 spatial upscaling for a 4K output. However, if you play the game first on PS5 Pro and use system-level cloud saves to bring your data over to the base console, you get a curious new feature: that base full HD resolution is now QHD - 1440p. It works on both modes and while there's an obvious hit to performance when increasing pixel density by 78 percent, the fact is the game looks a lot better. Should Capcom officially add the 1440p support that's already in the game?

Let's just quickly confirm how to get 1440p running on PS5. Firstly, you'll need a PlayStation Plus subscription to access cloud saves and we recommend turning off auto-sync. Secondly - and perhaps more exclusionary - you're going to need access to a PlayStation 5 Pro. Boot the game on the Pro, complete the initial set-up, then drop back to the system front-end. Now, simply upload your save to the cloud and return to your standard PlayStation 5 console. Grab that save from the cloud and boot the game. Resolution and frame-rare modes remain, but now they'll both natively render at 1440p. This works on the current 1.21 patch, but realistically, you should expect Capcom to patch it out at some point soon.

As this is unsupported, experimental and perhaps even a bug, we can't recommend you run the game at this resolution for your full playthrough. The simplest way to restore the "stock" 1080p configuration is simply to delete the PS5 Pro injected save game from your console and start from scratch.

And when you start to play, you can perhaps appreciate why Capcom chose 1080p for the game. While the "upgrade" looks considerably better, reducing aliasing issues and the most obvious specular shimmering, frame-rates drop. In the frame-rate mode, the stock game runs pretty much locked to 60 frames per second across the first couple of missions, with frame-rate drops only manifesting for the most part in cutscenes, specifically on close-ups of Diana's strand-based hair.

In matched content I noticed a 57fps read-out at 1080p dropping to 42fps at 1440p. This translates to a frame-time increase from 17.5ms to 23.8ms, a significant 7ms overrun on the engine's 16.7ms per-frame budget, which clearly undermines the mode's viability for consistent performance. Even standard gameplay moves into the 50s during more taxing levels.

Is it good for VRR? Well, not system level VRR engaged from the dashboard. The problem is judder when frame-rate drops beneath 48fps. However, you can't help but think that proper 120Hz VRR support with low frame-rate compensation would make this option eminently viable.

The resolution mode, which adds ray traced reflections, ray traced global illumination, and higher quality hair strand technology on top of the same 1080p base resolution, already has performance drops under 60 frames per second. Obviously, this is even lower when running at native 1440p - I saw anything from an 8fps deficit in matched content to 14fps. Generally, running at stock 1080p averages out at a 35 percent performance increase over 1440p.

However, I noted in my tests that frame-rates rarely dipped beneath 30fps. It's a good candidate for a traditional 30fps quality mode, while running unlocked at 120Hz with VRR and low frame-rate compensation is - again - a viable experience, perhaps with an additional, optional 40fps cap.

Capcom's decision to run this game at 1080p on PlayStation 5 (and indeed Xbox Series X) makes sense. In frame-rate mode, performance is generally solid in attaining 60 frames per second, but clearly there's a lot of GPU overhead remaining. There's less headroom in the RT/high quality hair resolution mode, but for me, it was interesting to note that 1440p frame-rate mode is only a touch slower than 1080p resolution mode. Both are compelling in their own right and both would stand to benefit from 120Hz VRR support with low frame-rate compensation.

I fully expect this weird situation to be addressed at some point because obviously it shouldn't be happening. But at the same time, the ability to experience 1440p on the base PS5 and to effectively benchmark it against the stock options gives us an interesting insight into the game and how potentially, there could be room for manouevre in adding it officially. What do you think?